A new name for Babe

Ok, from now on the-child-formerly-known-as-"Babe" will be referred to as "Monkey." Sorry for the confusion, but it's much more fitting.

"Our 4th of July"....or "Greased Lightning"......or "Hello, is this Poison Control?"

Well, first of all, we've had a nice week.

On Monday Babe cut her first tooth: the lower front left (when viewed from the inside of her mouth). She also is a serious cruiser now, and will "pace" back and forth the front of the couch.

On Tuesday we went to the free kids film at the theater and made it through about half of the show, so that's pretty good. I'm seeing the glass half full on that one, and I threw away the schedule for the rest of the summer movies. Maybe next year?

On Wednesday we went to visit Grandma & Grandpa N. for the day, which is always fun (though no nap for Chick did make a harried afternoon). I got to bring home a nice assortment of veggies from my sister L's garden...hmmm, all we've gotten from our garden is a couple of snap peas, am I doing it wrong?

On Thursday I plopped myself down with a book (The Actor & the Housewife by Shannon Hale) and read ALL DAY! Then Chick and I went on a fun evening hike with my sister M and her daughter. Chick did pretty well & we got to see 2 trains when we were down on the beach.

HH was home on Friday & we both got some housework & errands done & cuddled up to watch "Confessions of a Shopaholic" which was both more funny & more meaningful than I'd expected.

For the 4th we went to the church bike parade & breakfast. Mmmm, mmmm. It was delicious & I was happy to not have to make it myself. I had a friend in Italy (though she was from Ghana) and she used to say that food tastes better when you have someone to eat it with. That's totally true, but it's also true that food tastes better when you don't have to make it yourself.

After that we came home & napped & lazed around & avoided the heat. We rented "Eloise in Hollywood" for Chick, and we all enjoyed watching that (Even HH, though he might not want me to write that).

Chick got to wear a really cute dress that I won in a giveaway from Whimsical Road : ) She got lots of compliments & she loved the dress. Thanks, Whimsical Road!!

One of our neighbors (+ friends) put on a semi-professional fireworks show, so we were able to enjoy fireworks from the comfort of our own home. Of course, when it came time to go to bed it sounded like we were under seige....

Which brings us to the dramatic story of this post. Babe went to sleep earlier, but HH, Chick, and I went to bed at 10:30 (I know, she should have been in bed hours earlier, but anyhow). She was tired, but a little hyped from the fireworks, I think. Anyhow, she usually has her door closed (with a childproof thing on the inside of the doorknob so that she can't get out). The door closed is so that she doesn't come to visit us a million times before falling asleep. This time we didn't shut the door completely, though.

Around 12:20 I woke up & before falling asleep again I heard some little sounds that (paranoid me) could have been the house on fire from fireworks or something? So I got up to double check that all was well. When I got to the hall I saw that Chick's light was on, as well as the Kitchen light. What did I see when I got to the kitchen?

Chick, sitting on a chair that she'd pulled to the counter. She & the chair were completely greased with butter & brown sugar, and she was holding my weekly vitamin case...which was all but empty except for a few soggy looking pills. It had only had 3 days-worth left to begin with, but that's still a lot of vitamins for such a little body. So HH cleaned her up, while I called 1-800-222-1222 (just in case any of you need to call poison control as well). Luckily she didn't eat enough to be poisoned & was given some applesauce and put to bed. With the door firmly shut.

This morning I was fixing some breakfast & pulled a sugary, butter-slimed knife from the knife block.

"Chick, you are NOT allowed to play with KNIVES!"

"I used it to cut the butter."

OK, so seriously: overdosing, knives, & saturated fat. Chick, can you please save some of life's dangers for next week?

More pics from this weekend

OK, lots of pictures:

Father's day tie gadget pouch (from one of HH's old 15 yr old mission ties)...

HH is replacing the old dark slab master bath door with a white paneled one & new trimwork... YAY!

