28 Weeks!

Technically 29 weeks - so I'm officially in my third trimester.

I've taken photos of the belly, but our mirror needs cleaning so I haven't been uploading them.

I haven't been writing about this pregnancy much, other than to announce it.

In case it was missed, we're having another girl. This thrills me, personally. I GET girls and am excited to have another one. Sophie's very excited about having a sister. Aaron's overwhelmed a bit by all the girls in his household. With Otto's passing, he is now clearly the minority in the house. I think he was hoping for symmetry.

I've been feeling good. I'm now starting to get hurtier as she gets more active and I'm more tired and just DONE by the end of the day. She has a pretty specific schedule for activity. The biggest burst seems to always be between 2 and 3:30 each day. That doesn't mean that I'm looking forward to the smaller burst of activity at 1 am every day...

My endocrinologist has stayed on top of my thyroid meds for the most part so that has helped. There is a nationwide shortage of natural desiccated thyroid meds right now so, while I wanted to increase my natural thyroid dose, she convinced me to add the synthetic to round out my numbers.

That's going mostly okay. The majority of what I'm taking is natural and, with the addition of the synthetic, my hair starting falling out again and I'm very, very itchy. The itchy might be part of the pregnancy, so I'm not pushing it with her right now.

As soon as things settle after the baby arrives, I'm going to find another doctor who will look at my thyroid in addition to my adrenals. This endo (even though it's her frickin' specialty) won't discuss looking at my adrenals. In addition, my insurance is doubling the cost to see a specialist from $20 to $40 per visit. Time to try and find a family doctor who is sympathetic.

In other news, I've been making lots of gifts for Christmas. I've made two baby quilts with one more quilt for Sophie to go. I also made a very cute cupcake cottage for my niece. All the Christmas cards were finally finished. I made lots and lots of cookies to give out to family and to neighbors and to teachers. I'm trying to get a purse/bag done for another niece (won't happen before Christmas due to its complexity.), so I'm doing a smaller, quick purse for her and Sophie in between working on the complex one. I made two shirts for two nephews by both bleach stenciling and freezer paper stenciling - using a design I saw in Craft Magazine as inspiration (now you have to register to see it). Whew.

Pictures of all these things once I know they've been opened for Christmas.

I had plans for other items but I'm starting to run out of all steam.

Today it is bitterly cold outside. Literally. The thermometer read 1° this morning. Aaron said the other day: "Okay, I'm completely sick of winter now." I reminded him, cruelly, I know, that winter doesn't officially start until next week. He did not want to believe me because that's just soul sucking awful news.

And our automatic garage door broke. One side is completely off the gear windy spring thingy. Not cool, garage door, not cool.

Sophie continues to be amazing. I got her to say "perspicacious" the other day in reference to herself. "Daddy, I'm perspicacious!" He just looked at her in amazement - "Um, I don't know what that means." So she explained that it means that she understands and that she "just gets things". He just shook his head and smiled.

I love that she's a sponge for big words. She's also a sponge for songs. They learn new ones every day at school and she always remembers them, complete with the accompanying dances.

Since I might not write again until after the holidays, here's to a wonderful holiday season filled with happiness and cookies. And chocolate.

August Update

Well, where were we?

It's now August and really, really hot outside. Very humid, very muggy. When I go outside around noon, the air seems wavy with the heat. It's like hitting a wall. It's also making it hard to dress for work because my instinct is to wear something for very hot weather but then the air conditioning in my part of the office seems to always be in full-blast mode. Yes, these are petty complaints, I know. Just giving you the details.

I finally finished reading "Infinite Jest". Fantastic book but I'm left wanting more, incredibly. It's very long and it took longer than usual (for me) to get through. Partly because the book is so huge that the only place I could comfortably read it was at the kitchen table. So, I read it in spurts for most of the summer. I've also been following Infinite Summer and was keeping ahead of the schedule. It's great to read other interpretations of the chapters. I've decided that I wanted the book to be infinite itself. I could follow these characters for a much longer time. It almost feels unfinished.

In other news, Sophie's daycare is on vacation this week. And since Aaron's classes don't start until after Labor Day, he's got the girl all week. My mom offered to have Sophie stay overnight last night and Sophie was beyond thrilled at the idea of a sleepover. So, Aaron and I went out to eat at a really yummy restaurant in a nearby town. I was craving mussels, so I looked up restaurants that were actually open on a Monday night until I found one with guaranteed mussels on the menu. I also had lobster corn chowder (yum!) and a meslun salad (not as yum) and a huge bowl of mussels with tomatoes and garlic. It was supposed to be an appetizer, but it was enormous! The seats at the restaurant were a bit uncomfortable. We got there around 5:30 and they kind of packed all the people into one corner. It was odd. There were empty tables nearby, but everyone at the restaurant at the time was all in one section. We were right across from two older men who were very loud eaters. Sloppy, burpy, slurpy. Ugh. One of them had a hearing aid, so maybe he couldn't hear how gross he was. Thankfully they left partway through our meal. The aisles were fairly narrow, so it was almost like we were sharing a table with them. Not great planning on the part of the restaurant. The seats were sort of like church pews with very straight wooden backs and I felt like I was constantly adjusting how I was sitting and didn't know where to put my feet. The table was also narrow and the legs of the table were right underfoot. Awkward. BUT, the food was yummy and that redeemed things.

We then got some movies and started to watch "Watchmen" but both of us started to fall asleep in the heat.

It was very strange to be home without Sophie.

And I overslept this morning because I'm so conditioned to her waking us up before 6:30 so I can get ready for work.

In other news, my new thyroid medication - Nature-Throid - seems to be working wonderfully. My blood pressure is actually down to normal after years of it being high and pre-hypertensive and "um, you need to get on blood pressure medication for the rest of your life". Without doing the research myself, I would never have known that it could very well be the levothyroxine I've been on for about 10 years now. And when my blood pressure kept going up when I was pregnant with Sophie? And I was having ultrasounds very frequently to check for preeclampsia? They were also raising my dose of levothyroxine. Hmm. Coinkidink? All signs are pointing to NOT. My eyebrows are starting to grow back slowly. I realized that I haven't had to pluck my eyebrows in at least 6 months or more. Hard to tell with my hair but it doesn't seem to be falling out in such extreme amounts. My endocrinologist was very reluctant to write a prescription for a natural thyroid medication. And after my initial pushing to change to Armour Thyroid earlier this year - now I wanted to change to something else. After reading about Armour's reformulation and patients having issues with the new Armour, the recommendation was to use Nature-Throid instead. But I guess so many people switched from Armour to Nature-Throid that Nature-Throid is now backordered...this seems to plague the industry. Why is this so hard? Something actually works for thyroid patients and it is so hard to get. Luckily, my pharmacy ordered enough (I'm assuming) to last until their supplies are back up. As long as my prescription doesn't change... I have an appointment with my endo again next week, so we shall see. My conspiracy theory is that the makers of Synthroid are buying up the dessicated thyroid hormone so that the makers of Nature-Throid can't find any more. They want those companies to go out of business. Frustrating.

Anyhoo, I hope you have a lovely month. Stay cool.

Whatsa happening?

Well, it's been a while. I was sucked into a FB-hole and am just now coming up for air. Such a time suck.

Also, things have been steadily and consistently foggish around here. And by "here", I mean "in my brain".

My thyroid meds are still not right and the more I read on glandular issues, there is a possibility of a little adrenal mess thrown in. W00t! I was scheduled to have an long-awaited appointment with my endo last week so that I could convince her, again, to change my prescriptions, but her office called a day before the appointment and said she was going to be out of the office for two weeks and to call after July 6th. UGH. Stasis. That's my current state of being.

Anyhoo, while I wait until I can schedule another appointment, things are growing nicely at our house. All the perennials I planted last year are almost as tall as me - coreopsis, rudbeckia, goldenrod, milkweed, butterfly weed, etc. We have had rain and rain on top of rain for the last several weeks and I have not had to water anything. Nice, but the tomatoes are not loving the wet. Oh, and we have cherries on the cherry trees I planted last year! Lovely bing-type cherries! I can't wait until next year when there will be even more!

The blueberries are just starting to turn blue and there are lots of tomatoes getting close.

In other news, we took Sophie to her first movie in a movie theater yesterday. We went to see Pixar's "Up". It was really good. Fun to experience movies through her eyes. She was thrilled with all of it, from the lights along the aisles to the big chairs to the huge screen. We will have to do it again as soon as another good movie comes out.

Sorry for the big break in posts. You know I love you.

Accomplishment!

Now that it's warming up outside and Sophie's room is less frigid, we've made the move toward transitioning her to her own bed.

I came up with the idea of having her earn a "fancy" marble for each night she stays in her own bed. When she earned 5 marbles, we'd give her the pink picnic basket she'd seen at Target. The girl likes motivation. We made a marble holder by cutting up an egg carton so that she'd have 5 places to put her marbles.

And she did it! 5 nights in a row! The first few nights were hard for all of us - she was scared and missing us. We missed her a lot, too. So we talked about it during the day - "what can you bring to bed with you to help you feel less scared?" She ended the week with a little flashlight, a glowing moon on the wall, the Abominable Snowman and another monster doll guarding her doll. Oh, and a CD player playing "girl music" softly (actually my new Adele CD - it's fantastic).

She brought the picnic basket to her daycare today.

Her version of how she earned it? She did "lots and lots of chores like scrubbing the floor and cleaning the chimney until I was all filthy and dirty". Nice.

The next goal is 6 marbles. She really wants a castle "because I'm the only princess in the whole world". I told her I'd look into it but castles are expensive and maybe we should save that one for Santa.

Anyone know of a source for a cardboard castle she can get into? I've seen those ones you can decorate yourself but now I'm having a hard time finding one.

A girl named Quincy

I've mentioned Sophie's Ariel princess dress* before.

She's very into dress-up right now. Dresses, the princess dress*, the princess heels, my necklaces, my rings, the princess purse, and, her new favorite: Mrs. Potato Head earrings. They actually fit on her ears by looping above her earlobes. Yes, it's cute.

On Wednesday, Aaron had to go shopping for cookie ingredients and she wanted to come with him. As long as she could wear her princess dress* and heels and Mrs. Potato Head earrings in the grocery store. Aaron just shrugged, sure, why not, and off they went. The heels rule is that they can't be worn outside, can't be worn on stairs, no running and no jumping. So Aaron carried her into the store and then she walked around the store. She apparently got quite a few comments about being a beautiful princess*.

She told her daycare provider that she's getting silver earrings for Easter. We told her that she has to tell us when she's ready for real earrings but that she should know that it really, really hurts to get them put in.

She's also told us that when she's dressed up she's no longer Sophie, she's Quincy. "Mama, remember when I was a baby and I changed my name to Quincy?"

Everything is prefaced by 'remember when I was a baby?'. I'd love to see her mental calendar.

Anyhoo, she told me that she's now Quincy (when she says Quincy, she points her toes and sort of curtsies and makes fancy hand gestures) and her friends all have other names, too. Trevor is now Leo, Madison is now June. There's another boy, Brady, and when I asked her what his new name is she said, "He's now 'My Precioussss'".

Ah.

*If you are related to Sophie and thinking - aha! I should buy her lots of princess things! PLEASE DO NOT. I've made her lots of things (crowns, capes, necklaces) and she only needs one dress. And no princess movies. Please. A handsome prince is not waiting to rescue anyone and mothers (and step mothers) are actually very nice people. Our house is overloaded with pink and princess and dolls already and we have a very small house. We'd much rather encourage her love of arts & crafty things and books and running around outdoors. Thank you for your consideration.

Dreaming of Plastic Surgery

I had the most disturbing dream last night.

I was getting plastic surgery on my face. And the (very young) doctor was cutting by my left ear and sort of yanking and tugging my skin up. I was conscious for this and it HURT. I kept thinking - what is she doing? I was talking to her a bit about what she was doing but I couldn't make out what she was saying.

Then she looked annoyed with me and started putting tiny, thin, little Q-tips in under my lips. They were very faintly numbing my lips. I started becoming concerned - "Are you going to do something to my lips?"

"Yes, of course. I'm going to make them bigger." The incredulous (young) doctor answered.

"But, of all my parts, those are the ones I would never instruct you to touch!" At this point, I'm standing up, at a party, discussing this with her (yeah, dreams, right?)

Later, I'm apparently healed a bit and my face is all strangely shaped and I'm outside the same party. I'm trying to hide my face from everyone and I'm concerned about going in. Somehow, I've seen footage of the doctor during the surgery and she has a photo of the creepy motorcycle guy from 'Raising Arizona' pasted up during the surgery as the example of how I want to look. Although he looks a bit like a woman and the name is totally different. Also, although I'm healed, I'm very dizzy and recovering from the surgery...my coworker is there and I tell her that I don't want to go in. She helps me around the house and then I wake up.

Riddle me this, Freud.

Mawwiage

We broke down and let Sophie watch "Little Mermaid" a week or two ago.

Her revered cousin had given her an Ariel princess dress hand-me-down complete with high-heel (sort of) shoes. Every chance she gets, Sophie puts on the dress and shoes and tromps all over the house. Usually with a purse slung over her arm and talking about how she's late for work. The rules - no princess shoes outside, no princess shoes on the stairs and no running. It's a very over-the-top dress - blue, sparkly, floofy - and she does look adorable. If I had one, I'd wear it all the time, too.

So, we watched a Disney princess movie. It's sweet and scary and nothing like the original story. Anyhoo, yeah, princesses.

And Ariel and Eric get married in the movie. So there's been lots of talk about marrying people.

For a while, she would bow her head to me and say: "You're the one I've been looking for." And then want to dance with me. As you do when you're wearing a fancy dress.

She got home from daycare yesterday and told me she was going to marry someone handsome. So I said, "Well, it's more important that you marry someone nice. If they're handsome, too, then great. But nice is more important."

And she answered: "Ohhh, like Daddy."

Can't really argue with that

Last night, I was reading Sophie books in bed. She loves books and I like to read them to her, but there comes a point when it really is time for sleeping.

So, I made sure she knew *this* book was the last one. "After this book, I'm turning off the light and going into the office. Okay? No more asking for one more book."

Sophie: "Yes, okay, Mama." At the same time, she farts. Loudly.

"See, Mama? My mouth is saying 'yes', but my tush is saying, 'no, no, no!"

Where did the time go?

January has escaped me. I went down the Facebook hole and am just now coming back up for air. No wonder why I've avoided signing up until now. Yowza.

I do have things to post - projects on which I've worked and lots of photos have been taken but, as soon as I get home, the last thing about which I think is my site...

It's a pain to hook up the camera to the computer and deal with the photos. And without photos, I'm just talking about dolls and Sophie and snow and kitties and there's no backup. I like photos, too.

Anyhoo, until I get inspired to deal with my camera, here are some links for today:

Whole Foods will now take your #5 plastic containers! This is great news because they would have had to go in a landfill until now.

This is really cool: Carnivorous Lampshade
Robot Runs on Flies it Catches.

Flies and moths are naturally attracted to light. This lamp shade has holes based on the form of the pitcher plant enabling access for the insects but no escape. Eventually they expire and fall into the microbial fuel cell underneath. This generates the electricity to power a series of LEDs located at the bottom of the shade. These are activated when the house lights are turned off.

In other news, we got about 8" of snow on Wednesday before it turned to sleet and freezing rain. I think I also didn't list the past two storms (this is merely so I can keep track) - I believe we've had about 13" between the last storm and this week.

It's really cold out there and I'm sick of it. My mind feels like it is in hibernation.

Pinch Me

(my site now seems to be back up...).

I'm overwhelmed by today's inauguration. I've never been this excited for a new president and this was a great day for our country. I've been in disbelief all day that this is actually happening. We're finally rid of Bush?! It couldn't be!

I'm happy for our country and I wish President Obama all the best.

I didn't get choked up until watching the Obamas dance to "At Last" as sung by Beyonce. Not usually a huge fan of hers, but she knocked the socks off that song and I coudn't stop from weeping. Tears of joy and hope.

Sophie said this morning: "It's Barack Obama Day!" - yes, my dear, it certainly is.

Maybe this is the inspiration I need to move my site...

So, Firefox via Google won't let me open my own website - not even to edit - because it says it is an Attack Site. Apparently something to which I've linked on my site is associated with malware attacks and Firefox won't let me get to my own site to see what the problem is.

And the attack page contains no specifics...

IE will let me login, so I'm removing all the ads and links for now. Why don't other sites have the same issues as me? If only Google would be more specific about which links are causing the problems. How am I supposed to have a website without links? I have to be responsible about all links to other sites? What if those sites are fine when I link them but then start hosting malware? I can't keep track of everything.

This seems suspect.

I've been meaning to change the structure/functionality of my site, so maybe this is the push I need.

Still, this is very, very frustrating.

Christmas!

Well, a very exciting Christmas was had by all. Sophie was REALLY into it this year, so it was lots of fun. However, it was a bit confusing to her - Santa, the Bumble, the Grinch, the Whos down in Whoville, St. Nick vs. Santa, what exactly do elves do? Buddy the Elf ("The Buddy Show"), Rudolph vs. the other reindeer, the 12 days of Christmas (Me: "It's not Christmas yet"; S: "But there are 12 days of Christmas, Mama.").

Add into the mix that Sophie thought Santa really wanted her to be a Christmas Princess Witch (her own creation) for Christmas and that she needed a cape and a crown and a wand. So, in addition to the other gifts I was attempting to make, there was a cape and a crown thrown in.

I didn't get a very good photo of the cape, but here is the crown...

She was THRILLED by every single present and it got to be overwhelming because everything was her absolute favorite present ever and she wanted to play with everything as soon as they were unwrapped. The problem was that there were lots more gifts to open. Maybe next year we'll open one at a time, give the kids a chance to play with things and then go back and open another one.

She asked Santa for dinosaurs and unicorns. Luckily, Santa has heard about Playmobil.

My mom bought her a vet kit and she also got her a vet coat and mask, complete with a badge with "Dr. Sophia (last name)" on it. HUGE hit. My dad is a vet, so he helped her give her new stuffed puppy shots and pills and check for his heartbeat.

You can see another favorite present in that last photo - a learning cash register. All the cousins played and played and played with that. And we didn't even put batteries in it until we got home. I kind of like it without batteries. The main game seemed to be to have one person be the cashier and another person (or people) would tell the cashier what they wanted to buy. There is a little scale on it, so the cashier would weigh the item and then tell them how much it costs. Pretty much everything cost 48 cents.

One of her absolute favorite games right now is Zingo! - a gift from our family in OR. She wanted to play it over and over and over again.

The kitties stayed at my dad's clinic while we were at my parents' house. We decided to put them in separate cages because Tabitha needed a little breather from her "shadow". Fiona adores Tabs and must keep her within eyesight at all times. They handled the clinic stay okay but were so happy to be home again.

Hmm, what else? Oh, Sophie's favorite songs at the moment (partly because we've been listening to the John Denver's Muppets Christmas CD - "12 Days of Christmas", "Christmas is Coming" (S: "Mama, do you want to sing: "Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat pleased to put a penny in the old man's hat?"), "Rudolph", "Frosty the Snowman".

We also had 3 different advent calendars this year. One fantastic felt and sequin creation my mom made when we were kids, a paper chain one to count down the days and a Santa face one where you glue cotton balls to Santa's beard.

In other news, I've signed onto Twitter and Facebook after much reluctance. It has been fun to catch up with old friends but man, what a time-sucking experience.

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season.

I'll upload photos of the various craft projects soon.

Snow Report

Well, we got another 5-6" yesterday so it brings the total for the weekend close to two feet. It's hard to tell for sure because it was very, very windy last night.

Aaron stepped out this morning at 6 only to figure out that the snowblower was too low in gas to start. So, he bundled up even more and walked down the hill to the gas station, filled up his can, and walked back up. The new beast made nice work of the 3 foot wall the snow plow had left for us at the end of the driveway.

I managed to make a few of the gifts I had had planned, but the double whammy snowstorms cut short my plans to buy more supplies this weekend. So, I'm making do with what I have and am buying some additional gifts to fill out everyone's stockings.

Christmas cards are going out tomorrow. ;)

Snowstorm Update

Well, we got a doozy last night and Aaron has been chomping at the bit to get outside and blow his little heart out. It hasn't stopped snowing since about 1:30 yesterday afternoon, but it slowed down a tiny bit. He just measured and there is 11" out there right now.

We're due for another 6-10" tomorrow. Good thing I bought wine and beer yesterday, eh?

We also baked and decorated some gingerbread cookies (I made the dough last weekend but we never got to them - it's been sitting in the fridge all week).

The whole time we were cutting and decorating the cookies, Sophie kept wanting to try little pieces of the dough and to try the frosting. She kept telling me that I was the "most beautiful mommy she'd ever met" - the girl's good, I tell you. Butter me up so you can eat cookie dough.

Last week, I made some of the famous NY Times best chocolate chip cookie dough - the one everyone was talking about this fall? Only I didn't have to two different kinds of flour and I had regular chocolate chips. Anyhoo, the first batch I baked for a potluck at work sat in the fridge for 24 hours before baking and then today I just baked the rest - it sat for 6 days...the dough is kind of crunchy on the outside and super-chewy on the inside. It's a great recipe. If you can let the dough sit for a few days, something chemical happens and it just becomes more and more incredible.

Fiona!

Update - new kitten! Ice storm!

Well, I have photos of the snow blower and a video of Aaron seeing it for the first time but they are still on my camera.

I also have photos of our new kitten, Fiona, but they are on the camera, too.

We've been quite busy and our house looks like it has weathered a storm. A storm of cookies and flour and chocolate and gingerbread houses and frosting and Christmas trees. It was a whirlwind weekend.

We had a bit of a storm (outside) Thursday night - we got lots of sleet and slush and everyone around us got full-on ice and mayhem. Aaron got his big snow blower and then still had to shovel because you can't really blow slush.

My parents were stranded at their house because there was a downed power line blocking the road - they could walk under it, but they couldn't fit their cars under. They lost power, along with 103% (strange statistics at the WMECO website) of their neighbors.

Lots of people couldn't make it into work on Friday and there were lots of stories about states of emergencies and the National Guard and how long will food keep in a refrigerator without power?

Saturday, we drove down to my dad's clinic to pick up little Fiona. She's a black tortoiseshell (I think that is the term for her markings) who is very, very quiet. She didn't meow the whole time in the car.

We ended up driving from the clinic up to my parents' house with my brother's car. Aaron parked it on the other side of the downed power line so that they had something to drive. All the way up the mountain - nothing. No snow, no ice, nothing. We were starting to not believe that they were actually stranded when, boom!, we must have hit the next elevation level because it was all of a sudden like we'd entered another realm.

It looked like someone had tried to wage a battle with the Ice Queen and had lost, handily. Everything was covered in incredibly thick ice and trees were down all over the place and huge branches, branches that should not have fallen down, were laying across the road and on houses and on trucks and cars. Pure destruction.

We slowly made our way up their hill to the sound of huge chunks of ice ricocheting off the roof of our car as it fell from the trees. More downed power lines that we could weave our way around until we got all the way up to their house. My mom met us wearing chain-like grips on her boots and using her ski poles for balance. The sound of snapping and crackling and crashing was intense in the woods around our parked cars. We tried to convince my mom to stay at my brother's house (power! food! water! warmth!) while he was out of town. We then made our way back down the mountain and all the way home. Fiona was silent the entire time. We're used to cats pitifully meowing while we drive, so we kept checking to make sure she was okay.

She was a rescued farm kitty, so playing possum must be her defense mechanism.

She hid in the big cat carrier for most of the day Saturday. We would gently pull her out and hold her and she'd purr and purr and purr and stay on us. She'd stay on us as long as we'd let her. She eventually got comfortable and would snooze all sprawled out. She has beautiful markings - her face is divided evenly down her nose - one side is all black and the other has tan and brown and orange markings. It makes a perfect line down her nose. Her nose is split in half - one side is pink and one side is black. She has little yellow eyes that are kind of close together and I think she looks like a little owl when she glances around.

She was much more frisky Sunday and much more comfortable. Lots of playing and frolicking by the end of the day. Still very spooked and panicky, but when we're calm and holding her, she warbles and purrs and squeaks. Still not meowing - just sort of squeaking.

Tabitha is tolerating her. She's not attacking her, which is a good sign. But there's been lots of hissing and growling and walking. very. slowly. by. the. tiny. intruder. She'll also some down and watch Fiona like a hawk while she's playing. Fiona really, really wants to play with Tabitha, but Tabs is acting like a grumpy old lady for now.

I've forgotten how much fun kittens can be. The thumpety, thumpety, thumpety friskiness and the playing with everything all the time. All night long.

In other news, I'm still working on my Christmas cards and Christmas presents for the CA/OR families are being sent out today.

Snow tonight - Aaron's actually excited.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron turned 36 today! Woo hoo! He finally joins me in the over-35 group!

And, to celebrate his birthday and how wonderful he is, I've been talking to my family and his family since at least August about everyone contributing to a huge birthday/Christmas present for him. A frickin' enormous 8.5 HP snow blower. It's fierce and quite the monster.

And everyone did contribute what they could and I donated my birthday and Christmas gifts to the cause and we all managed to keep it a complete secret (not that hard, considering it's Aaron about whom we're talking) until this morning!

Here's a shorter version of what I sent everyone this morning:

-------------------------
I ordered the snow blower and it was sitting, waiting, at the local hardware store with my name on it. He was at school and then at judo all day on Thursday, so I waited until I knew he had (finally...) left for school and then I drove to the hardware store. The super-awesome hardware store manager kindly offered to put it in his truck and bring it up to the house. Aaron doesn't get home until late on Thursday and we put it out back, under the covered patio area. I covered it with our big leaf tarp, just in case. The manager even threw in a big red bow! Love local companies.

And then this morning, I made sure it was all uncovered and the bow was attached and I turned on the outside lights. I had Sophie give him a card that said:

Roses are red,
My heart isn't (always) black,
Which is why I convinced everyone to help...
Save Your Back!

And then I wrote a big list of everyone's names down. The look on his face was priceless when it dawned on him. There was an arrow to look at the back of the card and it said. "Your present is waiting for you outside."

"No way!" "You've got to be kidding me!"

Best. Present. Ever.
----------------------

Happy Birthday, Aaron. I love you.

Howdy!

Yes, so, it's been a while.

I can seem to bring myself to post anything these days.

Things are fine at home - Sophie's great. She's very excited about Christmas. To the extent of waking up every morning: "It's CHRISTMAS!!!" and we have to burst her bubble and tell her, no, not for another month. Sorry.

So, she and I put a Christmas paper chain together with scraps of colored paper and the sticker address labels I got in the mail from The Nature Conservancy. She loves tearing off each day when she comes downstairs.

We also bought some things at the local hardware store and they had one of those obnoxious blow-up lawn things - with a huge Santa and a chimney. This one also had the Grinch pulling a Christmas tree out of the chimney. Sophie stopped and stared at the Grinch. "What's that, Mama?" I explained, in shorthand, about the Grinch. She was captivated. She made me repeat my story over and over and over and over again. Apparently I need to get that book because now she's obsessed.

In other news, my family is celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday. My mom's picking up the turkey, but I'm cooking it. I'm also doing the gravy (done last weekend after reading a NY Times article about stopping the gravy stress and just making it ahead of time), mashed potatoes, chocolate oblivion flourless torte with chocolate ganache, stuffing, and cranberry butter (not doing the Parker House Rolls this time. Unless I find myself with extra time). Oh, and Aaron's making an apple pie.

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

We only do a slightly traditional Thanksgiving. No one seems to mind if things get changed up. Which is nice because I like trying new dishes. My SIL is making a yummy stuffed Hubbard squash and a portabello blue cheese thingy. Yum. My mom's making brownies and she'll have our traditional pre-dinner snack - smoked oysters on Triscuits with melted cheese on top. I like them with dill havarti but they're also good with cheddar. I didn't realize how much of an aquired taste they are until I tried to make them for Aaron's family one year. Did not go over well. At all.

It warmed up slightly yesterday but for the past two weeks it's been deadly outside - I don't think it got above 20 degrees last weekend. Much colder at night. It had been in the '60s right before this so it was a shock to everyone.

Tabitha's doing fine without Otto. Unfortunately, she was overshadowed by him for most of their existence. Now she's much more snuggly and playful and she wants to be around us more. She seems slightly lonely, but she was always a pretty solitary cat. With the big switch to all wet food, her fur looks much better (less like a dirty bison) and she's not squirting ass juices on us. Also, she's lost a little girth and she's cleaning her pantaloons much more frequently. All good news all around.

I'm a little stressed at the moment because I'm losing all my hair. It's seriously thinned out and I'm not cutting it as often because it's much more obvious when my hair is very short. After Aaron's last haircut, I noticed he was thinning out a lot as well. And Sophie's hair is also thin. I'm trying to Google and figure out what's happening. Yes, I should see a doctor. What kind of doctor, though? Who covers hair? It didn't happen until we moved to this house. Is it something in the water? Something we're eating? Something we're breathing? Vitamin deficiency? Aaron had to unclog a bunch of our upstairs drains when we moved in - so the people who used to live here might have been losing a lot of their hair, too. Any ideas?

And, on that pleasant note, I hope you have a lovely and happy Thanksgiving.

Halloween

I keep meaning to write about Halloween but our computer at home is having issues and it's been very busy at work.

Anyhoo, just pretend it's about 2 weeks ago, mmm,kay?

I made Sophie's costume this year. It was a trial and a half. If I hadn't been sick for almost 2 weeks leading up to Halloween, that last week wouldn't have been such a marathon of cutting and sewing. The hardest part was having to wait until Sophie was in bed before really attempting anything. She was so excited about the costume, that it was hard for her to cap her enthusiasm and not go running around the house with the very fragile pattern pieces.

She decided to be a dinosaur this year because we got a Dora book and Dora was a dinosaur (Thank you, Dora, for continuing to NOT be a princess. Dora was a black cat last year and then we got a later Halloween book where she was a cowboy/girl). Boots, incidentally, was a banana and Sophie kept trying to convince me that I was going to be a banana this year. I did, honestly, try to find a banana pattern but then I was felled with the flu. So, I borrowed a witch hat (complete with long, flowing hair) from a friend and went as a witch. The best part of it? Beyond it being an extremely easy costume? Now I have Sophie saying: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" complete with cackling. It warms my heart.

Sophie, thankfully, LOVED her costume. She was excited to wear it, excited to tell people what she was: "Trick or Treat! I'm a dinosaur!" What a difference a year makes. Aaron and I also learned from our mistakes last year and didn't talk about putting on our costumes until after we had all eaten.

I was struggling with the feet part of her costume and had everything else done late Thursday night and was just going to give up on the feet and have her go without. But I brought the directions to work and puzzled over them for a while and finally had an "AHA!" moment. I rushed home after work, thankfully Aaron was home, and started the last minute sewing. Aaron poured me a whiskey and made me stuff my face with pasta (while I was sewing and stuffing dinosaur feet) and then I ran upstairs to get my costume on (easy when more than half my closet is black) and ran back downstairs to get Sophie into hers.

I knew it was going to be a bit big because I wanted to make sure we could get a coat and pants under it. The night was actually quite mild, but you just never know around here.

In all the rushing around, Aaron decided not to wear a costume but he changed his mind later when he ran home to refill the bowl we'd left out on our step.

We get a LOT of trick-or-treaters by us. It's a quiet neighborhood up on a hill and everyone goes all out for Halloween. It's fantastic. Lots of people were waiting to see Sophie so she got lots of extra treats from our neighbors. We walked and walked and walked. As soon as she said "thank you!" at one house she was already asking if we were going to go to another. It was a wonderful night. She kept saying how much she loved Halloween and it was her FAVORITE holiday and she just loves trick-or-treating. If this neighborhood weren't already perfect for us, Halloween just seals the deal for me.

We finally wound our way back home and calmed down a bit from the excitement. We all went upstairs and started getting Sophie ready for bed. Knock after knock on the door as the older kids started their way around the neighborhood.

The best costume? I ran downstairs only to open the door to two Daleks! The two kids couldn't even climb the steps because of the great cardboard costumes. I yelled out "Exterminate!" and they were over-the-moon. Their parents said: "See! We told you someone would get it!" ;) It was the best.

Otto

"Hey, Buddy."

I can't tell you how many times we said that a day. And he was our buddy. The best kind of buddy. He knew when we were sad, he knew when a big head butted into our tummies would heal all troubles, and he knew how fun it was to play.

I think the full impact of his absence, the vacuum that was left in his wake, will hit us gradually and steadily. To feel the full brunt of heartache all at once is almost more than I could bear, but to feel little shots of pain spread out over time as we realize that 'something is missing here' makes the heartbreak, ever so slightly, less all-encompassing.

I felt the pain of the vacuum this morning. Every morning, almost without fail, Otto would join me in the bathroom while I took a shower. Maybe he liked the warmth or the sound of the water or maybe he knew that I would invariably snuggle with him while I let the water heat up and while I brushed my teeth. Lots of petting and head butting and then the magic moment: the full-on flop on the floor. And Otto could flop like no other cat. Especially in his huge cat prime. He loved to have his belly rubbed and he'd push against me with his feet and wriggle around on the bathmat while I sat down next to him. We spent endless mornings, still dark outside, just him and me.

He wasn't there to greet me this morning.

Looking back at the millions of photos, it hit home how huge he used to be and how frail he had become. He was a shadow of his former monstrousness. Living with someone, it's hard to see the gradual change. We knew he had lost weight early this Spring, before the confirmation that "something is very wrong". He was a very big cat. Huge head, long body. He was probably slightly overweight, but he was also just bigger than most cats. His personality was also bigger than any cat I've met. He radiated sparkle and fun and love and snuggles and playfulness.

He was one in a million.

We're lucky to have known him and to have loved him so intensely back.

He loved to sit on Aaron's back and sprawl out. This was partly Aaron's fault, because he thought it was cute to have a little kitten sitting on his back. Little did Aaron know how big Otto was going to get and that he was setting a precedent for the rest of Otto's life. Anytime Aaron picked Otto up, Otto would move to lay on Aaron's back. He never did that with me. Instead, I picked him up and held him like a baby and smelled his great, big head and gave him kisses.

He loved to play. If he was on our bed, we could always get him playing by putting our hands under the covers and moving them around. He'd get that intense look of mischief and start patting his paws and kicking his back paws at the moving lump. He also loved the little furry mice with the rattling noise. He was really good at catching them and he loved to jump and twist in the air to get them. Back and forth, back and forth. We'd throw the mousie up and try and get him to jump as high as possible.

He loved to be near us. All the time. I think that is one important part of our relationship that had been missing lately. He'd sit on our papers or our game boards or our laps. He wasn't content to sit next to us nor content to be upstairs when we were downstairs. I have so many photos of Aaron working on the computer with Otto sitting on his lap. It was just a given. If you spread papers out to work? Make room for Otto.

He loved to be outside. He never wandered very far and liked to just bask in the sun and smell the garden and chill. We called him Ferdinand because he just wanted to sit under the trees and smell the flowers. We're both thankful that he was able to spend his last years at two houses where he could go outside. I really wish he had had more time at our house. I was trying to build up the garden to create lots of spaces I knew he liked.

We called him a dog-cat because he was very vocal and he greeted us every day and followed us around outside and mostly just did not act like a stereotypical cat.

We're lucky we had 7 years with just him and Tabitha before Sophie's arrival eclipsed everything. He was very skeptical of Sophie at first until he probably realized that we were going to be where she was and he started joining us every night while we read her books and when she took baths and when we were outside. He'd follow Sophie around outside and she got a lot of enjoyment from this. "Oh, Otto! Hey, Buddy. You big foof-a-loof." She picked up our loving nicknames and he let her hug him and pat him and hold his tail. We even altered one of Sophie's favorite songs, "I've been working on the railroad", to include him at the end: "Sophie's in the kitchen with Otto. Sophie's in the kitchen with O-o-t-o-o. Sophie's in the kitchen with Otto. Otto wants some snacks. Meow, meow!"

Ten years is a long time and it's not long enough. I never thought we'd lose him this soon.

We loved you, Otto, buddy. We loved you so very much.

Otto

"10/30/08" Otto. R.I.P." - handwritten in his file by my dad.

Otto was diagnosed with kidney failure in April and we tried everything we could think of to keep him happy and today we put him to rest.

He was the best cat. "Big, Fat, Orange Cat" or BFOC for short. Huge kitty - big head, very long. The biggest loveable fuzzball.

He used to weigh upwards of 17 pounds and today he weighed 7. Good-natured and loving until the end, he had just lost his sparkle and was barely hanging on.

