Heaven and Hell Sunday

First, the Hell:
Sunday I performed the annual harvest of the Poison Ivy crop, front and back yard. Ordinarily, all yard work is SNG's problem, but he gets special dispensation from activities involving poison ivy as he inevitably ends up needing rounds of steroid shots followed by a course of oral steroids to counteract the weeping, bleeding, oozing mounds of red, blistered flesh (external and internal). I (knock wood) have never had more than 2 or 3 itchy little blisters, and those might have been ant bites. So I get to do the annual harvest all alone.

In spite of my apparent lack of Ivy allergy, I still wear gloves, a full Tyvek suit with legs tucked into my socks, and a hat. You just never know when an allergy will decide to form. I harvested one leaf-bag full of the stuff, sprayed Ivy killer on whatever I couldn't uproot properly, and threw everything-- Ivy, gloves, socks, Tyvek suit-- into the outside trash can where SNG can't eat it or roll around on it.

And now, the Heaven:
As a reward for my efforts, I made petit fors. Inside-- paper-thin yellow cake layers with red currant jam in between. Outside-- the darkest dark chocolate ganache you've ever seen.



Somebody got to lick the icing spreader:

The recipe was met with full approval from the critics.

Ode to a Cheap Bike

Decaled with cool words like Spinner, Aluminum Alloy, and Trailhead that are certain to clinch your reputation as the raddest, baddest thrasher on the paved suburban bike path, my chemical-green Mommy Bike is back in play after a season in the shed waiting to get new cables. This is the bike I bought so that I'd have something permanently on campus for making quick trips to the day care or meetings in buildings more than 1/2-mile away. It was the cheapest thing REI had that could still really be called a mountain bike, and it is specifically designed for women between 5'0" and 5'3"-- so it might actually be the first bike I've ever owned that is small enough. It is certainly the first single bike I've ever owned that lets me stand over the top tube without having to leave a foot on a pedal (or stand tippy-toe). The tandem lets me do that, but it is a Bike Friday, which means that even e-baby has standover clearance.

Last fall, after almost a year in the sun, rain, freezing cold, and burning heat of the bike rack outside my building, I realized that the cables housings had all but dissolved off the cables, which were rusting and falling apart. It took another six months to get around to dropping it at the bike shop, and another two or three weeks to get around to dropping it back at work. So when e-baby fell asleep this afternoon in her bed, I rode up to drop it off. It is a beautiful day today, so I took a long route through the state park to get there, doubling back after a couple of miles just to have the honeysuckle breeze up my nose a little longer. I left the bike locked to the rack next to the dumpsters outside my building* to endure another year of weather, and jogged home. I have to say that when you're not transporting a baby (trailer or jogger), riding a bike is still a MILLION times more fun than running.

If I had the chance to get back just one thing from my pre-baby life, it would be the freedom to ride 150 miles a week without pulling a 70-pound trailer.

* It is funny that bike racks are usually placed in positions of such status. But I'll tolerate the dumpster smell with the smug knowledge that I have a closer parking space than anyone else.

Every Good Boy Does Fine.

Poor e-baby. Pneumonia is not for wimps. Although she hasn't had a fever since Sunday night (the antibiotics are killing something in those lungs; you should smell her breath!), she is defninitely not well. Monday she went to sleep at 11am and was in bed for the night by 7:20, Tuesday she took a total of 5 hours of naps starting at 10:30 am. This morning she seemed to say "OK, mworld, I am SICK of being sick. I'm gonna have FUN." She played hard and by 11:40 had a biblical meltdown that lasted, I am not kidding, 35 minutes. Nothing made her happy: putting her in bed, going outside, lying down, standing up, carrying her around, food, water, books... Finally I just sat next to her as she screamed and writhed and when she had worn herself out a little, I asked her whether she wanted to go night-night. "uh-huh!" She was asleep in less than 2 minutes from the time I put her down.

All of this means that e-baby has been in no condition to go to daycare, and I don't want to expose her to any germs right now anyway. So I'm taking mornings off and SNG is taking afternoons aoff all week to stay with her. What's scary is that if SNG were still working at his old job, he would not be able to come home, and since I'm teaching every afternoon this week, I'd have had to cancel a class. Sick time you are actually allowed to take: one more reason I am SO HAPPY that SNG found a cushy gummint job.

So, there's the e-baby update in case anyone was wondering.

Non sequitur-- since e has pneumonia, part of my brain keeps wanting to say that she has pneumatic fever, which makes me want to say mnemonic fever. Which makes me laugh. I have mnemonic fever! A Rat In Tom's House May Eat Tom's Ice Cream. SOHCAHTOA.

What a Big Weekend!

Yesterday morning e-baby did not want to get up. She had to anyway, since we had a babysitter coming for the first time ever (you know, who wasn't family). She's a very responsible teenage daughter of a friend at work, and I trust her more than I'd trust any other kids her age that I know, but you know I was chewing my nails anyway. But it was great-- SNG and I took a ride on the road bikes for about an hour and e-baby had a GREAT time with her sitter. When I took the sitter home, e-baby fell asleep in the car, which seemed odd for 11am, but meh, kid probably played hard.

Dianaverse came over around lunchtime and we took e-baby to see some sheep in the fields down the street, which was super-fun. After we came back, e-baby was sleepy again, and was even staggering a little. So I put her down for a nap, and she slept for > 3 hours, and didn't want to wake up at 5pm. She felt warm. A little coughing, but not much else to speak of. Except that tick I pulled out of her ear last weekend. That one had me worried.

We went to the Whole Foods for some dinner (which e-baby was not interested in) and she got warmer. By the time we got home, she was 103.5. So quick into the bathtub, a dose of baby Tylenol, and once again, she couldn't wait to get into bed.

We set alarms to check on her, and at 12:30am her temp was OK. At 4:00 she was back up to 103, crying this weird, croupy cry and asking for milk. We gave her more Tylenol, 12 oz of cold milk, and read some books. Her temp came back down pretty quickly, and she was asleep again by 5:30. We all slept until 8.

No fever at 8. E-baby (and her daddy) gave me the sweetest Mother's Day cards, with a letter that made me get all sniffly, and everyone played and had a grand old time. At 11 we went grocery shopping and around the time we checked out, she was getting warm again. At home, she obviously felt badly and her temp was back up to 103.5, so we packed up a bag of toys, books, diapers and snacks and headed off to the hospital. It occured to me that pediatric urgent care would see her faster, so that's where we went. It was still 2 1/2 hours, but I bet the ER would have been twice that. Plus, you know, all those yummy staph infections.

Oh, have I mentioned that after getting shots every 3 months her entire life, e-baby is TERRIFIED of doctors?

They looked in her ears, listened to her chest, investigated her nose and throat, and took some chest x-rays. The good news: it is probably not Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, because there is an alternative explanation. The bad news? It's pneumonia.

Her oxygen saturation was good (99%) so it seems we caught it early. But poor kid. She missed (rejected, really) her lunch and most of her normal naptime because of the Urgent Care interlude. She's asleep now and won't be going to day care tomorrow.

How stupid is it that my first thought, when the doctor said she had pneumonia, was "It's my fault! What did I do to cause this?" There's nothing I did or didn't do to cause/prevent it, but something about motherhood causes a knee-jerk reaction that every bad thing that happens to your kid is a direct result of something you did or did not do.

Think some nice thoughts for e-baby, who will be on antibiotics for a couple of weeks and doesn't feel so good right now.

And on a totally happier subject, Happy Mother's Day to all my favorite mommies, moms and mamas. You are the bomb.

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.