We went out to dinner at Amante on Saturday and it was delish. There was a very talented balloon artist there who made Clifford the Big Red Dog for Chick. Then, as we were going out the door, she noticed that Clifford had already broken a leg & she replaced it for us.

Here are more pictures of the girls from this weekend & misc playing...

...with Grandpa N......and the only other reasonably decent family picture. Boy, for someone who brings me a camera and asks me to take a picture of her doing random things, Chick was really uncooperative. So was Babe...

Bits of Heaven

There were several moments in the past couple of days when I snapped mental photos for this posting. Like the other day when I'd just cleaned off all of Chick's outside toys & sat down under the apple tree and looked up through the leaves at a gorgeous blue sky. And today wearing a new thrifted skirt that's long and swishy against my legs (Chick likes it because it's a GREAT twirling skirt). And letting Chick hold a caterpillar. So many beautiful moments.

But I didn't break the spell by getting the camera (and the magic wouldn't have photographed well anyhow).

Here are the pictures that I DID take.

I finished up 3 projects this week, which is SO great since I keep coming up with more & my list just keeps getting longer. It feels great to get things done. 2 are presents, so I can't post pics, but the third is Chick's apron. If I ever sew another I'd make it a bit higher & longer, but I love how this turned out.

She likes it too.
And it's reversible.My neighbors had garage sales, and I got some GREAT fabricky things, as well as some from a trip to the thrift store...I haven't taken any pictures, but stay tuned for some greatness (relatively speaking, of course).

And the latest news on Babe? Well, she's been busy busy busy.

This week she started eating FOOD, and took to it like a fish takes to water. Today she tried avocado and loved it. LOVED it. Like, we couldn't shovel it in fast enough. And the most common phrase that we use while feeding her? "No Hands" because she wants to grab the spoon and feed herself.

A little over a week ago she started crawling, and in the past couple of days she realized the POWER that movement gives her. She is ALL OVER THE PLACE!

Here's a video of her in action.

It's What I Signed Up For

Let me paint a picture of my house right now:

tv is on (Clifford on PBS), the living room is strewn with sundry toys. Chick is sitting in her nightgown on a blanket covered couch, sipping watered-down apple juice from her ladybug plastic mug. On the table next to her is her water bottle (and mine, which she drank out of & now it's hers too). On the floor in front of her is a huge metal bowl, placed on a towel from the rag bin. The bowl has seen a lot of action lately. (By the way, so has HH. I'd rather mop the kitchen floor than get puked on ANYDAY).

Babe was crying in her swing, but I took pity on her, and now she's crying on my lap. She's freshly diapered & clothed because her diarrhea got all over her clothes & started getting on my carpet when I put her down there to make the bed. hmmm. Chick was recently bathed for the same reason...the bed IS made, though.

I, after spending most of the night sleeping cuddled with sick Chick on the couch and after having had a migraine all day yesterday, am wearing my pajama pants and an old painted-up t-shirt. I expect to remain this way for the duration of the day. I got the garden half done on Saturday & had planned to finish today...but maybe not now...maybe it'll be tomorrow. Either way, it looks like I have a bumper crop of plastic milk jugs : )

My sincere apologies to anyone that we've been in contact with...we went to church yesterday like normal, and it wasn't until partly through that Chick started acting suspiciously mellow. She came home and told HH that it was time to go to bed. When she got up she threw up. Fun times.

Well, I gotta go cuddle with my girls & tackle the laundry mountain (which is complete with bed sheets, extra towels, and things that it would be indelicate to mention).

Here are a couple of pictures of Chick in her former health.

this and that

I made this sorting board a couple of days ago. Chick and I took turns putting things on the corresponding color circle yesterday, and it went pretty well. Here and here are the originals.

Also, I think Babe looks a little bit Gerber in this picture.....

Who's a grumpy goose?

Me. I am. Oh, pick me, pick me.