A good friend said that their vet told them, when they were making the same decision about their dog, to make a list of the dog's favorite things. And as those things no longer interest them, or they can't do them anymore, then it is time to consider their quality of life.

Otto used to sprawl and snuggle and chase moths and climb trees and greet us every day. He hasn't done any of that for a while.

I'm sure I'll write more later when I've had a chance to recover.

There are more photos on flickr.

Happy Belated Birthday!

To me. My birthday was Sunday. We were at my sister's house all weekend to celebrate 4 family birthdays and it was great to see everyone amidst the chaos. I almost forgot it was my birthday until my mom mentioned it to Sophie Sunday morning. I told everyone I was 36 until I was gently reminded by my brother-in-law that I was born in '71. Oops. Does it help that I feel like I'm still 25?

In other news, October 23 was the 5-year anniversary of this site. Crazy, eh? It's been a strange couple of months and I've obviously not been posting very often.

We're dealing with Otto's rapid decline, my doctor is playing around with my thyroid meds and now I'm on iron supplements. We've all been sick with the flu (Aaron and I) and bad colds and bronchial spasms (Sophie). I feel like I'm living through a fog. I'm turning the corner on the sick and the iron and new thyroid combination meds should, hopefully, help me deal with the fog of winter.

Did you know they are forecasting snow showers for today?! Isn't that special.

We have a lot to do around the house to prepare for winter (and spring). I still have all my allium bulbs to plant and I'm waiting for a wildflower seed order to get in the ground before everything is completely frozen.

I'm also making Sophie's Halloween costume this week (after work, after Sophie's in bed). The flu delayed things quite a bit and I've also been making lots of cakes. Two wedding cakes and two birthday cakes and a couple of presents for this weekend. Now onto one more cake (last night) for a friend's birthday and then cutting and sewing Sophie's costume.

The sewing machine is upstairs, but I'm going to drag it down so I can sew in front of the tv the next couple of nights. Wish me luck.

Day Four - no coffee

Well, I'm better today. So far no headaches. I do have an emergency faux-Excedrin in my pocket, just in case. I'm quite tired, but that might be due to all of Sophie's coughing last night, too.

I started to feel better by the end of the day yesterday - I ate some peanut M&Ms and made myself a cheese quesadilla and drank lots of water and the head pounding slowed down quite a bit.

(I think she has post-nasal drip and it makes her cough when she lies down. Once she's up and about during the day, she hardly ever coughs.)

Ouch.

On Friday, I decided to give up coffee. For a while, at least, until my head felt cleared. I was drinking, on average, two big to-go coffee cups of dark French roast every day. And if there was some leftover in the pot when I got home from work? I'd drink that, too. More on weekends.

Saturday was day one and it went mostly okay except for the pounding headache later in the day. I think my brain kept thinking: "surely there'll be coffee soon" and then it realized it wasn't getting any and it pounded me with all its brainy fury. Aaron made a huge pot of coffee for himself and I wasn't tempted.

Sunday - pounding headache and quite bitchy. Not tempted by Aaron's leftover coffee from the day before. Drank a lot of water and took a long nap with Sophie in the afternoon.

Today, day three: pounding headache and I feel exhausted. That may be partly due to Sophie coughing all night long. The back of my head hurts and I feel a little dizzy and like I'm in a fog.

My friend just asked if I was just giving up coffee or all caffeine (she offered me some tea). I haven't thought it through that far. I think all caffeinated drinks for now. I don't drink soda, so that leaves coffee and tea. And I've never been all that into tea because it seems a bit wimpy compared to the kind of coffee I like.

Wish me luck.

Update:
Ruh roh.
Caffeine Withdrawal is Real: (WebMD) Researchers are saying that caffeine withdrawal should now be classified as a psychiatric disorder.

Griffiths' analysis shows as little as one cup of coffee can cause an addiction, and withdrawal from caffeine produces any of five clusters of symptoms in some people:

* Headache, the most common symptom, which affects at least of 50 percent of people in caffeine withdrawal
* Fatigue or drowsiness
* "Unhappy" mood, depression, or irritability
* Difficulty concentrating
* Flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, and stiffness.

"Onset of these symptoms typically occurs within 12 to 24 hours of stopping caffeine and peaks one to two days after stopping," Griffiths tells WebMD. "The duration is between two and nine days."

Cannot. Resist. Smooching.

(can you blame me?)

Whew

We hosted and feted and drinkted some familia from Oregon this past week. Aaron's lovely sister and her husband and their daughter, J. J is 3 months younger than Sophie and they got along famously for the most part.

The best was J waking up later that Sophie and yelling down the stairs: "Hi Sophie! I'm awake!" and Sophie yelling back up: "Hi J! I'm downstairs!".

Lots of good times and LOTS of good beer and laughing. The house felt a bit cramped at times but the weather was fantastic and we were able to play outside a lot, too.

And I didn't post all week because they kept giving me grief about not posting. Ha! Showed them, didn't I?

I'll post photos and more later. Maybe.

Recaptacular

I've been hit with a mother of a sinus infection. I'd hoped it would be gone by now, but nope. I'm talking funny and coughing up yuck in the morning and blowing yuck out my nose. When I can actually get it out of my nose...

Anyhoo, what has happened lately?

My tomatoes may not survive the summer. It's been thunderstorm after thunderstorm here and the early blight is moving its way up the plants. They are collapsing from the top weight and I keep having to go out there and tie them up in more and more creative ways. Let's hope I get at least a few tomatoes out of it.

Aaron's sister and brother-in-law and their daughter are coming to visit in T-minus 15 days! All the way from Portland, OR! J, their daughter, is 3 months younger than Sophie. When we visited them last year, the girls got along fine but played amicably separated. This year will be so different. They are on Skype, too, so we get to see them on video phone frequently and it's fun to see the girls talk to each other.

All this means that we need to do some major cleaning, straightening, fixing up before they come. Lots of projects we keep meaning to do need to get done.

Also, I ordered a bunch of native plants from Green Mountain Transplants. Very inexpensive and top-quality plants. Our former landlady (landmistress? Landmaiden?) ordered from them all the time. It's funny that I keep hearing about people pulling up all the milkweed in their gardens and then that is what I ordered to plant in mine. Ah well. I'm trying to spread the word around town that I'll take your milkweed!

I need to take more photos of the flower beds. I think they're lovely and very prairie-like with tall grasses and groups of native flowers and Aaron thinks they look messy. He likes things manicured and even and perfectly symmetrical. Hmmm, could he be a mathematician?

Friday I went to my first stamp night in a long time and it was lovely. (Hi Jen and Joan and Andrea!) My three site readers. I stamped one card that Andrea devised and it ended up a jumble of ideas. It was for Sophie and she loved it, so that is what counts. I also ate extra-spicy Thai green curry for the first time in a long time. The extra-spicy part was an attempt to clear my sinuses. It worked for a bit. It was fun to have a night out. I spent the rest of the night playing with Andrea's crimper and trying to make the decorative flowers that were all the rage last month. Now that I look at that link, I see what I did wrong... I didn't cut a tight spiral and I started from the inside first and my starting paper was too big. Ah. That's what happens when I try to do something from memory.

I'll try again.

I was working on a tank top dress from a t-shirt thing later last week but now my head hurts too much to work on it. It's looking pretty good even though it's quite fussy. All the gathering and bias-taping, etc.

I started it using one of Aaron's old shirts and now I wish I had started with a shirt I like better. Maybe I'll dye it and make it even more of a fussy project.

Let's see, what else...we went to my company picnic on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. Sophie spent hours in the kids' pool - big difference from last year where Aaron had to hold onto her the whole time. This time she could walk around by herself and she LOVED it. She was quite chatty with everyone and played with pool noodles and kick boards and swished and kicked and splashed (away from her face). There was also a few rousing games of BINGO and Aaron won a coveted $200 gas card! W00t! He also won a lovely fleece blanket. I was joking with him when we left that we should buy a lottery ticket, too.

Yesterday was a lazier day as I was trying to just make it through the day without cutting my nose off my face and sticking a vacuum up there to suck everything out. (seriously entertained the idea at one point). I also worked on trimming the boxwood hedge around the house. We don't have an electric trimmer so I've been steadily working my way around with little clippers. It's very bonsai. And it takes a LOT longer.

This is the longest post ever. Sorry.

Let's keep going, shall we?

Aaron's keeping Sophie home for the next few days and he headed down south this morning to spend more time by a pool. This time with Sophie's cousins, G + R. And then they'll be up at our house on Wednesday. G used to be terrified by Sophie because she was a much louder, enthusiastic baby and he had ultra-sensitive hearing. He's still a little timid around her, but she's calmed down a bit. And his little brother, R, is an enthusiastic guy so G had to adapt. They have a great house for kids so I hope she's able to spend some time playing there, too.

I hope everyone survives. Aaron was already looking a bit tired this morning and it's only day one. Cross your fingers that neither of them catch what I have.

I predict the worst day will be Wednesday because Tuesday night is his late night judo session.

Okay, back to the trenches. Have a great week.

Painting Weekend

This was the long-awaited painting weekend. The previous owners of this house had painted their office a dark burgundy. That room ended up being Sophie's room and it wasn't the best color for a little girl:

So, I've been planning on painting it since we moved in but it is such an undertaking that we kept putting if off. Lots of excuses - can't do it in the winter, it's too cold and we'll want the windows open, can't do it this weekend, ugh, not today, and etc.

This weekend, however, worked out great. Our daycare has been on vacation since Wednesday and both Aaron and I had Friday off. Lots of prep-work later and I painted the walls today.

Oh, and also, Aaron's sister and family are coming to visit in August and this was the only long weekend before their visit.

I used Benjamin Moore's Eco-Spec paint in "seaside blue" (2054-50). It's low-VOC and low odor. Not the perfect "green" paint, but the best I could find around here. If I had planned better, I would have bought a gallon of Mythic Paint online but I kept thinking I could find it around here. Nope. However, I'm very pleased with the Benjamin Moore paint. To cover that burgundy it took ONE coat with a little bit of touch-up rolling after everything dried. Thank goodness because I was really sick of painting by the end. I can see why people hire painters. With tools, etc., it cost me about $60 to paint the room.

I'm so, so happy with it. Sophie came in (she played with Aaron downstairs all day) before her nap and said: 'WOW! It's so pretty!"

It really does look pretty. Bright and cheerful. Her room lights up the end of a now-dreary hallway.

We just need to paint the trim tomorrow (old houses and lots of molding...) and I hit the ceiling by accident a couple of times. So we need to find the ceiling paint to touch that up as well.

Aaron's really annoyed by all of this, by the way. He hates the clutter of moving everything out of Sophie's room. His nose was probably broken at Judo Thursday night so he's sore and grumpy and, thus, doesn't have the patience to watch Sophie for hours on end. He's starting to get two black eyes and his nose is more swollen now than it was yesterday.

He does like the color, but the journey was rough.

Anyhoo, I'm happy, Sophie's happy, and Aaron will be happy when everything is back in its place.

Garden - Weeds?

I planted a bunch of native wildflower seeds in the front and back beds and lots of sprouts and shoots and greenery is coming up. Now I'm having a hard time knowing what was intentional and what is just a weed.

I finally figured out the name of one that sprung up everywhere - Chenopodium album L.: lambsquarters or white goosefoot

Yeah, didn't plant that. It was either in the soil we purchased or it flew in on the wind. Most likely it was in the soil.

I've been waiting to pull it all out until I knew what it was. Now that I know what it is, it's time for pulling.

I think I have a whole bunch of Canadian Horseweed coming up around the yard, too. That I'm going to let be for a while.

Ah, henbit deadnettle - the little purple flowers everywhere.

We also have a lot of clasping Venus' looking-glass coming up after it rains. I like it.

Baking Soda

I've been using baking soda instead of shampoo now for about a month. I have a cup in the bathroom and I put in about 1/4 cup or less and then add a bit of water to mix it up. Scrub it in (it helps to have short hair) and rinse it out. Sometimes I do a watered-down rinse of apple cider vinegar.

I have also been adding baking soda to my face soap as a scrub, but I recently read on Tiny Choices that some people use baking soda as a face soap replacement.

So, I decided to try no soap/just baking soda for a month and see how it goes with my acne. I pour a small handful and then add a bit of water to make a paste. And gently scrub it in a circular motion. Twice a day. You just have to make sure you rinse it out of your nostrils well or you'll be walking around with white powder in your nose. Or don't rinse it out if you want people to think you've been snorting something. Whatever floats your boat.

I've broken out a little in the past few days but I think it's because I had red wine this weekend. Or my skin is just reacting to being scrubbed.

We shall see.

If this works, baking soda is quite cheap and it appeals to my frugal instincts.

Ouch.

We heat our old house with steam radiators. Which means an oil-fueled boiler.

Last year, we pre-bought 1,000 gallons of oil to last through the season. We used around 950 gallons. There is still a half tank left and we're really hoping it lasts through the summer. Our hot water is also heated by the boiler. Last year we paid $2.56/gallon for oil.

I just checked the budget/pre-paid program for this winter season? $4.899!

So, if we pre-buy 950 gallons in order to lock in that rate, we have to pay over $2,200 more this year.

So much for trying to pay off our credit cards and car.

We're lucky we can (barely) afford to pay that. There are going to be a LOT of very cold people this winter. What do people do on a fixed income? They will be paying almost double what they did last year! And with the price of everything going up, there is going to be a lot of hurt. I live in a primarily working class area and this better be a mild winter or it's going to be bad, bad, bad.

I also predict a run on pellets because I hear a lot of people talking about buying pellet stoves. But what happens when there are no more pellets to be found?

Lab Testing - rancid prescription drug

Anyone know anyone who'd be willing to do some testing on my rancid medication to let me know what now exists in that bottle? I'd like to know what I ingested Friday morning.

Know someone with access to a lab?

Pass it on.

Thanks!

Happy Father's Day! (the barftastic edition)

It was a crazy weekend. I had big plans for making a cake and working on a craft project present for Aaron and then Friday night he proved to me why he is the most fantastic person in the whole wide world by cleaning up my barf when I didn't make it to the toilet in time (no, I'm not pregnant).

I think the heat wave turned one of my prescription medications rancid.

I had that "hmm, that didn't taste right" thought when I took the pill Friday morning. Shortly thereafter, I started feeling more and more nauseous and, by the time I made it to work at 7, I was feeling much worse. A stomach bug had been going around and I mentioned to a couple of my coworkers that I was feeling nauseous. "She's pregnant!" (seriously, not pregnant) flashed across their faces, followed shortly by, "OMG, I hope she doesn't touch anything."

I barfed at work around 8. And actually felt a bit better for an hour or so. Granted, I could only stomach water and a Triscuit, but not quite the rolling nauseousness of earlier. I was also sore all over and starting to run a bit of a fever. I finally gave in around 10, sent a note around to the people in my area and went home. I collapsed in bed until almost 3 when I realized Aaron wasn't home yet and he was supposed to pick Sophie up at 2:30. Feeling like I had been hit by a truck, I got dressed and started the painful walk (2 of the longest blocks ever) to Sophie's daycare. We slowly walked home and then the best sight ever: Aaron walking very quickly in our direction.

"I'm sick. Barfing. I've been home since 10.", was all I needed to say. He grabbed Sophie and we all walked slowly home. As soon as I got home, I went right upstairs and fell asleep. Until I barfed again and the aforementioned cleaning-of-the-bathroom by the best husband ever happened.

So, how do you Google "poisoned by medication that got too hot"? I tried that and got nothing.

Anyhoo, I'm feeling 100% better. Poisoning-by-prescription apparently lasts a couple of days. I finally ate a little bit of pasta last night. Today was much better.

We made cookies, Sophie made a little book for Aaron and we were back on track.

This has been a long-winded (and gross) way of saying that Aaron is the best. THE BEST. He's so great with Sophie and he's so great with me. To clean up someone else's barf without any hesitation is the mark of a truly great person. I tried to stop him - "I'm already puking, let me deal with it.", but he sent me back to bed.

Also, he's strong and safe and lovely and, uh, the judo is doing wonders for his physique. Seriously, he's hot stuff. Hubba hubba.

To a great dad and the greatest husband.

I love you.

Clever Girl

I was explaining to Sophie the importance of holding our hand(s) while crossing the street and making sure to look both ways.

Me: "You want to check the road because sometimes cars can't see you."

Sophie: "But Mama, cars don't have eyes."

-------------------------------------

We've been trying to leave Sophie's room before she's asleep. We give her some books to show her buddies (various stuffed friends). I've also been showing her how to "click" her eyes shut for the night and go to sleep. Because she'll just sit there with her eyes open for hours. As soon as she closes them, she falls asleep. My thinking was to just get her to close her eyes.

I said, "Remember, click your eyes," making little pinching motions with my fingers and clicking noises with my tongue, "when you want to fall asleep."

"Okay Mama."

A few nights of that, no problem. She didn't fall asleep much faster, but it gave her something to think about. And tell her buddies on the bed.

And then Saturday night. Aaron and I were downstairs, listening in on the monitor. She's still restless, so I head upstairs to talk to her about how it's late and it's time to sleep. She has her purple Care Bear on the bed and she's talking to him about her Frances book. We talk for a short bit about do you have to use the potty? do you want water?

And then I say, "Okay, Sophie, it's time to click your eyes shut. You, too, Purple Bear."

Frustrated sound from Sophie, "Uhh, Mama. He doesn't have fingers. Ugh."

Cue laughter from Aaron downstairs.

Oh yeah...

This is the cliché post about how I forgot about the site for a while.

Lots has happened, is happening, will happen and every time I think about writing something, I get busy with something else.

Let's see.

Aaron's Spring term ended and now he's teaching calculus this summer for the first summer session. He's has an over-packed class and this is great news for summer finances. Not that we know when he'll actually be paid because the university is notorious for being very late with payments. I've budgeted it for the end of Summer, just to be safe. (should I capitalize Summer? I never remember the rule)

He's also very into Judo - going two nights a week to be thrown around and throw people around. He's lost a lot of weight and he's a solid fighting machine. Very, very attractive, if you ask me. None of his clothes fit well at the moment, but he likes things baggy, so that's good. His instructor suggested he compete in the Baystate Games this summer. Exciting! There's lots of Judo talk around the house (another word I tend to capitalize). We play around on the bed with Sophie and she says: "I'm going to Judo you!" and she pounces on us. Quite funny.

Sophie's daycare lost two brothers who have been there from the beginning with Sophie. One of them is very allergic to the big dog at the daycare and he can't come back. Very sad. I guess they're coming on the nice days when the kids play outside. But it now means that Sophie plays with a baby and a new 1.5-year old during the day. That's it. It is a good push for us to find a preschool for her. Montessori is just not going to work financially. We're looking into the local YMCA program. She'd get to swim and do gymnastics during the week and we'd get a family membership. We shall see.

Oh, I cut all my hair off. Well, most of it. I was getting sick of struggling with the frizzies and I always just pinned it back anyway. Now it's easy to shampoo and manage. I've been using a baking soda/vinegar scrub and mix combination on it and then I use a tiny bit of honey mixed with water as a gel.

I'm struggling to find a safe sunscreen for us to use this summer. There are so many that are very toxic and/or unsafe. And then the safe ones are very expensive. Why can't a company come out with an affordable, safe alternative? Like a big gallon jug of safe sunscreen? I'm sure lots of people would be interested in that.

I'm having a similar struggle with makeup. My skin has been ravaged by acne over the years and I still feel like I need something to cover the scarring. At least while I'm at work. It seems that the "safest" makeup is the mineral stuff but it tends to make me break out. Again with the expensive on that stuff, too.

Our garden is growing exponentially. I took pictures at the beginning of May and it's amazing how much everything has changed. I've been picking lettuce leaves (romaine and bibb and spinach) to put in my sandwiches, we had our first salad this weekend and the radishes are ready to eat. Very cool! We were just talking abut adding at least another container garden next year. I think it will be all lettuce since we eat so much of it.

I think the only seeds that have not come up yet are my hot peppers and the watermelon. I'm going to give them another week and then plant new seeds.

Yes, I need to take more photos. The camera is full at the moment with the last set of garden photos and then all the videos we took this weekend at my parents' house. Sophie had a blast with her Gammy. They have such a great space - lots and lots of land and forest and nature and birdies and fish and a huge pond.

Otto is holding steady. He's still eating and he's very playful. He even climbed his first tree! He came galloping across the lawn at full speed, tail in the air, and made it up into the crook of the maple tree branches. He loves our yard and is very good about staying either in it or close to it. He likes to lounge on the grass and watch the bugs and the birds. He's very strong and he's not tolerating the subQ fluids as much as he was in the beginning. We try and get as much in him as possible before he really starts fighting back. I guess the fight in him is good, right? The feisty-ness? He follows us around the backyard and plays with Sophie a lot - talking to her when she asks him questions.

We're not leaving the dry food out for the cats any more. They apparently should only have wet food and if they get the right amount, they shouldn't even need water to drink. So, all the dry food over the years was very bad for them. Plus, it's like leaving endless bowls of chips out. And the dry food eventually just made Otto barf all the time - something about the dry food causing gas build-up. Some cats can tolerate it and some can't.

The bonus is that Tabitha is actually losing weight. And she hasn't squirted poop in a while (knock on wood). And she's actually getting a bit friskier now that she's a little lighter in the girth. Don't get me wrong, she's still quite girthy, but maybe a little less of a sausage now. She's getting more used to the yard, too, and loves hanging out with us by the new-to-us garden bench we grabbed from our neighbor's "Free" pile.

I have a bunch of craft projects in the works - cut bottles for glasses, some new painted soft animals, maybe some more paper maché.

We're in trouble...

Sophie loves to take medicine. She searches her legs and arms for boo-boos and bruises and then insists she needs medicine because "Oh, I'm so sick, Mama." We talk to her about the fact that you don't take medicine for boo-boos but there are times when she gets very insistent. "But it hurts, Mama! It hurts SO much!"

[on a side note, we've been paying a lot of attention to Otto and giving him fluids - "medicine" - and I think she's a bit jealous of all the attention.]

So, about a week or so ago, after trying to talk to her about not taking medicine, I said: "Well, I have this new placebo medicine - do you want that?" "Oh yes, Mama, the placeeeebo medicine." I went downstairs and mixed a little bit of milk with a little bit of honey and put it in her medicine cup. That worked.

Flash forward to this weekend when we went through the same process. "Oh, I have a boo-boo, Mama, I need medicine." Again, no Sophie, you don't take medicine for boo-boos...and then I told her she could have some of the new placebo medicine.

Her answer? "No, Mama, I want the REAL medicine."

Aaron and I just looked at each other with shocked looks. Needless to say, she didn't get any medicine that night. Just a band-aid on her bruised knee.

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And then on Monday: Again with the insisting on medicine and me telling her no. She just wouldn't stop with the anger at me, so I made a big show of picking up her fake telephone and calling her doctor (I'll call him Dr. Richardson).

After punching in some numbers: "Hello, Dr. Richardson? This is Sophie's mommy. She has a boo-boo and we want to know if she should take medicine for it. No? No medicine for boo-boos? Okay, I'll tell her, thank you."

"I'm sorry, Sophie, he said no."

She angrily picks up the phone and starts punching numbers, glaring at me the whole time. "Hello, Dr. Richardson? Is Sophie. Say YES."

My daughter, she slays me.

May Day! May Day!

I wrote this on Sunday, but never managed to finish it and then yesterday was crazy busy.

I put mulch on both of the new flower beds and added more behind the boxwood hedges in front of the house. Yesterday and today. My shoulders are KILLING me now. Great exercise and I'm very happy with the result, but ouch. OUCH.

Before:

After:

Now we just need to figure out the edging - brick? more of the same stone thingies the previous owners used? A different kind of stone?

In other news, we walked down the hill (using one of the very steep paths that connects the hill to the downtown) and to the library for a fun singing, dancing, music event? lesson? thingie? There were two musicians/singers who sang fun nursery songs and others and had puppets and noisemakers and such. We were one of two couples with kids at first (another arrived with a baby later). Apparently the attendance during the weekly version is much bigger. The organizer musician lady thought that maybe everyone was at the town meeting. There is a big, contentious, override vote coming up. They want to raise property taxes to cover a budget shortfall. The lady was discussing it with the other dad - very obnoxious guy - and Aaron was trying to hold his tongue, but then had to jump into the discussion. They finally stopped arguing but it was getting a little heated.

The music and singing that followed was fun, though.

And then today we went to see the May Day parade in the nearby town. Small, but quite fun. A maypole and Morris dancers and people covered in flowers and dancing. There was a guy dressed as a horse and Sophie was obsessed with him. He was working the crowd and using his horse face/mask to steal people's hats and sniff them. She kept wanting to "get" him. And then on the walk back to the car, she splashed and jumped in every puddle she saw until she was absolutely soaked. We took off all her clothes and put Aaron's fleece on her to keep her warm for the ride home.

On a side note, I thought the parade was down the hill in our town but then realized once we got down there (Sophie in the stroller, holding her umbrella and wearing a crown - more on that later) that I had probably mis-read the listing and it was one town over. So, we headed back up the hill to get into the car. Whoops.

Oh, and this is for my mom. We were getting ready to go to the parade and she insisted (out of nowhere) that I make her a crown. And that I paint it and it will make her SO Happy, Mommy! She wore the crown for the first trek to the parade but had removed it by the time we got to the actual parade location.

Even though it was a gray, cold weekend, we had a lot of fun.

Boston

Yeah, so I'm a few days late. As mentioned earlier, I headed to Boston Friday afternoon to meet up with Mia and Emily. Mia has written some great recaps of the trip (complete with photos! I forgot my camera!), so I'm not going to get repetitive.

The trip was lovely. It took exactly two hours for me to get to the Alewife station, park and get on the Red Line T. I switched trains at the Park St station and then got on the Green Line to the Hynes/ICA station. There was a brief break at the Park St station while I tried to figure out how to text Mia back about my location. Good lord, that made me feel old. I actually had to sit down to type out a quick message. I'm sure the teenagers near me were snickering at my skillz.

I walked up to the street at Mass Ave and Newbury St and there they were! Yay! We did a bunch of shopping and eating and laughing and drinking and then I stayed with Mia at her hotel. The next day was sightseeing and acting like tourists (Freedom Trail! Cheers!) and helping a man strap himself into a straight jacket.

Very fun. I'm less intimidated by Boston now. Parking at Alewife was super easy and cheap ($5!) and it was really easy to get into the city from that station. If only the drive there wasn't 2 hours, I'd do it more often.

Girls' Night Out!

/shriek

Yay! I'm leaving work early and heading to Boston to meet up with Mia and Emily. I rarely, if ever, get into Boston even though I live in Massachusetts.

Plus, fun night out (sleep over!) with two gorgeous ladies? Count me in.

I'm wearing my clicky patent leather shoes and I hope I'm not going to regret it. I bought inserts for walking but we'll see.

Sophie's been sick all week. Running fevers in the afternoon and at night and we're wondering if it's the sun. She has a bit of a runny nose (allergies?) and a fever. That's it. Her daycare tends not to put sunscreen on the kids even though we all provide it. That pisses me off. I've tried to talk to her about it, but she doesn't seem to listen. I love that they play outside a lot, but there is no reason for them to have sunburns when you have sunscreen right there.

Anyhoo, Aaron and Sophie are staying home and I'm outta here. Soon!

I leave you with a cute video from this weekend. I drew a hopscotch ... (what is the word?) that had one square and then two squares and then one square, etc. (just so you don't think she can't count) and Sophie had fun hopping.

Ignore my shrieking voice.

I love Sophie's fun little kick at the end.

Weekend Work - dirt and more dirt

It was a gorgeous weekend - high 70's (85 in the sun) and we took full advantage by having a huge pile of loam/compost delivered on Friday.

This is about 1/2 the pile. End of day, Saturday:

All day Saturday and all day Sunday were spent filling the wheelbarrow and dumping the dirt into the two raised beds:

And creating a better flower/plant bed in the front of the house.

We are both very sore and exhausted. But it was definitely worth it. The front of the house looks so much better and now I have beds in which to plant the plants that I want.

Before we bought the house:

After we cut down the shrubbery:

Laying out the beds with the ugly paver-thingies left here by the previous owners:

Filling it in:

Hmm. I thought I uploaded a finished photo but I guess I didn't. I'll have to do that tonight.

We also put in a little walkway from the driveway to the front porch (ignore the lattice work on the steps - that's a project for another day). Also, Aaron hacked away at that stump all weekend. It's quite tenacious. We're going to dig out most of that dirt and fill with some paving sand to lay the stones in there better. Maybe. Or I might plant some low ground cover plants...

In other news, Otto is still not eating enough. We're hoping it was just because the weather was so wonderful and he wanted to be outside all day. We've been giving him fluids and it's less stressful than it was. We're also giving him Pedialyte 3-4 times a day. He's chasing Tabitha around and hunting house flies (the doors were open a lot this weekend) and leaves. He seems to be in good spirits. We just need to get him to eat a lot more. I'm going to get a few more cans of wet food to try. Fingers crossed.

Otto has CRF

(he's sleeping in that photo)

Our beautiful, awesome, wonderful cat, Otto, has kidney failure.

He's lost a lot of weight over the past several months (hard to know when it started as he's a big cat with lots of fur). But when we brought him into my dad this weekend, we found out he's lost 5 pounds since last year. That's a third of his body weight in a year. Not good.

He's still eating and he's drinking a ton of water and he's still a bit frisky.

We're going to try sub-Q fluids to see if we can keep him happy for as long as we can.

Luckily and thankfully my dad is a vet. Who knows how much we adore Otto.

UPDATE: My dad gave us fluids to inject once a day (Sub-Q) to help get his potassium levels up and his BUN and creatinine levels down. We need to help his kidneys flush all the toxins (I'm paraphrasing). We're going to need to set up a mini-hospital in the kitchen so that we can hang the bag of fluids while we give him the injections. He's been drinking a ton of water, but it's not enough. We're also going to be giving him Pedialyte three times a day and adding potassium supplements to his food twice a day.

In addition to changing his food to one that has lower protein and very low phosphorus. And no more dry food for the time being. He's not eating nearly enough wet food, so we need to work on that with him. That probably has a lot to do with his weight loss. We've restricted the dry food that sits in the bowl in the kitchen because Tabitha will just sit in front of it and eat all day. She probably weighs double what he does and she's a much smaller cat. She's girthy. Also, Otto keeps barfing up the dry food. My dad said it might be because most dry food is so small that a lot of cats eat it without really chewing. And then it causes stomach problems - gas, etc. - that can make an already sick cat barf.

So. He's eating the Hill's R/D my dad gave me to try but seeing as he needs to eat at least 2 cans a day of that (and we have 3 in the house), I'm going to look for other options today. The Wellness brand we've been giving him has lower phosphorus but it also has garlic and cranberries as ingredients and those are not good for CRF cats.

[for my reference later - sub-Q fluid administration]

Sophie Update

Yes, it's been awhile. I'm still around and kicking.

Just wanted to get some Sophie observations on the record so I don't forget.

Dragging Sophie outside on (a very chilly) Sunday so that Aaron and I could finish some of the yard work and container gardens. We made her some noodles, stationed her in a beach chair and got to work.

I said: "Sophie, do you like your noodles?"

Sophie: "I not Sophie! I a noodle-eating poodle! Ugh, so fwustwating!"

(Frustrating is a new favorite word. Along with "disgusting" - complete with wrinkled up nose and a "Blech!" for emphasis)

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Getting her ready for bed, talking to and about her "babies" (assorted dolls and stuffed animals on the bed).

Sophie: "When I was a baby. Last year. I was a boy! And I had green eyes! and I could crawl!"

Me: "Wow, you've changed so much!"

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Pretending her purple rainbow Care Bear was pooping on Aaron's head while he was laying in bed.

Aaron: "Yuck! It's a purple rainbow poop!"

Sophie: "No, Daddy, is a POOP-le rainbow poop."

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She likes to pretend she is Brava - an adorable Australian Shepherd that lives down the road. Lots of panting and licking and wiggling while she pretends she's Brava.

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Current favorite songs: "On top of spaghetti!", "This old man, he played one!", "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed!", "Jingle Bells" (she likes to sing it like she's a baby. If I can ever get this on camera, it will make your day), and "I'm the biggest monster that you've ever seen!" (by Laurie Berkner)

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One of her favorite games is to pretend to eat our noses or our bellies or our hands and then say "Burp! Oh, it's gone. I so sorry!" and then we tickle her to "give them back".

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In other news, Aaron and I had a meeting at a Montessori school. It would be a perfect place for her but we're not sure we can afford it. It's a lot more than we currently pay for daycare and a lot more than I have budgeted for potential. Maybe we can get financial aid.

Where did the weekend go?

So much has happened and I'm just getting myself back in normal rhythms. We went away this weekend for my mom's 70th birthday. It was all her (4) kids and grandkids. Very fun. We went to a dude ranch in upstate New York - on the edge of the Adirondacks. Great place - very friendly to kids and families. We even went horseback riding! The first time I've been on a horse since I was around five. Quite nerve-wracking. And they had an indoor pool and jacuzzi and the kids loved it. It was wonderful to see my mom surrounded by her kids and not have to worry or think about doing things around the house. The grandkids ADORE her - she has such a gentle, silly spirit. She doesn't look a day over 50 to me.

In other news, I saw the first little green shoots (sprouts?) of the bulbs I planted in the fall coming up!!! Even though it snowed Friday and Monday. Tenacious little buggers, aren't they? They are coming up through frozen ground. Our front yard is mostly clear of snow, but we still have a lot in the backyard.

I did meet with the new endocrinologist last week and, while quite odd and jumpy, she agreed to try Armour Thyroid in addition to the synthetic T4 medication I'm already on. We lowered the dose of levothyroxine and added Armour - which is both T3 and T4. (yes, this is probably gibberish to you). It's all good, though. I'm happy she was open to it even though she was a bit defensive at first. Also, the visit was covered by my insurance. I was considering going to a doctor in Northampton who is listed on the thyroid sites as being good but he's not covered by my insurance and it would have been about $600 or more out-of-pocket to get the diagnosis, etc.

This weekend's activities threw me for a loop of sleepiness so I'm hoping things even out by the end of the week. It's hard to tell if I'm tired because of the weekend or because of the meds. So, while I was taking 175 mcg levothyroxine, I'm now trying the "2% solution" recommended by Dr. Blanchard - it works out to be 137 mcg levothyroxine and 30 mg Armour.

For those of you who are interested, here is a checklist from thyroid.about.com of the hypothyroid symptoms I was (am) experiencing while on a pretty high dose of levothyroxine (175 mcg) (click the link for a longer list):

____ I'm unable to lose weight with diet/exercise
____ I am constipated, sometimes severely
____ I feel fatigued, exhausted
____ Feeling run down, sluggish, lethargic
____ My hair is coarse and dry, breaking, brittle, falling out
____ My skin is coarse, dry, scaly, and thick
____ I have puffiness and swelling around the eyes and face
____ I have pains, aches in joints, hands and feet
____ I have developed carpal-tunnel syndrome, or it's getting worse
____ I am having irregular menstrual cycles (longer, or heavier, or more frequent)
____ I feel depressed
____ I feel restless
____ My moods change easily
____ I have feelings of worthlessness
____ I have difficulty concentrating
____ I have more feelings of sadness
____ I seem to be losing interest in normal daily activities
____ I'm more forgetful lately

I also have the following additional symptoms, which have been reported more frequently in people with hypothyroidism:

____ My hair is falling out
____ I can't seem to remember things
____ I have no sex drive
____ I feel shortness of breath and tightness in the chest
____ I feel the need to yawn to get oxygen
____ My eyes feel gritty and dry
____ My eyes feel sensitive to light
____ My eyes get jumpy/tics in eyes, which makes me dizzy/vertigo and have headaches
____ I have strange feelings in neck or throat
____ I have tinnitus (ringing in ears)
____ I feel some lightheadedness
____ I have severe menstrual cramps

So, my high blood pressure and arthritis and depression and anxiety and lack-of-motivation are all symptoms of hypothyroidism. Even though my TSH levels are considered normal. This new doctor agreed to test TSH and free T3 and free T4 in two months instead of just doing the TSH-only test I've had for years.

I have a lot of other sites I've bookmarked and printed out. I also brought in a stack of articles for her in case she wasn't willing to discuss the Armour Thyroid option. She had read most of the same research, so I didn't need them. But it felt good to talk intelligently with her. I'm sure doctors hate Dr. Google at this point. I was worried when I was waiting for her in the office because EVERYTHING in there appeared to have been supplied by pharmaceutical companies. The clock and the pens and the pads and the posters and the jars for the cotton balls and swabs.

