Hey! There's a New Poll

I haven't posted any polls in awhile, so there's a new one over in the sidebar. Just another way I like to let you feel like your voice is heard.

Recently, several people have commented that e-baby seems ready to start potty training, and since she can tell us when she's going potty in her diaper, we figured that was probably true. So now we have two tiny plastic toilets in our house, and e-baby has decided she doesn't want to wear a diaper at all anymore, and instead wants to tote her tiny toilet around, holding onto its side handles with the seat attached to her bottom like a nearsighted turtle. Or a hermit crab.

She uses it for its intended purpose only about half the time, and I do a lot of disinfecting on the floor.

If I knew for sure that you were eating right now, I'd tell you all about yesterday morning's pooptastic adventure. But, for all I know you aren't eating, and what's the fun of a poop tale if you can't ruin someone else's appetite?

Picnic in the Sun

Today was the annual company picnic. Calling the event a picnic is kin to saying that Einstein was clever, or that Mardi Gras is a party. Technically it's true, but it doesn't do justice. Besides the "picnic shelter," the annual picnic also occupies the softball fields, the soccer field and the jogging track on campus. There are acres of rides, games and crafts; "the Triangle area's best classic rock cover band" in one area, a DJ playing disco in another area, and a pub with beer and pool hall music in another; all the hog dogs, nachos, bbq chicken, garden burgers, chips, watermelon, ice cream and snow cones you can stand to eat; and on top of that, there are all your friends from work and their families basking in the sunshine or relaxing underneath the trees that surround the fields. Little kids EVERYWHERE. It's the antithesis of the winter party, and every bit as much fun. It was e-baby's first time to go, since last year Peace and Fuzzy's wedding was the day of the picnic. The wedding was even more fun than the picnic so we forgave them for scheduling right over top of it.

Anyway, so SNG and I put e-baby in the trailer and biked over to campus. As we rode in, SNG admonished me about not rolling down the grassy hills with e-baby. He also admonishes me about swinging REALLY high and JUMPING off the swingset we built for e-baby. I can understand not wanting to teach e-baby to jump of the swings yet, but I have no idea why he doesn't want me rolling down the hills. Come to think of it, in previous years told me that I shouldn't roll down the hills and I have no idea why.

E-baby played in the toddler tent, ran in circles in front of the ice cream tent, danced in the hula hoop area (which was HILARIOUS-- the disco DJ was right there, giving prizes to kids who could hula-hoop really well. E-baby would put a hula hoop on the ground like a little stage, step inside, and start dancing. If SNG or I tried to get into her dance ring with her, she'd say "No! Out." and go on dancing). She ate a hot dog and an ice cream bar. She played with a hundred kids and probably caught a hundred colds, but she seemed to think it was worth it.

So, we had a ball, ate lots of junk, visited with lots of people, and ended up escaping from the harsh sunlight on a hillside overlooking the inflatables under some trees with Peace, Fuzzy, and Spiderwoman. E-baby was running UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN the hill. SNG was chasing her, catching her each time she tried to faceplant. Poor kid already has a busted lip from faceplanting in the middle of the living room last night, tripping over her own foot, and she seems totally fearless about dirt-diving some more. After awhile, SNG was tired of the chase and said it was my turn. So I taught her about the joy that is rolling down a grassy hill. We had so much fun rolling. OK, e-baby needs to refine her technique but it won't be long until she's rolling with great style and velocity.

And oh now I am so itchy. There are a million red pricklies on my legs, arms and abdomen from the grass. Why oh why do I always have to roll down the hill? Stupid grass allergies! But you know what? I'll do it again.

In other news, we have rearranged the furniture in our guest room, and tomorrow we're replacing the matress up there. The room feels so much homier now. So if anyone was avoiding a visit on account of our guest barracks, it's time to reconsider.

Oh, the Big Decisions of Life

Hooray! With our official downgrade to Moderate Drought this month, North Carolinians are allowed to use words such as "fire", "party" and "backyard" in the same sentence without neighbors turning us in to the police. Of course, none of this really stopped people burning stuff in their backyards in my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors live as though we are in the wild west, where the landowner is The Law. Frankly, my distaste for Ayn Rand aside, I'll take rugged individualism over covenant restrictions any day. One more reason I love living in the woods.