I had a plan for today: 8 things on my "to do" list, and double the water today (8 glasses, 1 per hour). I decided the order that I'd do the 8 things, and they each had an hour. Some don't take an hour (pray...unfortunately. I bet I'd have a better day if I prayed for longer) and some take more than an hour (wash dishes...they're backed up again), but as I rule of thumb I gave them all an hour.

It started out ok...until about noon and that's when I got grumpy. Low blood sugar.

I started thinking things like "What does it matter anyhow?! I'm just going to sit on the couch for the rest of the day. I'm not going to walk to the store like I'd planned--HH wants me to anyhow, and I don't like him at all so I'm not going to do anything that he wants. In fact, when he gets home from galavanting (financial seminar) I'm going to just leave. I'm going to leave, DRIVE to the store, leave him with the kids, and maybe not come back. I could go to my parent's house, since they aren't home (ha ha, I wasn't serious, M&D...)."

So then I ate too much granola, which I'm totally addicted to, and thought about throwing out my menu for the day. Really, I don't want to bother with cooking broccoli when I can just keep eating granola (which, despite having made 20 bars + crumbs, is almost completely GONE). Don't worry...I'm sticking to it.

Grrrr. Then, I though, "Maybe if I get up and take pictures of my kids (who are supposed to be napping) then I'll realize how fortunate I am & it'll make me happier."

It didn't work. It started out well...Babe had woken up and rolled over. She started rolling over earlier this week. She tries to crawl & rolls instead. (cute dress thanks to Nikko!)

Things went south when I went to check on Chick. She'd climbed into the crib...again. I don't know how to keep her out of it. I tried giving her "time outs" in it, I told her no, I filled it up with stuff, I emptied it out completely.... And still she climbs.

Anyhow, she'd also pulled her hair out, so it's not all cute in the picture, but at least she was still in the outfit that I had picked out for her. Look at her, smiling like she's not doing something taboo.

She's skipping naps, too, and I'm distraught about it. I NEED naptime! She'll be in her room (pulling clothes out of her drawers, most likely) for 2 hours, and not sleep. Then she's grumpy for the rest of the day. She's too young to not take naps!

Augh, my life is so hard. And now I'm behind--so I might not mop the floor, cut out the dresses, or sew the bathroom curtains.

But all this ranting makes me want to take a walk, so I guess I'll walk to the store after all. ciao.

Tidbits

This is a picture that cracks me up. HH had helped a crying Babe get to sleep, and they both fell asleep. That's normal, but check out his ear--he has an EARPLUG!

Living with Chick is something like living in a Opera. Lately she sings constantly. For instance, at breakfast the other day she took a sock off and put it on the floor. Then she sang "Sock on the floor, so-ock o-on the floo-oor, sock on floor..." (along with a lot more that wasn't actually words that I recognized...must have been a german opera).

Sometimes I think Babe should be renicknamed "Baby Toots-A-Lot" (BTAL for short). They are actually cute little toots, though, and aren't stinky : ) She really is a sweet little thing. She smiles at people a lot, is mild mannered, and likes to hold her back straight & head up so that she can look around a lot (we call her Bright Eyes).

Blessings for Babe

In addition to Chick's birthday, this past weekend was Babe's blessing. It was wonderful to have our family and friends with us for it. My favorite thing about the actual blessing is that it seemed to capture her sweetness--it talked about sharing love with those around her & seeing the needs of others. That's so "Babe"...already I can totally see her as being a service-oriented person and someone who does care about others.

Anyhow, here's the dress. I left the bracelet as I originally made it, and put a bit of beadwork at the bottom of the dress & on the headband, to tie it all together.

I love these pictures of the Grandmas with Babe...

Babe is also blessed with proud parents and a loving sister...

My in-laws brought these beautiful roses, and the picture is one of the pics that we had taken last week.

Chick and Babe

I took these pictures of Babe on her 2 month birthday (yesterday...time flies, doesn't it?!). The picture of a grubby-faced Chick is so that she wouldn't feel left out.