Pink Eye!

Sophie has pink eye. Woo hoo! She was puffy-eyed Monday morning but we thought that was a result of her bad cold and restless night and then, when I picked her up at daycare, she had yellow-ish "sleep" in the corners of her eyes. Oh great.

So, I went to work for a couple of hours yesterday while I tried to call the doctor's office to get them to call in a prescription.

And then I went home to stay with her because Aaron had to be at school.

4 pm and the pharmacy finally had the prescription. All frickin' day we waited!

Despite being miserable with a cold and sore, red, puffy eyes, Sophie was in a a really good mood. Lots of playing and making forts and space ships.

So now she's home with Aaron today because we have to wait 24 hours for the eye drops to kick in.

And I have a thyroid appointment today with a new endocrinologist. I'm expecting the worse - which is she won't be helpful at all and will laugh at all the research I've done.

More on that later.

Happy Easter!

I will have to post pictures of Sophie's Easter basket and the doorway/arch we made to let the Easter Bunny know he was welcome in our house. Sophie left a carrot out for him and a very specific note: "Dear Easter Bunny. I love you. Please will you bring me some animal crackers?"

We're not sure where that request came from, but it was very definite. Not chocolate, not flowers. Animal Crackers (which we never have in the house, so it was interesting).

I also made some fabric eggs from an old sweater, some old flower fabric and I experimented with painting muslin. I like the effect a lot and made Sophie a bunny as well with a pink sweater made from more of the old wool sweater.

I have photos, but my camera's batteries died and they need to recharge.

Sophie has come down with something - cold-like - and so she was trying very hard to not be miserable yesterday with Gammy and Gumpa and my brother and SIL and their two boys. There was lots of toy-playing and egg-hunting and food-eating. It was FRIGID outside - it maybe reached 30 degrees when we were outside. So cold. Still, the men hid the eggs and the kids went searching. They abandoned the Easter basket for push trucks and had a ball. Despite all the parents and grandma outside shivering.

I had Friday off due to a Catholic CEO. Aaron and I went shopping while Sophie was at daycare. It was a nice day. We had hoped to catch a movie but the timing didn't work out. So we bought some wine and some brisket that we cooked all day in the crockpot on Saturday. It was the first time I've eaten beef in about 10 years. But it was organic beef - so that is okay, right? It was yummy, I'll admit. And very tender due to cooking all day long.

ALSO, Sophie wrote the first four letters of her name Friday morning! I was getting ready and Aaron was distracted working on some homework and Sophie was drawing on one of his manila envelopes. He looked down and she had written SOPH all by herself! With no prompting! I have a photo of that as well.

In other news, this is Sophie two years ago today:

Tonight

I'm going to be making spinach bread for my friend's green-themed party (S: yes, I'm coming!) and I'm going to watch the premiere of The Return of Jezebel James. A show with both Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose? Sign me up.

Sophie Vignette - Red Phone Edition

Sophie has a red phone rattle she's played with since she was a baby. She likes to take it with her in the car to call people while we're on the road. Gammy, my sisters, Aaron's sisters, Aaron's parents; everyone has been called at some point.

Yesterday, she discovered it again when I drove her home from daycare. We were about to walk to the store to get garbage stickers* and she wanted to take it with her.

We're walking along the sidewalk to the store and Sophie's talking into her red phone: "Hi Daddy! What's up? I walking to the store to get garbage stickers for my POOP! Okay, bye!"

I explain that now that she's using the potty all the time her poop is now going in the toilet and not the garbage. The garbage is mostly filled with cat poop.

So she calls Aaron back and excitedly tells him: "Daddy! Is Sophie! We need stickers for Otto's POOP!"

Just as we were walking into the store. I think the lady behind the counter was quite amused.

*our town makes us buy stickers to put on the top bag in our garbage can. They won't take it if you haven't bought a sticker. At $3 a pop, we usually put out our garbage every other week. Which isn't bad in the winter because everything stays frozen. We'll see what happens in the summer.

No more diapers!

We've been quietly working with Sophie on the no-more-diapers front. She is doing amazing. Beautiful Jen sent us some of Charlotte's old cloth diapers with a waterproof (or maybe just resistant) outer shell. Perfect timing, too, because we had Sophie in underpants during the day and were almost out of disposables.

So, Sophie wears "night pants" (the cloth diapers) at night and then underpants during the day.

Three dry nights so far! And only one accident during the day for the last 4 days!

AND, Sophie and Aaron called me at work this morning to tell me that Sophie pooped in the potty this morning. That, in itself, isn't that exciting. What's exciting is that Aaron was upstairs when Sophie had to go. So she went, by herself, over to her potty, pulled down her pajamas and used the potty!

Aaron came downstairs and Sophie said: "Daddy! I went poop!" and Aaron thought, "ugh, great" (thinking she had gone in her pajamas). But then she showed him the potty and, lo, there was much celebration.

My sweet little girl is growing up so fast! If I had known that chocolate was going to be such a motivator we would have tried this sooner.

Uh, It's SNOWING again.

Who told Mother Nature?

Aaron and Sophie actually went to the playground after work and now everything is covered with snow again.

There was about 1/2" out there this morning to push off the car. It's a thick, sticky snow. Heavy. Kind of like sugary frosting.

So sticky that the walk across the parking lot at work added about 3" to the bottom of my shoes. I just kept getting taller and taller until one of the stacks broke off and then I hobbled the rest of the way.

Shh - the snow is melting!

Please don't tell Mother Nature I've noticed. I think the big snow banks surrounding our house have melted to almost half their size from last weekend.

In other news, I'm giving up on the month of lists. Woo - made it almost a week!

I'm having issues with my thyroid medication and it's taking a lot of effort to even make it through the day with my sanity in check. Trying to think of a list every day is throwing me over the edge.

I'll still keep trying to post every day. And maybe throw in the occasional list. Wait until I list the thyroid symptoms. That list's a doozy.

Heavy Snow Warning

This is just so I remember for next year. Yes, I know, I chose to move back here. But holy crap, this is too much.

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO
12 PM EST SATURDAY.

THIS WARNING INCLUDES MUCH OF MASSACHUSETTS ALONG AND NORTH OF
THE MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE AND NORTH AND WEST OF ROUTE 128...
EXTENDING NORTH INTO SOUTHWEST NEW HAMPSHIRE.

They were saying ~6" yesterday. Now it could be 12" or more by tomorrow afternoon. At least it's coming on a weekend. I'm sick of trying to get to work in the snow. And Aaron's sick of getting up early to shovel us out. At least we can be more lax about it tomorrow. I'm assuming Sophie's dance class is canceled tomorrow.

More Snow Tomorrow Night

I'm not sure how to express how OVER winter we are in our household. More snow predicted for tomorrow night - 6-8" or maybe more. Yay! Woo!

At this point, it's going to take until July to melt all of our snow. According to my count, as of today we've received over 70" of snow so far this winter. That is just too much. Global climate change, anyone?

This photo is from Saturday. Before we got the 4" Tuesday this week.

I thought this doodle was funny:

Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Sophie's first recognizable drawing of a person

If you don't see the person, click on the photo for the notes.

And Now I Stomp You!

It was actually quite warm yesterday (in the '40s) and I decided to walk to pick Sophie up from daycare. We live a block or two from her daycare, so it's a good way to get some fresh air.

I brought her snow boots because the warm temperatures meant a lot of puddles on the way home (we were going a longer route because I had to pick up a garbage sticker at a store near our house) and there is not much Sophie likes more than stomping in puddles.

She was in a jolly mood - happy, laughing, acting silly. She discovered that she could see herself in the puddles (before she splashed them), so it was a long walk to the store and then home because there were lots of puddles and we had to wave at each other in each of them.

She'd crouch down and wave and say Hi! to herself and to me.

The best was when she crouched down and waved said (to her reflection): "Hi! I Sophia! I nice. I walking with my Mama to the store. And now I STOMP you!!"

She was squealing and yelling (happily) and I kept shushing her, telling her that there were people in all these houses and that they might be tired and grumpy and they might not want to hear her yelling so loudly.

She thought about that for a bit and said: "I make them happy, okay Mama? I have my kazoo please?" And then she proceeded to toot on her kazoo while marching along the sidewalk home.

I don't know about our neighbors, but she made me happy, that's for sure.

A Case of the Mondays

We had a fun weekend of playing and cooking and romping about. We ended up getting about 6+ inches Friday night and Aaron shoveled us out Saturday morning so we could get to Sophie's dance class.

We got there - no one there. We waited and waited and had to answer Sophie's questions about why we weren't going into school and finally we gave up. No phone calls from the center, no emails, nothing on their website, nothing on their answering machine message. (I finally found out today that it was because it was school vacation week...well, let those of us with kids not in school know, okay?! Luckily we live close by, but one of my coworkers drove 25 minutes to the school only to find out that it was closed. She's pissed.)

So, we went grocery shopping and put Sophie's tutu and ballet slippers on as soon as we got home so that she would stop asking when she was going to school. (It's a good thing the snow was light and fluffy this time, or Aaron would have been angry about shoveling first thing in the morning).

Saturday night, I started a potty chart for Sophie. Four squares. Each time she goes pee or poop in the potty, she gets a sticker. Four stickers and she gets a surprise! (a metal kazoo I picked up for her the other day) She thought surprise meant chocolate because the girl loves her chocolate. We gave her two small squares of dark (70%) chocolate for Valentine's Day and she almost flipped her lid. So, we said, yes - if you use the potty four times, you will get a piece of chocolate. AND a surprise! And by Sunday night - she did it! With a little prompting from us.

But now she knows that it all leads to something. Especially her one true love - dark chocolate.

Next potty chart has five squares. The stickers she decided to use? My free address labels from the World Wildlife Fund.

On a side note, we've been trying to get her to eat more yogurt because it's good for her tummy and has calcium, etc. We figured out she'll eat yogurt if it's Stonyfield Farms chocolate underground yogurt. Yes, I know - BUT it doesn't have artificial sweeteners and is actually quite healthy despite the bit of chocolate. And she chows down because she thinks she's getting a special treat.

Sunday, we made the decision to not turn the TV on at all. I knew Aaron would start to go a little crazy about the clutter of a two-year-old playing all day, so I gave him a reprieve and let him go upstairs to work on his homework as much as he wanted while Sophie and I played.

Here's evidence - even though we kept playing "Pick it up! Pick it up!" all day, he still followed us around organizing the clutter:

It made me realize how used to winter I am and how he has a really hard time with the lack of sunshine and fresh air. Sorry Aaron. Again.

There were blocks and I made a huge box (left over from moving) into a house with windows and doors and she played in it and around it for most of the day. Towers and caves and rocket ships and boats. Elaborate play where she would be in the house and I would be the mailman and I'd pass letters to her through the window. The house became a rocket ship that was going to explode her to the moon! And then she came out of the rocket ship and pretended she was a robot.

We listened to the radio and to Ella Jenkins and Laurie Berkner music all day.

We made butter cookies and cut out shapes and then ate them.

The temperature finally got above 30 degrees, so we all went for a walk around the neighborhood to get some sunshine in our systems and work off the stir crazies.

Oh, and I never did buy wool felt or polyfill this weekend. Our bank accounts are a bit low now that we are trying not to put anything on our credit cards (almost 3 months now! A record!) and I don't think I'm going to make my pledge of 5 by Leap Day. I'm going to see what I can come up with without buying material.

I did finish George the Gerbil (Bear, Mouse, Baby - it keeps changing in Sophie's head) but he's not going into the store. Sophie has adopted him. I will do G is for Gerald the Giraffe once I figure out the fabric thing.

I leave you with a self-portrait of me wishing the snow would just go away:

Ploopily

Sophie has started making up words. Her favorite, by far, is "ploopily"

She mixes it up by saying: "plee-ploopily" and "scoopily" and "sloopily", (and later cat-ily and Otto-lilly and Tabily) but ploopily is the go-to word.

Evolution of a friend: she made a little block guy from some Duplo blocks. We have a set that has a pair of eyes on one block and a smiling mouth on another. She put them together, put on a different-colored block for a hat and "Blocky" was born. There was lots of talking to Blocky about the events of the day. We'd be in the kitchen and I'd say something like: "Sophie, do you want a pear?" and she'd say: "I'll be right back." and run into the other room to excitedly tell Blocky that her Mama was getting her a pear and she was so excited because pears are so TASTY.

Then she later made a yellow tower of square blocks with a big rectangle block on the top (for an extended nose). That was Ploopily Monster.

Blocky soon merged with Ploopily Monster's blocks and now it's a big yellow tower with eyes and a mouth and big rectangles at the top and bottom. This is now just Ploopily. She requested his presence on the table with us at dinner and she fed him pieces of pear and chicken. Ploopily apparently loves the green skin on the pear while she does not.

I love this age.

Gray, gray, gray

This week started off miserably Tuesday night when we received 10 inches of snow and then turned to an 18-hour torrential downpour. I think we received something like 4 inches of rain during the day. Everything flooded. We even got water in our bone dry basement. Aaron tried to go out early in the morning to shovel the driveway but he managed a narrow little path and had to come in panting: "Each shovel-ful weighs 50 pounds! Can we call someone to plow today? Please?"

I agreed because I wasn't going out there to do it if he couldn't. We called 3 different snow plow people and two of them had broken plows from the night before. The snow was HEAVY. Finally got someone but it was going to take "several hours" before he could come by. Meanwhile, Aaron had to be at school by noon (campus was opening late at 11).

No plow, no plow, no plow, and finally Aaron went out to try shoveling again. He managed to do the driveway and we were all able to leave.

Until I almost flooded the car by driving through 3 different impromptu lakes on the way to work. The whole time I was driving, I was thinking: "What the hell am I doing? Why am I driving to work?"

The rest of the week was no better. It was gray and cold and all that rain and snow froze to a hard, bumpy mess.

And now the weekend is gray, too. I can't count how many times Aaron and I have muttered: "Okay, I'm officially done with winter."

It's hailing and raining outside right now.

Stop it. I get it. We're done.

We haven't seen our lawn since November. It's been covered by at least a foot of snow since the weekend I planted our new trees.

I hope it's Spring soon, or we're going to all lose our minds.

Hop on Pop!

Last night, as we were getting her ready for bed, Sophie was jumping up and down on Aaron. So I started singing:

"Two little Sophies jumping on her Dad. One fell off and bumped her head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said: 'No more jumping on Sophie's Dad.'"

Sophie stopped, looked at me for a few moments and said:

"You don't call the doctor again, okay, Mama?"

Groundhogs Don't Lie

We woke up to temperatures of around 0 degrees with a windchill factor of -15. And now they are predicting SIX to TEN INCHES of snow and sleet tonight until tomorrow afternoon.

Ugh. Blech. Yuck. I'm so ready to see some frickin' green grass. I'm done with winter. Done. Do you hear me, Mother Nature? Game over.

A First

Saturday night was a first for our little family. It was the first time we, Aaron and I, went out and let someone else help Sophie with bedtime.

The honors went to my Mom. A pro and Sophie's best buddy. Sophie hadn't been feeling well all week - cold, coughing, not eating well, etc., - and she was overtired by the time we got to my parents' house. One look at Gammy and she was all smiles.

Bedtime went well, with just a few wakeups on Sophie's part.

It was so reassuring to know that going out, just the two of us, can be done.

Yes, I know, we waited over two years to try.

We were invited to a friend's birthday party. I've known Sarah since Kindergarten and she has a fantastic group of friends. It was such a fun party! Everyone was laughing and joking and the conversations were all over the place. From who is the hottest male actor to multi-variable calculus to merchant marines to the Navy to politics. It was so great to be surrounded by smart, fun people. Our spirits were definitely lifted.

I made Sarah a rhinoceros for her birthday. Rumpy. When we were in middle school, we went on a little shopping excursion and pooled our funds to buy a little rhinoceros that we named Rumpy. This rhinoceros is in honor of Rumpy I. Even though he's much bigger. And gray.

A bunch of people at the party said they didn't really see a rhinoceros, though. There was mention of a mouse and Piglet, but not rhinoceros. What do you think?

Planned for tonight is the next Alphabet Animal: "D is for ..."

Here's a hint:

Bartholomew Bat - Alphabet Animal

B is for Bat. The next in the Alphabet Animals collection.

Tutu

Sophie's second dance class. This time, we came prepared with a tutu (that I made earlier in the week). And this time, she was less hesitant about the dance moves.

Here she is, waiting for the teacher to arrive.

Thank Goodness

After her bath tonight, Sophie wanted to play in her room. I found her in there, naked, in front of her mirror. She had her arms raised above her head and was saying: "Yes! Yes!"

I asked her what she was doing and she said: "I saving the world!"

Life Changes

I've been meaning to write about all the changes we've made in our household but time and life get the better of me. It's a long list, so bear with me.

We're working towards building a healthier future for all of us. Most of the choices and changes lean towards a greener and more organic. I have to say, the more I research and read and hear, the more alarming it all gets. It's overwhelming and I feel like I'm just barely staying afloat.

This list is in no particular order.

Changes already implemented:

• Plastics: recycled my Nalgene bottle and bought a SIGG. Sophie also received a SIGG water bottle from my sister from Christmas. Although her first experience with the lid didn't work and she's hesitant to try it again. Baby steps. This is a step toward getting rid of all the plastic. We still have a lot of plastic IKEA dishes for Sophie that I need to replace.

  Also want to replace all the melamine because that isn't good for anyone, either. Most kids plates are melamine, so this is going to be hard. I'm looking for stainless steel or enameled tin sources, if you have any. Also, I just read that the lining in the aluminum(!) SIGG bottles is a secret and there is a possibility that your water could be leaching aluminum over time. Great. Just when I made that switch. I'll have to switch to Kleen Kanteen products or some other stainless steel container. Or just bring glass jugs.

  Also, I switched my travel coffee mug from one with a plastic liner to one that is stainless steel. Putting hot liquids into plastic seemed like a very bad idea. I also bring extra coffee with me in a glass jar with a lid.

  Oh, and I sold all our plastic tupperware containers at the tag sale this summer (Glad, Ziplock, etc.) and we bought some glass containers at IKEA. We need to get more of these because we only have two. And Aaron always has one with him at school. We need more for home for leftovers.

  And I finished up our plastic wrap and won't buy more. Haven't found a great alternative yet, though.

  I switched to natural, unbleached wax paper bags for carrying sandwiches, snacks. They're great, because I can put my veggie/fruit scraps in them from work (like banana peels and apple cores) and then just put the bag and the scraps in the composter.

• Composting! Received a composter for my birthday! It's in the backyard and we've been using biodegradable bags to collect egg shells and coffee grounds and vegetable scraps and dryer lint and paper towels (more on that later) and wax paper bags (more on this, too). I aim to buy another composter so that one can sit for a season and do it's work while we fill the other with new material. We plan on doing some container gardening this summer in our new yard and I cannot wait for Spring.

• Parabens: I threw out (I didn't know what I was supposed to do with them. Drain them down the sink? That seemed wrong. I didn't want to give them away because then I'm just passing the toxic chemicals on to someone else...) all of our personal care products that contained parabens. Methyl-, ethyl-, etc. Bad, bad, bad for you. Aaron still has one or two products he uses but as soon as they're empty, I'll switch him to something better. This one was tough. Pretty much everything I was using had parabens. I'll get more into this later regarding makeup, etc. I'm still looking for a good cleanser that is "safe" and will work on acne. I'm in the midst of a bad breakout and I'm not sure of the culprit. Stress? Check. Diet? Probably a bit. Products? Yes, probably, too.

• Grocery Bags: we bring reusable bags the majority of the time to the grocery store. I bought some nylon-like Trader Joe's bags (not the best, I know I should just make some canvas ones - see Future Changes below). I say majority of the time because there have been a few times when I'm out and about and I realize the bags are at home. Oy!

  I've made a few t-shirt bags but I'm trying to sell those (see the money below). We have significantly reduced the plastic bag pile we had in our house. Aaron really likes the plastic bags for cat litter and stinky poop diapers but now he's using the plastic bags from the bread we buy. We also save plastic bags from other things we buy. I'd like to reduce all of that, too, but plastic is everywhere!

  I also need to find an alternative for the plastic produce bags. I see people mentioning mesh bags, etc., so that is being added to the Future Changes section. I mostly attempt to buy loose fruit, veggies with no plastic produce bags but it can get unwieldy. I just wash all the produce when I get home. Reduce, reduce, reduce.

  UPDATE to remember later: tutorial for produce bags.

• Cat Litter and Waste: this goes back to the plastic bag issue. How to dispose of cat litter? We used to use the plastic grocery bags but that was so wasteful. I bought a box of (I forget the brand name) biodegradable dog poop bags. They are made from cornstarch and will (obvs.) biodegrade in the landfill. Plastic bags will just hold that cat litter forever. Aaron hates the dog poop bags because they are small-ish and we have two cats. So now I'm on litter duty most of the time because it was my choice to switch to these bags.

  The other recent change was to switch our cat litter to something biodegradable as well. After hearing great reviews, we switched to World's Best Cat Litter. I was worried how the cats would react because the time we switched to pine pellets was a disaster (Tabitha is quite finicky and she'll pee everywhere to show her displeasure). But they use it! With no issues! It helps that this litter looks and feels a lot like the other kind. And it clumps! Awesome. You can also flush it but our toilet upstairs sucks and I don't want to tempt fate. Also, how do you accomplish flushing? Do you carry it scoop by scoop to the bathroom? The logistics are not clear.

• Cleaning products: we're gradually switching to all-natural products. No more toxic chemicals that do more harm than good. Although now I'm reading "Organic Housekeeping" and the switching is going to happen much faster. For cleaning, I've been using a spray bottle with distilled white vinegar (made from grains) and water. It smells vinegar-y at first but the smell goes away when it dries. It works GREAT on the stone counter top in our kitchen. Everything else I used left streaks, but the vinegar cuts through all that and just leaves shine. For our toilet, we use a soy cleaner. That might switch, too.

• Electricity: in addition to switching as many light bulbs as we could to CFLs (some of the current lighting just doesn't work with the CFL bulbs, we put our tv, cable box, DVD player and VCR on a surge protector plug strip. A HUGE amount of electricity is sucked from these appliances even when they're off. We make a concerted effort to switch off the plug strip when we're done using the tv for the night and before we leave for the day. We also switch off the plug strip for the computer and all its accessories every night and before we leave for the day. Did you know that when your computer is off, it's still draining electricity? Nasty vampire. We've noticed a significant reduction in our electric bill from just these changes. Our electric bill is half what it was at our previous residence.

• Lead: we live in an old house. There is definitely lead paint on the premises and outside. We wet wipe down surfaces (should do this more), use the Method O-mop to wipe the floors (switched from the Swiffer because I can wash the microfiber pads on the O-mop and the other disposable pads can be composted. However, they can't be composted in our composter because it's not the right kind... The washable microfiber pads are good, though.) and take our shoes off as soon as we get home. I read somewhere that you can reduce your lead dust by about 60% by just taking your shoes off at the door. The chips outside need to be handled come springtime. The plan is to repaint the surfaces (little deck, railings) at the back of the house to contain the chips. And to plant a lot of plants around the perimeter of the house to stop Sophie from playing there. There are plants that actually help remove lead from your soil, so I'm looking into those. We're going to have our soil tested by the local university to see if it's safe to plant vegetables in containers in our yard. If there is a lot of lead in the spot we've targeted, then I need to put something under the containers to prevent the roots from going into the leaded soil.

  As far as lead in the house, we're going to work on Sophie's room first. We need to repaint it anyway, and the window sills will be part of that. We have encapsulating paint from when we did the floor on the sun porch.

  The basement is also an area of concern. Our long-term goal is to finish the basement so we can all use it. The walls seem to be painted with lead and we need to take them down. How to do it so as not to spread lead dust and chips everywhere? Also, it looks like the linoleum-like tile on the floor is asbestos tile. We need to cover all that up (recommended rather than trying to pry it all up) and then dry wall, possibly, and paint.

• Personal Care and Beauty Products: as mentioned above, removed all the paraben-containing yucky ones. That got rid of all my Neutrogena, L'Oreal, Almay, Cetaphil (cleanser), etc. Ugh. So, where to start to replace them? I start by going to Skin Deep and looking for safe products. And then I make a list and try to find the "safe" products either online (drugstore.com has a lot of them) or at the local coop. It's frightening when you start looking up your current products. CANCER! Toxic! BAD! I'm still looking for a good foundation that is not-as-toxic as what I was using. I have bad skin. Acne scars, chicken pox scars, pimples, etc. I can't go without makeup. Yet.

  I stopped putting product in my hair. I shampoo only a couple times (or less) a week and condition the ends of my hair every day. Sometimes I leave a bit of conditioner in there and then dry my hair. The frizzies are mostly controlled. I'm letting my control issues over the frizziness go. I have curly hair - it's going to be frizzy! I pin it off my face and try to make it look intentional and then I get on with my day. I may go back to really short hair again.

  I stopped dying my hair altogether. Let the gray hair come. I'm okay with it now. And besides, I prefer to think of it as pin-striped, anyway.

  I stopped using nail polish. I have not found a single nail polish that isn't toxic. I keep my nails short and clean and I buff them occasionally.

  I switched to a non-aluminum crystal deodorant. It works pretty well. There are days when I'm less than perfectly flower-fresh, but it's mostly contained. I don't mind it; Aaron doesn't mind it; Sophie doesn't know the difference. If I really need to not stink for a long time I'll use Aaron's bad deodorant. And then I feel very guilty about it.

  I wear sunscreen every day as my moisturizer and I'm still looking for a safer alternative. I was using my favorite Neutrogena dry-touch SPF 50 but it's bad, bad, bad, very toxic, bad. I was sad to get rid of it. Please, someone make a non-toxic sunscreen that isn't like putting white wax on my face. Thanks.

  I switched to a non-fluoride toothpaste for me and one for Sophie. Aaron doesn't believe the research that fluoride is bad for you and that calcium actually works better. So he continues to use the other brand. Our dentist even confirmed for him that they recommend no fluoride for kids until they are at least 6. I wonder why that is? I've been using Jason toothpaste for the past 4 or 5 months and I just had the best dentist visit in a long time. I take calcium along with a multi-vitamin.

• Organic foods: apples, grapes, berries, milk (don't buy a lot of milk, anyway), chicken, carrots, potatoes, and peanut butter. Others when we can. I didn't realize that peanut butter was one of the foods highly recommended to switch to organic. Apparently peanut farms use a lot of pesticides and other yuckiness when growing their crops. We buy grind-your-own organic peanut butter at the local coop. It smells FANTASTIC when it's grinding. Yes, it's more expensive, but there is no added sugar or salt or trans fats. Just pure peanuts.

• Recycling: we already recycle paper and boxes and glass and cans and plastic but I've been working on recycling other things as well. Gifts for Christmas were made with mostly recycled cloth. I've been reading more about not just recycling but re-using. Getting a glass cutter to turn bottles into glasses and vases. Using the plastic containers that make it into the house for the sowing of plants and vegetables. I plan on winter sowing some seeds in those containers. Other ideas?
  

I feel like there is so much more, but this is a start.

FUTURE CHANGES:
- change out our vinyl shower curtain for something cotton or hemp
- make cloth napkins and stop buying paper towels
- make cloth rags and stop buying paper towels
- make cloth shopping totes for the house
- find plates and cups to replace all of Sophie's plastic and melamine stuff
- find safe makeup that doesn't make me break out
- make my own safe face cleanser?
- potty train Sophie and get rid of all the disposables
- next kid (no, I'm not pregnant) will use cloth diapers
- buy a drying rack for clothes to reduce the amount we use our dryer
- alternative to plastic produce bags
- plant lead remediating plants around the house
- paint Sophie's room to contain lead
- paint little deck off kitchen and railing to contain lead
- vacuum (with HEPA filters) the paint chips outside the house and inside the basement
- finalize switch to all natural, non-toxic cleaning products
- buy second composter
- construct container gardens for vegetables
- switch dimmable can lights in kitchen to CFLs
- buy HEPA shop-vac to deal with lead dust and paint
- buy bottle cutter to make bottles into glasses and vases

Once Upon a Time

This weekend saw the start of story time. Anything that was remotely book-like got the "once upon a time" reading treatment. My business card, Aaron's wallet, a card from Erin. (That she explains to us every time she reads it - "oh no! the monkeys are going to make a mess! Steve!")

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Sophie." With many funny endings. Yesterday Sophie was a rabbit who liked to lick and lick. Today there was a walrus.

I'll translate:

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Sophie. Her someone named a mom. And her said "How do you do? Sophia."

"...little girl named Sophie. Who got a walrus. Said: Aaah! Then Sophie's mommy said: Baaaah!"

You be the toast

Sophie loves pretending and role play. Many hours are spent play-acting events from her days and also pretending to be other people.

"You be the baby and I'll be the mom." "You be the dad and I'll be the baby." (when she's the dad, she talks in a really low voice. It's adorable.) "Let's go to work. Get in the car. Seat belt. Click!"

Today, there was a shift in the winds. Instead of "You be the baby", etc., she told me:

"You be the toast." (we were sitting by her play kitchen)

"How can I be the toast?" I sort of sat up straight and made a funny face.

"No, you lay down on the ground." And then she pulled out the bread tray that came with the play bread and said: "No, you lay down on this."

So, I was toast. I lay down on the bread tray and she cut me (gently) in pieces with the play knife and put butter and cheese on me. And then she ate me. "Chomp! Chomp!"

Second Christmas

We're home from Second Christmas and it was fun to be together again. The little kids get along so well and Sophie is exhausted from her whirling dervish weekend.

Here, at last, are some of the gifts I made.

[if you click on the photos, most of them have links to the sewing tutorials.]

Little soft balls for my one-year-old nephew:

Coffee cozies for my sisters and brother-in-law:

Crayon Roll for my 2.5-year-old nephew:

Rolled up:

Artsy clutch for my (almost) 7-year-old niece:

Simple tote with photos of her grandkids printed onto the fabric for my mom:

Another variation on the simple tote for my sister:

And you may have already seen the monkey for my other nephew. I also made a felt banana to go with it:

And last, but not least, a stick for the littlest nephew. His mom was joking that he loved sticks and so I made him a "safe" stick:

There was also fudge, hand-drawn stationery for my nephew, hand-made drawing pads for my niece, several t-shirt bags, and chocolate-dipped marshmallows.

Now I'm off to finish a present for ANOTHER niece who's turning two next week!

TMI - The COUGH

The Cough is still here. I managed to get an appointment on Thursday and basically paid $20 to have her tell me to wait it out. It's a post-nasal drip cough and my lungs sounded fine. I should email her if I run a fever or start coughing up anything.

I took Friday off because I was just so sore and cranky and tired. She recommended Mucinex DM, but I didn't pick any up on the way home from the appointment because I had to pee and with all the coughing, having to pee spells disaster for me.

After having a child, my, um, muscles don't stem the flow very well when I'm overcome with a hacking cough. It's been quite unpleasant on more than a few occasions.

And after some miscommunication with Aaron, I didn't start taking the Mucinex until Friday afternoon. Still, it seemed to help lessen the coughing even though it's an expectorant. (side note: doesn't expectorant sound like someone who's pregnant?)

Anyhoo, it's still here. I'm now coughing up lovely thick green and yellow yuckiness (mmmm, tasty) and yet no fever. I'm waiting it out a bit. I'm hoping it blows over.

And to top it all off, I feel like now I'm coming down with a cold. Itchy throat, the works. Sweet!

AND, Sophie just started coughing a bit, too. Yay!

This weekend is Second Christmas with my family. We're all finally together for stockings and kid presents and then also three birthdays. I'm still attempting to make everything but I forgot about the birthdays and I didn't plan on being sick. Ugh. I've sewed up a lot of lovely little presents and plan on making fudge and one or two other goodies but I may have to break down and buy some more stocking fillers. I'm happy with the gifts and have been taking photos but I can't post anything until after the weekend as my sisters and my mom read my site occasionally and their surprises would be spoiled.

It will be quite the relief to be finished because this whole experience has strengthened my confidence in my sewing skills and I have a lot of ideas of things to sell on Etsy.

Stay Tuned.

Checking in for Aaron news? He's taking Judo over the winter break in addition to teaching a Calculus class at the university. He's mighty sore from the Judo; his ribs and back and arms hurt. He's taking two classes a week. Last night, he accidentally chipped a woman's tooth. He likes the class despite the pain. (and I like the uniform: hubba hubba)

Update: Aaron thinks this reads as though he's proud of chipping her tooth. This could not be farther from the truth. He's very upset about it. Her husband and kids were there to witness and it was truly an accident.

Karma Barf

Let this be a lesson to you: don't laugh about nephews being hit with a stomach bug else your beautiful daughter will soon be covered in barf in the backseat of the car. Approximately 15 minutes after said laughing.

Sophie: "Uh. I burped up my crackers and raisins. Yucky."

Erika: "Aaron, find the first exit! It's okay, Sophie, it's okay. FIRST EXIT AARON! She's still barfing! It's okay, Sophie, it's okay."

We finally pull into a parking lot somewhere in Connecticut. I carefully remove Sophie from her seat by keeping her in a sitting position in order to keep most of the barf in her lap until she is outside the car. Luckily, we had a car full of clothes, etc., since we were heading to my sister's for the weekend. Aaron takes over cleaning the car seat because he knows that I wouldn't be able to handle it without barfing myself.

Aaron: "I need gloves and water. Stat!"

The silver lining: she seems to be cured of her raisin addiction for the time being.

Snowstorm

(click on photo for more info)

We drove home from my sister's family's house yesterday. The weather report (the last one I read) on Saturday called for about 3 inches on Sunday. I guess we should have read or checked the weather again yesterday because we got another 12 inches. Luckily, one of our lovely neighbors snowblowed (snowblew?) the entrance to our driveway after the monster plows did their usual mass plowing. There was still 12 inches in our driveway for Aaron to shovel early, early, early this morning.

I have no idea what the total snowfall is around here at the moment. I'm estimating at least 3 feet so far this winter. You can't even see the stop sign at the corner because of the piles. It's crazy. I knew it was going to be a rough winter. Tonight is supposed to be very cold (-15°F wind chill factor) and then next week hit almost 60. Maybe we'll lose a lot of the piles? A bummer for the snow-loving folks, but hopefully a break for us. Our driveway is getting more and more narrow with each storm. There is just nowhere to put the snow.

In other news, I still have a bad cough and I'm exhausted. My back and stomach hurt from all the coughing and it's starting to piss me off. I called my doctor's office today but the first appointment they have is for Monday. I hope it's gone by then and I don't need the appointment. I went to bed with Sophie last night (around 7:30) and I'm still tired.

I have so much to do to get ready for Second Christmas (still attempting to make everyone's presents) and it's a packed schedule. I did not plan on sickness.

Brown-eyed Girl

Photo courtesy of my very talented sister

In other news, we're all battling annoying coughs made worse by a jam-packed weekend with no rest.

Sophie's latest is to tell us what she's going to be when she's a "big girl"

The list so far:

"When I a big girl, I gonna be a bird and be in my nest and take care of my babies (gesturing with wings and hugging her babies)."

"When I a big girl, I gonna be a airplane, Mommy!"

And, after showing Aaron a gnome ornament and after he began singing: "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay!": (yes, sometimes the train of thought is less than linear)

"When I a big girl, I gonna be a lummerjack 'cause I okay."

Another story I forgot to mention happened recently. We've been working on Christmas cookies for presents for our neighbors and family and there were cookies in dishes all over the table in the kitchen. We gave Sophie a taste or two of the chocolate ones and it was all over. She kept insisting: "One more, Mommy and that's it, okay?" (imagine lots of hand gestures)

I tried explaining that Christmas was about giving and thanking people for being our friends and that we were going to send the cookies to our family and give them to our neighbors to say Merry Christmas.

She thought about this for a bit. The gears clearly turning in her head.

"And then they give them back, right?"

Merry Christmas!

Another whirlwind weekend. We intended on staying at my parents' house until Monday after lunch so that we could be home Christmas Eve and Christmas day to start our own tradition. But Sophie was having such a great time (Despite being sick. Again.) that we decided to stay Monday night as well.

She had a blast with her cousins and aunts and uncles. We made graham cracker houses and birdseed ornaments and decorated cookies and went sledding.

Sophie was an adrenaline junkie on the sled. My brother smoothed the path to one of my dad's barns and it made a great sledding hill. Not too steep, but you could get going pretty fast. Sophie started off going down on the toddler sled - one into which we could strap her, but she soon wanted to go down on the round saucer. We told her to hold on and not let go and I waited for her a little ways down the hill so that I could catch her before she got too far. She held on and was having so much fun that I let her go by me. She was yelling the whole way: "Here me come! Watch out for Sophie! Beep! Beep! Honk! Honk!"