"You can paint my mailbox buff-beige after you pry it from my cold, dead hands"

So we're thinking about the next bonfire party, and the 5th of November is a long way off. Memorial Day is better celebrated in the daytime. I don't know why, it just is. Maybe late May, on Joan of Arc day? Or Summer solstice in June? July 4 is too competitive. All the other neighbors will be busy trying to catch their own yards on fire to bother with ours.

Throwing an evening party with a toddler in the house is challenging, and that's really what is stalling the plans more than anything. It'll probably be late May. I'll let you know.

What big, important decisions is everyone else facing this week?

Hey, Mom and Dad- Does this look familiar?

I keep forgetting to mention this on the phone with my parents. Apparently, Funny Walks are hereditary.

Twinkle Toes, Jr.

If the Mountain Won't Come to e-baby, e-baby Must Go to the Mountain.

Yes, yes, it has been a dry blog season. But I have a really good excuse. I'm super busy at work and actually getting important stuff done! Nine weeks ago I was given some documentation to use for a project I was to start working on, and then spent the six weeks teaching, usually traveling. So the 1/2 day here and 1 day there I had in the office/not teaching were spent picking my toes and thinking, "Hmmm, so what will I do to organize my thoughts? What was I doing a week ago when I last thought about this project?" Do you know that feeling, where you can't do anything because there are not enough contiguous days to devote to the thing?

But I've been in town for 2 1/2 weeks and it seems like I've gotten more done than the whole first quarter combined. Yay!

It has not, however, been a dry weather season. The drought has ended with a great deal of rainfall taking us down to mere level-1 water restrictions. Being allowed to flush again is nice, but being able to wash a car one day a week is still one day too many (snark). The rain does ruin jogging-to-work plans, but better to get to shower in non-reused water like the good old days.

OK, I'm exaggerating the water restrictions a bit. But not much. There was actually a rule that you could not water indoor houseplants with potable water.

And now, an e-baby fable.

SNG, e-baby and I were sitting on the kitchen floor, e-baby on SNG's lap jamming on her steamer. She had asked for some "chee-wees" (does anyone remember Lance/Tom's snacks? I call all cheesey puffs "Chee-wee," so now e-baby does, too), and I told her no because it was almost bathtime. She protested but let the issue drop pretty quickly.

After her steamer, she stood up and went behind SNG, grabbed the shoulders of his shirt and pulled them UP! and said "UP daddy!" so he stood up. Then she came to me and said "UP mommy!" so I stood up. Then she went and found the step-stool I use to reach things in the kitchen, and put it right next to SNG. She grabbed my hands and lifted them and said "UP! UP!" so I climbed up. I wondered if she wanted me to kiss SNG, since she likes to make us kiss sometimes. But no. Instead, she busts a triumphant grin and completely out of nowhere (so it seemed), she says/signs "GOLFISH?" And where was I?? Right in front of the fridge, eye-level with the snack-bag, the Goldfish crackers peeking out the top. All part of her carefully orchestrated plans.

It seems the mountain always comes to e-baby.

What Did We Do Last Sunday?

This is what we did last Sunday.

At about 9:15 Sunday morning, SNG said to me, "Do you think we should build that playset you've been wanting to make? Want to go to Lowe's and see what they have?"

The man usually won't string together real words before 9:30am, so I did a double-take before blurting out, "Yes! Let's go right now."

About 2 1/2 hours later, we were home with most of the supplies needed to make a 4-swing playset with a platform and a slide, and a bring orange race-car baby swing that e-baby chose by pulling it from the shelving compartment and climbing inside.

SNG worked mostly on his own for about 2 hours, and we both worked on it for the next 4 hours while e-baby took a loooong nap, and by dinnertime it was ready for action. Our new neighbors gave us an old slide that they weren't using which happened to fit our platform. I don't have any pictures of the slide yet.

It has been test-played by two other neighborhood kids who gave it thumbs up. The older kid (6) said the slide is "really fast" which has me a little worried, but e-baby seems to think it's a blast, judging by the magnitude of the meltdowns we've had every evening when it's time to stop playing on the playset.

