White Trash and the Door That Ate My Foot

I'm still up. I meant to go to sleep an hour ago, but the diaper hunt was calling my name :-)

I just went down to the car to get some stuff out (gotta love hauling those giant buckets of kitty litter up the stairs). On my way out, I stopped to admire the newest inhabitants of my building. Right next to the main door lives some folks who seem to think they're still out in some other land. Hanging from the roof over the patio, you can find two hanging, wooden swing people (you know - the silhouette of the boy and the girl hanging onto the ropes), some dying baskets of plants, a faded teddy bear flag, and three candle lanterns (all rusted). On the patio is an assortment of worn out folding chairs and more dying plants. On the lawn and in the complex-provided landscaping you can find not one, but two wooden figures. One is the ever classy lady-bending-over-with-her-bloomers-showing and the other, well I'm not even sure what it is, but it's pink and purple. There is also a statue of a dog holding a newspaper in it's mouth and a Welcome Home iron sign and a tattered little American flag. I'm at a loss as to what whitty name to dub this menagerie with. It is amusing though; makes my jungle look much less out of place.

As I was coming back in the building, arms full, I set down the giant kitty litter tub to swing open the first door. I picked the tub back up and headed through the door. Apparently, I'm not quite quick enough though, because the door slammed into my foot, skimming over about half of it and then jamming deep into it. My foot was literally stuck under the edge of the door. That's a fabulous feeling, let me tell you. I unwedged my foot and proceeded to limp upstairs. It's currently a painful, black and blue bump with an inch long gash that doesn't seem to want to stop bleeding. And, to top it off, I feel as though I might just puke when I put any weight onto it.

Lovely evening. Or early morning. Whatever it may be.

Shleepy. shleepy

I am soooo tired. I'm not really sure why though. E slept in till 9 this morning, we took a mid-morning nap, and all I did today was some visiting. But it's only 10 and I am ready to pass out.

My first visit of the day was to one set of my grandparents. E was fascinated with my grandma, she was happy and smiling (but never took her eyes off me while she was holding her). It's kinda sad, my grandma had a stroke a while back and she seems to be having a progressively harder time with her words. But, at the same time she seems to be recovering nicely from her recent surgery.

Next, we headed out to my mom's. I fed the baby and then we all loaded up in the truck and went out to my other grandma's. Her whole day seems to brighten up when I bring the baby over. She may repeat the same three sentences five times, but she's happy.

Then we went down the hill to the degenerate cousin's house. His step-son was having a graduation party and we meant to just drop off a card from my grandma. But, there we a bunch of relatives there that wanted to see the baby, so we stayed a bit. I got to see my cousin and his wife who is about to have twins (scheduled for Tuesday). The poor girl looked so uncomfortable. I don't think she has any idea what she is in for. My uncle's girlfriend was holding E next to her when she (E) puked up everything she had eaten. My cousin's wife was beyond disgusted. The girlfriend wasn't even fazed, she just laughed and wiped up with a napkin. As we were leaving, the degenerate cousin was saying goodbye and grabbed E's hand and then her foot. As he was moving from hand to foot, he oh so subtly brushed across my stomach. Ugh ugh ack ick! He truly is the scum of the earth. My family is so messed up. Hopefully I will never have to see him again. I don't forsee any family events in the future.

3 Months

Happy three months to E! :-)

We had a milestone today. She let out her first belly laugh. She's been making "Heh!" noises for a little while now, but while her grandma was making ridiculous noises, she busted out with a real laugh. It was the cutest thing. I'm going to be attached to the video camera for the next while till I can get it on tape.

A Ton of Pictures

Since someone has told me I'm slacking on this thing, I will do my best at overloading the page with pictures. I could be sleeping, but I'm being the loving wife and sacrificing my rest so someone can have pictures to look at :-P

I got a hold of the in-law's camera and loaded all of their pictures to my computer. I found a bunch of cute ones, and ones that are worthy of sharing. So, here goes . . .

Random stuff from when M was home:

She was a squirmy little thing :-)

The pretty princess in her pink dress :-) That guy holding her doesn't look too bad himself ;-)

Gotta learn how to hold a baby in a dress!

Other random stuff:

Memorial Day - proof that he really has held the baby at least once.

She's in love with the fan. She's going to miss that fan.