As soon as she made it to the bottom, her first words: "Again, Mommy!"

She went down a couple more times. Her last run, her uncles were on the path building a better rampart wall and she headed toward them. The first uncle in the way was going to just let her go between his legs, but she veered suddenly and he had to jump out of the way. She screamed and then the next uncle managed to make a tunnel for her. He said that her eyes were shut tight and the sled was spinning and spinning and bouncing off the sides of the path. "Wheeeeeeee! Here me come!!!"

She was too much. What a great kid.

Her imagination is hitting new heights. One of her favorite buddies was a photo of my parents' cat. She kept talking to him in this little high-pitch voice about how she was going outside and he was telling her to have a great time but he was going to stay inside.

My sister also said that she was helping Sophie get out of her snow boots, etc., and her sock came off so Sophie's toes started talking to her about how their sock was missing. Crazy little lovely girl.

Oh, and when decorating the houses and cookies with frosting, she kept "accidentally" getting frosting on her fingers and would ask me if she could lick it off. At a couple of points, she said: "Mommy, you sit over dere so you can't see me, okay?" hee hee hee. You're cute, but nice try.

There's more but I'm pooped and I've got to get some sleep. One of us has to work in the morning.

Snow Angels!

We have over 2 feet of snow out there right now. Ugh. Another 8 inches or more came down on Saturday night/Sunday. Aaron had a review session on Sunday that was not getting canceled, so he had to dig out of the driveway to leave. And then I was all prepared to take the car in the garage and just leave for work this morning, but I ran into a wall of solid-packed snow at the end of the driveway that I could not get through. The regular ergonomic snow shovel was not cutting it, so I start hacking away at the wall with a garden spade. Aaron finally came out and relieved me. Blech.

Anyhoo, on Saturday, before the second storm, we drove up to my parents' house to cut down a Christmas tree for them.

There was already about 8 inches of snow on the ground. Perfect opportunity for snow angels, right?

Plop! Into the snow, Sophie!

TGIF

We ended up getting about 10 - 12" last night. It's hard to tell - it is a very light, fluffy snow and the wind picked up last night.

The snow plows last night were intense. Two enormous plows kept circling our neighborhood. It seemed like they went by every 10 minutes at one point. They sounded like tanks and the house shook when the went by. It was hard not to laugh at one point because, with each pass, they added another foot of snow to the front of our driveway. I had to work this morning, so we were going to have to shovel the wall first thing in the morning. And by we, I mean Aaron. No sense shoveling it last night with over-eager snow plows on the prowl.

Word on the street is that they are trying to make sure as much snow is off the ground as possible before the next storm hits Saturday night.

The sunrise this morning was a thing of wonder. The pink sky made the snowy trees look like cotton candy. I kept kicking myself for not bringing a camera with me to work. It was absolutely amazing.

Snow Update

It started snowing around 11:30 today. From gray, ominous sky to blizzard in the blink of an eye. I was planning on leaving around 2 but now I'm feeling panicked. Sweaty, nervous. Is it safer to leave now, with a bit of snow on the ground or wait a bit longer to make sure things are plowed/sanded/salted?

The majority of schools closed early so they must be plowing to make sure the kids get home safely, right?

I always panic when there's bad weather. And it looks especially bad out there right now.

Aaron's still at school and he has a longer trek than I. He's all nonchalant about getting home.

I live about 3 miles from work and I'm panicked. Who's the New Englander again?

Ruh Roh, Snow!

...HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 11 PM EST THIS EVENING...

A SHORT DURATION BUT POTENTIALLY HIGH IMPACT SNOWFALL WILL AFFECT NORTHERN MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE THURSDAY AFTERNOON INTO THURSDAY EVENING. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED WITH THE HEAVIEST AMOUNTS IN NORTHERN MASSACHUSETTS.

And then a Nor'Easter is headed our way on Saturday night. With the potential of a foot of snow or more. Holy cow.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Today Aaron turned 35.

("yeah, it's that year that's divisible by 5. and 7. One of only three such years that I'm likely to live through.")

If I understood that, it would probably be depressing.

Happy Birthday to my sweetie! Even when we're stressing about money and schedules and life, I always look at you and know that I wouldn't want to be arguing with anyone else.

And, I love your beard. Don't shave it.

-----------------
In other news, you might want to ignore the weather reports if you're already depressed about being over the hill:

Weather Spoiler Alert!

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF ACCUMULATING
SNOW OF 6 OR MORE INCHES IN A 12 HOUR PERIOD OR 8 OR MORE INCHES IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. ANYONE TRAVELING IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO MODIFY TRAVEL PLANS SHOULD WINTER WEATHER DEVELOP.

Sophie Says...

[I'm in the kitchen, working on the soup/chili for dinner]

Sophie: walking into the kitchen: Mommy, what you doin'?

Me: I'm cooking soup. For dinner.

Sophie: COOKIE SOUP!?!

Me: Ah, no. I'm cook-ING soup. Not cook-ie soup.

Sophie: I some cookie soup? I love it so much!

Me: Not cook-IE soup. I'm cooking-INNNNGGG soup.

Sophie: Okay, Mommy. I hungry!

She was not amused when I set the bowl of black bean soup in front of her.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Well, just a dusting of snow so far out there. We accomplished a lot today. We went grocery shopping and kept a week's worth of groceries under $65 (including a big bag of yummy fair trade coffee) (I almost wrote "free-range" coffee...). The grocery store at 9 on a Sunday was not busy at all. Word on the aisles was that everyone did their "Sky is Falling!" shopping yesterday afternoon.

We got home, worked with Sophie on some thank you cards for two elderly neighbors who gifted us with Halloween cookies and Welcome to the Neighborhood cookies. We went on a short walk to drop them off at the two houses. Sophie was uber-grumpy, so we didn't stay long. The woman across the street seems so lonely. She invited us in, wanted to chat for a while. Very sweet. We did stay and talk for a bit. She has a lovely house. She seems sad.

Then, Sophie and went inside to warm up and Aaron stayed outside to deal with some of the leaves in the yard. It seemed like everyone was out doing leaves today in the twenty degree weather. It was frigid! Everyone complained about the neighbor next to us who has an enormous yard of oak trees and never does his leaves. Probably because all his leaves blow down the street toward us. The lovely boxwood bordering our property is all entangled right now. We've decided to leave most of the leaves over the winter to insulate the hedge. It has a lot of recovery to do seeing as the previous owner did everything he could to kill it. Or so it seems.

Then, Aaron finished with the leaves, took a break and started clearing out the garage so we could fit one of the cars in before the storm. This involved lots of huge boxes taken up the attic and lots of rearranging. The original plan was to park the CR-V in the garage as it is the first one to leave in the morning (me) but it barely fit. So, the Civic is in there.

If we get as much snow/ice as expected, Aaron may have a snow day and I can just drive the Civic to work.

Why can't Mother Nature just dump on us on a Friday night? Then we'd have all weekend to play in the snow and not have to worry about traffic accidents on the way to work. I live a short distance from work, but people drive pretty obnoxiously and I'm dreading driving during an ice storm. There is no way my work will close for the day.

I'm almost finished with my stuffed cat. In hindsight, I should have sewn the eyes and nose on before I turned the fabric and stuffed it. Now I think I might paint the eyes on. The tail area is also a little wonky. Still, for no pattern and a first attempt, it looks pretty good.

In other DIY projects, I cut down some greenery from the enormous arborvitae in the backyard. I'm hoping to fashion a wreath or garland out of it for decorations. I'll post photos if I like how it turned out.

Toodles. Stay warm. All of you in hot climates? Shut it.

Ruh Roh

We finally got three trees into the ground today. Holy hell, it was cold outside. I had to use a pitchfork to get through the top layer of frozen tundra. Aaron's determined to rake up a bunch of leaves tomorrow because this is on the horizon:

Sunday Night: Periods of snow and sleet, mainly between 9pm and midnight, then periods of freezing rain and sleet between midnight and 3am, then periods of snow and sleet after 3am. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 24. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow and sleet accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Other local radio stations are predicting 6 or more inches Sunday night. Tomorrow is also going to be spent going to the grocery store early to beat the hordes and cleaning out the garage so we can get at least one car in there before the snow.

Update from the National Weather Service: (it's in all-caps, so it must be serious)

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY EVENING
THROUGH MONDAY MORNING.

LIGHT SNOW WILL MOVE INTO NORTHWESTERN MASSACHUSETTS AND
SOUTHWESTERN NEW HAMPSHIRE SUNDAY AFTERNOON. SNOW WILL BECOME
HEAVY AT TIMES THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT WITH SLEET MIXING IN WITH THE
SNOW PERIODICALLY. SIGNIFICANT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS CAN BE
EXPECTED.

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF ACCUMULATING
SNOW OF 6 OR MORE INCHES IN A 12 HOUR PERIOD OR 8 OR MORE INCHES
IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. ANYONE TRAVELING IN THE NEXT 24 TO 36 HOURS
SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO MODIFY TRAVEL
PLANS SHOULD WINTER WEATHER DEVELOP.

Stick a fork in it.

Second to Last

I had grand plans for this month. A craft project every day! Research on lead poisoning! Research on safe cosmetics! I had a bookmark folder chock to the gills* with good stuff.

And then life pulled my optimistic blanket out from under me.

Not just the issues around my dad but work and feeling very tired and being sick for part of it. I've lost my get-up-and-go. Or at least it was lost. My doctor upped my hypothyroidism prescription and that seems to be helping a bit. I've worked out for on the elliptical at work for 30 minutes 3 times this week. And I was all energized and feeling like starting a project.

And now I have the cough that Aaron and Sophie had. My chest hurts and I've been coughing up nasty, chunky green phlegm in the shower. (Did you know that phlegm is just congealed mucus? I just learned that today. Thanks Dr. Google.)

I emailed my doctor to ask her if she thinks I should make an appointment and she said to wait it out over the weekend and see how things go. I found the humidifier amongst the boxes in the garage and it's now cranking away in our room, waiting my arrival.

Anyhoo, I found some fabric and stuffing material and I'm going to attempt a little stuffed animal tonight. Just to get myself back on track. I should have something to show you tomorrow.

*or is it "packed to the gills"?

Holy Sodium, Batman

How can a can of soup containing 40% of my daily allowance of sodium be so completely devoid of flavor?

Blech. I've mostly given up eating canned soup and packaged meals due to the sodium content, but I forgot to pack lunch today. Or, rather, I didn't pack enough. I found a stray can of chicken noodle soup in my drawer and cooked it, along with a generous portion of frozen green beans.

It tasted metallic and bland (or is "tasting bland" an oxymoron?). And yet I can feel the sodium surging through me. And this was a reduced sodium one. Healthy Choice Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup. Yuck.

Home Stretch

I spent a lot of time this afternoon trying to look into internet/phone/cable options that don't cost as much as Comcast. I think if I want the same connection speeds at home, I'm going to need to stick with Comcast. But I *could* cancel cable tv and then use Skype for phone...I'd save more than 1/2 of what we're spending currently on the stupid Comcast bundle.

Am I ready to give up tv? I'm not sure. Aaron brought up a good point - if we gave up tv, then we'd be fighting over the computer because I'd watch all my shows online. And buying a second computer would defeat the purpose of canceling to save money.

Our library system is really good and we can request DVDs from other local libraries. Sometimes you have to wait a bit for the newest releases but it's free. And free is always better in my book.

I'll keep thinking about this, but I'm leaning towards weaning myself from tv.

Has anyone out there used Skype? Or another VOIP?

Monday

Brain fart day. I was just going to post something really very clever and now I can't remember for the life of me what it was...

I hope I remember later. For everyone's sake.

Update: I've wracked (racked?) my brain and all I can remember is thinking, damn, the Monday after a long Thanksgiving weekend is bad news for bathrooms. Someone was stanking up the place at work. And trying to cover it up with awful room spray.

Sweet dreams.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

After an exhausting night - thanks Full Moon! - we stumbled through the morning trying to get packed and clean up after ourselves. Sophie woke up around 4 a.m. last night and WOULD NOT go back to sleep. The bed we were on is not very big and it doesn't fit all three of us. So, Aaron slept out on the couch, in front of the wood stove and Sophie and I snuggled in together.

I kept trying to get her to go back to sleep and, instead of sleeping, she whispered to herself for 3 hours: "Shh, Sophie, go back to sleep. Close you eyes. Please stop talkin'. I Sophia, you Mommy. Shhh."

Apparently Aaron had a sleepless night as well because the full moon was glaring into the skylight above his head.

And then Sophie's mood until we dragged her out of there was an emotional trip wire. It didn't help that I was grumpy and Aaron was grumpy and everyone was recovering from a very long weekend.

Also, Sophie's newest phrase is: "Not yet!" It was apparently said a lot this weekend. Poor girl.

Where did the weekend go? We have so much to do around the house to get it ready for winter and it feels like we never have time to do anything.

Belated Thanksgiving

Well, I overcooked the turkey. Sure, sure, everyone said it was good. But the white meat was dry. It didn't take nearly as long as any of the books advised and I avoided taking the temperature until too late because I didn't want to poke it full of holes. It was still fairly good, but not fantastic as I'd hoped.

In other fiascos, the roasting pan my mom had was too small for the turkey and all the drippings, so we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a new one. Total cost, after rebates, sales, etc.? $6. Not bad.

And then it didn't fit in the oven...so my brother-in-law bent the handles and we managed to get it in. For $6, none of us had a problem with adjusting the pan.

Also, as I was starting the gravy roux, the only whisk was a plastic one. I'm sitting there whisking and whisking and I, at one point, lifted the whisk and it was half gone. Melted. Into the gravy. I did start over, but there was definitely a moment's hesitation about whether to start from scratch again.

It was a good, very busy day. The garage was filled with wood, bellies were filled with food, hearts were filled with laughter and we kicked a case of beer.

Over the river and through the woods

To Gammy's house we go.

We're heading up to my parents' house shortly. My sisters and their families will be there later as well. Turkey cooking is yet to be determined - sometime on Saturday? It will depend on hospital trips, etc.

I woke up this morning to Sophie patting my face gently: "You a very nice girl, Mommy."

Happy Thanksgiving. Woo hoo.

We're having the official meal on Saturday so today was sort of strange. We spent it driving to the hospital, eating at the hospital and driving back from the hospital. This site has become all about my dad, and I really don't want to bore you with the details. It's just that his injury is eclipsing everything else at the moment.

He did have surgery today. He's out. It went well. He's in the ICU for another 24 hours. At least.

Aaron and I are arguing because I'm stressed and lashing out and he's stressed that I'm stressed and he's trying to help but it's not helping. We'll get through it. We always do.

Hold your family and friends tight. Tell everyone you love that you love them.

(Sophie hit the 25-month marker today. She's still awesome. But that's a post for another day.)

xoxoxox

Erika

Smothered

Well, the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with Sophie other than a very persistent cough. We're going to keep an eye on it and report back to him if she spikes a fever or something.

I received two very sweet emails from friends today and the combination of both of them threw me over the edge. I sat at my desk for longer than was comfortable, silently wiping away tears and trying not to cry out loud. It's a long walk to the bathroom, past lots of nosy people and I just couldn't do it. I didn't realize how much I was trying to keep inside. How much I was trying to put on a "everything is fine" front. It's not. I feel like I'm in the middle of my "I'm about to get sick" nightmare I used to have as a child. I'm trying to push something immensely heavy through a maze while feeling very weighted down and the voices of unseen people are urging me to move faster. I feel a lot like I'm going through the motions of life. All of this - life, work, my dad, Sophie's being sick - is smothering and while I know it will pass, I'm not seeing the light at the end of this dark tunnel. The awful weather and the fog and the drizzle are just manifestations of my cloudy mind and I'm hoping I'm going to wake up to a sunny day eventually.

Update

My dad has been moved to a hospital near Boston to be closer to a thoracic surgeon in case things continue to worsen.

We're taking Sophie to another doctor's appointment this afternoon because her cough hasn't gone away and her daycare provider called to say she seems miserable.

I'm sure there's a light at the end of this tunnel. Point me in the right direction, okay?

Holy Crap - SNOW

We woke up to snow this morning. SNOW. It's been cold, sure, but snow? Before Thanksgiving. Holey Moley.

Sophie was very excited - "Is so beeeeuuutiful, Mommy! Look, Daddy! Snow!"

And...then I had to leave for work. It was apparently quite slippery out because I saw three accidents on my way. I live about 3 miles from work. Two rear-enders (-ings?) and one complete spin-out. There was just a dusting on the ground, too. The first snow always causes so much panic. All the talk at work is about how many accidents everyone saw.

I'm starting to get a sinking feeling that when my trees finally get here, we're not going to be able to get them in the ground.

Update: I just went out at lunch and it had stopped snowing, but I had to shove about 2 inches of heavy snow off my car.

A case of the Mondays

I chopped my hair again this weekend. I'm mostly happy with it. Because I can't see the back of my head, I'm constantly playing with it to see if I missed anything. I have. It's a good thing my hair scissors are not downstairs or I'd be bald by now.

We're having Thanksgiving on Saturday due to the traveling of family. We're taking the pressure off my mom and all the kids are going to handle the meals. I've taken on the turkey, stuffing and a dessert for the Thanksgiving meal. I'm going to need to go shopping soon. Any thoughts on how crazy the grocery store is going to be on Wednesday after work?

My father is going to be in the hospital until at least next Monday. That is not something for which I'm thankful.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Well, we were going to visit my dad in the hospital (yep, he's still there) this weekend but man with lung issues + toddler with lung infection = danger zone.

We went shopping instead to spend a small part of my 1/2 year bonus from work. Target and Barnes & Noble and a local pet food store.

I'm in desperate need of jeans because I can't find a couple of my favorite pairs. They're hidden somewhere in a box that has yet to be unpacked. And then my favorite pair of Levis just developed a hole by the back pocket. I wear jeans most days to work and having only a couple of pairs that I like is limiting my wardrobe tremendously.

I attempted to buy a pair at Target today but now I'm unhappy with them. I even took the time to try them on and everything.

Ugh. Bleck. I hate changing room mirrors. Just when I was fairly happy with my hair and what I was wearing, I had to go subject myself to that.

Sophie had another hit of albuterol and she was literally running circles around the house. She does seem to be breathing better, so hopefully just a couple more and we'll be done.

And then we head into Thanksgiving with all the cousins.

I'm hopeful my dad will be home for Thanksgiving.

Albuterol = Baby Crack

By the time Aaron got home yesterday, Sophie was vibrating from the combination of prednisone and albuterol. You could even hear the vibration in her voice. She has a very active imagination and yesterday, on the bed before falling asleep, it was on hyperdrive. All her toys were involved: "Dis one the mommy and dis the daddy and oh no! Poop! on my head! I better change your diaper, Froggy. I be quick, okay? Wipe your tush! Wash your hands! Flush your poop! Now get in the car. Sit in back, no you sit in front, here's your car seat. Seat belt! Okay. VROOOM! Okay, we're here! Get in the cart!"

All over the bed. I just lay there and watched. I love to try and follow her train(s) of thought. I was (or, I should say, my belly was), alternately, the potty, the sink, the car and the bathtub (baf-tub).

Aaron came home in the middle of this. Her pupils were the size of saucers.

We barely made it through one book and I turned out the light and she fell asleep instantly. That never happens.

We had to do more albuterol with the nebulizer two more times during the night. I just turned it on and wafted it at her while she slept. She was OUT.

She seems to feel much better today although she didn't have much of an appetite.

In other news, I forgot to mention that we saw our first snowflakes of the season yesterday when we were heading into the doctor's office.

Sick. Again.

Well, almost a year ago, to the day, Sophie came down with a respiratory infection and an ear infection. Right before we left to fly to CA for Thanksgiving.

Sophie's cold has come back. With a vengeance. Last night, she developed a horrible barking cough with lots of scary wheezing and trying to catch her breath. Fever, etc. Dr. Google said it was croup. It certainly sounded like croup (although my only experience with croup was a scene from Terms of Endearment). I tried to get Aaron to call the on-call service at our doctor's office last night but he was sure there wasn't anything they could do. He was probably right. I made the decision, somewhere during an almost sleepless night, that I'd go in to work in the morning and call the doctor's office when they opened to get us in for an appointment. Aaron had to leave the house at 10 - so I'd be home by then to take over. Sophie stayed home from daycare.

She was miserable today. The earliest appointment was at 3:15, so we were forced to tough it out until then. She was definitely struggling a bit for breath with lots of coughing (although now it didn't sound like croup) and lots and lots of moaning and general feeling-yuckiness.

Finally, it was time to head to the doctor's office. We had talked about it before we went: "Okay, Sophie, we're going to the doctor's office. He's going to look in your ears and he's going to look in your mouth at your throat." "Okay, Mommy."

She was amazing at the office despite being completely miserable. She played with some older girls in the waiting room and then talked to the nurse when we were called in the room: "Mommy burned her hand! She said: ow! ow! ow! I kiss it. She needs a band-aid, right?" (I did burn my hand today)

[side note for my reference later: Sophie weighs just about 28 pounds (or 12 kg, 700 g) now - stupid metric scales]

The doctor listened to her breathing, noted that she was struggling, etc. Said he couldn't determine exactly what it was. No ear infections; definitely respiratory. He set up the nebulizer (like last year. In fact, it was the same doctor as last year - not her normal pediatrician. Strange.) and mask and we sat there while it did its magic. She patiently wore the mask while I read her a couple of books.

The albuterol definitely helped and he sent us home with the office Nebulizer 6000 ("NOT A LOANER"), prescriptions for prednisone, albuterol vials for the machine and an albuterol inhaler to work with last year's mask thingy.

Despite her feeling sick, she was still talking up a storm. The doctor came in to check her breathing after the nebulizer and he's the type to only talk to the parents and not the kids. He said something to the effect of: "I think this is the avenue to pursue..." and Sophie says: "Pursue? What you pursue?"

He did a double-take, as if noticing her for the first time. "She's a little parrot, eh?" Oh, she's much more than that, doctor.

My dark circles have dark circles

Gah, Wednesday night television kills me. Pushing Daisies, then Gossip Girl (love that show - soooo much better than The O.C.) and then Dirty, Sexy Money - talk about guilty pleasures. All of you with Tivo who don't remember staying up to watch a show can kiss my ass. My dead-tired ass.

Yes, I could watch a couple of those online the next day, but I like the ambience of staying up way past my bedtime to catch a show.

But now I'm so tired. It doesn't help that it is pitch black outside due to a "Wall of Rain!!!" (local television stations are so dramatic).

Today was also not a good day to break out the straight iron for my hair. I haven't used it in years and now, all of a sudden, I want to straighten my hair. On a rainy day. I'm nothing if not smart.

In other news, I cut bangs into my hair. They look better straightened so I just created a very high-maintenance hairstyle for myself. Yay, me! If I let them air dry, the bangs are short enough to turn into little poodle curlicues. Not the best look for me.

Sophie says...

In case I don't allow myself a moment tonight to write more, here is your quick "Sophie says..." moment of the day:

Aaron, Sophie and I are lying on the bed after reading bedtime stories and the light is off. We're trying to get her to relax and be quiet and close her eyes. Please Sophie, close your eyes. You are so tired.

Aaron's falling asleep himself as she struggles.

She yells out "Yay!" and I say: "Shh, quiet Sophie. Time to sleep."

She whispers: "Daddy, say Yay!"

Aaron, half-asleep, says: "yay."

Sophie: "Shhh, quiet Daddy."

In other news, we're working on the bed thing.

Where, oh where, has my weekend gone?

Oh, where, oh where, can she be? I cannot believe it is Sunday night. I feel like I just got out of work and now I'm headed back tomorrow. Aaron has the day off, the bastard. No fair. I guess he deserves it, being a veteran and all.

My dad is still in the hospital. He looked pretty bad this morning but had more color later on in the day. He's going to be there for a few more days yet.

It was cold this weekend. It was a long night last night. Sophie handled the "Night Without Mommy" well until about 4:30 a.m. when she woke up and realized I still wasn't there. Aaron showed up with her at my mom's house very tired and worn out and about 2 hours earlier than planned. She still had her pajamas on under her dress. All in all, probably a 5 on a scale 1-10 for handling a night with out mommy.

She gave my dad ("Gumpa") a blue band-aid and he seemed quite charmed.

Gah, I don't want to go to work tomorrow.

I'm off to see my sisters

I'm headed up (and down) to my parents' house to meet up with my two lovely sisters and my mom. We're going to help get the house ready for when my dad gets home from the hospital. He's now at the rehab unit and will most likely be home Tuesday. Ish.

There are chairs to be moved and things to be organized. A new computer to be set up. Wine to be drunk.

This will be the first night ever that I'm not home with Sophie. Aaron's a little nervous but we've been talking to her about it all day so hopefully it will go well. It'll be good for both of them, right? A night off with my sisters and mom will be great for me. And then Sophie and Aaron are going to meet us all for brunch tomorrow before we visit our dad in the hospital. Sophie's bringing Band-aids because we told her he has a big boo-boo.

In other news, I chopped up a shitload of leaves with the lawnmower today and Aaron dumped another whole shitload of leaves over the embankment that all the neighbors use.

We'd been warned by the neighbors that the leaf situation is intense up here and, wow, they were not kidding.

Mulching them with the lawnmower keeps them under submission. Maybe the lawn will look better next year due to all the nourishment. It was looking pretty scraggy (scraggily?) when we moved in.

Sophie says...

Sophie, standing on the bed in her pajamas, looking at herself in the mirror and holding her arms straight over her head: "I da tallest tree I ever seen!"

In other quirkiness, we inherited a little piano thingy from my sister's kids. It's like a synthesizer because it runs on batteries and you can play different beats, etc. It also has a microphone attached.

Sophie likes to turn the microphone up as loud as it goes and cough into it. Over and over again. There's a mirror in front of the piano and she stands there coughing, with her tongue hanging out. I have to admit, it does sound pretty cool.

House Update

This could quickly turn into another long, boring post, so I'll try to keep it short.

We fixed the plumbing mess in the basement by capping off the leaking, cast iron waste line (as in leaking sewage) and getting a new PVC waste line installed. The plumbers also took out the weird basement toilet and fixed the strange kitchen plumbing. And by "we fixed" I mean we paid someone to fix it. Because I've touched enough raw sewage in my tenure as a mommy to last me quite a while, thank you very much.

As mentioned previously, I think, we had some of the wonky electrical strangeness fixed. The previous owner is apparently a highly paid electrical contractor who does not know how to properly install GFCI outlets. All of the ones he installed were not grounded. I should have been an electrician. Apparently anyone can get hired.

We have a new composter! Yay! I'm amazed by how much stuff we were just throwing away. Also, side note, did you know that you can compost (untreated) hair? Including pet hair?

We painted our sunporch floor with lead encapsulating paint. It only comes in white and I didn't think to have it tinted so now there are footprints all over it. At least it's not releasing lead dust.

I have so many projects on my list but I need to hold off on them until we get our tax return.

I'm also looking into the federally-funded Get the Lead Out program that provides 0% loans to...let's see, how did they put it?...get the lead out of our house. Sophie's lead count went up from 2 in July to 4 in October. Whether that change is from the new house or not, I'm a tiny bit panicked that we moved her into a toxic house. I wipe things down every day and wet mop frequently but I have no idea what, really, caused the elevation. The water? Need to get it tested. The old paint evident under the layers of the current paint? Lead in our soil?

More on lead later. My heart is racing again just thinking about it. Every time she throws a tantrum or is moody I panic and think it must be because of the lead. Aaron tries to remind me that she's TWO and that's what two-year-olds do. Still.

I feel like we've done more with the house, but maybe it's just all the research I've been doing. Energy efficient DIY fixes for a long cold winter, etc.

Look how big it is now!

Soon after moving into our new house, I became obsessed with planting some trees. I wanted to be able to say (in an imaginary conversation with someone): "we planted those when we first moved in, and now look how big they are!"

Aaron thought I was crazy what with all the other work to be done on the house.

Luckily, I didn't listen to him.

I ordered trees from The National Arbor Day Foundation (fantastic prices) and they should be arriving soon. They ship them for Fall planting. I'm a tid concerned because we just had another big frost last night* and I'm not sure we'll be able to dig when they come.

I ordered some of my favorites:

Red Dogwood - I think I'm going to put this one near the sun porch.

Fragrant Lilac - to go into the bed of existing (and scraggly) lilacs

Eastern Redbud - front yard? Or maybe near the future patio area.

They included a free Red Maple with my order. Although, hmm, now that I look at it, I was assuming they were sending a red Japanese maple... Not sure if I want to put a huge tree in anywhere. I'll have to think about this one.

Total for 4 trees, plus shipping? $32. Bargain! They are each about 2' or so in height, so it will take a while for them to get to full height.

*Karma tried to trip me up this morning by putting frost on our front steps. I almost bailed, catching myself at the last minute. My heart was pounding, I tell you what. Partly because, holy shit, I almost fell, and partly because Aaron would never, ever let me live it down.

Please send kind thoughts

My dad had an accident this weekend involving a tree branch and a sharp rock - he fell back on the rock and broke and cracked 4 ribs. He's having trouble breathing because there is a small hole in the pleural cavity of the lungs (which should heal itself). He's in the hospital at the moment on strong painkillers.

Please take a moment and send him some healing wishes.

Thank you.

In which Aaron fell down the stairs

I'm an awful, horrible person because my first reaction to Aaron loudly falling down the stairs was to laugh hysterically. Even Sophie asked: "Daddy, you okay? I so worried 'bout you." I laughed and laughed and laughed and tried to catch my breath to laugh some more. I managed to choke out: "Are you okay?" before succumbing to laughing again.

He eventually laughed with me but he still thinks I'm a total, heartless bitch.

The stairs are pretty steep, hardwood, narrow-ish. Sophie and I were at the top, looking out the window at a squirrel eating our pumpkins when all of a sudden, there was a huge racket behind us. (Oh god, I'm giggling hysterically to myself right now as I type this). Sophie jumped and I turned around to see Aaron, on his ass, hitting every step on the way down with legs and arms flailing. He's not saying anything but is just (I find out later) frantically trying to get some traction with his toes and hands as he goes down.

His socks were slippery and he was wearing his slippery workout pants and there was no traction. He landed at the bottom and just sort of crawled away swearing at me.

It was the most awkward falling-down-stairs moment I've ever witnessed. I remember thinking: why is he not stopping? It's not like he's going down head first.

Oh my god, it's still funny - I have tears rolling down my face right now. We need to get the boy some slippers.

Come to think of it - why are they called slippers? Aren't they supposed to STOP you from slipping?

Update: I picked Sophie up from daycare today and we were walking up the stairs to the house and I said: "Be careful on the stairs, please."

She said: "Daddy go Bump! Bump! Bump! Bump! Bump! BUMP! All da way down."

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

We're all still battling colds and coughs and general achiness. We had grand plans to go running and do some home repairs and some yardwork but blech, it's cold outside. Sophie still has a cough and we should probably bring her into the doctor to get checked out. Except I can't find our thermometer and they're going to ask me if she has a fever. Which she does. A mild one, but I can't give them a number.

Anyhoo, some punks in our neighborhood stole and smashed our pumpkins Friday night. Aaron was livid: Vandals! Punks! Dirtbags! I was more: eh, kids always do that. He thought we were being targeted but more pumpkins were smashed than just ours.

It was a nice, relaxing weekend with lots of playing and laughing. The time change didn't hurt except the concept of sleeping in has never once occurred to Sophie. We're keeping her up a little later tonight so that hopefully she doesn't wake up an hour earlier tomorrow.

I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary!

And now today is our six-year wedding anniversary.

I decided to have a Halloween-themed wedding since we were getting married so close to the holiday. Aaron's mom was a little worried that we were going to all be in costume. I just wanted to use the idea of Halloween - black and orange, etc., and not have it be a pink and white fairy-like wedding.

We carved numbers into pumpkins for the table numbers, strung orange icicle lights and had orange and black table linens. The caterers were so excited to not have to do the traditional white wedding, that they brought in things from their own homes to decorate the buffet - gothic candelabras and other fantastic things.

I found the Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster dolls online and glued them to one of the bases. The wedding cake people were a bit skeptical, to say the least. And then I had my hair dresser do a Baroque-style updo with white streaks up one side.

It was a fantastic day. We were married at the Byington Winery in Los Gatos, CA. The winery staff were wonderful, we loved our caterers and everyone seemed to have a really great time.

Eleven Years.

It's been 11 years since we met. It seems like forever and it seems like yesterday.

I've carried this photo in my wallet since that first weekend. Shortly after this photo was taken, Aaron flew to Hawaii and then straight to Japan where his submarine was waiting. I didn't see him again until April when I flew to Hawaii. It was a long, cold winter in every way.

We weren't supposed to get together. We probably would never have met if the stars and planets hadn't aligned.

Our story:

My friend, J, from high school had moved to Hawaii after college. We lost touch for a while.

Aaron, from California, was stationed in Hawaii with the Navy. Submarine division. He was best friends with E (another submariner), J's boyfriend in Hawaii. J + E got together right after she had decided to move back to Massachusetts. Very bittersweet. But she had a job waiting and had to go.

In the meantime, I was floundering after college. Stupid ceramic sculpture degree. Stupid decision to switch to the local university from UW-Madison (interior architecture) because of a stupid, psycho boyfriend (then ex). I worked at the local toy store, managing things, trying to figure out what to do next. My mom suggested applying for work at a college bookstore near her (also in Massachusetts).

With nothing better on the horizon, I took the job. I moved to an apartment near the college in a town we'll call "Blech". The apartment was depressing and cold and gray and I went through the motions of going to work, going to the gym and going home to sit by myself until the next day when I went to work again.

J, meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, had also just moved to Blech. We figured out, through a mutual friend, that we were living in the same town. We played phone tag for a while until we decided on meeting up for dinner at her place. She had a friend coming up from Connecticut and she was going to cook for him and then they were going out. Why don't I come over?

This was not a set-up in any way. J still can't believe Aaron and I are married. She had known Aaron for a while and she had known me for a while and never once did it occur to her that we would hook up.

Aaron had been hurt so many times in Hawaii and in life. He was decidedly anti-dating. Women suck.

Meanwhile, in Aaron's world: his boat went on another tour into the Pacific and beyond and, because of his seniority, he got to fly to Groton, CT to take some electrical (I think, although for some reason, I keep thinking he was taking copier repair classes...) classes before meeting his boat in Japan. He was taking the train up to Blech on weekends to visit J because it was something to do and because she was the only one he knew out here. We might actually have met on my birthday (the weekend before) except I missed J's phone call to meet them.

Background on me: I had had some very awful relationships. One had recently ended in which, again, I had different expectations of commitment than the guy. I had just come to the realization that it would be much better for my heart and mind to just stop dating altogether for a while.

So, November 1st, 1996. Dinner at J's house. I haven't seen J in several years at this point. But as soon as I aaw Aaron, my whole focus was on him. There was such hurt in his eyes and yet such gentle strength and warmth. Huge, enveloping smile. I was completely, forever, smitten. He was so very much not my "type" and yet I was struck by how much it felt like I was looking into a mirror when I looked in his eyes. The same silent hope and yet the precarious wall of protection against hurt. He was so tall and gangly and wonderful and funny.

We had dinner. I don't remember what it was. Maybe chicken with lime? Wine, laughter, stories. J didn't realize at that point that I was not going to let this guy go. We all went out to the local dive bars. Aaron left to go to the bathroom at one point and I whispered to J that I really liked him. She stared at me in complete disbelief: "Really?" Yes. Really.

I left to go to the bathroom at another point and Aaron whispered to J that he really liked me. J was in complete shock at this point: "Really? She likes you, too. You should do something about it." This made Aaron incredibly nervous because he didn't have any idea what to do about it.

Then J left to go to the bathroom and Aaron got closer to tell me another funny story and, in the middle of the story, he accidentally spit his breath mint on me. It landed on my leg and Aaron said the world stopped spinning. He was overcome with embarrassment and humiliation because how could he ever make a move now that he had spit on me?

Little did he know that I found it very funny and I handed him his breath mint - "here, I think this is yours." Smiling, laughing. The world started spinning again.

There was a spontaneous kiss (where he almost missed my mouth because he was trying to move in very fast) later standing at another bar and then lots of close dancing and more kissing and (Mom, stop reading) he came home with me. All of his things were at J's. We met her for breakfast the next morning and she was in complete shock over the turn of events. Happy for us, just full of disbelief.

He stayed with me for the rest of the weekend and then came up the next two weekends to see me.