Next weekend we will anchor the supports to the ground and put the race-car decals on e-baby's orange swing. It comes with both boy- and girl-ish decals, so I'll probably mix them up. The guys next door race cars on track and so they know all about the regulations for decaling a race-car. I just have to figure out what her number should be.

Finally, an 18-month Post

I'm finally getting around to writing about what things are like for e-baby and the rest of us at 18 months old.

* What is she, a shark? E-baby is sprouting her incisors (the pointy canines, in case you don't know which the incisors are), which brings the tally up to 14 teeth. That's FOURTEEN! Each and every single one of them came with a set of sleepless nights, drooling, and general grumpiness. The latest two are no different, except that now she knows that chewing on ice can be soothing. So all day long she says ICE? ICE? ICE? But really, I thought incisors came much later. We were due for a break. Where's that teething break? All I can say is we better not get any more until next calendar year.

* And speaking of things we won't have any more for a long time-- SHOTS! At her 18 month doctor's visit, she got one shot, which was the last one until she goes off to Kindergarten. E-baby, I, SNG, daycare, the three nurses required to restrain her for a shot and everyone with an office nearby there are looking forward to the next 3 years and a few months needle-free.

* By 18 months, especially because she's an early talker, it's becoming very clear that she's been soaking up EVERYTHING for the past 8-10 months, and now has ways of getting it all out there to share with the world. Here are some examples:

* She knows her colors quite well now and, except when she's tired, loves to tell you what color everything is. She's usually right, as long as it's pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown or white. She'll have to work on pewter, magenta, chartreuse, turquoise... But seriously, I really didn't spend much time teaching her colors until after I realized that she already knew several of them. I asked the day care, and they said that she had probably been practicing them in her mind for a long time but is just now figuring out how to map the word-labels to the colors of objects.

* Size is fascinating. Or, Small is Tremendous to quote Zoe Lewis. E-baby loves to compare things that are big and small. Only, she doesn't just say big and small. She says BIG (slowly, with a deep voice) and tiny! (with a teensy little high-pitched voice, and a remarkable southern accent, so it's like taaaahnee!). She'll compare anything. For instance, daddy's nose? BIG. Her nose? tiny! My nose is either BIG or tiny! depending on whether she's comparing it to her nose or SNG's.

* Role playing like crazy. She has her dolls read books to each other, she moves their hands/paws so that they can use sign language, she pretends to be the neighbor's cat and lies down on her belly in the yard like she's stalking birds, she imitates me cooking with her own little set of pots and pans (from IKEA-- they are SO CUTE and you can actually cook with them if you want to). There's a lot more going on in e-babyworld than in mine or yours.

* a few shapes, a few numbers... she has circle, oval, and diamond nailed and is working on others, and she knows the difference between One thing, Two things, and more than two things. Beyond that, she can count numbers up to 10 with some help, but I don't think she knows the difference between the meanings of 3, 4, 5 etc.

Her daycare's 18-month conference was last week, and her teacher remarked on a couple of things that were interesting. One is that she's very good at playing independently, which will prbably translate well to school someday. Another thing she told us is that e-baby while affectionate and sweet, and not at all mischevious, is also really good at sticking up for herself against other kids. No one steps on her and gets away with it.

Which is just one of those things that you never really think about until you realize how glad you are to have a daughter like that.

My Girl Wants to Party All the Time

In an ironic twist, SNG is out of town this week and I am doing the baby care thing by myself. It's outrageously busy at work and this would of course be the week that e-baby gets sick again. I can only blame myself for that. We went to Marbles (the children's museum) last Saturday and she played in the cloudy greyish splashy water exhibit with a dozen other kids, one of whom was apparently communicable. The one time I didn't wash her hands before leaving the museum. So, of course, I am getting the Crud as well.

It's unusual that I take care of e-baby alone at home. Maybe it's because she was waiting for Daddy to get home, but tonight she wanted to play all night long in her room. Might also be the Crud keeping her from sleeping.