July 14th - 90th Birthday Party for a P-family aunt:

Here we go!

Everyone loves a baby.
Right before she latched on to a fist full of her hair.

It was a long, hot day.


"Thank God we're home, Mommy!"

"Now tell these people to go home so I can eat and pass out!"

Yesterday:

In the cry room at church, after being consoled out of a tantrum with a yummy bottle.

Blankie #2

I made another one :-) I've decided I'm going to make them in two sizes, this one (16 x16) and a bigger one (24 x 24). If I have smaller pieces left over, I'll make teeny, tiny ones. Wahoo!

However, there will be NO sewing tonight. I am going to bed before 11 for once. (Just this once). Waking up has become way too hard.

Projects - The Fabric Addiction

I'm bad. Very bad. I get addicted to things way to easily. The current vice - fabric. I am working my free sewing machine to the ground! But, all that fabric gets expensive, so unless I can turn some sort of tiny little profit, or at least break even, I need to curb my addiction pretty quick.

A few days ago I finished a baby sling. E loves it. She gets to look all around, and she even fell asleep in it in the store yesterday. I have to tweak my measurements a bit, but it turned out great. I have some stretchy fabric I'm going to try next for another one.



Then came the blankie. I have a hard time calling it a lovie - I always called mine a blankie. This is what I'm hoping I can sell. Somewhere, somehow. Craft fairs, online, word of mouth, whatever. This first one was a pain, though. It probably would have helped to know my sewing machine a little better. Apparently it has some quirks, just to keep you on your toes. I spent just as much time making it as I did ripping bad seams and digging fluff out of the bobbin case. The darn thing eats fabric like no other. Anyways, I just finished it a little bit ago, and I can't wait to give it to E when she wakes up in the morning and see what she does with it. She's at the stage where she loves to grab and hang onto things, so this might be a good thing.

Swim, swim, swim

Today my mom came down and we went for a glorious swim. It was HOT. I've had the air-conditioning cranked all yesterday and today, and probably will tomorrow too. The pool here is so nice. Today I even went in the deep end - all five feet of it :-) Apparently, playing with Elise makes me not think about my fears of that scary water.

My mom has this crazy idea that we should start giving E swimming lessons, and she heard somewhere that it's fine to teach them to go under water and that they will learn to hold their breath on their own. I, however, think she's crazy and I'm not sticking the poor baby under water. Crazy grandma. She also tested out E's floaty toy today. It will hold a grown woman, but I kiboshed that fun right quick. E likes it, so busting it when we still have 2 months of pool time left would not be good.

She's so comfy, she's falling asleep in the turtle :-)

She loves to try and stand on me - the whole weightlessness thing must be fun.

She's a happy, happy baby!

I'm a loser, baby . . .

. . . so why don't ya kill me.

I cannot get that song out of my head. It's fitting though. The loser part, that is. Don't anyone get any ideas ;-)

4th of July came and went. Normally that is one of my favorite holidays, but it's just not the same. It's no fun 'oohing' and 'ahhing' all by yourself. E was cranky from her shots, so I decided to wing it. We went to my dad's and had dinner. I dressed her up in the outfit they got for her, even though for some reason the 'All American Girl' it says on it really irks me for some reason. I'm stumped as to why I have this aversion to that phrase. Anyways, she looked cute as could be, and tolerated grandpa holding her for a little bit before deciding she wanted nothing but Mommy.



Alright. Blogger here is not letting me put anymore pictures on right now, but I have two more I wanted to add. So I suppose I will play with it later. Phooey.

Anyways. Back to the 4th. By the end of dinner, E had had it. She was tired and cranky and absolutely ready for bed. So, I reluctantly skipped out on the fireworks plans I had with my mom, and we went home, where she promptly passed out. I then spent the rest of the night cleaning the apartment and running out onto the balcony (seriously, running down the hallway and to the door - I'm a dork) to catch the fireworks someone was setting off behind the complex. Whoever it was must have spent a ton on them, because it was an impressive display and the spurts of explosions lasted almost an hour.

If she's up to it, I might take E and go watch the fireworks in somewhere on Saturday. We'll see.