And then he was shipped out to Japan for the next 7 months. I wrote and wrote and sent packages and we talked when he could sneak in a phone call.

I flew to Hawaii in April to see him and we made the decision to move in together.

He got out of the Navy shortly thereafter and I flew to California (no way was I staying in Massachusetts with the cold and the snow and the ice - Ha!) in August. The rest is history.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

After much tantrum-ing and flailing and miscommunication, we finally got Sophie out the door wearing the slightly-too-small pumpkin suit. Her choice. All the other costume pieces - hats, scarfs, vests, kitty ears, eye patch, chaps - were left, strewn all over the front entryway.

I wore a cowboy hat and a checkered shirt. Aaron started off as a pirate but he was having many issues with the eye patch and then issues with the hook and then issues with the big hat because Sophie wanted to "hee haw" (ride on his shoulders. He ran back to the house, threw his costume pieces inside, grabbed a glow stick and ran back to us. Oy.

Trick-or-treating was much fun. Our neighborhood is the Place To Be on Halloween, apparently. People went all out with decorations and jack o'lanterns and costumes. Also, almost half of the houses we visited gave out full-size candy bars! Score!

We started out around 5, so a lot of people weren't home yet but we needed to get out the door or we were going to lose our tiny, little window of cooperation and excitement before another meltdown happened.

But, it's a big neighborhood, so we were able to visit a lot of houses and, by the time we headed back, everyone was ready for trick-or-treaters. The loot! This was the place to be! If this is how they do Halloween, I can only imagine what Christmas is going to look like.

We got home, after encountering a scary bat, a huge spider and lots of skeletons, and kept the big candy bars for ourselves and dumped everything else into our candy bowl. Because if the amount of kids roaming the neighborhood was any indication, we were going to run out of our stock very, very quickly. And we did. Aaron ended up turning off our porch light around 8 because we were dry. Except for our stash but, dude, that's our stash.

Apparently the scary flying, flashing bat thingy really left a mark on Sophie's psyche because she could not stop talking about it and I was worried that she was going to have nightmares. So we talked about how it was actually a silly bat and it was so excited to see Sophie when she got to that house. It was flying around because it was saying shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake your tushie! Yeah!

It seemed to work because she slept really well and then, when she woke up, she said she wanted to be a bat for Halloween: "'cause I be silly and 'cause I fly 'round and 'cause I shake my tushie!" I'll make a note: bat for Halloween next year.

In hindsight, we shouldn't have introduced so many costume ideas, we should have waited until the last minute to say, okay, we're heading outside - here's your costume! Yay! Because each new costume was exciting at the introduction but then the excitement quickly faded when she realized: "Not Yet" was going to come. "Not Yet" are deadly words to our two-year-old. "Here! Look! This is so exciting! We get to go out and say Trick-or-Treat! Yay! Let's get the costume ready! Are you Excited?!" ....but, not yet, because we still need to eat dinner.

Yeah, that's where we went wrong.

Happy Halloween!

I am at work. No costume. There was a time when there were costume contests here and lots of pressure to dress up. Now? Just lots of apathy.

We have a pirate and a cowgirl costume for Sophie. Based on her wishes over the last several months. We even found a pumpkin suit thingy that she liked this morning. However, she keeps telling everyone she's going to be a kitty cat...

We initiated "Operation Convince Sophie to Wear the Cowgirl Costume" this morning by acting all excited about the Chaps! and the Vest! and the Hat! And by putting on Toy Story 2 when she asked to watch Dora. She was wearing the pumpkin but then decided she wanted to wear the cowgirl stuff.

Except she ONLY wanted to wear the chaps and the vest. No pants. No shirt. Not going to fly at daycare when it's 40 degrees outside. Obviously. We (okay, I) tried talking to her using her Jessie doll, but no dice.

So, I called them when I got to work and told Aaron that I was going to talk like Jessie. I could hear him in the background: "Sophie! It's Jessie! She wants to wish you a Happy Halloween!"

She gets on the phone: "Hi Jessie."

In my best cowgirl voice: "Hi Sophie, it's Jessie! I heard you were going to dress up as a cowgirl for Halloween! Do you have a hat? And a vest? How fun!"

Sophie: breathing, not answering.

Aaron in the background: "Sophie, is that Jessie?"

Sophie: "No, is Mommy."

Busted!

So, she's at daycare wearing tights and a long-sleeved onesie. Aaron couldn't get her to wear pants, so they compromised on tights. Hopefully we can add some of the cowgirl stuff to the ensemble before we head out tonight.

A good mom always has a Plan B (or is it Plan D at this point?), right? A coworker lent me her cat ears. Just in case.

Another Brick in the Wall

I'm sick. Sophie's sick. She just called me at work (Aaron dialed), very upset that we didn't have any grapes.

We had our tag sale this weekend and it was, um, not exactly the money-maker I'd planned. A friend joined me with her kids and that was fun. Not fun was all the work and the cold wind and the being sick. I made about $60 for weeks of work. Yuck. Remind me of this the next time I want to do a tag sale.

We had our first frost Sunday night. It was so, so cold when we got up in the morning. I had to scramble to find my gloves and coat to drive to work.

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

Does this count as the most boring post ever? I think so.

Happy Birthday to Me!

At approximately 5:30 a.m., I turned 36. Holy hell that feels old. I'm over the hump, going down the hill toward....toward...see, my memory is already failing me.

I tried to tell Sophie that today is Mommy's birthday but she's got birthday fever and she insisted it was her birthday. "No, Mommy, is my birthday...'cause..I need to blow out candles...'cause...I eat cake...'cause...you sing Happy Birthday to Sophie, okay?"

Aaron has to work late tonight so it's just me and Sophie for birthday dinner.

I had a long-overdue doctor's appointment this morning to check on my thyroid and high blood pressure. It's been about a year since the last appointment so I had blood drawn to look at my thyroid and check on my kidney. Also, to check on my wonky finger knuckle*. Apparently I'm suffering from early signs of osteo-arthritis and I need to take glucosamine twice a day. Sweet! Just hand me a cane and call it a day.

Just to keep myself honest, here are some numbers from today's visit:

I weighed in at 148.8 (was 151 about a year ago). So, it went down but is a lot higher than I thought. My doctor said that their scale weighs heavy and that I should really just use it as a comparison to previous visits.

Still, gotta work on that.

(It's crazy to consider that I spent about 2+ years in high school/college not letting myself get above 100 pounds. Bulimic - I loved to eat but didn't want to "be fat". Also, my psycho ex-boyfriend told me my head looked big when I wore v-neck shirts. It's taken a lot for me to look in the mirror and be, mostly, okay with the way I look.)

My blood pressure was 130/90. High. Again. I haven't been exercising as much as I should and I need to work on that. She also suggested seeing if my health insurance covers acupuncture. She doesn't want to put me on blood pressure medication until after I have our next baby. (NO, I'm not pregnant, but we do plan on having one more at some point) I can't be pregnant and be on blood pressure medication.

My sitting pulse was 65.

I'm getting a cold.

I like my doctor. A lot. She's young, has two young girls - one is 7 months and one is 2 1/2.

She suggested another possibility for daycare/preschool in the area that might keep Sophie a bit more stimulated then her current one. We like her daycare, it's just that she's the only talker and we're concerned that she's not going to continue at the same learning pace if she's not inspired. A couple of the very clever older kids have moved onto preschool/kindergarten and now Sophie's left with the less talkative ones. Nice boys, just not the same environment.

Anyhoo, that's the state of things. High blood pressure, heavier than I thought, malfunctioning thyroid and possible arthritis. Woo! 36 rocks!

*Have I mentioned my wonky finger knuckle? I think the culprit was my roller-ball mouse at work. In addition to the early arthritis. The knuckle on my right-hand index finger has been getting bigger and bigger and it was getting harder to bend my finger. And then when it got knocked or bumped I would have shooting pain in my finger. I switched that mouse with another and things seem to be improving. The knuckle is still enlarged, but the pain is mostly going down.

Sophie says...

Our little chatterbox. She loves to talk and talk and talk. There is a running commentary of the day. And she's added "'cause" to the repertoire: "Mommy, I need to go downstairs, um, 'cause...my socks are dirty and I need to wash my hands, 'cause they dirty and, umm..., Knuffle Bunny is in the washing machine."

No, it doesn't make sense sometimes. But she just wants to keep using all her words and "'cause" is a great stringer word.

She also loves to enunciate words. "Dirty" is best said with lots of facial movement and emphasis. "Downstairs" is another good one.

One of her favorite books at the moment is "Ella Sarah Gets Dressed" and she knows pretty much all the words. Not content to just quietly "read" the book with me, she yells all the words she knows. "I WANT TO WEAR MY PINK POLKA DOT PANTS, MY DRESS WITH THE ORANGE AND GREEN FLOWERS..." It's hard not to crack up while she's doing it. Lots of enunciating and facial gymnastics.

Too cute.

In which I remember I have a website

Oy. I'd like to say I've been busy. Which I have been, but I'm also feeling like I'm drowning in things to do. It's busy at work, busy at home.

Aaron's working a lot later at school to try and keep up with things and that means that 90% of the feeding and putting to bed of Sophie is on my shoulders. Not that I mind, it can just get kind of tiring.

In addition to house updates, yard updates, etc., Sophie's 2 year birthday party is Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! We're hosting a little family birthday party at our house before everyone has to head back south to their homes. Little party, but there is still planning involved. Cake stuff, food stuff, cleaning stuff, decorating stuff.

Crap, I still need to get her a present, don't I?

(If future-Sophie is reading this, I love giving you presents. It's just finding the time to get something perfect has not been factored into this week's lunch breaks.)

Luckily, I work close to home and close to good-enough stores. This week? Library, post office, toy store, grocery store (once I figure out food), health food store (need new face cleanser since I threw out all the paraben-loaded ones) (and new hand soap for same reason).

Sophie likes to help clean a bit after daycare, but with my family coming, I need to do more than push dust around.

We did accompllish a few big garden things this weekend: I planted a new bulb bed with crocuses and snowdrops and anemones and a fernleaf peony bulb (present from my lovely coworker and my former landlord). We dug down a little around the lampost in the yard and then I used the "Lasagna Gardening" tip of just laying wet newspaper (weed barrier), and then layering up compost with peat moss until you reach the depth you need. It looks like a fantastic soil mixture and I'm excited to see what happens in the Spring.

We also finally mowed the lawn - Aaron did the backyard and I did the front. It looks manicured and lush. Amazing what mowing will do. The new/refurbished lawnmower worked great. I also mulched the lilac bed with the woodchip mixture from our trees.

I have a ton of pictures of our progress but they are on our home computer and I'm at....let's just say I'm not at home.

I'd like to get a couple more planting beds started before winter but I'm not sure when I'm going to get them done. This weekend is Sophie's party and next weekend we are having a dual-family tag sale. I guess the following weekend? Except that is right near my brother-in-law's birthday so I'm not sure if everyone is headed south to visit him. (K - are we?).

Maybe I'll just start putting grass/leaf clippings on the spots where I eventually want beds and add more next spring. I'd also like to start some veggie garden boxes but I guess they'll have to wait until spring as well.

Oh yeah, and l can't plant anything around the house yet because the bush stumps are still there. We have someone coming to tell us if they can yank them but we haven't scheduled that yet.

Whew.

Off to lunch and the post office and the library and the toy store.

Cowgirl

Sophie has been enthralled with Toy Story 2. The Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl character, in particular. We have Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Zurg dolls, thanks to my sister's hand-me-downs.

For Halloween, we were originally thinking of a pirate costume until I found a cowboy costume at the local consignment shop. It has a vest, a bandana for around her neck and cow print chaps. Sophie was beyond excited when I showed it to her and she wore it for the whole rest of the day. She even showed the costume to her Jessie doll: "Jessie! Look at me! I cowgirl!" and to Woody and to Buzz. And she attempted yodeling: "Yo dee hee hoo!"

One of my coworkers lent us a purple cowboy hat and a horse-on-a-stick (what are these called?) and those were brought home to her last night. The hat, especially, was a hit and she insisted on putting on the whole costume. She kept saying, over and over again, "I root-est, toot-est cowgirl in wild, wild west!" While dancing and saying "Hee-haw!" Unfortunately I couldn't get her to do it when the camera was on. We'll work on it.

When she was little and upset about something, the fastest way to calm her down was to sing "I've been working on the railroad". Now, I just have to yodel a little and sing a made-up version of the yodeling song from "Sound of Music" (I really need to learn the words to that) and the crying stops.

Sophie says...

Aaron took Sophie to the grocery store yesterday before dropping her off at daycare. She handles the grocery store really well in the morning and was in an especially jovial mood.

Also, up until very recently, she hasn't become attached to any of her toys. All of a sudden, Frog and Duck are very important. Blanket (a striped dishtowel) must also be near her. Monday saw the addition of Moose. Last night, Rabbit was added to her entourage. The menagerie is called her "guys". As in: "Where my guys?"

Frog, Duck and Blanket took the trip to the grocery store and everything was all fine until they got back to the car and discovered that Duck was missing. It then became an adventure to go back and find Duck after the groceries were loaded into the car. She was more excited than upset.

As soon as the doors opened to the store, Sophie yelled at the top of her lungs: "Ducky! Where are you?!"

(He was found very quickly and lots of "I so worried about you! Are you okay?" and kisses and hugs followed)

Happy Birthday Erin!

It's Erin's birthday today. Woo hoo! Happy Birthday to one of the funniest people on the internets.

Man, this took quite a few takes to get something resembling a "Happy Birthday!" In hindsight, perhaps I should try to capture video when mass amounts of peanut butter are not involved.

I think Sophie is saying she has a present for Erin. Hopefully the pointing at her tush is merely a coincidence.

The "braaains" at the end is a belated thank you to Erin for the fantastic zombie sock monsters. If you haven't bought one of these yet, you are missing out. It's okay, they mostly attack other socks.

There was also confusion over the name "Erin" - since Sophie knows her Daddy's name is Aaron. (Aaron was sitting on the couch in the other room)

And, finally, one more cute zombie "brrraaains" (with a little sprinkle of pirate thrown in) video.

Overdue Weekend Recap

I've had trouble logging in to post. Something seems to have been fixed, so here I am.

We went up to visit my Mom on Saturday. She just got home from the hospital after knee surgery and we helped organize the house a little more for her while she needs to use the walker.

Sunday a coworker came over to help Aaron demo our basement. Or at least start preparing for when the plumbers come (if they ever call me back with an estimate...) so that most of the walls and strangeness is removed and the plumbers don't have to charge us to do it. The basement looks so much bigger now! We got the washing machine and dryer situated and were actually able to do laundry. Whew, it was getting a little out of control. I actually wore a suit to work because I was running out of casual clothes. It's a very casual environment here so a suit stands out amongst the jeans and t-shirts.

And while they were in the basement cutting and chopping and hammering, Sophie and I played outside all day. She helped with pulling all the crabgrass and weeds on the street-side of the boxwood hedge and then we raked and swept and made everything pretty. All the overgrown grass and weeds and little maples and oak sprouts were bugging me. There is a very pretty wildflower growing up through the boxwood. It turns out it is a local aster. Light blue; very pretty. The bees love it. So it stayed.

Now that the big hedges by the house are gone, it is much more obvious that front steps need repair and painting. They were camoflauged pretty effectively by the hedges. Also, I'm having a hard time getting the hedge stumps out of the ground. Tenacious Yew! I want to get them all out so that I can plant there.

Also, I ordered some trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation. They should arrive early November so I can plant them before the ground freezes. I ordered a Red Dogwood, an Eastern Redbud, a Fragrant Lilac and I got a free Red Maple with my order. All for $32.00. Not bad. Now I need to figure out where to plant them.

I'm excited about having my own space, but all the steps along the way are daunting.

Oooh, and the lovely Ellen and Sophie sent my Sophie an early birthday present! A great music CD and some homemade Playdough! So much fun. Thank you!

Sophie says...

Walking home from daycare yesterday, I have Sophie on my shoulders (going "hee haw"). I ask her what she did today; anything fun?

Sophie: "I have no idea."

Ode to a Small Town

Although I do like bigger cities, I'm loving living in a small town now that we have a house. And I love working for a manufacturing company because most people who work here are very handy. And they all know someone who has what I need.

Dilemma: we have trees too close to our house that are causing moss and lichen on the roof. Plus, they are ugly. Also? the hedges around the house are old and "leggy" and ugly. I started calling landscapers and tree guys but they wanted tons of money to do the work. A coworker overheard my dilemma, said: "I can come by tomorrow with a chainsaw."

Solution: P came by with a chainsaw and took care of the trees and a few dead limbs on the big maple in the backyard. For nothing: it's a housewarming gift to me. He's coming by next week to cut down the hedges. We're going to dig them out afterwards and start fresh with new plants. He's also going to help us get our dresser through the second floor window.

Dilemma: I would really like to put mulch around the (possibly) dogwood hedges that grow along the perimeter of our lawn. They've been abused by the previous owners and really need to look better, in general.

Solution: a local landscaping company will come by with a woodchipper and chip all the branches and hedges P just chopped down. Presto! Mulch!

Dilemma: we need a lawnmower. I was looking around on Sears.com and other sites and they were all about $200 or more. Ugh. Not what I want to pay right now especially since we need some pretty extensive plumbing work done. I mentioned it to a coworker and he said: go ask G; he fixes lawnmowers and always has one or two he's trying to sell.

Solution: I'm buying a Craftsman mower for $50 and I've got a guy who can fix it if it breaks.

(On a side note, I don't really want a gas mower but Aaron is putting his foot down. Apparently he thinks he's going to be doing all the mowing and he doesn't want to deal with an electric or reel mower. I'm going to let him have this one. This time.)

Dilemma: we need to fix the crazy electrical work the seller (supposedly a professional electrician...) did to the house. Things like moving outlets, fixing the GFCI outlets (none of them are actually grounded), moving wiring that is not to code, etc. The quote we received from one of the electricians during our inspection was around $500. Fine, we just need to get the work done. And yet, now that we have the house and are willing to shell out money? No one is calling back. A coworker said - call J, he does work here all the time for us. Plus, you actually know him because he was on that bluefish fishing trip with you**.

Solution: I called J, he followed me home at lunch, looked over everything that needed to be done and said - yep, I can get all that done pretty quickly. Won't be more than $200. Sweet.

Dilemma: we need major plumbing work done in our basement. Which we knew about when we bought the house. The previous owner had his buddy do some plumbing to add a 1/2 bath on the first floor. He did some crazy piping to accomplish it. Needs fixing. We need a new run-off sink for the washing machine. Either that, or we just need the washing machine connected directly to the drain. Also? The cast iron waste line is failing - starting to leak, etc. It runs half the circumference of our basement. Behind paneling, through walls, etc. (about 60 feet of piping). Because the basement used to be used as a hair salon "back in the day", there is a funky hair washing sink and an even stranger toilet. Both need to be removed because they are non-functioning and they are eyesores. Those are not urgent fixes, but we would like to redo the basement at some point. The waste line is urgent. Estimate during the inspection process? Anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 for everything. So, I started asking around for plumbing recommendations to get a written estimate and to find someone I can trust to do the work. Call the local oil company, they do plumbing and they can look at your boiler at the same time.

Solution: the plumbers from the local oil company came today and starting looking at the extent of the work. On and on about "What the hell is that?" and "Wow, this is a lot of work. It's going to take a whole day." and "I've never seen anything like this." Aaron and I were both paling at the thought of what their estimate was going to be. They finally left, sat in the truck for a while and then came back: $1,000 for parts, $1,000 labor. Ugh, but sweet! AND they will remove the sink and the toilet and basically leave the basement at a great starting point. We thought the waste line alone was going to be twice that!

So, now we just need to get everyone in there to get the work done. It's going to be such a relief to have things fixed.

Now I just need to rope some people in from work to help us take down the walls in the basement.

Instead of feeling lost amongst thousands of people, I feel like I'm getting to know all the people I'm supposed to know.

Plumber? Check. Electrician? Check. Mechanic? Check.

**A couple of years ago, I went with "the guys" from work on their annual fishing trip to catch bluefish. The only woman, I think I held my own pretty well. I caught 19 big bluefish and they are not easy at all.

Sophie

Seeing her name spelled out on the Magnadoodle:

"S - O - P - H - I - JKLMNOP"

Littlest Pirate

Aaron just called.

He said that Sophie INSISTED on wearing her pirate hat, hook and sword to daycare this morning.

And she kept saying something that he didn't understand. Over and over again, getting more frustrated with him that he kept asking: "What?"

He finally figured out that she was saying: "Shiver me timbers!"

(this photo is actually courtesy of my friend, S. Taken on Sunday. Picture, instead, pink polka dot tights, pink Crocs and a ballet shoe shirt.):

Sophie says...

Aaron just called. He said Sophie was in the living room and he walked around the corner and startled her and she exclaimed: "Oh my gosh!"

Hee hee hee.

The eye? It's still twitching.

Well, we did manage to get some more things unpacked in the kitchen and it feels like things are starting to come together.

Now it's not just the one little bottom eyelid twitch I've been experiencing - it's the whole other side of my face. The other twitch was mostly noticeable to me. This one? The new one? It's catching people off-guard - Aaron: "Whoa - your whole cheek just twitched."

Aaron also did a whole bunch of laundry on Saturday while Sophie and I went shopping for birthday presents and house supplies and some new clothes for me. Because my wardrobe is severely lacking in finesse.

Sophie chose colors for me. Like this one, only in black with white polka-dots. She had a choice between light blue, pink and black with white polka-dots. "Dotty, Mommy." No hesitation. And I like it, actually. I've already received a few compliments today.

We also did a bunch of work on the yard - pulling up the awful, invasive bittersweet from the patch of plants between our house and the neighbor's. There are lilacs and irises and some others in there and the bittersweet was smothering everything. My dad recommended *not* pulling it up because if you leave even a chunk of root, it will regrow. But there was such a huge structure of roots underneath all the good plants, that we wanted to start fresh. Ish. We're going to mulch this patch so we can see what comes up through it. That way, we can just keep pulling the bittersweet as it pokes its invasive, awful head through.

There was one patch of bittersweet roots that spiderwebbed across a huge swatch of lawn. Luckily, it had just rained all day, so the soil was moist. I started pulling the roots and the sod just kept rolling back. I got most of the roots out and then carefully rolled the sod back in place. The good news? There were lots of earthworms under there.

I also cut down some of the maple and oak shoots coming up everywhere and raked as much as possible. If we cut down the yew/arbor vitae hedges around the front of the house, we'll have a ton of branches to chip. We think we're going to hire a woodchipper to come to the house and create a big pile for us to use as mulch. It's actually cheaper at this point to do that vs. bring the whole load of branches and trees to the transfer station. And then we get mulch.

Anyone have a reason NOT to woodchip yew hedges? There's some blue spruce in there, too. Which I know is acidic, but as long as I know that, I can alter the pH accordingly. Now we just need to pull the bittersweet out of the branch pile so that it doesn't become part of the mulch. We have huge, separate, pile of bittersweet already but there is still a lot intertwined with the trees we cut down.

Did I mention we had some trees cut down? It's been awhile. A coworker offered to come by with a chainsaw. He cut down a couple of ugly blue spruce that were too close to the shed, an arbor vitae/white cedar and a couple of dead branches from our big maple tree. That's what is going into the woodchipper. Not my partner, eh, Margie?

And then yesterday, after pulling and raking and piling, we all went in, cleaned up and headed to the pirate party! So much fun! Treasure to be dug up from the sand box, lots of costume apparel for everyone to wear - hats and hooks and swords and mustaches and sashes! I forgot to bring my camera! I'm terrible. Hopefully my friend will send some photos. (Pretty, pretty please?) Such a great group of people - I wrote to my friend that I don't think I've received that many great hugs in a long time. So warm and inviting. Babies were being passed around and everyone had kids and knew how to relate to them. All in all, a fantastic party. Sophie was exhausted from the fun.

In case anyone is still reading at this point (not sure why I've been doing these extremely long posts once a week - I'll need to modify this soon): Sophie has been down to one nursing session a day: first thing in the morning when the alarm goes off. She even wakes up about 15 minutes before the alarm goes off to ask for milk. On the weekends, however, with no alarm - she wakes up later and then just wants to go play. Kind of Pavlovian. This morning? The alarm went off and she slept through it. Snooze. Alarm. Snooze. Alarm. Aaron gets up. Sophie's still sleeping. Long-winded way of telling you that my boobs are going to be killing me by the end of the day. I'm not going to say the "w" word until we know if this was just a fluke.

House Stuff

My younger sister, her husband, their 14-month old son and their two dogs stayed with us this weekend. Luckily, they just recently moved so they understand the living-amongst-boxes state of our house. We had a lot of fun laughing and exploring the house and drinking gin & tonics and good beer and cooking good food. Their son took his first steps at our house! In our living room! So exciting. He was so very, very proud of himself. Huge grins while walking like a mini-Frankenstein. He even walked himself over to Sophie for a big hug.

He's a very tactile guy and you have to keep an eye on him. Pretty much everything he picks up ends up in his mouth. Bark, sticks, rocks, acorns, dirt, shoes, nail files, cat toys, etc. Amusing to observe from a distance but his parents are on constant alert. He also loves to pet hair and touch your clothes and face and hands and anything you put in front of him. All the time with a huge grin on his face. He had a lot of trouble sleeping - no naps and lots of waking up at night. Partly probably because of the new environment and partly also because, dude, he's trying to figure out how to walk.

After they left on Sunday, I made myself a big gin & tonic and got to work on the kitchen. Aaron and I cleared out most of the garage boxes - a lot of them went into the attic - and I emptied countless kitchen and living room boxes. I think I have a plan for the kitchen now. Along with a list of stuff I'd like to buy for the kitchen.

The sellers took most of the drapes and blinds and I've never been good about putting up drapes and curtains. I'm a little stuck. I wish IKEA was closer.

It is so hard to unpack boxes while I'm home with Sophie by myself in the evening. Now that school has started up again for Aaron, I'm mainly the one doing the before-bed duty. And then when that's all done, I'm not inspired to start unboxing again.

In other news, Aaron broke the toilet seat last night. It's a toilet I want to replace at some point so maybe the replacement will happen sooner than later.

Also - big news: Sophie peed in the toilet this morning! She told me she had to pee and we went to the toilet, took off her diaper and she actually peed in the toilet! We don't even have her little potty up there yet so I held her on the big toilet. She was quite proud of herself. And also very nonchalant about the whole thing.

Later, after I went to work, she told Aaron she had to pee again. They went to the potty, took off her diaper, she sat down and "Nothing, Daddy". She got off, he started to put on her diaper and she pooped all over him. Heee heeeee. I'm so glad I got the pee and not the poop.

In other news, our new washing machine and dryer aren't arriving until 9/18. It sounds like we need to find a laundromat in the meantime.

We are going to a pirate-themed party this Saturday for twin 4-year olds. Any recommendations for pirate-themed presents?

A Very Long Recap of the Big Move

If I don't write this down, I'll forget.

We finally closed on our first house. The sellers were still in the driveway with their huge moving truck and all the cars jam-packed with stuff when we came to do our walk-through. It's interesting that you generally never meet the sellers during the process. Some things might have been easier to discuss if you could actually sit down and talk with them. They seemed nice, albeit very tired. Young, with a dog and a 13-month old.

We left after doing the walk-through and headed to our lawyer's office. Tons and tons of things to sign. None of it seemed real. Then off to the Registrar of Deeds (a great old building with tons of character). We thankfully missed the mother-in-law from hell (not mine - the listing agent's) due to a miscommunication. Our realtor had to deal with her. She had to give us a check for $100 because the sellers miscalculated how much oil was left in the house.

Oy, this is boring. I'll try to keep it short.

Aaron and I went back to our old house and tried to finish packing. We also picked up my company's big van because we knew we would not be able to finish packing everything that night.

The next morning, the movers called about an hour earlier than expected that they were on their way. We rushed around, collecting cats and Sophie and toys for all, and got me on the road before the movers got to the house.

And then Sophie and I sat and waited at the new house. In hindsight, if I had thought about how long we waited there (over 3 hours), I might have hired cleaners to go through the new house. As it was, the sellers had a dog and barely swept before they left. I Swiffered and sprayed and wiped as much as I could while still entertaining Sophie but I made just a small dent in getting the dog hair up and out of the house.

We locked the kitties in the sunroom during all of this.

Because the beds and everything weren't going to be in the house and set up in time for Sophie's naptime, I checked in with Aaron at the other house and then took Sophie with me for a drive. She eventually fell asleep and I headed back to the new house, rolled down the windows, and parked in the shade. Aaron was at the new house now and he was more than happy to sit in the car with her while she snoozed.

blah blah blah

Everything moved in, the movers were happy with the donuts and pizza and water provided to them (a suggestion from my sister who had just moved into a new house herself).

Aaron's parents were in town from CA and they helped watch Sophie and then took us all out to an early dinner and bought Sophie a very cool Melissa & Doug tree house/play house.

The next day was back to the old house with the company van for Aaron and I once his parents arrived to watch Sophie. More packing and cleaning and packing and boxing and loading and lifting. The whole time swearing I'm going to pare down my belongings so that the next time we move, it won't take thousands of additional trips after the movers have left. Have a big tag sale, donate, etc. Ugh, the last bit of packing sucks. So tired at that point and we slept maybe 3 hours the night before because Tabitha would not stop meowing and howling. Stupid cat. Yes, scared and anxious, but also completely annoying. We were both ready to strangle her. Aaron eventually went downstairs and locked her in the sunroom with Otto.

Monday was more packing at the new house - we headed over there bright and early with Sophie and packed and sorted and packed and lifted and lugged. Aaron's parents arrived to keep an eye on Sophie.

Probably three or four more trips with the van? Hard to remember at this point.

My parents then came to the new house to check it out and bring food to grill and my dad wandered around the yard watering flowers and pointing out what to keep and what to chop down. (keep: hydrangeas; chop: blue spruce, all the hedges near the front, bittersweet, prune the maple tree)

I'm sure no one has made it through this whole post.

Anyhoo, boxes are everywhere. I'm still trying to figure what do to with all my kitchen stuff. We have a lot to put up in the attic and there are a ton of boxes in the garage. Our main dresser - a very nice piece hand-crafted in cherry - did not make it up the stairs. They tried every angle and it just could not get past the last set of legs. It is now downstairs in the front hallway while we try to figure out what to do. This house also has much smaller closets and no built-in cubby wardrobe and all of our clothes are in laundry baskets around our room.

Oh yeah, and the sellers took their washing machine and dryer. Our new set (a present from a wonderful gift fairy) won't arrive until the 19th. So the pile of dirty clothes is getting bigger and bigger upstairs.

I will feel better once I've organized the kitchen. Which has been difficult because Aaron started school this week and has not been home when I'm home with Sophie after work. Also, we want to put a lot of the dishes, etc., up in the attic, but the door to the attic is in the office and it is blocked by boxes of books.

So I guess we need to take care of the office first. Which I can't do until Aaron's home to help because there is a huge filing cabinet in front of the bookcases that needs to be moved either up to the attic or out to the garage. Probably the garage. Also, we don't want the cats going up into the attic or out into the garage. We also need to keep an eye on Sophie. You can see our dilemma.

My younger sister, her husband, their toddler son and their two dogs are coming tonight for the weekend. Our nephew's 2nd birthday party is this weekend, too. We can't wait to show them around and get their advice on projects.

I also noticed last night, after scrubbing it for at least an hour, that the surface of our bathtub is funky. It looks dirty no matter what you do to it. God, I don't want to replace a tub.

To recap a very long recap: we like the house, we're tired, everything is still in boxes and we haven't had time to dig through everything. Oh, and we need to figure out projects in order of importance.

My brain hurts

I'm so tired. I just want to sink under the covers of my bed and sleep for days.

More later.

It's official

We're now grown-ups. We bought this house today. Eek!

T-Minus, uh, 2 days* until we are officially homeowners

*or whatever the phrase is. I'm too tired to look it up.

Our house is chaos. Boxes everywhere, decisions to be made about things to throw out on Thursday, a toddler starting to get stressed, two kitties also getting stressed and clingy, etc., etc.

Planning about how to handle things Saturday when the movers get here.

Please forgive me if this is incoherent. I can't stop my right eye from twitching.

We're thinking Aaron's going to stay with the movers and I'm going to take the kitties, their food, litterbox and water along with Sophie and the coffee maker and snacks and toys and chairs and books to the house on Saturday morning early so we are out of everyone's way.

Aaron's parents are flying in from CA Friday afternoon. They will be coming to help with things Saturday morning as well.

We are doing our walk-through of the new house Friday morning before meeting with our attorney before going to the Registrar of Deeds. The sellers are moving out Thursday afternoon/evening.

Wanna place bets on the condition of the house Friday morning? Just for kicks?

The night in which Sophie scared me half to death

Sophie scared the everloving crap out of me last night.

Let's back up a few days.

We're back to trying to get her to sleep in her own bed at night. Portland screwed that up for us a bit as we were all sharing a queen-sized air mattress. Plus, there's the time change.

She has realized, way too soon I might add, that she doesn't have to stay on the bed when she wakes up. Or, rather, that she can get off the bed. So trying to get her to sleep at night used to include saying: "Okay, night night, I love you!" and walking away for a bit to see if she would calm down and fall asleep on her own. No longer. She now gets out of bed, crying, and follows me into the next room. "Stay on the bed." doesn't work. Much.

All something we've been struggling with the last week. And since Aaron's working three nights a week during the summer, it means I'm basically in her room until she falls asleep.

So, last night, she finally falls asleep around 8:30 p.m. (WAY too late). She had been mostly asleep earlier but Tabitha chose that moment to meow really loudly in Sophie's room. I'm not sure what the stupid cat's problem was - she had food, she had water, the gate at the other stairs was open, the litter box was clean... So, Sophie asleep at 7:30? Ruined by the annoying cat.

And then Sophie finally stays asleep. Quite frequently, when she starts off in her bed, she wakes up sometime around midnight and Aaron brings her in with us. Not last night. Still asleep at midnight when Aaron went to bed. Sleep, glorious sleep. Until around 4:30 when, in my dream, I hear the thump, thump, thump of little feet. It registers on some level that something is in my room looking at me. I slowly open my eyes and Sophie's face is RIGHT THERE. AAAGHH! I tried to stifle the scream, but holy crap, my worst nightmare is seeing a ghost child in my room and that is what she looked like in the dark, lit only by a faint LED nightlight. She jumped a little when I screamed and then I helped her get in with us. Apparently she's not afraid of the dark. And she no longer feels the need to let us know when she wakes up and will find her way into our room to stand and stare at us (me, my side is closer to the door) until I wake up. Screaming.

Hoo boy. It took me at least an hour to come off that adrenaline rush. And then all my dreams after that involved being scared by ghost children or explaining to people, in my dream, how Sophie had scared the crap out of me.

Recipes - Tomatoes

We've hit the peak of tomato season around here. My heirloom tomatoes are still green, but we're getting some seriously yummy tomatoes from our farm share.

Multicolored Tomato Tartlets

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes with Goat Cheese Fondue

Not sure about this one: Gazpacho with Watermelon and Avocado

Portland, part one in which we stupidly miss our first flight

Gah, I'm so tired. It was a very fun week away with some very good friends but the time difference is killing me. I spend so much time worrying about how it's going to effect Sophie and then never consider how I'm going to make the transition.

Back to the beginning: we missed our very first flight out of CT. Oy. We ran way too late that morning and made stupid, half-awake, decisions about making sandwiches and filling the gas tank and then the security line at Bradley was insanely long at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. I tried asking the security people very nicely if we could move ahead since those names? the ones they're urgently paging over the intercom? That's us. No dice; no sympathy.

Moral: fill your gas tank the day before. And don't make sandwiches the morning of your flight. Oh yeah, and if you're going through Bradley International? Assume at least an hour through the security line. Seriously.

We got to the gate and watched our plane slowly pull away from the walkway.

Surprisingly, we were not stressed as we had pretty much assumed at that point that we were going to miss it. Time to just go with the flow.

The woman at the gate was very nice and she got us on a flight to Vegas, Baby, that was leaving almost immediately from the adjacent gate. We rushed on, checked the car seat and the stroller at the gate and found seats. One in front of the other. No matter that we had paid for three full seats earlier so that we could comfortably ensconse Sophie in her car seat. Ah well. Also, I had meticulously packed a bag full of Sophie books and presents and otherwise-toddler-occupying activities. That ended up in the overhead compartment about 15 seats back from us. Same thing with the backpack full of Sophie Snacks.

Here we were, squished in between two very nice ladies and no Sophie Snacks or activities. What is a mom to do?