In the category of Stupidest Parents Ever: Sunday, we had two of e-baby's 16-month old friends and their parents over for dinner and e-baby was just in a foul mood. The kids (and their parents) were so sweet and sympathetic but e-baby just whined and cried the entire time. She kept whining "Teemo! Teemo!" over and over, and neither of us had any idea what she was trying to say, but figured it was related to "Dima" and "Mahnee" and other things that she says which we haven't deciphered yet. A few times in the evening she made her signature "I am an espresso machine" noises, which she started doing when we got the Dingus. She sounds just like a frothing wand, I tell you.

Later in the bath, she's still fussing and complaining, and saying "Teemo!" and making espresso machine noises when it dawns on us: if you can't pronounce S's very well, and your "er" sounds haven't quite bloomed yet, then you might pronounce "steamer" kind of like "teemo." And, to really make your point, you might MAKE THE SOUND OF A FROTHING WAND because mommy never showed you a sign for steamer; you just have to improvise. Oh, and then keep trying to make your point for about 3 hours while these goobers you call parents keep asking whether your diaper is full or you want some cheese, all the while pulling espresso shots for their friends-- For goodness sakes, could we be any thicker? We made her a steamer after her bath. She was in a good mood the rest of the evening.

A Post That Is Not About Babies

Last weekend we got ourselves a little present (affectionately named The Dingus by SNG) that had nothing to do with individual endurance sports, clothes, or babies-- a refreshing departure. Some of you know that I was once a barista and have opinions about coffee, but I would not call myself a coffee snob (I grind my beans at the store, how snobby can I possibly be?). The Dingus is marvelous, and the culmination of a lot of research. But it is also a compromise since the machine I really want is one that grinds and measures the beans, connects directly to our plumbing for its water supply, makes great espresso, makes drip coffee in a separate system from the espresso (with different beans and different grind), and has a professional-quality frothing wand. Such a thing can't be found for love or money, although this one came close. So, um, no. The one we got hits the mark on good espresso, a good frothing wand, a LARGE water tank and a few nice extras. But we still have our drip coffeemaker and use it every day alongside The Dingus. Unfortunately, the horrendous noise it makes frightens e-baby, so I make her a steamer every couple of days to give her positive associations with the sound. She likes steamers.

Still, I reeeeeally wanted a machine that would hoook into the plumbing. *sigh*

Oh, another topic altogether. I need some opinions and advice on expanding storage capacity. The laptop, which is where we do most everything, is nearly out of disk space. The desktop has some space (not a lot), but is inconveniently located so it's not ideal for managing all our photos, videos, music... not to mention I have no hope of installing the software of the company I work for on a home computer since its footprint is gimongous. We're thinking of getting an external networked drive, say 500GB, to map as a drive on both computers and store all our big stuff (iTunes files, pictures, movies) there. What I don't know is whether this will work. iTunes strikes me as clever enough to disallow you to read your music from an external, shared network drive. There might be other issues I'm not considering as well. Does anyone have experience or advice on the most effective way to seriously expand our storage capacity, short of buying another computer?

We've been getting some rain here lately, which is great news for the drought. But I am about to eat my own feet from the boredom of not getting to go bike or hike or jog. Hopefully Sunday will be nice, since we have some friends coming over to cookout.

Waterfall Dreams

*Edited to add: I recently uploaded a ton of pictures to Flickr in two sets: March 2008 and Easter. I haven't had a chance to annotate, title, or label anything yet, so MST3K to your heart's content.

I realize that I've been behind in my blogging lately, although not for lack of interest in writing. I've been out of town most of the last month with limited internet access, and when I have been in town, work has been crazy-busy.

I had intended to write an 18-month entry, since e-baby turned 18 months old last week, but just never got around to it. I'll still write one up soon, but in the meantime here's a little story.

Last night we had barbecue and hushpuppies for dinner. It didn't really agree with any of us, especially e-baby. So come 1:20am, e-baby starts screaming and nightmare-crying. SNG went to help her, and she made some underleg-music and felt a little better. Then she cried for mommy, so I went upstairs and it was a couple more hours before we got her back to sleep. As she played in the den upstairs, SNG sat on the couch supervising and I lay dozing on the futon. She put her stuffed dog inside a big basket that she called her "boat" and she alternated pulling the boat around and sitting in it with her arm around the dog like it was her date for the drive-in-movie-regatta. I was only half-awake for this, just enough to know that she was still in the room. At one point she toddled to the coffee table and found a big water glass. She drank a little, offered some to her dog, and I could hear her say "Mommy want wa-wee?" a millisecond before I was doused with about a pint of cold water. She said "Uh-oh!" and wandered off for more nautical fun with her dog-boyfriend.