E's Well Baby

Why, yes, she is a very well baby :-)

This morning I took E in for her two month checkup and vaccinations. She has grown so much. I was really surprised at how long she has gotten - 25 inches! I know she looks long, and is growing out of all her clothes, but seeing it on paper is kinda shocking. She weighs nearly 13 pounds, and is on the top end of the percentiles. My mom went with us and was being her strange self, raving about how "Mommy's Milk" is working so well. She gets a little over-excited at these things.

The pediatrician we saw was horrible. She dismissed most of my questions, wouldn't discuss developmental time lines, and basically told me I shouldn't be using cloth diapers and should get a membership to "one of those clubs" so I could afford disposables. Not cool. Thankfully, we won't have to see her again any time soon.

After stopping at JoAnn Fabrics (still working on my project - slowly) and the park, we came home and took a nice long nap. Then this evening, we walked (okay, so I walked, E was chauffeured around) up to the ice cream place, which just opened finally. I am now in love with their Pink Champagne Sherbet. It was awesome.

E was rockin' the pink camo bandaides all day from her shots :-)

The First Project

I'm beginning my first project tonight on my new old sewing machine. It's a bit ambitious, to say the least. The next few evenings will consists of ripping apart an ACU shirt so I can piece it back together in the form of my 'project'. I've been advised by my local sewing expert - mom, of course - that I better not expect this to be easy. No kidding. This fabric is a pain in the first place, let alone lining it up right and not having the machine eat it. I'm embarking on a learning experience. Wish me luck!

E must be going through a growth spurt, because her number one interest is sleeping lately. Followed closely by eating, of course. Today while my mom visited, she spent most of the four hours sound asleep. Her time was divided between my chest and the couch. Such a carefree life :-)

The turtle

I have a blow-up turtle in my living room. He floats, and has a sun canopy and a little seat. And the baby loves him.

We went down to the pool early this afternoon, before the storm rolled through. I came to the realization of how my summers have changed. Now I look outside and think "Oh, it's cloudy - perfect time to go to the pool!" A far cry from my usual baking in the sun for hours.

Anyways, we went to the pool and E got to float around on the turtle. She had a ball. Legs kicking, babbling and squawking (yes, she squawks). The heater is fixed, and it was the perfect temperature. Wonderful experience today.

After we came back up, she was patient enough for me to get a picture of her in today's bathing suit.



Then she got cranky and started sucking her thumb.



So, I cheered her up with a bath :-)

Still here

I'm still here. I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth yet. Don't worry.

First, I got sick. The flu with a baby is no fun. But she's a good baby, and we survived.

Then, I kept meaning to post, but wanted to put in this video. Which has taken me four long nights of fighting with the computer to do just what I wanted it to do. But, I won.

So, here it is. E and her first time really swimming in the pool. It was the perfect temperature and she actually seemed to enjoy it, unlike the other times where she only lasted 2 minutes with her feet in before she got mad cause it was too cold . . . please excuse the excessive boobage. I hadn't realized just how much E pulled my top when she grabbed it, and my mother was kind enough to get it on tape without warning me. (It's really not that bad, though. I don't think :-)

Happy Father's Day :-)

Happy Father's Day to M, and my own dad, of course. The baby and I went to visit him, and we went out to a car show. It was unbelievably hot, but still pretty fun. Lots of old cars, not so much of the muscle cars. We gave the jogging stroller a workout, it does pretty good on grass and bumpy gravel.

Happy Two Months to E! She's gotten so big! *sniff* My little girl is growing up already.



This morning before heading out to church, we took a few minutes out on the balcony to smell the flowers and listen to the birds. I'm super excited that my Calamondin tree decided not to die and actually has a ton of flowers on it. Maybe it will even bear some fruit. Not that I'll be eating those atomically sour things, but hey, it would be cool to have a citrus bear fruit all the way up here.


E is getting the hang of sitting in her Bumbo seat, just not for too long, or her neck gets tired. (It must be rough having such a big, old head). She's just about grown out of my favorite favorite sleeper that I put her in. I call it her bunny suit. I've gotten real good at making up random names for things. But yeah, it's about time to retire the bright pink sleeper, before she busts holes in the feet.

Daddy, I want a pony!

It's in her blood. She's got the bug, the fever. She's a horse lover already. She actually reached out and pet KC. She smiled, she babbled and gurgled (if she could giggle yet, I'm sure she would have). Leadline class - here we come!