I pulled out the barf bags, pulled off the wire and made three rings for Sophie. Then she spent at least the next hour putting the rings on my fingers, on her fingers, in the bag, out of the bag, etc.

There was no napping on this flight. No napping and the only snack we had for the first hour while the seatbelt light was on: cookies and peanuts. Yay!

After we were settled in a bit, I asked our seatmates: "so, how long is this flight?" "Oh, I think it's almost six hours." Excellent.

Sophie got antsy after a while so I transferred her over the seat to Aaron, sitting in front of me.

Side note: we talk poo with Sophie. A lot. She's very interested in it and we're trying to help her recognize when she has to poop before she actually does. I was constantly getting whiffs of poop while we sat there so I kept asking her (quietly) - Sophie: did you poop? No, Mommy. No poop. Over and over again. Later, after I had passed Sophie over the seat to Aaron? Still more poop smells. I think the lovely ladies on either side of me were farting the whole trip and I kept thinking it was Sophie. Whoops!

We finally, finally, finally, get to Vegas, Sophie falls asleep in the stroller, and we call Aaron's sister. Let's call her Trixie.

Trixie is understandably worried. She's been planning a BBQ for us and has invited her friends and a college friend of mine, Tiger, and Tiger's husband and two girls. For 2:30 that afternoon. Which would have been fine if I hadn't thought all along that our flight left Saturday instead of Sunday. Remember when I did that? Good times.

So, there we were in Vegas at around 10:30 in the morning. The next flight to Portland via Southwest leaves at 1 but it's completely full and they very reluctantly put us on standby. Trixie's husband, Dirk, is a pilot and he groaned when he heard we were waiting on standby in Vegas on a Sunday. Apparently, Vegas is purgatory for standby flights. We also get our names on the 4 p.m. flight going to PDX but that would mean that we'd miss the BBQ in our honor completely.

Oy.

Sophie has now woken up. Awakened? Waked up? And Vegas is all flashing bright lights and money jangling and smoking and terrible food selection. I try to find something for us all to eat and, while walking by one of the departure listing screens, I notice there is a US Airways flight leaving in about 1/2 hour for Portland. And I'm right next to a US Airways customer service booth. Kismet!

They have two seats left. I said: I'll be right back. I go back, convince Aaron that we should just buy those tickets. He is exhausted and he agrees. I bring Sophie back with me and the woman had held the tickets for me, just in case, and the price had dropped $250 in the time I was talking to Aaron. W00t!

Tickets, done! We're leaving purgatory! Aaron brings the luggage to the gate while the tickets print and we are on the flight! We even convince a woman to move her seat so we can sit together. Sophie's carseat is, again, checked at the gate with her stroller. We collapse in the seat. This time, we have Sophie snacks and books and games with us. Our new seatmate, Kevin, is a young college theater major and he spends the whole trip trying to get Sophie to smile. She finally hands him a pretzel and all is right in the world.

We get to Portland around 2 and our luggage is actually there! Dirk picks us up and takes us to their lovely house. They have a little girl named J-Bird who is 3 months younger than Sophie. The house is quiet because Trixie called everyone to ask them to come a little bit later and I try to get Sophie to take a nap. No dice. So, we head downstairs just as everyone is starting to arrive. Lots of toddlers, kids, parents, toys, excitement. Sophie stays up until about 7:30 Portland time (about 10:30 according to her internal clock) and then is out, solid, for the night.

And then she woke up at 5:25, on the dot, Portland time. Time transition for Sophie? Solved on the first day.

Next up? All the fun you can pack in a week.

Portland

We got back from our week vacation in Portland last night around 1:30 a.m. We all pretty much feel like we got hit by a wall. Or ran into a truck. Wrecked. It was a great week and I have much to tell, but for now I'm trying to remember where I put my toothbrush and I'm trying to resist checking my work email.

I know it is killing K & N that I haven't posted anything about the trip yet. Even though we were RIGHT THERE experiencing it all together. Sophie was growling like J-Bird today in the bath. Also, she kept saying agua. And every time we mention the "new house" she keeps insisting that you're all going to be there with us. Even Paco will be there even though she only saw him twice all week.

We now have a lot of packing to do in the next two weeks before we move into the new place. Ugh.

Also, Tabitha peed all over the place downstairs in protest of our leaving her inside all week while we were gone. I think I just found the last spot. I love to smell cat pee when I get home from vacation.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my fabulous sister, K!

You are wonderful and gorgeous and pee-my-pants funny. Smart and courageous and warm and loving and strong. As I've mentioned before, there was a big age difference between us growing up - six years. Six years seems silly now, but when you're in school? It's almost a decade. You were out of high school before I entered. You seemed so sophisticated and wordly and way out of my reach. It didn't help things that I was the annoying middle child.

I'm so glad we've become friends later in life. As Aaron constantly points out - we are so much alike. I can talk tv and politics and celebrity gossip and books and kids and life with you. And that is so important. That is what family should be.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

Yikes

With the tragic details of the bridge collapse in Minnesota coming out, now more and more reporters are writing about all the other thousands and thousands of bridges all over the country in similar "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete" status.

We live in Massachusetts. I passed this article around work this morning. The question of the day: are ANY of the bridges around here safe? It appears that, no, they are not.

The town in which we are buying a house? There are basically three major ways to get to it. All three of them are over "structurally deficient" bridges. One of them is rated less than 30 out of 100. And tractor trailers go over it all day long. It is a very scary bridge. It shakes when you drive over it. But there is little other choice as far as how to get into town.

Why is our country falling apart? How do we fix this? How do I not fall into the river while driving my daughter to daycare?

UPDATE: I wrote emails to all of my Representatives and Senators and the local town department of transportation. Stanley Rosenberg (state rep), or someone from his office, wrote back within minutes: (copied and pasted directly from my email)

Thanks for your email.

The tragedy in Minnesota has shown a spotlight on a national problem--inadequate maintenance of public infrastructure. Here in Massachusetts we are no different . We struggle to maintain our public buildings, roads and bridges, etc. In the last ten years or so we have made some significant progress in bringing substandard or marginally standard bridges up to par. The good news is we have made great progress the bad news is, we still have about 10% of our bridge inventory requiring significant work.

Given what happened last week , a significant number of those bridges will have another thorough inspection immediately. In my district that includes about a dozen bridges. The Governor was preparing a capital plan and bill over the last few months and bridges will surely get a lot of attention in it . finally, the bridge to which you are referring has been on the front burner for a about a decade now (I placed it there when I chaired the Senate's Ways and Means Committee) and happily enough progress had been made over recent years that it is slated for movement in 2008.

I hope this information is helpful to you and reassures you that we are taking the situation seriously in general and specifically with regard to this bridge.

Stan Rosenberg

Weekend Recap

Now with photos...

Aaron and I high-fived each other last night for accomplishing a very exciting and fun-filled weekend for Sophie and us.

We went to the pool with my brother and his cute little family and my mom. Sophie LOVES the pool now. She was quite skeptical last year, but she has almost fully embraced it this year. She could not wait to go swimming and she directed us all over the pool. The pool had "boats" for the little kids (floating thingies that you can stick their legs into). She still hates water splashing on her face and her hair stayed mostly dry the whole time. She was exhausted afterwards. We went to my brother's house for lunch and she fell asleep almost instantly when we got her back in the car to go home.

THEN we went walking into town to get ice cream. Not sure there is anything she loves more than ice cream. We only treat her every once in a while because she might come to expect it. This way, it's a special treat and she's very excited about it. Also, we found some tiny Crocs (Croclings) at a local store and she picked out the bright pink ones. She is thrilled with her new shoes. She tested them out (to the amusement of the sales lady) by stomping and marching and waddling and running.

Sunday, we had yummy french toast with lots of "dip" (syrup) for breakfast, then went outside to fill the kiddie pool. We usually try to fill the pool in the morning so that the sun will warm up the water for the afternoon. Given Sophie's new-found love of swimming, she didn't like the idea of not being able to swim right away.

We distracted her by stripping her to her diaper and bringing out the easel, some paper, and her (never-used) finger paints. She was wary of using her fingers and hands to paint and mostly stuck to the foam sponge brush. Once I started painting with my fingers, she realized it was okay to be messy. And then I painted on her tummy and it opened a whole new world of possibilities. To Aaron's chagrin, she painted his knees and toes.

He went around the house to wash off the paint and, as soon as he came back, she painted him again. He has such a hard time with being messy. He washed himself off again and went to the store to buy lunch and dinner stuff while Sophie and I continued to paint our legs and arms.

Then we went in and Mommy and Sophie took a bath together (as I'm not a bath-taker, this never happens, so it was very exciting) to wash off the paint.

Aaron came back and started cooking pasta and some clams for me (surprise for me!) and then we all ate a huge lunch and, after a small tantrum, Sophie fell asleep for 2.5 hours.

As soon as she woke up, we whisked her outside to the now-warm pool. Aaron fired up the grill and cooked some yummy salmon and zucchini and corn. We have a ton of herbs from our farm share left over - dill and fennel and sage. So he put the coals around the outside of the grill and the herbs in the middle. The herbs smoked the fish and veggies with a great flavor. Yummy! After dinner, we played with Sophie's blocks for a while and then we headed up to bed.

I also made her a castle to discover this morning.

All in all, a great, super-fantastic weekend.

Oh, dear

Sophie replaced her standard, "Aw, Nuts!", phrase with "Oh, dear!" yesterday. She sounds exactly like a little old lady.

I tend to write about Sophie when everything is peachy and she's lovely and wonderful and a joy to be around. At the moment? Not so much.

She's been having nightmares. She wakes up screaming and we cannot figure out why. Other than the nightmare theory. And she's too young to really get that you can dream, so she's very confused when we ask.

Other symptoms:
She had a fever Monday night but then it was gone the next day.

She's been requesting frozen blueberries again and that usually indicates teeth issues, but I can't see or feel anything in there. Other than the chunk of my finger she just bit off.

I was going to blame it on the fact that we weaned her from her binky about two weeks ago, but she went a whole week with sleeping quite soundly after the weaning. And she doesn't ask for it during the screaming sessions.

In addition to waking up screaming, she doesn't want us to touch or acknowledge her and will start to sound like Regan MacNeil if Aaron even attempts to glance in her direction. "LAY DOWN, DADDY! STOP IT!! GO AWAY!!!" Imagine her head spinning around and sounding possessed and you'll get the idea.

I have to wait until she takes a breath between yelling at the top of her lungs and then quickly say things like: "Mommy's here", "You're safe", "It's okay", until she finally just collapses back to sleep. The screaming is so extreme and ANGRY that it is almost funny. I know better than to laugh directly at her, but the intensity of her emotions is so overwhelming that it's hard not to pass sympathy and head straight to manic hysteria.

I'm so tired, both my eyes are twitching. And the back of my head. And one of my ears. Maybe? What?

Growing pains? Teething? A "phase"? Night terrors?

Help, please. Or at least, just tell me she'll grow out of it.

Wishing it was the weekend

I got spammed up the wazoo yesterday by someone promoting something that rhymes with dilf horn. Yoinks! Thanks to Shan for the head's up.

I keep meaning to upgrade my MovableType software but it involves backups and file transfers and a big amount of time. I downloaded everything I need but I haven't allowed myself the time to do it. So then I spend an hour cleaning up spam. Yay me!

In other news, I got my haircut on Saturday and I'm not loving it. My stylist has long, curly hair and you'd think she know how to cut curls. Alas, she cuts it as though it is straight. I know it's a bad cut when I start eyeing the scissors.

Also, I'm wearing capri pants today and I really should have shaved my legs. Maybe if I walk really fast all day no one will notice.

Work is busy, busy, busy. Aaron and I have not started packing. Sophie's still cute.

Daddy! Don't get us!

One of Sophie's favorite games of all time is to play "Daddy! Don't get us!!!" I pick her up and she hugs me tight and then we run around the downstairs while Aaron chases us. She especially likes when we stop and listen for Aaron's footsteps. If he manages to sneak up on us? Screaming and giggling ensue. The girl? She likes to be scared. As long as one of us is there hugging her.

She also plays "Mommy! Don't get us!" and "Otto! Don't get us!"

She is also incredibly strong and flexible. She loves to flip upside down. When I hold her feet while she's upside down, she instinctively knows to arch her back and stretch out her arms so she can see the ground. Her very limber cousin does flips with her daddy in which they face each other holding hands. Then she jumps up, wraps her legs around him, leans back and flips her legs over her head. Sophie saw her do this a couple of weekends ago and, because this is a much revered cousin, has asked us to flip her over and over again. How is this little thing not even two yet?

There are times when she seems so huge and strong and other times when she is still my tiny little girl with the softest cheeks in the universe.

Blog Me

I won't be going to BlogHer this year but I thought I'd join in the fun.

Ten second introduction to me:

Greetings! I live in Western Massachusetts with my ex-Navy (submariner) husband, Aaron, and our whirling dervish of a toddler daughter, Sophie. We also have two very annoying, and very lucky to also be sweet, cats. I dabble in extravagant event cakes, crafts, drawing, painting and prank-playing. My best prank involved Ambesol and my husband's toothbrush. Oh, and then there was the prank that involved a reinactment of a key scene in "The Exorcist". Go ahead, join in the chorus: "Poor Aaron".

blogme2007

Sophie says...

Wednesday hit over 90° here with about 95% humidity.

Needless to say, the house was steamy when we got home. Aaron's been working nights at my company a couple of days a week and this was one of his work nights.

Scene: around 6:00 pm, trying to get Sophie ready for bed. She's naked and running circles around the upstairs. I turn the A/C on in our bedroom and blast it to cool things down.

Thump, thump, thump, thump - naked Sophie runs into the bedroom and finds her way to the air conditioner on full blast. She stands in front of it - arms held straight out at the sides, belly out and says:

"I LOVE dis! I LOOOVVVE it!!"

The House

I've been trying not to say too much. Partly not to jinx things and partly because the stress was draining every bit of energy from my ability to function.

I just wrote this to my sister and please excuse me while I just cut and paste some of it here:

I'll try not to bore you with too many details. It's been quite stressful and surreal. But we've now, finally, agreed on a lower price with some things being fixed and it seems like things are stabilized. I met the realtor from HELL the other day. It took all the self control I could muster not to slash her tires on the way out of the house. She's the mother-in-law of the listing agent who is out of town this week. Both work for the same firm. Very convoluted intermingled family mess.

I think I grew about 5,000 more gray hairs in the span of a week. I got sick, my face broke out. Ugh, stress.

It's getting hot in here

Oy, it's muggy. Bubbelah, I'm schvitzing.

House stuff is still moving along. Offers, counter-offers, etc.

I'm lucky that my office space is air conditioned. As soon as I get home, however, clothes are peeled off, Sophie's down to a diaper (or less) and we move very slowly until it is time for bed in our air conditioned room. She's been sleeping with us for the past week or so until this deadly heat breaks. No, we're not buying another air conditioner.

23 Ways to Beat the Heat. I especially like the idea of freezing rice in a sock and sticking it under the covers.

My Morning Child and other news

I've mentioned before how we somehow ended up with a morning person. Sophie is AWAKE every morning at 5:25 on the dot. It's like a switch, one minute she's fast asleep and then *click!* wide awake.

She woke up in the best mood this morning. Yesterday was grumpety grump central. Whining and arguing and stubbornness. Today? She was awake and being silly and giggling and we found ourselves in the kitchen this morning before 6 with Sophie literally running in circles around us. Aaron and I just looked at each other and laughed.

It is POURING outside right now. I'm looking out the windows at work and it is pitch black. Thunder booming and torrential rain. In so many other parts of the world if you heard thunder like this, you'd run for a bomb shelter.

Aaron and Sophie had to drive me to work today because my car wouldn't start. The battery terminals are covered with corrosion. Which is kind of a testament to Honda cars. I never look under the hood at the Civic because it just runs and runs and runs. If it had had more issues in the last few months, I would have been under the hood and I would have seen the crusty mushrooms of corrosion. Because I had parked behind our other car, there was car pushing and moving all my things to the CR-V and strapping Sophie in and trying to explain that Mommy's car is broken. "Good job, Daddy! Pushin' Mommy's car! Is broken! I fix it!" Lucky for us she was in such a good mood.

The house inspection went well yesterday. There are things to be fixed in the house and now it's down to figuring out who is going to pay for the bigger issues. The seller is apparently an electrician but there are problems with the outlets he installed. There are also some piping issues (old cast iron pipes) and one roof needs new shingles. Yes, asbestos, yes, lead. Both of which can be dealt with pretty easily. The sellers were smart to deal with most of the cosmetic stuff first - new 1/2 bath, new kitchen, great paint job. Distracts you from the pipes and electrical issues. A good thing to remember if we ever sell this house. Even after the inspection, we're both pretty excited about it. We hit it off with the inspector (he, Aaron and our realtor got into a lengthy discussion about military history and submarines) and he gave us a lot of great advice on what to tackle and what to let slide for a bit.

My friend, Andrea, watched Sophie at our house with Andrea's two girls. (Thank you, Andrea!) I'm so glad we didn't bring Sophie to the inspection. It would have been way too distracting and she would have been very bored. We spent a lot of time in the basement and she doesn't like basements very much.

Fretag

A link I forgot to post earlier in the week: make ice cream with two Ziplock bags

I haven't posted in a week because things are a bit crazy around here. Crazy at work, crazy at home.

Aaron and I are in the midst of trying to buy a house and, as it's an older house, there are a bunch of inspection/estimate appointments to set up. Today and tomorrow are full to the gills with inspections. Cross your fingers that everything is above board. We are excited, but all of these phone calls and all the research into things like asbestos and lead and steam or hot water radiators is making me a little apprehensive.

For Sale on Ebay

I'm cleaning off the shelves and these bottles, while I love them, are just taking up extra space. They are a very cool way to display flowers, etc.

Here are all the listings on ebay

No, these were not the ones given to me by Aaron's father.

Summertime, summertime

sum, sum, summertime.

After a stressful end of the week, we spent the weekend close to home. And by close to home, I mean in the kiddie pool.

Happy Father's Day!

To the best daddy in the whole world. Sophie is so lucky to have you as her daddy. Your patience and laughter and gentleness and strength and your willingness to break into song and dance at Sophie's request are traits treasured by both of us.

I love you.

Weekend Videos

First and foremost, the first video in which she says: "I love you Daddy". This made Aaron's week.

Needless to say, after this video, she went on to list everything she loved. Strawberries, Otto, monkey cake (banana bread), pasta, rice, beans, etc., etc.

And, this one is for my sister and brother-in-law. The first time Sophie said "Oy Vey!" Please show this to the membership committee.

A Weekend in Videos

We used to go out at night. Now we stay home and drag our daughter around in a box. We're simple people, really:

Wait a minute, don't eat my peas!

"Daddy, I'll some bagel."

The world's most patient cat. "You ride? Yee haw!" Otto just sits there and purrs. Good kitty.

Weekend Recap in photos

We went up to my parents' cottage on Lake Ontario, New York-side. The weather was mostly nice and we had a blast. All of our clothes smell like the cabin and campfire and dogs. There were Peanut Butter Cup s'mores (MUCH tastier than the old-school chocolate ones), home-brewed beer, lots of laughing, not too many mosquitos, dog blood spattered everywhere (my sister's dog got a tiny cut on her ear from a rose thorn. She shook her head all weekend and it just kept bleeding and bleeding. Don't worry, she's fine. And my dad's a vet. However, with the rain, etc., we were inside a lot and the head-shaking made quite a mess.)

Now for the photos:

Memorial Day Weekend

We are heading out of town for a fun-filled weekend at my parents' cottage way up north. Our landlords will be invading our house for a "fun-filled" weekend of gardening and home repairs. I've warned them that things are not, shall we say, clean and to please try to overlook this character failing. As they have a toddler, too, they just laughed at me.

I'm envisioning beach frolicking, BBQ clams and chicken, yummy home-brewed beer, lots of sunscreen, even more bugs, running around with bubbles and through sprinklers, napping in the oversized hammock and getting licked by over-zealous doggies.

I intend to take lots of photos when I'm not eating, drinking, frolicking or napping.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

With that, I leave you with this:

False Alarm

Well, no tornadoes. Way to spread the panic, National Weather Service.

The kitties, who panic at the mere suggestion of water, didn't make their way into the basement because the house has no gutters and a sheet of water was blocking their path. I found them huddled together under one of the wicker porch chairs. It's a covered porch, but still. Silly kitties.

In other news, I made myself a yummy snack yesterday at lunch. This is a recipe my sister uses to weed out her true friends. If you can't finish it, then she's finished with you.

You take a coffee mug, put a whole bunch of chocolate chips in it (I hacked some chunks off one of my bittersweet chocolate blocks because Aaron seems to have eaten all the chocolate chips), melt them in the microwave for about a minute, stir in a spoonful of peanut butter and then stir in some oats.

Yummy! Filling! Holy crap, I almost couldn't finish it but I don't want to be de-friended by my sister so I soldiered my way through it.

------------
For the grandmothers at home: Sophie counted to fourteen this weekend when we went to the playground. Except after ten she said: One-teen, Two-teen, Three-teen, Four-teen. Pretty perceptive of her, I think. Hmmph, Eleven is for suckers. Also, she's started using longer sentences: "Momma, read a book now, pease? 'Kay, cank cue, Momma." "Ow, rain hurt my head. 'Top it!" (She insisted on going into the yard while it was raining. Apparently the rain hurts.) "Rain! You go 'way!"

She's also in a narrative phase: "Momma, talkin' teffone. Daddy walkin' 'way. Tabs outside? Momma sit dere. Drivin'. Keys? Gasses? 'kay, home now, pease."

Oh No, Dorothy!

I live in New England. We don't get tornadoes except very rarely. However, our severe thunderstorm weather has just been upgraded to a tornado watch until 6 p.m. WTH? We don't know what to do in a tornado!

Any advice? The sky is a very angry dark green and the trees are blowing sideways. Also, it is raining so hard that it looks like the building is moving through a very aggressive carwash.

Good thing I let the cats outside at lunch time.

Also a good thing that Tabitha is smart and she told Otto about the window in the basement. Hopefully they'll keep their wits about them and not panic long enough to get themselves back inside.

Happy Mother's Day!

We're having fabulous weather here this weekend. Aaron put together a yummy breakfast of bagels and smoked salmon and eggs and Sophie has been very huggable all day.

She's had diarrhea for the last several days and we don't quite know why. I called "NOT IT" on the diapers this morning because Damn. Also, it's Mother's Day. Mother's Day = hugs and smooches and no brain-melting poop.

We went to a local playground after her morning nap and she insisted on only going down the biggest slide in the park. A long, enclosed tube that goes in a spiral down to the ground. And she'd only go down on my lap. Well, once with Aaron. And then there was lots of swinging that seemed to tire her out because as soon as we got home, she wanted to go back to sleep. No lunch.

She doesn't have a fever and she's not puking. She is drinking a lot of water, so that's good. Basically, we're just keeping an eye on things because there are no other symptoms.

Anyhoo, I hope all you mommies have a Happy Mother's Day. My life has changed so much with Sophie. Most of my opinions and ideas about how to raise a child have been questioned and flexed and refined and reworked. I had no clue about a lot of things and I've learned to be flexible and open-minded and let Sophie take the lead in some situations.

And to my Mom: four kids?! Amazing. The energy and commitment it takes to raise one precocious child is extreme; I can't imagine raising four kids with very different temperaments and personalities. Not only did you raise us all to be strong people, but you did it with panache and with an added sense of wonderment and magic. Notes from Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, bootprints by Santa and nibbles out of Rudolph's carrots. The importance of holidays and birthdays. Fostering our imaginations with tales of leprechauns and fairies.

Thank you, Mom. I strive to add the same sense of magic to Sophie's childhood.

Hugs.

Sorry, ladies, he's taken

My very handsome hubby:

I forgot to mention that we went down to visit my sister and her awesome family this weekend. We had a blast. The whole fam damily was there (except for my dad, but he doesn't count because he NEVER comes down on the family weekends). 6 kids, 9 adults all staying in one house. And we fit! Barely. Lots of laughing and fun and playing outside.

This is what comes to mind when I think about the weekend:

18 month stats

I realized I forgot to list Sophie's 18-month height/weight stats from her appointment a few weeks ago. For those playing at home, she's 32.5 inches tall (95th percentile) and 23lbs, 13 oz heavy (around 30th percentile).

She's also in the 100th percentile for cute.

Weekend Recap

Despite the forecast for rain, it managed to stay sunny and lovely all weekend. It's starting to drizzle now, but grilling is done, bathtime is started and we are officially inside for the night.

Here is a heart-meltingly wonderful scene from Saturday:

We went on a couple of long walks and played outside in the garden all weekend long.

I actually feel refreshed and ready to start a very busy week at work.

Shhhh, unnysay eatherway.

I've been terrified to say anything in case I jinx things...(it's been in the '70s around here and it might actually hit '80 on Monday)...you didn't hear it from me.

In other news, I'm going to get my hair cut today. My poor coworkers have been forced to endure mini pony tails and lots of frizz and uncontrollable hair and I think the hair on the back of my head actually tripped someone yesterday.

It was when Scissors started trying to convince me to "just cut a little off the back - you'll feel SO much better. No one will even notice.", that I knew it was time to call the salon. Luckily, my stylist works on weekends. And she's used to me coming in with a half-chopped mess in the back. I didn't say I resisted Scissors siren song; I'm not that strong.

I still have videos to upload of the "fish maracas tushie game" and "can Aaron squish himself under the Fisher Price easel?" but the unsay is iningshay and I've got to go find my ummersay ortshay.

I hope you have a ovelylay weekend. Smooches.

Cow?

We got about an inch or so of snow yesterday and about 48 inches of rain. Cold, dreary, gray, yucky. I just looked out the window and the rain is blowing sideways. Flooding everywhere. I guess the silver lining is that the garden at our house is probably loving the rain. The other silver lining is that Sophie took a 2.5 hour nap on Sunday. She would have slept longer but we woke her up to eat dinner. Oh yeah, and coworkers slightly north of us got upwards of 8 inches of snow yesterday.

We took Sophie to UMass on Saturday for another child development study. This one observed her playing with different toys on different surfaces. At one point, she got a bit bored with the whole thing and said what sounded like "Bullshit" under her breath. We all started laughing. Also, at one point, she had a piece of paper in front of her and a scoop, a Velcro block and a crayon. She picked up the crayon and said: "Cow?" Because we weren't supposed to say anything to her during the filming of the tasks, off-camera we explained that she always requests we draw her cows. We were giggling about it on the ride home because the film is going to look like she thinks the crayon is a cow. Nice.

I have some cute videos to upload but Aaron had a big homework assignment due this week and the computer was occupied.

Blech

I drove home at high noon to check on the lentil soup simmering in the crockpot*.

Here's a mini sequence of events while I was fixing myself some lunch:

• Kitties loudly (and quite rudely, if you must know) meowing at me to go outside
  
• Me opening the door to let them outside in the sleet and snow
  
• Them panicking at the idea of being touched by anything wet, especially wet that falls from the sky
  
• Me considering shoving them outside to stop the incessant meowing
  
• Them frantically running into the house

Ten seconds later: loud meowing to go outside. I swear they'd ride the short bus if they went to school.

There wasn't any accumulation of snow when I went home. It did start to get messy on the way back to work. Sleet (hard pellets of ice for those of you in warm climates) and big, heavy flakes of snow. Which, when they splatted on my windshield, were exactly like there were millions of ice birds shitting joyously from the clouds. Intermingling with some joyously shitting ice mice.

*The lentil soup is not what I envisioned and I hope the extra simmering time changes things. I even made vegetable stock last night. Ugh. All that chopping and simmering and it's bland and the lentils are falling apart.

All Done.

It's f'ing snowing again. We're supposed to get about 6 inches by tomorrow when all is said and done. Down from the 8-12 inches they were predicting yesterday. And if that isn't enough - "I see your 6 inches and raise you another 6" - Mother Nature has decided that we need even more snow this weekend.

So much for the crocuses and daffodillies that were just starting to stretch up out of the ground. "See ya! Fowers, oh no!"

What became of my weekend?

Friday was my big day off! With a bonus in my pocket and great intentions of going to the BIG MALL to shop, ahhhh, shop, I headed out about an hour later than planned. Because if I was going to do the day off right, I should probably shave my winterized hairy legs and maybe do a face mask. There was also some lounging.

And then realized on the way to the mall (about 35 minute drive) that in order to hit all the shops on my list AND hit Trader Joe's and the supermarket (Aaron: "we have nothing to eat!") before rushing to pick up Sophie, I was going to have to kick things into hyperdrive. Which made the shopping trip a speed walking grab-a-thon tinged with stress sweat.

I wanted to at least hit H&M because I never get to go in there and Madonna had just done some designs for them. Never figured out which ones were hers, but they did have some interesting clothes. NONE of which fit me the way I had hoped and I ended up getting two cute dresses for Sophie. I also swooped through Forever 21 (nothing), Gap (nothing) and Target (a bunch of Easter things for Sophie and a sweater for me).

Rushed out of there, headed back up to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and then rushed back home to get Sophie. Not the most relaxing day off and I ended up with a lot of yummy food and clothes for Sophie. Ah well.

Easter was spent up at my parents' house - Saturday afternoon and Sunday. My brother, SIL and their two kids came up on Sunday and there was a very cold Easter egg hunt during which Sophie was very concerned that all the big plastic eggs kept making their way out of my mom's basket and onto the driveway and her cousin was enjoying himself by taking all of the eggs out of the basket. Sophie kept saying: "Oh no! Egg! Back!" Hijinks.

And just because I'm all of a sudden into lists, Sophie's new words from the weekend:

• "Gammy" - Grandma. My mom blushes when she hears Sophie say her nickname. It's very, very sweet.

• "Aww Wight!": as in: "All right, let's get going."

• "Ooooh Yeah!" - just what it sounds like. Her skin is really dry and she hates anyone touching her feet. So I've been trying to make the whole lotion application time more enjoyable. Foot rubs with lotion accompanied by "Oh yeah!"

• "Wee wee wee, piggy!" - my mom managed to touch Sophie's toes long enough to do the "This little piggy" game. Sophie now requests we do it after the foot rub.

• "Tush!" - game in which we march around the house with fish maracas and put our tush on things. Like the wall and Sophie's chair and her car and Otto and Daddy. It's a lot of fun and I know you all wish you could join us.
  

5 Things. A.k.a., my week in a recap list

1. We woke up this morning to TWO INCHES OF SNOW!!! Mother Nature is officially dead to me.
2. I'm in the middle of reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and it is freaking me right out. I tend to read before going to bed and, in this case, that is a very bad idea. This book won the Tournament of Books for good reason. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm almost done and I'm a little scared to continue but I need to know how it ends.
3. We watched "Pursuit of Happyness" - pretty good. Hard to watch without thinking about Sophie and how we would handle the same situation. Will Smith was very good and his son is adorable.
4. We also watched "Casino Royale" and holy crap - I have the hots for James Bond. I kept making involuntary "Uhhhn." noises every time he turned up in another hot outfit or basically just stood there. Yummy, yummy, yummy. Very good movie as well. I've never been a big fan of the Bond series but this one was really great.
5. I have tomorrow off! And I don't even go to church! The founders of our company are Catholic and Good Friday is an official day off. I've decided that I'm going to go shopping in the morning at the BIG MALL and then pick Sophie up early from daycare. AND I just got a lovely profit sharing bonus from work and it is going to be a very good Friday, indeed.

Mother Nature can still kiss my ass. Snow. In April. Hmmmph.

Backseat Vignette

Aaron was at school all day yesterday grading papers. So Sophie and I headed down from the hill to attempt some shopping: Target, Old Navy and Trader Joe's. She handled herself as well as any toddler who has just discovered the thrill of running. The new rule is: you can run, but you have to hold my hand. That mostly worked. Bringing her along, without the help of the very tall wrangler, helps my checking account balance stay plump.

Shopping semi-accomplished, I fly her back to the car and deposit her into the car seat. "Fie, Mommy!" "Moo!" (her car seat has a cow print). "Seat! Sit. Clip. Hi, Mommy. Uhh, hug. Gasses? (glasses) Keys?"

"Ah-boort?" (Her Albert Einstein doll, reintroduced at lunch in the car. His moustache is now white with yogurt highlights. She is into sharing her food.)

"Albert is right here, sweetheart."

"Aww, Ah-boort. Uhhh, hug. 'kay, bye bye Mommy."

I get myself situated in the front seat and we start backing out of the parking space.

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Car, back, Mommy. Broooom, car."

The talking and chatter from the backseat continues, non-stop. I attempt to answer some of her questions, but then realize she's talking to Albert. I turn up the radio a bit and settle in for the drive home.

"Pants? Where? Oh no! Ah-boort! I-steinnnn. Cacker? Yummy. Water? Ahhhhhh! Pants? Where?"

"High Five! High Five! High Five! High Five!"

"Lap? Seep? Piddow. Banket? Nap. Awww, Ah-boort."

"Dance! Dance! Hop! Hop! Hop! Walka-walka-walka."

"High Five! High Five! High Five! High Five!"

I'd like a web cam for my car, please.

2 things you didn't know about me until this very moment

1. I forgot to put any kind of styling product in my hair this morning and didn't realize it until I went to the bathroom a couple of hours after the mess on my head had dried.

   Imagine my surprise when Roseanne Roseannadanna was staring back at me in the mirror.

   

   The three bobby pins I had in my pocket are barely keeping things under control.

2. I fit into my pre-pregnancy summer pants for the first time since I got knocked up. This almost negates the psychological damage caused by #1.
   
   Posted by elffle at 12:29 PM | Comments (1)

10 things you didn't know about Sophie

She:
1. upgraded her nickname for herself from Sose to Sosie.
2. wore rainbow leggings all weekend (to bed and all day long). By request. "Ray Bo. Pants. 'kay." She got very upset when we had to take them off to change her diaper. Very stressed and would hold them tightly in her chubby little hands until we were done with the diaper and we could put them back on her again.

   

3. is a puddle jumper extraordinaire. "Pud Duhl. Water. Wet. Pash! Boots." She could spend hours and hours stomping back and forth in puddles.
   
4. is obsessed with Monsters Inc. Yes, she is too young. In our defense, she wakes up, on the dot, at 5:25 every frickin' morning. WIDE awake. Neither Aaron nor I are morning people. Sulley and Mike Wazowski are our babysitters until the coffee kicks in. She LOVES Boo ("Girl") and Sulley and they have replaced "COW!" for most requested drawings.
   
5. loves to pretend things (like a cracker or her teddy bear) are really heavy and she'll get all serious and huffs and puffs and acts all dramatic: "Uhhhh, heavy" as she tries to pick them up. I find this tremendously hilarious.
   
6. calls belly buttons "beeps" and loves to lift my shirt and kiss and hug my beep. Hugging beeps involves a belly flop and "Aw, beep. Hug."
   
7. also loves to "beep" things with her belly. This involves sticking her belly out until her "beep" touches them. She knocks over towers of blocks by beeping them, and beeps the fridge, the chair, Otto, Daddy, and etc. Yes, I know what it sounds like.
   
8. came very close to counting to 10 this weekend. She forgets 4 and 7, but gets everything else right.
   
9. has invented a new game that seems to mimic my leaving for work. She gets her fake car keys and a bag that will fit over her arm, and then walks away saying: "'kay, bye!". Last night, she said "See ya!" instead of bye. Now "see ya" is her favorite saying. The game also involves Aaron and I saying "see ya!" and walking around with keys and bags. The game is still being defined. What she likes best is when she turns around and I say: "Hey! You came back!" She'll even request that I say it: "Hey! Mommy. Back!" Aaron got home last night in the middle of the new "See Ya!" version of the game and he had a hard time keeping it together. He's a big softy.
   
10. is incredibly ticklish on her neck. I'm trying not to take advantage of this knowledge, but the big belly laughs and shrieks that ensue? They are very, very hard to resist.
    

Spring*!

I got home today to find Sophie and Aaron walking around outside. Temperatures topped 60° and it was sunny and lovely. Sophie had a blast splashing in the puddles, much to Aaron's chagrin (he's a wimp and doesn't want to get wet or dirty). Ignore the snowbanks. To the untrained eye, it looks quite cold out. It wasn't. It was hard to convince her to come inside to eat dinner.

*fingers crossed.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Too bad it's about 20° outside at the moment.

I've helped organize a "Spring-off!" at work - basically two cooking competitions: one is a soup/chowder/chili cook-off and the other is a cookie/bar bake-off.