I wasn't laughing much at the time, but it is sure funny now that I have dry clothes on. When I relayed the story to a friend at work, she said "She just gave you all she had to give!"

Thanks, kiddo.

Eighteen Nights, Seven Road Trips

E-baby and I returned Thrusday from a nearly three week long trip to Texas. Most of it was a work trip for me. All of it was vacation for her, spending time with my parents. I took a few days off in the middle for some fun. In spite of having her routine completely in shambles, changing cities (and beds) every couple of days, and being cared for by people she doesn't see much of, e-baby was remarkably graceful. She is still the road warrior princess.

The highlight of the trip was the annual family reunion camping and eating in Kerrville for Easter. This year, SNG and I were not the only people staying in cabins. The family rented an entire loop of cabins and a giant screen shelter (complete with a KITCHEN!) and a couple of traditional campsites for the dog owners in the bunch. It is disappointing that the park forbids pets in the group shelter area, but it was otherwise a flawless weekend. On Saturday, SNG, kiltman and I were the "adult supervision" for a group of 13 underage cousins (and a few cousins' friends) who wanted to go to the river for a swim. E-baby couldn't resist the peer pressure and HAD to get in for a swim with mommy. Neither of us had swimsuits, so I in my gym shorts and t-shirt and e-baby in her Be Peace Now shirt and Pampers got in. It was COLD and long after the other kids had made like lizards to sunbathe on the shore, e-baby couldn't be coaxed out of the water for love or money. The only way we got her out was to (change her clothes and) go play on the nearby playground. Girlie loves playgrounds. She is really good with the slide, stairs and tunnels, and is learning to swing on monkey bars. Which, yes, does give me a heart attack. I let her play on the low ones but she is always trying to go on the ones that are 5 feet up in the air. She'll get way up on a platform and just REACH OUT INTO THIN AIR for a thrill. She also wants to slide down the fire poles. Sorry, kid-- not gonna happen until you're big enough to say "I think I broke my leg."

All my pictures are at work, so I'll post them next week.

The Riverwalk

The day I met SNG, he was in a tattered pair of jeans and a ballcap. I was in flowered shorts and a white buttondown shirt that tied in the front.

I had just arrived at Dianaverse's apartment because her little brother, who had his first job and a new car, was visiting from Dallas where he had moved after graduation, and we were going to take him to San Antonio in his new car and let him drive it (from the description, I though graduation "from High School." Turns out it was graduation from college). It was Mardi Gras weekend in 1993. I was supposed to go to New Orleans that year and didn't end up going, and I was urgently trying to get out of a really ugly relationship with a guy who wanted more than anything in the world to be a cop. You know the type.

There in Dianaverse's doorway stood my rebound guy.

Fifteen years later, I'm still goofy for him, and this evening, when he arrives here in San Antonio, we'll get ice cream at the walk-up place that first mistook us for a couple, causing our friend PM to joke with Dianaverse, "Alphagal's going to be your sister-in-law someday." I couldn't have picked a better sister-in-law, but it's her little brother that I can't resist.

I love you, SNG! Happy Anniversary!

c-baby and e-baby

My cousin Partner In Crime, her husband LeBon and their c-baby just left this morning after a 3-day weekend of rainy day fun, house-hunting, BBQ, visiting, singing, dancing and general merriment. It was even more fun that I thought it would be, since the girls took to each other right away.

It's funny that they get along so well-- e-baby and c-baby have very different personalities. But I guess it's like that with PIC and me, and with our own moms as well, and yet we've always been very close. I think that we're different in the ways that make a friendship interesting, and similar in ways that mean you always sort of know what the other is feeling in some situation.