I made a yummy crockpot soup by very loosely following a recipe and putting a little of this and a little of that into a pot and letting it cook while I enjoyed a beer (or two). I can't give you the details until later today. Spies and such. I will tell you that we tried it last night and I think it's a keeper. Too bad my family isn't as into the spicy foods as I am. Oops! I've said too much.

I was going to bake cookies, too, but I don't want to win all the prizes. ;)

The pot is now sitting outside in the car because there is no room in the fridge here. It's a big crockpot. Aaron's going to be switching cars with me after he drops off the Snopher and I left him a message to not, under any circumstances and under sure penalty of painful deadly death, drive away with the soup when he heads to school.

Weekend Recap

We ended up getting about 13 inches of very heavy, icy snow (at least that's what Aaron says) by the time we woke up Saturday morning. And we had been planning on leaving around 9 to head down to my friend M's house to visit her, her husband and their adorable daughter. Except it took Aaron almost 3 hours to plow and shovel our driveway and steps. And I wasn't about to pressure him to leave right after he finished. I could see him out there, puffing and bitching about New England and why the hell did we move from California? There's no f'ing snow in California and now I have to push this f'ing snowblower and get snow all up in my face and up my sleeves and in my ears.

Anyhoo, we finally got on the road about 11. It was slow going but the main highways were clear. There was one close call when a van in front of us spun around in a complete circle and then ended up facing the wrong direction. Luckily, he was a few cars in front of us and everyone managed to stop without incident. If I was shaken up, that driver must have been pissing his pants. Holy crap!

Fun, relaxing weekend was had by all. The two girls got to play together and Sophie was in awe of all the toys. This was probably the first time she realized there were actually DORA! and BOOTS! dolls in the world. And then once the girls went to bed, the adults got to stay up and eat yummy food - curry chicken! and the rest of the cheesecake! - and drink beer and play darts and we didn't even have to hire babysitters! So nice not to have to drive home that night. Sophie was up at the crack of dawn and we managed to keep her quiet with us for almost 2 hours and then she couldn't take it anymore. There were DORA and BOOTS dolls right outside that door! She was going through withdrawal in a bad way.

Also, Sophie has started this really weird laugh that sounds like she's having a wheezing fit - or an asthma attack. Neither Aaron nor I laugh like that, so we're now looking at the kids at daycare to find the culprit. It's a little disconcerting.

We tried to get her to take a morning nap but she was having none of it. So, we left around noon and she slept for 2.5 hours in the car. Perfect.

All in all, a very, very, fantastically fun weekend.

Spring has sprung! Oh, wait...never mind...

For the last few days, temperatures have been in the balmy 50-60 degree range. No coats! Sunshine! Actual robins out and about on the remaining old, dirty snowbanks. The witch-hazel bush in the backyard is blooming with pretty yellow flowers. There was talk of long walks and starting running again and barbequeing meat on the new, expanded patio out back.

But Mother Nature has a mean streak. She's a sadistic old crone bent on breaking our spirits with her cruel, cruel ways:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
437 AM EDT THU MAR 15 2007

...A DEVELOPING NOREASTER WILL BRING THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT
SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS FRIDAY INTO FRIDAY NIGHT...

I keep trying to think of an analogy for this. Nothing's coming close to the disappointment and despair on the face of everyone around here.

Mmmm, cheesecake

So, I'm throwing my hat in the ring for the Hay, Hay, it's Donna Day! Cheesecake contest. I've adapted and co-opted and re-worked two recipes to come up with what smells and looks like a doozy of a cheesecake.

I haven't tasted it yet because I need to get photos of it after I've decorated the top. But I baked it last night and, oh my good gracious, it smells f'ing fantastic.

I'll give you a hint: peanut butter.

Okay, one more hint: chocolate.

This cheesecake might actually overshadow the Brownie Tower of Terror in extreme dessert indulgence.

More once I do the final decorating and take photos. I get to eat this one! Yay!

Hair that fits her personality

Sophie has inherited some very wily hair. Crazy, wiry, curly. But only in the back. The front is fairly straight and calm. She wakes up from naps with a nest on the back of her head. We do our best to detangle it but the minute she puts on a hat or she lays down or anyone looks at her funny, all bets are off.

In other news, there was a lot of snoozing and cuddling this weekend:

Also, we took advantage of the sun (SUN!) and played outside for a while:

And ate some beans and acted silly:

And then learned how to hide and scare people as they walked by (I'm so proud of her for this). She even got Otto when he walked by. ;) This is her favorite, and only, hiding place.

Wonky

I'm working on updating my banner/background. If things look wonky, it's most likely not your eyes. This time.

Update: 'Kay, that will have to do for now. Your thoughts?

Take this tooth and shove it

The neverending saga of my tooth implant continues.

"I'm putting it in using the strongest temporary cement we have. This implant has a history and I want to be able to get it out if I have to." My esteemed dentist continues, "And you're going to have to floss around the edges of this crown to keep a film from forming."

Two days after getting the crown permanently, ish, attached to the implant, it came out. While flossing. VERY CAREFULLY. Luckily, I just happened to be standing to the side of the sink (which does not have a stopper and, thus, would have been the end of a very, very expensive crown) and it fell into the trash can. GODDAMMIT!

I do not have time to get this thing put in again with permanent-ish cement.

I chose a highly competent dentist to fix the mess the not-at-all-sane dentist had made with the former implant. Unfortunately, he's a 1/2 hour drive away and I've now been to his office about 400 million times. EACH TIME, I have to leave work a couple of hours early or get here a couple of hours late because he only seems to work an hour a day. EACH TIME, I have to take time off from work and I'm slowly running down my once-hefty allotment of time off with this stupid tooth and with Sophie getting sick and with my daycare provider taking a week off. It's only March!

So, I've put off calling the dentist all week. The crown came off on Saturday. I pushed it back on and have been very careful around it all week. But it's loose and I have to go back in soon. I'm so sick and tired of all of this.

Oh, Kiss, Hug, Beep

Sophie is a very affectionate child. Her favorite things all get lots of kisses and hugs. And not just her favorite animals or characters in books.

Apparently she loves her toes and she was kissing and hugging them in the bath the other night. To be that flexible.

She also calls belly buttons "beeps" (probably because we give them little pokes and say "Beep!"). There are many mornings when she wakes up and we're not ready to get out of bed and she'll ask to see my "beep" and then she'll kiss it and then hug it ("Kiss" "Oh!" "Hug") and then more kisses and hugs. It's very charming.

Her other favorite activity at the moment is to have us build towers with her Melissa & Doug bricks and then "beep" them. This entails walking towards the tower with her belly pushed forward until the tower falls. She also "beeps" cabinets and Otto and chairs and our legs.

In other news, I'm slowing weaning her of her middle of the night feedings and I haven't wanted to say anything in case I jinx things. So, maybe I'll tell you more at the end of the week.

The snowstorm Thursday night/Friday morning brought us about 3 or so inches of very heavy snow with a layer of ice. Lots of sleet and freezing rain for the drive into work. Lots of flooding and slushiness and yuck, blech, ugh. The beautiful white snow quickly became black and brown and ugly. All done, Winter, all done.

Hey Winter - Please stick it up your ass

ANOTHER winter storm watch for tonight:

...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM EST THIS EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING...

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR NORTHERN MASSACHUSETTS. IT IS STILL UNCERTAIN AS TO HOW MUCH SNOW...SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WILL AFFECT THE REGION FROM THE UPCOMING STORM.

TOTAL SNOWFALL OF 4 TO 7 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BY MIDDAY FRIDAY.

PLAN ON A SLOWER THAN NORMAL FRIDAY MORNING COMMUTE. TRAVEL MAY BE SLOW ON TREATED SURFACES...AND QUITE DIFFICULT ON ANY UNPLOWED OR UNTREATED ROADWAYS.

Yes, I know we live in an area where winter does, indeed, happen. That doesn't mean I have to like it. Snow is one thing, freezing rain and ice for a slower than normal morning commute is another. Aaron has been tasked with buying beer and wine for the weekend tonight just in case we are snowed in.

In other news, I've had an obsession with smoked oysters for the last few days. My family makes yummy appetizers: smoked oysters, cheddar cheese and Triscuits (melt the cheese under the broiler and voila!).

I've updated this by using herbed havarti instead of cheddar and, since I ran out of Triscuits last night, little wheat TLC crackers. I've gone through THREE cans of smoked oysters and it's only Thursday. This obsession must mean something, right? Why am I craving smoked shellfish? Thankfully, I think my cravings have finally been sated. At least until tomorrow.

In which we find tortoises do, in fact, have an "O" face

Fun weekend in New York. We headed down to my sister's after work on Friday and then were up bright and early to eat breakfast, fly around the living room (Sophie), pay a few rounds of "Get!" (as in, "I'm going to get you!") and get everything organized for our jaunt into the Big City.

Thankfully, I picked up my brother's Ergo carrier on the way down to New Yawk because it was a lifesaver. I had a feeling that Sophie wasn't going to want to sit in the stroller and it would have been a nightmare trying to navigate into/onto/off off subways and trains. I strapped her in the carrier, she fell asleep almost as soon as the train left the station and stayed asleep during the train ride into Grand Central, Aaron and I trying to find the right subway to Central Park, a couple of photos of Sophie sleeping during her first visit to Grand Central.

She woke up on the subway when we were almost to the 68th St stop, looked very alarmed by her surroundings, and promptly closed her eyes again.

We met up with the lovely Mia and Ryan at Central Park Zoo. Nothing, by the way, like Madagascar. No lions, no zebras, no hippos, no giraffes. Maybe these were the winter animals, but somehow, I think it's just a very small zoo. Still fun and they had some great exhibits. Like the rainforest - very, very humid and warm with birds swooping right by you. It's like an open terrarium with a path for the humans to walk. HUGE bats clinging to the ceiling above and little mouse deer traipsing along the ground below. The penguin exhibit was also cool. Ryan hit it off with the chin strap penguins and they kept swimming over to him and giving him the eye.

Also, we saw a couple of tortoises getting it on. ("What does 'getting it on' mean?" asked my 8 yr old nephew when we were back their house, recapping the day. "Um, they were making more tortoises.") Did you know that tortoises make an "O" face? And they groan really loudly? And that female tortoises are quite bored with the proceedings and will continue to quietly eat while male tortoises get quite, um, animated. Also? If there is another male tortoise in the vicinity? He will slowly make his way over and nod his head up and down excitedly to encourage the other male? Yes, it was all quite exciting. And it took a long time. We all laughed, took a bunch of photos, went on to another part of the exhibit and then later, Sophie and I walked back because she wanted to see the huge piranhas again and there was a big crowd watching the tortoises. STILL going at it. Slow and methodical, indeed.

Mia and Ryan were wonderful. It seemed strange that this was the first time we'd met. They were both way more stylish than Aaron and me and funny and warm and they laughed at Aaron's jokes so were immediately tagged "good people" in his book. Although they seemed a bit cold. Not sure why, it was a balmy 15 degrees outside. The photo below was in the rainforest building. Hence the no coats in the middle of winter.

Sophie handled herself quite well considering the strangeness of the entire situation. When she started commenting on the monkeys and polar bears sleeping ("Shhh!" "Nap."), I strapped her back in the Ergo and she promptly fell asleep. And then slept all the way back to the subway, all the way back to Grand Central, and almost all the way back to the train station near my sister's house. She missed Grand Central again. I think we timed it pretty well and we were both relieved that she actually napped. Not a bad first jaunt into the city.

Sunday was relaxing and Sophie had a lot of fun playing with her cousins.

And then she slept for almost 2 hours on the way back home.

Our house is a complete mess and we have about 3 weeks of laundry to get through. We're thinking we might just take it all to the laundromat and get it done in one fell swoop. We have a washing machine and dryer at the house but they only do one load at a time. Much more efficient to throw everything into 10 machines and be done with it.

I tried to stay up to watch the Oscars last night, but holy hell, did they stretch things out. Ugh. I made it as far as the screenplay awards and then called it a night.

Sose sad

Sophie has had a hard time transitioning back to being in daycare during the day. She was also running a fever for the last couple of days. With no other symptoms other than a fever. She's been miserable.

Daycare emailed me yesterday to say she was laying on her nap mat with her eyes open and refusing to come play with the other kids. She would start crying when DCL tried to quietly ask her if she wanted to play.

She's such an empathetic little girl and it breaks my heart that she's sad about not being around us during the day. There is not much we can do about the situation other than hope she gets used to being back there. She normally really likes the kids and DCL so I'm hoping that this is just temporary melancholy.

She's started telling things they are okay ("'kay") when they're sad or hurt. She has a book about a monkey named Bobo and she signs sad when he's looking for his mommy and she keeps telling him "'kay" and shaking her head. Translation: "It's going to be okay, Bobo." She will also shake her head and say 'kay when we're doing something she doesn't like, like take her temperature or get a vaccination. The way her eyes tear up and her voice wavers when she bravely says 'kay would make anyone want to scoop her up and cover her with kisses and hugs.

I'm having a hard time not imagining her on her little mat quietly saying 'kay to herself until her parents finally get her.

She did finally get up and play yesterday but only begrudgingly. The mysterious fever doesn't help but it seems to have maybe passed during the night.

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend with my family. My sisters and I got manicures and pedicures and had double mochas and ate yummy, yummy sushi on Saturday afternoon as a belated birthday present for my older sister. Fun, fun, fun. The men stayed home with the babies and kids and it was relaxing and lovely. That night there was good food, good wine, homemade beer and lots of desserts.

The next day Aaron took Sophie out on the kid's sled and she loved it. That is, once she had an audience and got to see her cousin enjoying himself on the sled. Then she got a bit possessive about it. We ended up staying Sunday night as well since neither of us had to work yesterday.

Sophie slept better than she has in weeks. She's been quite funny lately by having to go through a recap of the day with us before she's ready to fall asleep. "Daddy! Fast! Nose! Sled! Sit! Down! Fun! Pull! Wee!" Over and over quietly until she's gotten her head around the past day's activities.

She ran a bit of a fever last night but hopefully whatever it is will blow over quickly. We're planning on heading down to NYC to visit with my sister and her lovely family as well as take a detour into the city to visit Mia, who is flying all the way out to NYC from sunny CA! I feel like I've known Mia for a long time but we've never actually met. I'm very excited. The plan is to meet at Central Park Zoo so that Sophie is semi-occupied while we chat. Keep your fingers crossed that Sophie's fever is just related to teething.

Cow! Neigh-Neigh! Cat! Pig! Pish! Baa-baa!

A glimpse at one page of thousands I've drawn at Sophie's request.

In other news, we're heading up to my parents' house for a day or two to visit with my sisters, brother, extended families, babies, dogs, cats. More later.

Valentine's recap

We ended up getting about 14 or so inches yesterday. Hard to tell exactly because the wind really picked up last night and whirled things around a ton.

Aaron bought salmon and other goodies the night before, so we had a lovely dinner with butter/lime poached/broiled salmon, spinach salad with pine nuts, sundried tomatoes and feta and oven-roasted baby red potatoes. Plus a yummy Shiraz from Australia. Yum, yum, yum - delicioso! (too much Dora, sorry)

Then we sat down to watch "Marie Antoinette" and had to stop it about 1/2 way through (she's still not pregnant) because Sophie was having a very hard time falling asleep. She was exhausted and wanted to sleep, but she kept opening her eyes and checking to make sure we were still there. If she did fall asleep, she'd wake herself up and get upset if we had managed to sneak out. I finally just laid down with her at around 9 and we slept straight until 1:30 or so (that's a mini record for her at the moment). Aaron thinks her brain is working overtime with all the talking and figuring things out and she might be having bad dreams because of it. So she's afraid to fall asleep.

And maybe anxious about going back to daycare today. We've been talking to her about it - "guess who you're going to see tomorrow?" and acting all excited, but I think she's gotten quite used to having Mommy, Daddy and Grandma at home, thank you very much.

In other news, I'm headed out today to man a booth at an internship job fair. I might be getting myself an intern! W00t! It also means I get to have a rendezvous with Aaron at lunch since the job fair is on campus.

Face Plant!

Well, we got Sose (her latest name for herself) all bundled up from head-to-toe and then I waited inside the doorway to take a couple of photos of her and Aaron out in the snow.

Of course, my camera batteries took that exact moment to give up the will to live and I ran to get more. In that time, Sose took three steps and fell face-first into the snow. No crying, just a panicked, crystal-covered face ("Cold. Face"). So much for looking for batteries. Aaron quickly brought her in, I wiped her face down with paper towels, added a neck gator to her ensemble and back outside we went. She left snowprints in the kitchen and was very concerned about them: "Uh oh! Nose! Uh oh!"

The snow is too deep for her to walk in so we let her walk in the shoveled areas and then carried her into the backyard to look around. Aaron made an enormous, lanky snow angel. "Wow! Daddy!"

We don't have a sled. Neglectful parenting, I know. BUT, we DO have a hard kiddie pool and that worked perfectly. Sose sat down in it and we pulled her down the driveway and then pulled her up and down the snow-covered street. Our neighbors probably think we're quite innovative and not at all insane. No cars anywhere. She loved it: "Weee!" "Nose!" She did not want to come back in but we were cold and tired. "Bye, bye, nose!"

We'll probably get all bundled up again after her nap. Although it is starting to sleet in addition to the snow. If we didn't have a baby who loved the snow so much, neither of us would go back out there. Sacrifices.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures.

Hmm, on second thought...

...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST
TONIGHT...

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT.

SNOW WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES TODAY AS LOW PRESSURE STRENGTHENS AND MOVES UP THE EAST COAST. HOURLY SNOWFALL RATES WILL APPROACH OR EXCEED 2 INCHES PER HOUR LATER THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON.

IN ADDITION...WINDS WILL INCREASE AS THE DAY PROGRESSES...WITH
GUSTS BETWEEN 30 AND 40 MPH QUITE LIKELY BY THIS AFTERNOON. THE
HEAVY SNOWFALL RATES AND THE INCREASING WINDS WILL WORK IN
CONCERT TO PRODUCE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS...ESPECIALLY THIS
AFTERNOON INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS. VISIBILITIES WILL
FREQUENTLY BE REDUCED TO UNDER A QUARTER MILE. THIS WILL MAKE
TRAVEL DIFFICULT AT BEST...AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES.

THOSE VENTURING OUTDOORS MAY BECOME LOST OR DISORIENTED...SO PERSONS IN THE WARNING AREA ARE ADVISED TO STAY INDOORS.

Nose* Day!

UMass is closed; daycare is closed. I'm staying home. No sense going out in this mess. We got about 5 inches last night and it's still coming down hard. They are predicting another 12-16 inches today in addition to the snow that's already on the ground. Also? Aaron was getting anxious about staying home with Sophie all by himself today because he has a ton of homework that has built up from the Week Without Daycare (WWD).

Happy Valentine's Day! I plan on mostly not showering and eating all the chocolate I've stocked up over the last few weeks.

*Snow in Sophie-speak.

Ruh Roh, Snow!

Well, we're about to get hit with our first major snowstorm of the season. It's a Nor'easter! Batton down the hatches!

From the National Weather Service:

HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO MIDNIGHT EST WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Today...Mostly sunny this morning...Then becoming mostly cloudy. Colder with highs around 20. North winds 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight...Snow likely in the evening...Then snow after midnight. Snow accumulation of 6 to 10 inches. Lows around 14. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

Wednesday...Snow. Snow May be heavy at Times. Additional snow accumulation of 10 to 14 inches. Cold with highs in the mid 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

Wednesday Night...Snow in the evening...Then snow likely after midnight. Blowing snow. Additional heavy snow accumulation. Windy and cold with lows around 6 above. Northwest winds 20 to 30 mph. Gusts up to 45 mph after midnight. Chance of snow near 100 percent. Wind chill values as low as 18 below after midnight.

Exhaustion

I'm pooped. I barely had time to breathe this weekend, never mind write anything.

To recap:
Thursday, Sophie and I went to get more Sophie portraits done; this time with another photographer. Sophie decided she didn't need no stinkin' morning nap that morning and I was hoping for the best at the shoot. She handled herself quite well and the photos looked pretty cute. She walked around outside for a bit and I was going to go to the grocery store on the way home but she fell asleep almost instantly in the car. She even missed her first car wash.

She stayed asleep and I just kept driving for about an hour while she slept. We got home in time for Aaron to get home and take the afternoon shift. Work was pretty hectic because we have a big customer coming in today and tomorrow and I had to edit a ton of photos and a big document for them that afternoon as I was going to be out on Friday and today. Finished just under the wire.

Friday, I was home with Sophie all day and we had a doctor's appointment for her in the morning. She was sick at her 15-month appointment, so this was a follow-up plus vaccinations.

She thoroughly impressed the doctor with her talking and understanding what he was saying. So much so that he stopped at one point and asked: "how old is she again?" He told me about research involving reading to toddlers and creating a sort of picture dictionary for them. The researchers believed they could help a child have about 200 words by 18 months. Our pediatrician said that since Sophie likes to read so much, we should consider creating something like that for her.

The last time I had tried to count her words, it came to somewhere around 50. But she's been talking so much lately and pretty much repeats everything we say all the time. And little sentences: "Hi Baby!" "Bye Bye Cow." "Help, it's stuck!" ("Hope, it duck!")

We sat down to watch "Black Dahlia" (crappy movie; don't bother) that night and I started writing down the words she says on a regular basis. Granted, quite a few of them only Aaron and I understand. Well, we ended up with a list of over 215 words! Crazy. Definitely a language explosion happening. Clearly she's a genius.

A genius who most likely ate cat food yesterday. She's very interested in giving Otto food and she'll grab pieces out of his dish and carry them around to hand to him. Except I think she forgets that it's cat food and absentmindedly eats some of it. I was laying her down for her nap and her breath smelled suspiciously of kitty snacks.

My favorite word of hers right now is "stuck". Anytime she tries to do something and she gets frustrated: "It duck!" or "I duck!" Cracks me up every time. She asks for help (hope) a lot and has been saying hi and bye-bye to everything. Even bye-bye when I throw something away. Every day she adds anywhere from 5-10 words to her repertoire. It is amazing to me to see this happening.

We've been talking to her for so long but it seemed like we were talking to a wall. It turns out we were talking to a sponge. We are going to have to be very careful about our language from now on.

Saturday was more photos at home. (in hindsight, probably too many photo sessions in a short time) We took a walk in the morning and she slept for a bit which was good because the photographers were late and she was starting to lose it. It didn't help that the lights and the furniture moving and everything was very exciting and she got more than a bit overstimulated.

She loves showing off all her toys to people who come to visit and she really, really didn't want to sit on the couch with boring old Mommy and Daddy. I think they managed to get some good shots but it was all a total blur to me. I barely remember smiling. I'm sure I look completely shellshocked. They also brought the contact sheet from Thursday's shoot and there are a lot of cute photos. How to choose?

The good news is that she slept for about 2.5 hours after they left and I was able to lay down and sleep with her. Aaah. I was so completely tired at that point so it was quite a relief.

Sunday, we went grocery shopping and walked around a bit. We visited a local pet store to get some a new kitty water bowl and a brush for dirty Tabitha and they had tanks of animals to view. Like little birdies at Sophie-eye-level. So exciting! And snakes! and hermit crabs! and bunnies! and fish! It was hard to get her to leave.

I was going to stay home all day today but my mother graciously offered to watch her for a bit this morning. So, I'm at work until about noon and then I'm home with her in the morning tomorrow. On the way to shopping on Sunday, she fell asleep in the car and Aaron and I were quietly looking at the scenery along the drive. "I don't think I could be a stay-at-home parent." I said. Aaron sighed with agreement: "Me neither, I don't know how [daycare lady] does it."

A Case of the Mondays

It's always hard to come home after spending a whirlwind weekend with my sisters and our expanding families. We were down in New York this weekend for my niece's birthday. Lots of fun and great food and homemade beer. Sophie had a blast - she was leader of the conga line, dancing queen, stable hand and horse-leg-breaker (poor Barbaro). She slept for over 2 hours on the way home.

Our daycare lady (DCL) is on vacation this week and part of next. Aaron and I have divvied up the week along with some help from my mom. Today I'm at work all day with my mom taking the morning and Aaron taking the afternoon. Tomorrow, I'm home in the morning and Aaron's home in the afternoon. And so on through the week.

In other news, I keep breaking out in hives. I haven't been able to figure out the source - no, it's not new shampoo or soap or laundry detergent or deodorant or anything new to eat - and it's driving me nuts. That, in addition to a very sore throat. At least the soreness comes and goes. However, don't look up sore throat, rash on Google. Dr. Google will tell you that you have Scarlet Fever. Dr. Google is an alarmist.

It's Fine*

I'm having the worst hair day today.

It's like a brillo that was mauled by a mountain lion in 100% humidity and then the mountain lion felt bad about the mauling so it attempted to pin it back with bobby pins to lessen the mauled brillo effect. Only everyone knows that mountain lions don't have opposable thumbs and huge claws aren't very exact with bobby pin manipulation.

Plus, there's the fact that I try not to shampoo every day and tend to just put conditioner on the ends in a vain attempt to convince the brillo to not overtake my head. Today, however, it's painfully obvious that I went a day too long with the not shampooing.

Also my conditioner sucks. (recommendations for sort of curly/frizzy/brillo hair other than cutting all of it off and calling it a day?) (yes, I tend to ask this question on a regular basis)

*I knew it was bad when I asked Aaron if my hair looked okay this morning (knowing full well it was on the verge of a brillo revolt) and he said "It's fine." and then proceeded to look everywhere but at my head. I know my boobs are attractive, but that was not the question.

Now I'm very itchy and I CAN'T STOP TOUCHING IT.

Dancing Queen

Not quite sure what she's doing with her arm in this video. But here's Sophie dancing to Bob Marley (mix CD from The Other Sophie).

I just know this dance is going to sweep the nation. She's a trend-setter.

First Sentence!

Apparently Sophie, at daycare yesterday, put together her first sentence:

"Sshh, Emmy seepen." (Shh, Emily sleeping)

Does it count if we weren't there?

Then this morning, we were watching a video of Sophie's cousin and it ended and Aaron and I were talking and did not immediately hit replay and Sophie got impatient with her very slow parents and said: "'Kay, Bee Bice!" - "Okay, Baby Bryce!"

Which is going to count even though it's a fragment.

Baby! Snow! Photos!

Except the photos are coming later.

We went to see our new nephew on Saturday. And brought goodies and coffee and pizza in addition to hugs and a camera. The camera's batteries died soon after our arrival and I forgot to pack more. So, K?, I'll be uploading two or so photos tonight. The new nephew is very cute. Very sleepy and quiet. Our other nephew is now walking his Frankenstein walk and he's very proud of himself. Lots of smiles and he actually didn't seem as tentative around Sophie this time. Woo! She was very excited by all of his toys and spent most of the visit trying to pick up everything she could find. She walked around the whole time with her arms full of stuff. A little pack rat already.

Sunday, we went to The Hallmark Institute of Photography and had Sophie's photos taken. Students there are always looking for subjects and the session is free. We have the option of buying prints afterwards. My brother went there and we thought it'd be a great way to get some more photos of The Snoph. She decided not to nap that morning so we were preparing ourselves for a major meltdown, but she actually did great. The photographer let her run around in the studio and we all kept redirecting Sophie's tornado path towards the chair in front of the backdrop. She was having a blast and I think we might get some great photos out of it.

And then they walked us out and Sophie wanted to walk in the parking lot. Where she encountered snow and slush and we made an half-hearted attempt at getting her back in the car but then decided that she probably needed to run around a bit. Poor thing has been cooped up in the house/car/daycare for weeks due to the bad weather. She was getting her dress shoes all messy and so we put on her fancy snow boots (that we haven't even used yet this year) and away she went. Having a blast watching Aaron and me splash the slush with our boots. She would stomp in the slush and bend down and look at the snow and one of the photographers came back out with a camera and took even more photos of her running around and acting all snow crazy. I can't wait to see what he captured.

And then she slept for almost 3 hours.

It was a great weekend - everyone is feeling better, especially Sophie, and we got some fresh air and had a couple of different adventures. Her language explosion continues and she is a blast to be around. It's amazing to me how she's developed such a unique and fun personality. Such a little thing and yet so dynamic.

No ZZZZs with Cheese

I was feeling lazy last night and we ordered pizza for dinner. Sophie loves pizza. So she ate cheese and tomatoes and some of Aaron's pepperoni and then she woke up pretty much every hour last night. All frickin' night long.

"Uh oh!" "Sock!" her socks had come off. So I put them back on. "'Kay."

(Her latest response to most things. Apparently, Aaron and I say "Okay" a lot)

*making sign for milk and nodding enthusiastically* "Yet!" "Muck!"

Again, Sophie? "Yet!" "'Kay."

I blame the cheese. And the pepperoni. Stupid pepperoni. We'll have to save the rest of the pizza for lunch so that it doesn't affect her sleep.

In other news, Aaron fell asleep at 6 p.m. last night while I was reading to Sophie. I tried to quietly wake him up a couple of times, but he just stayed asleep. He's feeling very well-rested this morning.

I'm exhausted and yet zooming because of the strong coffee I made last night. It's like a foggy zooming sensation. My brain is not moving as fast as my body.

We are still on stand-by for a new nephew visit. I don't feel sick, but I'm still blowing lots of thick yellow/green snot out of my nose. As is Sophie. Maybe well-rested Aaron can visit and take lots of photos.

Photos!

Before I get to the photos - holy crap, it's FOUR degrees outside!!! It's been in the 40s and even the 60s for the last few months. And then all of a sudden we get down to single digits? The big snow/ice storm petered out this weekend. We only got rain and dreariness. This morning? My boogers froze.

Now that you have that image in your head, I bring you some supreme cuteness.

(as always, click on the photos for more)

We're a bit overwhelmed with all the winter paraphernalia - coats, hats, scarves, tiny little mittens, etc., and with Sophie wanting to help with everything, we decided to get her her own coat rack.

She can almost get the coats on the pegs. We say - "put your coat back" and she'll walk over there holding it out. Very, very cute.

For Christmas, my mom painted her a table and chairs. She loves it. She's really into drawing and it's one of the first things she wants to do when we come downstairs in the morning. Aaron's like an ungainly grasshopper sitting at the table with her. An ungainly grasshopper drinking kick-you-in-the-pants French roast.

A comparison of shoes. Aaron's Keens used to be a dark green. Now they are covered in chalk dust. I find this very sexy.

Reilly!

My sister-in-law had her son yesterday. She was about 2 weeks overdue. Three hours of labor! He's 10 pounds! And she did it with no drugs! Wow! Since we're all battling colds, etc., we probably won't get to see him until this weekend. Reilly. Cute. He's apparently very blond, just like his mom. And dad and big brother. I guess it would have been weird if he had black hair.

Teef!

When people warned me about molars coming in, I thought to myself - eh, what's the big deal? Sophie (You) dealt with her other teeth like a champ. I should have stopped to think about the reality of MOLARS trying to push their way through her gums. Her swollen, bruised, hurting gums. There are no pointy bits to most molars. So, it's like pushing Lego blocks through layers of skin. Her latest word? "Ow, ow, ow!"

Poor thing. The fever of last week has to be because of the teeth. And now she's all snotty because why just let her get her bottom molars when she can get her top ones, too?

Also, she is a remora again. Aaron's starting to feel hurt because she only wants to be near me. Touching me. We walk to the kitchen holding hands, we hold hands when I pee, she hugs my legs while I'm trying to get a glass of water and then she wants to sleep on me. Or if not on me, then pushed up really close against me. She'll even grab my head and push it against her forehead. Very sweet, but starting to get a little over the top.

And then because of the snot last night, she couldn't breath to nurse. So whereas she had been waking me up almost every hour for the last few nights, last night she just couldn't nurse. Lots of crying and then falling back asleep. I woke up with rock hard, leaking boobs. I'm probably going to go up about 10 cup sizes today. So, if you're my coworker? You're in for a treat.

Brrrrrr!

Well, it's finally winter around here. After many, many days in the sunny 60s, I had to scrape ice off my car this morning. And this weekend is looking pretty grim:

No big plans for this weekend other than continued straightening up of things around the house. The Christmas tree is finally down and I'm working my way through my list of projects. Things like finally putting all of Sophie's baby photos in albums. And framing some of the best ones.

We're also starting to talk about transitioning Sophie into her own bed. At this point, neither of us mind her in the bed with us and it helps that we have a king-size bed. We gave the crib to my brother for the impending baby because I was finally honest with myself that we were not going to try and use it anymore. As much as I know it's an important step for Sophie to have her own big girl bed, I'm just not ready for it myself. I love snuggling with my baby and we fit together so well. And as soon as she moves on, she will no longer be my baby. At least not in the same way. It's the same with nursing. I'm still nursing her at night and sometimes for naps on the weekends. It's still healthy for her and she likes it. I like it. It's a wonderful connection and weaning her means she's no longer my baby. Aaron thinks I'm being a little over-dramatic but he can just stick it up his arse.

Anyhoo, we're moving the full-size mattress we had in the spare room into her bedroom and will start the process of talking to her about her fun big girl bed. And probably start trying to nap there instead of on our bed. I'm also buying a cute flannel fitted sheet and I have the intention of making an easy fleece and/or flannel quilt-type blanket thingy. I'm all about being specific here.

Making this quilt-type blanket thingy requires me to clean off the table downstairs and set up my sewing machine. Finally. Which will really tick Aaron "I was in the Navy and I hate clutter because all I had for years was a shared rack and one duffel bag" right the hell off. Anticipating this reaction, my plan is to work on and finish my sewing projects quickly.

I'd also like to make a winter hat for Sophie that looks like it has pigtails coming off the top of it. By making long pom poms or tassels. My idea; don't you dare steal it.

I hope you have a great weekend.

A baby named "You!"

We've discovered that Sophie may think her name is "You". Because every time we point to her photo, she says: "You!"

We're now attempting to only say "Sophie" in the hopes that she doesn't end up in Kindergarten correcting her teacher - "Um, clearly you jest, my name is You, not Sophie." Because that is how she will speak in Kindergarten.

I dyed my hair and took in-progress photos and have yet to take a finished hair color photo. The lighting in the bathroom is not the best and since my hair is already dark and I dyed it a touch darker, they are mostly photos of me with sticky hair and Vaseline around my hairline.

Aaron and I agreed that we were going to create a list of tasks to accomplish over the week and if we didn't accomplish them by Friday, then no beer for the weekend. After agreeing, Aaron immediately went upstairs and starting scrubbing the tub and sink and then went onto install the top-of-the-stairs gate that he had been putting off for months. Apparently we needed to set this rule sooner. On my list for the week - take down the Christmas tree and clear the table in the dining room that collects all the papers and doo-dads and knick-knacks. I'd like to temporarily make this my sewing table (much to Aaron's chagrin) because I have a couple of sewing projects in mind. Like converting one of his abandoned shirts to fit me better and maybe making some fun floor pillows for Sophie.

In other news, I have to keep closing the comments on my posts to keep the spammers at bay. They are a wily bunch and they find my open posts within a day or two.

TGIF

It's gray and rainy outside. Perfect time to dye my hair, right? Actually, I'm just sick of it. Again. And 'fixing' the color seems like something to do. I'm probably going to screw it up and hate it, but at least I've made an effort to change, right?

In other news, I actually worked out after work yesterday and I'm planning on working out on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Aaron's teaching winter session. He can pick up Sophie on those days and I can stay here a little later. Our work has a small gym with a not-too-shabby elliptical trainer as well as weights, etc.

I need to make another appointment to check on my blood pressure, so I intend to make that at the end of this month and see if I've managed to a) lose a little more weight from working out, and b) lowered my blood pressure.

In other news, I'm back to drinking my unsweetened cranberry juice/apple cider vinegar cocktails after work and adding ground flax seed meal to a lot of things. I stopped the cocktails once I got my stomach bug and was nervous to start up again. So far so good, though.

This weekend includes a trip to Trader Joe's to stock up on my favorites: almond butter, frozen brown rice, cranberry juice, cider vinegar, Fage yogurt and edamame. There is a lot more I buy there, but those tend to be my staples.

I will, perhaps, post photos of how badly I screwed up my hair. How's that for positive thinking?

Happy New Year!

We had a great time down in New York. Cousins and aunts and uncles and a cranky kitty cat. Oh, and lots of chocolate.

[photos at the end]

The New York kitty bit Sophie but she *was* trying to get him to play with a plastic truck. We all know that New York kitties prefer taxis. She's fine, just a couple of scratches. She's lucky he isn't feeling himself. After he bit her she said: "Uh oh. Cat." This didn't deter her from following him around and saying "Hi!" over and over again.

She didn't sleep very well and she didn't nap very well and then she bit another kid at daycare yesterday. See? She learned from the cranky kitty.

Our daycare provider doesn't seem too concerned and even mentioned that it is a phase that others there have gone through. Most likely having to do with frustration at not being able to tell someone to "leave me alone". She was pretty cranky yesterday and was giving off a moody vibe. Not excusing her behavior, but noting it for future reference. We talked to our daycare provider about making sure she turns her attention to the bitee first so that Sophie doesn't think that she's going to get attention from it. Aaron's really concerned. More about what the other parents must think and also that our baby is a biter.

Personally, I think she's tired and not feeling very well. Teeth? Another cold?

Here are some photos my sister took with her fancy camera:

Time to call it a year

I'm part of the skeleton crew here at work and I finished my big projects for the day and Aaron just called and Sophie said "Hi!" and I think maybe it's time to go home.

We're off to my sister's in New York. My other sister will be there as well. Including husbands and kids, we'll be 10 people squished together for the weekend. Plus one very crotchety New York cat.

Heaven.

Christmas Photos

Still a bit shaky, as is Aaron. Sophie's either teething or coming down with something. She tossed and turned all night and was the very picture of cranky this morning.

Also, she's working on the word: "quack". You know, what a duck says. Except she says it quite loudly and it sounds like "c*ck".

Photos courtesy of my lovely sister:
(as always, click on any of them for more)

Sick, sick, sick

Well, it's a good thing Aaron cleaned the toilet last night.

He's now home, in bed. At least that's where I left him. I came to work late because I dropped Sophie off at daycare so that he could get some rest. She was quite cranky this morning so I told work I'd be in around 10 and we all napped together before heading out. She's been feeling more warm than usual lately and yet has no other symptoms.

I'm still a bit shaky because I'm afraid to eat anything more than toast and brown rice at the moment. I did manage a blueberry toaster waffle and that stayed down okay.

Apparently a lot of people had some sort of stomach bug/poisoning/flu at the same time. I'm really, really hoping Sophie doesn't get sick. And that my whole family stays healthy. Because we are spending New Year's at my sister's house and it would really help if there was no more vomit. Powers that be? Please get on that. Thanks.

Happy Holidays!

(with just a hint of sarcasm)

It was a great weekend, all told. We got to hang out with my family and all the kids (we're now 15 people crammed into one house). Sophie had a blast with her cousins and aunts and uncles.

I got food poisoning, I think, Christmas Eve. Barfing all night and most of the next day. I spent all of Christmas either by the toilet or lying prone, hoping not to visit the toilet again. Blech. I was feeling a bit better today, albeit quite shaky. As planned, Sophie and I traveled to meet the Ya-Yas (a group of high school friends) for lunch and gossip. It was a lot of fun to see them, although I spent most the time following Sophie around and missing most of the gossip. Anyone want to send me a recap?

Now Aaron's cleaning the toilet because he thinks he's going to get sick tonight. Maybe it wasn't food poisoning.

Fourteen Months!

Man, this month FLEW by.

Sophie, little smoo, you are amazing. Every day you astonish us with new words and new ways of imitating us. We need to be much more careful about some of the words we use because you repeat so much of what we say.

You love to dance. Even without music and just because someone said "dance", you'll start wiggling around. You are very serious about dancing and it takes a lot of concentration.

This has been a fantastic month - you are so interactive and so free-spirited and so hilarious. Not a day goes by when we don't look at each other in amazement that you are our daughter.

You love Otto very much and spend a lot of time trying to get him to read you books and kiss your dolls and eat your crackers. Just because he only shows interest in the crackers does not mean he doesn't love you, too.

You have a very funny sense of humor, too. Something we didn't think we'd see for a while. For instance, when we're trying to get you to fall asleep, I'll put your binky in your ear and ask, all concerned, "does your binky go in your ear?" and you'll laugh and say: "Noooooo!" "Does it go in your belly?" "Noooo!" "Does it go between your toes?" "Nooooooo!" Giggling and laughing and snorting. The best sounds in the entire universe.

You can now say over 50 words. Amazing, I've never counted them before.

And there are more on a hourly basis at this point. You also know most of the signs for those with the addition of probably 20 more that you don't say yet. Is this officially the language explosion? With the addition of signs, you are signing/saying some short sentences. Absolutely fricking amazingly mind-boggling. I can't believe you inherited all my smart genes.

You can also say the letters A, B, D, G, I, J, O, P and T. Not in any particular order and mostly not when we point to them.

And every number is "2" at the moment. Daddy's hoping you focus on this inaccuracy soon. Because the number genes are his and my smarty-pants genes are obviously eclipsing everything at the moment.

One of the funny aspects of all these new words is that when you don't quite know the word, you sort of make up the ending. Like adults when we don't know how to pronounce something - we sort of make up the end of it by mumbling jibberish and hoping no one notices. You do this a lot and it never ceases to make me crack up. And you are right, "crocodile" is a hard word. I wish I could capture video of you saying it but, so far, you are too aware of the camera.

There is so much more. This month has been an awakening for you. It's like something clicked and you are moving forward full throttle. Daddy and I are moving as fast as we can to keep up.

Recap

I'm exhausted. I've been trying to revive myself with strong coffee all morning and it is just not working. Sophie was incredibly cranky yesterday. Perhaps it's teething, perhaps it's the latest bump on her head, whatever it is? It's starting to fray my last tendril of patience. At least it was yesterday when I was home alone with her while Aaron was at school all day taking his Analysis final. She was a remora: stuck to my leg and wanting to be held every moment.

She goes through the remora stage occasionally and to get myself to the kitchen or to the living room or, really, anywhere, without picking her up, I've invented what Aaron calls the "Four-legged Mommy Monster". She's the perfect height to walk between my legs, so I back up into her making funny monster noises and then she grabs me around my legs and we walk, slowly, to wherever I need to be. This is great when my hands are full.

Yesterday, though, she was having none of this.

Add to that the fact that she woke up every hour the night before. Yay!

I've made an unusual amount of cookies and 4 different kinds of chocolate bark and a cheesecake and I've taken photos of most of it but by the time she's asleep, I just want to sit and recoup instead of try to upload photos, etc.

I'll hopefully get to them this week.

On the plus side, all Christmas cards went out on Saturday! Except two or three stragglers! Most of the holiday shopping is done except for some stocking stuffers. Now I just have to get wrapping. Or force Aaron to wrap everything.

I did manage to upload a very cute video of Sophie "Tippy-toe"-ing around the kitchen. That's something, right?

Tippy Toe, Tippy Toe

We've been reading "Tumble Bumble" to Sophie and she picked up on the "Tippy-toeing of fourteen feet" by discovering she can run in circles.

Cuteness. Luckily she hasn't discovered that she can run in a straight line, too.

Dorktastic

I parked behind a car yesterday that had a "Muad'Dib is my Co-pilot" bumpersticker. I thought: "P'shaw, as if Muad'Dib would be your co-pilot - is that why you're driving a beat-up Subaru and shopping at Staples? Geez, what a dork."

And then I came to the sudden realization that I'm the bigger dork for even having that conversation with myself. A big, snobby dork.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Update: I just found this site, too. I created a GeoGreeting for Aaron's birthday.

In honor of my loving husband's birthday, I elfed him. It was elfing fantastic.

Here's evidence:

You want to see him dance, don't you?

All kidding aside, my lovely husband is my partner in crime and I can't imagine trodding through life's craziness without him.

Happy Birthday!

Sophie

A couple more photos from Thanksgiving (taken by Uncle [N]).

The ubiquitous pretzel, with grin:

Dragon Slayer. Or Smoocher. Whatever.

I also uploaded photos from our One Year Photo Shoot at Target.

Prankster

Yesterday, as I left the house, Aaron handed Sophie his car keys. She likes to flip them around and push the buttons on the key fobs. As I'm walking out to the Civic, the lights start flashing and the locks keep locking and unlocking. I tried to time my entry into the car between her button pushes but she locked the doors on me, Twice!, before I could enter.

Finally in the car, the locks are still locking and unlocking. But I'm in! Prankster foiled!

And then I notice that the lights are on in the CR-V. Oh, crap! Did I leave those on last night? So I walk over to the CR-V to turn off the lights and just as I'm about to open the door, Sophie manages the right combination of locking the doors and double-locking the doors and the car beeps really loudly.

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Yes, payback's a bitch.

Bad Santa

When I picked Sophie up from daycare today, our d.c. provider informed me that the kids were watching a DVD in preparation for performing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" at the Christmas party. And Santa appears on the DVD. Seeing as it's about Christmas and all.

Apparently Sophie ran from the room screaming and crying as soon as she saw Santa.

I guess we're not going to the mall this year. Also? I was kind of looking forward to the first photos with Santa.

Splitting Hairs

I got my hair cut on Friday. And, um, not so sure about it. Aaron likes it, but Aaron also thinks he shouldn't put socks on his feet if they are already cold because then the socks keep the cold in.

It's short, about to my ears. But she cut it quite blunt, wedged, cliff-like, if you will. I was envisioning it more tapered, but apparently she couldn't read my mind and I wasn't completely specific. The good news is it will grow out and probably be about what I wanted in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to restrain myself from chopping some of the wedge.

I still have the vision of what I wanted in my head and I'm walking around as though that is the haircut I actually got. Quite a shocker when I actually look in the mirror, let me tell you.

Aaron and Sophie are napping while we wait for my mom to arrive. We're going to walk into town and get lunch. She's also picking up some unfinished toddler tables and chairs and she's going to paint them. She's an amazing painter although she'll disagree with me on that. We've all been trying to convince her that she needs to sell some of the things she makes because they are that good. I'm psyched for a toddler table for Sophie, mostly because I can't wait to take photos of Aaron trying to sit in one of those wee little chairs.

In other boring news, it's been in the 60s here for the last month. Gray and drizzly, but quite warm. Unseasonably warm. We woke up this morning and it was in the 20s. And the forecast for the next couple of weeks is in the 30s. Ugh. Quite the rude awakening. We were kind of hoping to get away with the warm weather this winter. Apparently Mother Nature caught on to the glitch in her programming. And now she's made it retroactively cold to make up for lost frost.

Weekend, etc.

We put up our fake Christmas tree last night. Sophie's face this morning was absolutely priceless. She keeps walking over to it and talking to the different ornaments.

In other news, because I keep forgetting to mention it, Donyelle Jones from "So You Think You Can Dance" was on our flight from Chicago to San Franciso! And I recognized her right away but couldn't get up the courage to say anything to her. She's very pretty in person although she was definitely sending out "Don't even think about talking to me" vibes. I considered giving a flight attendant a note to give her because I'm apparently 12.

I love Sophie's Daycare so very, very much

When I picked up Sophie from daycare today, all the kids were making a lot of noise - growling, yelling, etc. Happy, laughing, having fun. Our daycare provider's husband explained that they were working on their diabolical laughing. Muu-wah-ha-ha!!!

Sophie growled and yelled the whole way home. Hers is more of a diabolical roar. It warms me to the very tip of my toes.

Going the distance

Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo. I would not have been able to post every day during our Thanksgiving break were it not for Aaron's dad's help. He dutifully set up his laptop every day for me to use his dial-up connection to post. Even on the day we left before 5 a.m., there I was, rubbing sleep out of my eyes and trying to think of something to write. It was especially charming that Aaron's family thought I needed to post for work. Ha! No, it was all for the booty.

I could have given up once I was knocked flat by the sinus infection. But there's a turkey painting to win! And a whole slew of other awesome prizes to be given out randomly!

Hair today, gone tomorrow?

I'm so incredibly sick of the state of my hair at the moment. The texture is all screwed up from pregnancy hormones. It used to be curly and not it's just wirey and messy and it doesn't grow anywhere near as fast as it used to.

I'm thisclose to chopping it myself. I keep looking at it in the mirror and thinking: I can totally do this. I tried calling my new stylist but she's not working the next couple of Saturdays. And it's difficult to try and fit in an appointment otherwise.

I need to take a couple of inches off the bottom so that it is almost one length again. Maybe that will help with the straw-like texture.

Do you have any recommendations for fantastic conditioners? Healing, moisturizing, transforming?

Photos, videos

Here are some photos and videos from the trip.

On the plane:

Awake at 3 a.m., finally released into the toy mecca at 5:

There were new cousins to meet:

A Grandpa to entertain:

A truck to drag around:

and some lounging on her cousin's little sofa:

[there are more photos if you click on any of those]

Videos:

While enduring the delay at the Chicago airport, we kept Sophie occupied by letting her push her stroller around:

and by letting her go back and forth on the walkway. This kept a lot of our fellow passengers amused as well:

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

Well, we made it home this morning about 1:30 a.m. Sophie slept for 2 hours on the first flight, ran around the Chicago airport for 3 hours because our flight was delayed due to a water leak for about an hour and then eventually slept for about an hour and a half on that flight. She handled it all like a champion. And she was in high spirits today while Aaron and I are still sick and exhausted.

I forgot to mention that on our flight from Chicago to San Francisco, Donyelle from "So You Think You Can Dance" was sitting in first class. I realized after I walked past her and was half-way down the aisle. I kept kicking myself that I didn't say something to her. She was putting up a "don't talk to me, I'm famous" vibe but, then again, no one seemed to recognize her. Maybe it would have made her happy.

We filled our memory card with photos and videos and I can't seem to get myself to work on getting them onto the computer even though I'm sitting here at the computer and could easily just plug it in and do it. Hmm, camera bag IS sitting right there. OK, FINE. I'll at least get myself half-way into the process.

Did I mention that Aunt K taught Sophie how to high-five? And she high-fived practically everyone sitting around us on both planes? A lot? Also, she blew kisses to lots of her admirers. Kisses are new. She can say "knee" and "Shhhhh!" (because of all the early mornings, she was bound to learn that one) and "shoe" and "choo choo" (Grandpa W has a huge collection of Thomas trains). She rode on the moving walkways over and over again while we were waiting for our flights to finally board and she got to see an enormous dinosaur skeleton in the Chicago airport. It was all quite an adventure.

Most importantly? She says "Momma" and "Mommy" now. Kind of like "Mum mum mum mum meee!"

And we're off, again

We're up and just about ready to drive down to SFO. It's early, but Sophie is WIDE AWAKE because, to her, this is actually sleeping in. We've been fed, showered, given coffee and Sophie's chased the kitties.

It's been a great week to relax and recover. Aaron's dad's house is absolutely perfect for kids - Sophie can do laps and laps and laps around the open living room/dining room/kitchen/family room.

Okay, Aaron's telling me to get off.

All sinuses all the time

I was actually feeling better this morning when we were debating whether to find the local walk-in health clinic. We decided to forego the wait and just get some decongestant at the drug store. Yesterday, my eyeballs felt like they were going to pop out of my head. This morning, I felt better. Clearer. With a bit more spring in my step, if you will. And then, as the day progressed, and after the trip to the drug store and while we were running around trying to get packed, etc., my teeth started hurting. They feel like they are going to fall out. All the teeth in the top part of my mouth. I lay (laid?) down for a nap with Sophie this afternoon and I could literally feel the infected mucus stickily slithering its way to the other side of my head.

In other news, we leave at the crack of dark tomorrow to drive 3 hours to get to San Francisco in time to drop off the rental car and get to our flight.

Sophie's feeling at the top of her game it seems. She's been completely energized by all the people and the big house in which to roam and the kitties to chase and all the exciting new toys and books. Aaron and I would just like to survive the flight without eyes popping and teeth falling out. Or maybe that's just me.

He just told me that his eyes never felt like they were going to pop out. He sucks.

I'll catch you on the down low.

Pirates and Brrrraiiinnnss

Well, things have devolved a bit around here and all the jokes are about pirates and zombies.

Gotta go showerrrrrr and blow my nose. And hopefully not blow out my brrrraaaiiinss.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're trying to keep Sophie on an amended East coast time schedule so the transition back home won't be too crazy. This is great at night because she's in bed by about 4 p.m. here. However, it also means she is wide awake (HI!!!) at 3:30 in the morning. It's a big house, but it's all one level and there all the rooms line up along the big living room area. So we try to keep her in the bedroom until at least 6. She just doesn't understand the "um, everyone else is asleep so we have to wait here for a while. And also, please be quiet." She is the picture of a morning person. I don't know how two night owls created a morning person, but it must be payback for something.

Anyhoo, it's Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for my husband and my wonderful daughter. I'm also thankful for my family and my friends and my health (except this week) and that I have a roof over my head and health insurance and can afford yummy food and heat in my house. I'm thankful I can look out my window and see trees and birds and kitties and sunshine.

For what are you thankful?

And we're here

We're now up in Mendocino county after a very long day yesterday. Sophie handled the flight really well. She sort of napped a couple of times. The bigger problem was that both Aaron and I have what are most likely sinus infections. So Sophie was having a good time and we were absolutely miserable. We finally got into San Francisco, got our rental car and headed to our friend Julie's house in the city. Just in time for Sophie to go to bed. We got to see a few great friends and then we collapsed in a snuffly, headachy, miserable fog of sickness.

Sophie woke up at 2:45 a.m. this morning and we groaned and decided, well, we might as well shower and just get on the road. So we started getting organized and ready and were all showered when Sophie decided it was time for a nap. And she thankfully slept for 2 hours and we snuggled up all together and tried to catch up on lost sleep.

On the road again, it took about 3 hours to get up to Aaron's dad's fabulous house. Sophie's having a blast, Aaron and I are tweaked up on cold medicine and it's all good.

Hopefully whatever we've got will be gone by the time we have to get on the airplane again to head home. Saturday. Cross your fingers.

And we're off

Well, it's 3:00 and I'm up and about to take a shower.

The antibiotics, etc., seemed to work. She was in a much better mood last night and we're hoping that extends through the flights today.

We'll catch you on the flip-side.

Over and out.

(man, I'm tired)

Poor little thing

My posts have been all Sophie, all the time, huh? Well, the on-call doctor called this morning (before we had a chance to call) and told us to come in as soon as we could as it was going to be a busy day there. He listened to her breathing, looked in her ears, etc.

Prognosis? Ear infection in her left ear and a respitory infection. We stayed in his office for a while so she could inhale some albuterol. We also got 5 prescriptions ranging from an inhaler-type thingy (K, you know all about this), more albuterol, prednisone for her cough, tylenol with codeine for her cough and for pain, azithromycin and ear drops for the ear infection. Thank goodness for health insurance.

The crazy thing is, she actually seemed a little better this morning and we were debating even calling the doctor. Thank goodness we did. Tomorrow's flight will hopefully not be so miserable now that she's on antibiotics, etc. Plus we have the codeine if she really starts hurting.

Now what are we going to do about our colds?

Cross your fingers and send us luck and good wishes for our flight. We get up at the crack of dark to head down to the airport.

Fever! Fever when you hold me tight.

Yep, Sophie's fever went up last night. And she's been quite warm and not-very-active all day. We took a 2+ hour nap this afternoon and both woke up cooking. 102.7°. Do I need to tell you how sick Sophie is of having us stick thermometers up her ass?

She's drinking water and eating occasionally but we're both worried. Worried that she's still sick, worried that she won't be better for Monday and worried that she won't be able to fly. Which means that she and I stay home while Aaron visits his family. I called the doctor's on-call service around 5 p.m., so things are on hold until the triage nurse calls back.

Hopefully they have someone on call tomorrow who can see her. And then maybe they'll give her antibiotics and we can all fly out west together.

TGIF

This week felt like it lasted a month. With Sophie's sickness and being busy at work and trying to remember everything I need to get done before we head to California, I'm exhausted.

At least Sophie seems a little better. Still coughing up all the gunk from her nose but in much better spirits. The tickling has returned as have the laps around the house. She was even giggling in her sleep last night.

And now Aaron says he thinks he's got what Sophie had.

Luckily we're leaving Monday so we have the weekend to pack, straighten up around the house, organize things and, hopefully, recover from being sick.

And by "we", I mean "I" because Aaron has a big take-home exam due Monday (so, Sunday) and he informed me that he needs at least 8 hours to finish it. So the weekend is all about me getting shit done around the house.

In other news, Aaron made Pillsbury sugar cookies last night from one of those shrink-wrapped tube things. And I ate pretty much all of them. They are my downfall. We have one more tube in the fridge and it's been whispering my name all day. Stupid sugar cookie tube thingy.

86,400 second rule

Guess what? Sophie's still sick. Not sinuses as you wise people were quick to point out. Just a bad "productive" cough and rivers and streams and avalanches of snot. Basically, it might get worse before it gets better and we need to "tough it out". She should {cross your fingers} be better by the time we fly on Monday. I've been concerned about flying with a sick baby, but just watch (and here is the exact moment that I jinx things) it will be Aaron and I who are sick as dogs.

We've found some yummy crackers that she really, really likes. Luckily, they have a fair amount of vitamins and iron because they are almost all she's eating at the moment (besides the gallon of snot a day). The crackers are so yummy that Aaron and I don't mind so much if she throws them on the floor because that means we get to eat them. Like vultures! or dogs! (But, see, these are really yummy crackers) (And our floor is mostly clean)

We have two kinds of crackers we give her - one is more like a Ritz and one is more like a Cheese-it. I picked one of the Ritz-style ones off the floor in the morning and, without thinking because I'm a frickin' cavewoman, popped it in my mouth. It was only after both Sophie and Aaron gave me weird looks that I realized that that cracker may actually have been on the floor since yesterday.

Whatever, it was still yummy.

Shoes!

In case you don't visit my flickr photos very often, I'm also part of the November Shoe Blogging group on Flickr. Not that I have 30 pairs of shoes and, luckily, we don't actually have to post a pair of shoes a day. But I'm finding myself salivating over everyone's favorites!

This is my set of shoes so far.

Did you know I owned a pair like these?

Or that Sophie owns these?

Or that I wore these to my wedding?

I love shoes. LOVE them. However, I have long, supremely-skinny feet and I always have issues with shoes. I wear a size 9.5 or 10 shoe and when the shoes get that big, shoe makers automatically think I must have wide feet. So I can't wear mules or pumps or any shoes that don't have some sort of strap or tie holding them on. I guess the one good thing is that this has seriously hindered my shoe collecting.

Weekend

Sophie's sick again. Yay! She's been coughing and we thought maybe she's just getting rid of the rest of the cold(s) she's had but now she has a low-grade fever.

The nurse on duty said to just keep an eye on the fever and help her drain the cold. Saline drops, Tylenol, etc.

I'm cranky. She's not taking very long naps because we've been driving around trying to get prepared for our trip westward and she's obviously tired.

Also, it's gray and rainy and feels much later than it actually is. Winter sucks.

Early Bird

I made some carrot oatmeal muffins this morning. They're not as good as the banana version and Sophie isn't eating them. But it seems like she's not eating bread in general, so I'm trying not to take it personally.

I have video evidence of our early bird walker/talker. This was 6 a.m. the other morning. She's dragging Big Cow towards the bathroom to show Aaron. She says her version of "daddy" at the end.

Enjoy!

Blogroll

I removed my list of bookmark links on the right and exchanged it for my bloglines list. If your site was on the previous list and is now missing, let me know.

Sleepy Sunday

After a restless Saturday night, we were all a bit worn out Sunday morning. We ate breakfast, hung out and read (or trampled all over) the Sunday paper. I was really looking forward to Sophie's morning nap so that maybe I could catch a couple of winks myself. It took some time for her to settle down with me (I even had to call in Daddy reinforcements because I was having trouble keeping my eyes open and I didn't want her to squirm her way off our bed.) but then she slept for 2 hours! She woke up at the 1 hour 30 minute mark, lifted her head, smiled at me and said: "Hi!"

I smiled and said "Hi!" back and then she lay her head down and slept for another 30 minutes.

It was wonderful.

Let's sing a song about P

Sophie received a fun Sesame Street DVD for her birthday: Do the Alphabet. It's pretty good - full of lots of old Sesame Street songs and dances that focus on the alphabet or specific letters. The premise is that Baby Bear (of Goldilocks fame) is sick of Goldilocks interrupting him when he tries to say the alphabet. So he seeks Big Bird's help to learn the whole thing.

Up until yesterday, Sophie merely glanced at it during her walk-abouts around the downstairs. Yesterday she actually sat entranced. And during the segment when Baby Bear is trying to remember the next letter in the alphabet, the kids and Big Bird are eating different foods like pizza and popcorn and poppy seeds and Sophie, who had been still and silent up until this point, yells out: "P!"

Crazy. It's amazing how much they absorb.

Memories of costumes past

I've officially adopted Erin as my sister. She is the funniest person ever, in the entire world. Period.

Her description of last year's ocean costume had me chortling. And I do not chortle for just anyone.

It got me thinking about my crazy costumes from year's past and, I think, the one that most definitely takes the cake for something that might just have been better left on paper was the tornado.

Here's the description I sent to Erin:

Well, clearly you need whirling wind to be an effective tornado. The tulle and netting I bought didn't whirl as violently and as fully as I'd have liked so I added structure with really stiff wire and electrical tape. Do you know how hard it is to attach stiff wire to your outfit? That required a sort of bracing system and straps and they didn't work very well, so I ended up taping the ends of the wire to myself. Which worked out really well for preventing me from going to the bathroom all night. The tulle and netting was attached to the wire with pins and some hot glue. In kind of a whirling fashion around me. And THEN my hair was really long and you couldn't be a tornado without hair that looks like it is part of the top of the tornado. Except I went to a stylist who didn't quite get what I was thinking* and ended up just sticking straight up and she didn't use any where near enough hair spray so it lasted all of, maybe, 2 hours before collapsing and sticking straight out to the side. Try getting through doorways and crowds of people. I also bought little cows and houses and fish and a tiny pair of Dorothy red shoes and a witch and bike and attached them all over me - like they were caught up in the whirlwind, right?

I couldn't sit down, I couldn't pee. It was the best costume ever.

*this is an understatement

Flu Shots

This is the entry back to which you can refer when saying: "You jinxed it."

My company is giving free flu shots to all employees today. After much debate, I decided not to get one. Mostly because the release form says the shots may contain thimerosal (a form of mercury) and that little sentence sat like a burning coal of worry in my stomach. I'm still nursing Sophie and, also, I don't want to willingly be injected with mercury.

Just watch, now there's going to be a flu epidemic.

Happy Anniversary!

5 years of blissful marriage. Who'd a thunk it? It seems a lifetime* ago when we met at Jessica's house. I think she's still in shock that we are together. She certainly didn't anticipate the immediate sparks between us.

And it is strange. You and me. We shouldn't fit together so well. I have an evil streak and you are sometimes incredibly gullible and trusting (okay, I guess that does fit). I'm all spikes and thorns and you're cuddly and warm and safe. You are a man of science and fact and a+b=c and I tend to lean more towards the great unknown and universal chaos. But maybe all of that is why it works. You are a constant source of surprise to me. Just when I'm sure I know how you are going to react or what you are going to say you throw me for a loop. I love loops. I love the surprise and laughter and silliness and the enveloping hugs into which I could sink for days.

Just when we were getting comfortable and mired in routine, we decided to throw our lives into the tornado that is parenthood. And it's fantastic. You are exactly the kind of father I didn't have. You sing and dance and make up goofy nicknames and Sophie eats it all up. Thank you.

I love you.

*and by lifetime, I mean 10 years.

I'm shrinking!

A little over a month ago, my mom was talking about this new diet she was following: the Fat Flush Diet. She had a book that listed power foods and drinks you could consume to help melt away your cellulite! and fat! and probably lose weight!

I skimmed through it and decided to add a few things to my usual routine. I don't want to diet, per se, because I'm still nursing and I don't want to limit what I eat. However, adding some healthier items seemed doable. For instance, instead of having a peanut butter sandwhich (on whole grain bread), I switched to almond butter with a sprinkling of flax seed meal. I was already taking two flax seed oil capsules a day but I added an additional omega 3 capsule (odorless ones from Trader Joe's). In addition, I drink one or two concoctions of apple cider vinegar (the unfiltered kind, also from TJ's) with unsweetened cranberry juice and a bunch of water. You only need about a teaspoon or two of the vinegar and a big splash of cranberry juice. It depends on your tolerance for the sour.

I'm also trying to be better about eating more whole grains - making healthy versions of carrot cake, banana muffins, etc., and being more conscious of adding flax seed meal to things.

Anyhoo, long story short, I'm eating more and yet I'm already down a pants size! My belly fat is melting away! I'm back in my pre-pregnancy jeans!

All that without even following the full diet, just taking a bit of advice and trying it out. I don't have the discipline to do a full-fledged nutritional plan, but I have to say that this one would probably work.

I will be posting some of the muffin, etc., recipes on which I've been working. Ooh, and a yummy recipe for healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Snow!

Holy crap! It was raining this morning and, as I as driving to work, I noticed that some of the raindrops were hitting the windshield in a more crystalline nature than usual.

Thank gawd it's not sticking to the ground or I might have a panic attack. Where the heck did the summer go? Or autumn, for that matter? I don't even know where my snowboots are hiding!

Caught in the act!

Last night we heard some rustling on our front porch and thought it might be squirrels or maybe the kittens from next door.

Scurrying and rustling.

Possibly munching.

And then some giggling. Giggling? Since when did squirrels giggle?

We snuck around the house and guess what we found?!

A little baby rhinoceros rifling through our Halloween candy!

Happy Halloween!

Here's the best photo I have of Sophie's costume so far:

In other news, the "pink eye" looks much better. You wouldn't even know at this point. Except for the goopy ointment.

Aaron and I tag-teamed the day yesterday because we had to keep her home from daycare. I left work around noon to take over so that he could go to school. At one point, we were in her room and I had to go the bathroom. I closed the gate behind me and did my thing. And she didn't complain at all. I could hear her in there talking to herself and giggling a little. Excellent! I'll check email! And she continued to play by herself until I decided maybe I should go check on her as she's entertaining herself almost too well. I found her sitting in front of her mirror with a green (washable, non-toxic) crayon in her mouth! That she had smeared all over her face! And her hands! She had been having a grand old time.

I feel worse about the fact that I did not take any photos.

Pink eye!

Awesome! Sophie's eyes are all puffy and dripping thick yellow custard. She woke up this morning with one of her eyes almost caked shut. Our doctor was luckily on duty today and he wouldn't definitively say it was pink eye, but he did prescribe antibiotics. So, she's staying home tomorrow as a precaution. Aaron and I are going to split the time home with her.

Now both of our eyes are feeling itchy but I think that is just a symptom of hypochondria. Cross your fingers.

Sophie Stats!

Today was Sophie's 1 year doctor's appointment. Three shots, including the flu shot, and lead/iron blood tests. She handled the blood drawing for the lead/iron without crying at all. Although the looks she was giving the nurse were capable of burning holes. The shots? Eh, not so much.

I was planning on getting back to work by 10, but she fell asleep in the car on the way to daycare. So I parked near the daycare house and took a quick nap with her. We both needed it. We all have dark circles under our eyes from a mostly sleepless night last night. Yes, she has another cold. Now with coughing! Yay!

She also has eczema and a new prescription for a hydrocortizone-laced Eucerin cream. Which means I was right all along. I did ask him about dietary correlations with eczema - like eliminating dairy - and he said the end result is about the same. Except you are getting less calcium and other nutrients. So, we're going to try the cream first and see what happens.

Now onto the stats:

Weight: 20 lbs, 15 oz (50%)
Height: 30.9" (95%)
Head: 47cm (~18")

She's a little beanpole: she grew 2.5" since the August appointment and only gained 14 oz this time.

She impressed the doctor by walking all over the place and showing him the signs for "dog", "hungry" and "all done". She also bounced up and down when we showed her a rabbit and a frog. She also made "brrr" noises for the toy school bus they had in the room.

This weekend is her belated birthday party and we're hosting my mom, grandmother, aunt, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece. I'm being a little ambitious with the amount of things I plan to cook (muffins! cupcakes! soup! chicken! bread!). This is all in addition to the cleaning and straightening we need to do. Luckily, there is still some wine left from last night to help spur things along.

Life Lesson #346

Husband guilt + fear of retribution = awesome chocolate cake, tomato garlic pizza, a bottle of Ricardo Santos Malbec, candles and balloons.

35!

It's my birthday! I'm 35! That sounds so weird. I feel, maybe, 24.

Aaron forgot my birthday. He failed the ultimate "will he remember my birthday?" test.

He'd better remember to pick up the large garlic and tomato pizza from Roberto's before he gets home today or there is going to be major hell to pay.

This time last year...

I had been having mild labor pains since my appointment with the short-fingered doctor. It was about this time that things started to pick up a bit and Aaron told me to call the doctor. We headed to the hospital soon after. In retrospect, we should have stayed home and tried to get some sleep as I didn't go into active labor until about noon the next day. Hindsight being 20/20 and all that.

I was ten days overdue and really, really sick of waiting.

Plea for Help

I need your advice: we are going to get family portraits taken tomorrow at the big Target and I don't know what to wear. Or how to dress Sophie. I mean, she has a closet full of cute dresses - is that the way to go? The woman at the portrait studio recommended wearing solid colors - no patterns. Okay, that narrows things down. But is Sophie really a dress-wearing girl? Or have we just not put her in many dresses because of the crawling?

And then, what do I wear? Do we go all matchy-matchy?

Blegh. Also, it's raining and my hair is about double its normal size. It is going to look great in photos.

Do-ku (donut haiku)

Oh donut. Big thug
in my stomach. You sit like
a fifteen pound bowling ball.

Regretfully I
was tempted by choc-o-late;
my stomach distends.

Music Ideas

I'm working on a one-year retrospective for Sophie and the movie software I have sucks ass. Obviously I don't have an Apple. The only music I can add are .wav files. How can I convert my .mp3 files to .wav?

Also, if you have a moment, please point me in the direction of a good song. I'm so out of touch that the only one I could think of is "Brown-eyed Girl". Very cliche. I feel so old and unhip.

Help!

A story of cornfields and barf

We decided we should find a pumpkin patch to show Sophie. Sir Google pointed me in the direction of Mike's Maze, a cool cornfield maze with pumpkins and a small petting farm. Each year, they design a different maze and you have a map with clues and a sheet of puzzles/questions you try to solve along the way. They give you a map of the clue/question locations. They also have a tomato trebuchet and a spudzooka hidden in the maze. Lots of fun. You should have seen how excited Aaron was.

So, here we are, before heading out to the maze. Click on that photo to see the huge grin on Sophie's face.

In the car, happily reading her book:

Look, pumpkins!

Hi!

All strapped into the Ergo, walking along the maze paths. This is when the hiccuping started. I guess I should have realized something was up. Rookie mistake.

Aw, yeah. You know how the Ergo has her facing in so she can snuggle up and not get too overwhelmed by things? Yeah, well, it also makes the perfect barf receptacle.

We left the maze (Aaron's quite disappointed. Labyrinths, maps, a trebuchet and a cannon? He was in heaven.). He makes a big fuss about cleaning the one tiny spot of barf off Sophie. And then proceeds to "wipe" the barf off me. But it's now no longer warm and fresh and he's just mashing the cold barf into my skin. Sophie's having a blast - pointing out dogs and pumpkins and cars. I decide to suck it up and zip the barf into my jacket. We head back. She falls asleep in the Ergo.

We finished the maze. They designed it this year to look like Julia Childs wielding a mallet. The clues this year were fancy French dinners and desserts. They show you a photo and give you the name in English. You have to figure out what French translation on the sheet matches the English. Luckily, I took French in school. And I've read a lot of cookbooks. We needed 20 points to get the free gourd. We got 50. Apparently, we didn't need to get a perfect score.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

And the clouds lifted over our household and, yeah, we were glad.

Sophie is feeling a lot better than she has for the past couple of weeks. She is all smiles and giggles and full of energy. She still has some coughing fits at night but she's also sleeping much better (*cue angels singing*). She's about to hit the next Wonder Week so I'm preparing myself, but, for now, she's in an absolutely, fantastically great mood.

Happy Birth...oh wait

Today should have been Sophie's birthday. But she's a stubborn little monkey and she decided she was quite comfortable in her cozy little lounge, stretching her legs and kicking my ribs, thankyouverymuch. I can't announce her first birthday for TEN MORE DAYS.

Also, holyshitonacracker, it's a good thing we're keeping things low key this year because I just realized I probably should have sent invitations already.

Walking! and Photos!

I've been quite remiss with the posting of Sophie Saturday photos. So, here's some Sophie Wednesday (not quite the same ring to it, huh?) photos and a video of the walking for you.

First, the video. She loves holding on to us and walking all around. This morning, she was wide awake at 5:30 (ugh). I took a shower and when I got back to the room, she was ready to start walking around. She's a fanatic.

This video is one of the many walking videos from the weekend. She does walk a lot on her own, but