C-baby is so sweet and cuddly, and mellow, and just the best snuggler you've ever seen. On Friday we went to the children's museum, and she was happy to play with the toys wherever she was. We parked in the make-believe grocery store and she played with plastic fruit. When that got too boring, we moved to the make-believe stage and she played with dress-up shoes. No muss, no fuss, happy to play with all the cool stuff within arm's reach. Contrast that with e-baby, Miss Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal for whom the "e" clearly stands for electron, who disappeared every time I blinked. I found her in the play car with a strange boy, in the postal truck with another boy, in the ambulance with yet another boy, at the scrapbooking table with 2 girls I'd never seen before, and at the dress-up table with a girl who was trying to be polite about it, but really wanted e-baby to get the heck out of the hat-basket, all the while dancing, a river of toys in her wake. Oh, how I love the children's museum, where the workers buzz around cheerfully, tirelessly picking up all those toys and reshelving them.

Saturday and Sunday SNG and I kept both the girls while PIC and LB looked at houses. I was relieved that c-baby took to me easily, and e-baby was an unstoppable hug-and-kiss-the-baby machine. C-baby was mostly OK with the affection. But poor e-baby, this evening she asked "Where's baby? Hug baby?" She is also asking for Eyore now.

Last night we went to dinner with some friends of PIC. They were just the most delightful couple and I hope we'll be seeing them again sometime. E-baby ate a big dish of macaroni and cheese (um, actually, it was c-baby's macaroni and cheese since e-baby had no interest in her pizza. See? c-baby is so easy-going that she let e-baby eat all her dinner!) and e-baby then smeared cheese sauce onto her face and into her hair, requiring a hair wash when we got home, which c-baby presided over. Today they flew all day home. I haven't heard yet, but hopefully the flights went well.

Oh, and PIC will appreciate this: e-baby asked for "huss-puppies" over dinner tonight.

One Week Home, Three Weeks Away

One reason I haven't blogged much lately is that work has become ridiculously busy. When I get home, feed myself, feed e-baby, bathe e-baby, and spend an hour getting her to sleep, there's just enough time to chat with SNG for a few minutes, fall into bed, sleep awhile, wake up at 6am with a nagging need to get some work done, work until 7am, shower, get dressed, get e-baby fed, diapered, dressed, and back to daycare. Repeat, repeat, repeat. A couple of weeks ago she was fine with alternating between me and SNG putting her to bed, but this week it has to be mommy every night. It is sweet but frankly, I'd love to have that hour (every other night) to get some more work done.

For some reason, I like my job more when it's busy like this. It's not an unreasonable amount of travel, and while I'm in the office I'm running like mad. I'm a mad-running-fool so it works.

But tomorrow I'm taking a vacation day because my cousin PartnerInCrime and her family are coming to town to HOUSEHUNT! Yay! I am really looking forward to their visit and the 3-day weekend. Technically, they're coming to decide whether or not they want to relocate here, but I'm optimistic. The weather's supposed to be crappy part of the weekend, so I'm thinking of indoor things to do. There's a terrific children's museum that our one-year-olds will love. There's no point impressing them with shopping-- Raleigh is simply not on the map with regard to shopping, and they're coming from Seattle, which is one of shopping's minor capitols. Ditto for restaurants, unless you like homestyle southern cooking. Which, fortunately, PIC does.

On Tuesday e-baby and I will be flying to San Antonio and staying in various parts of central Texas for almost 3 weeks. SNG will come out for a week in the middle, to attend the annual family eat-bike-camp-and-dogs-in-the-woods only this year, dogs are banished to a separate area and we have cabins instead of tents but I'm sure there will still be plenty of bicycles and eating. This year, Kiltman will be coming with us, and I'm really stoked for the family to meet him. I just have this funny feeling that he fell off our family tree somewhere back there, as he's very clearly a Rhodes boy. Except, you know, without the guns.

OK, so what's new in babyland?
Oh, this blew me away. E-baby can count to 2, with her words and her hands. And she can identify the color blue. Most of the time. I'm not sure whether she understands the idea of numbers, even small ones like 1 and 2, but the blue thing seems to be right on. Oh, and her teacher mentioned that she's the only kid in her class who can tell them, clearly, when she wants something to drink. So I guess the other kids just follow her and when she asks for water, they point and grunt and get water too. Girlie is her Tuti's granddaughter.