*disclaimer to her daddy* He doesn't bite, and he likes the baby. Honest! She was never in danger :-)

We have a thumb sucker!

She finally found it. And it must have been really tasty, cause she sure was happy about it. At least now I know we have a back up if I misplace the pacifier.


Today, we went downtown to pick up a birth certificate. Found the court house, waited in line, paid the ridiculous fee, and got a nice and new copy. It was a beautiful day, so we wandered around outside for a while. It was basketball fever all around, with a big old festival looking thing set up, music blaring and a certain famous player's namesake stuff everywhere. We sat and people watched for a while by the fountains.


A few minutes after sitting down, the sprinklers came on and the wind picked up every drop of water and misted it all in our direction. So, we moved on and headed back towards the car, stopping at the park overlooking the stadium and lake. M called and E patiently studied the tree nearby while we chatted. I completely forgot to mention to him the giant windmill (wind harnessing machine or whatever its called) that had been put up on the lake. I found it amusing that the city would invest in one, but only one. All that wind and they would only put in one. Makes no sense.


On a completely unrelated note, I want my hair back! It's still too short to put up in a ponytail and is constantly in my face. Really really annoying.

A Three Minute Drive to the Past

It takes exactly three minutes to drive from my mom's house to M's parent's house when driving like a reckless high schooler.

I am, and always have been perpetually late. Tonight, as I was speeding up 306 between the houses, I had such a feeling of deja vu. How many times did I peel out of the driveway like a bat out of hell, and fly over to M's house, pulling in at least 10 minutes late. Only now, there's a baby in the backseat, and M isn't standing in the driveway waiting for me to get there.

Such warm and fuzzy memories are all over B-Town (like certain parking lots, eh? ;-). It just seems so unnatural to be sitting at his parent's kitchen table and the fourth chair is empty.

Watermelon and chlorine

The two smells of the day.

I ate an entire chunk of watermelon today. Probably a good 1/4 of a whole one. And it was delicious. Sweet and juicy and now my kitchen smells like watermelon. Which makes me wish I had another big, old chunk. I foresee a walk to the store on the agenda for tomorrow.

This afternoon, after a glorious, long nap, I woke up to an incredibly toasty apartment. The thermometer on the balcony window said it was 95. That's hot for here, considering yesterday was in the 70s. So, I woke up E (someone did not want to get up, she would have slept the whole day away I think) and we went down to check out the pool for the first time. I found her an adorable swimsuit at Old Navy and she looked so darn cute. Stark contrast from me, though. Simply put, I desperately need to find myself some new bathing suits, now that certain assets have changed size. I did squeeze into one, just for today, and it was almost obscene. Thankfully there was only some strange, older woman down at the pool, and no young children to be scarred by the view. We stayed down there for only a little bit, cause I was worried the water might be too cold for E. But she seemed to enjoy herself, splashing her little legs around. I was pretty entertained by the realization that she floats. Holding her under her arms, her behind and legs will just float on up. So cute. It was just the right pick-me-up for this afternoon. I can't wait for someone to come hang out with me there so we can get her on tape.

Cloth rocks!

I am officially addicted. Cloth diapers are the bomb. Turns out, they're no more disgusting than disposables, look absolutely adorable, and will end up costing a heck of a lot less - providing I squash this addiction and stick with just what we need. Heh, sure, that'll be an easy task.

Here, E is wearing the brightest lime green diaper I've ever seen, and a smile to match!


Yes, she's now smiling all the time. I had her sitting next to me and was reading aloud. I looked over, and there she was, grinning her giant, gummy smile. It's enough to make ya melt. And on the topic of reading material - she seems to prefer my Russian fairy tales to anything I've read in English. A girl after my own heart. However, the Russian folk songs I've been singing haven't had much effect. Maybe it's my singing though . . .

Silence is not Golden

I sit with the TV on all night, just to hear the noise. I lay awake at night, listening to the baby breathe. I get lost in my thoughts when there is nothing to listen to. And lately, my thoughts are not where I want to be lost. They make me cry.

So I play music I don't like, just to drown the silence.

Garage sales

This morning my mom and I hit the local neighborhood garage sale. It was hot and humid, the traffic was brutal, and pickings were slim. However, we did score a Pack'n'Play for $15 that's nearly new, and a pop-up beach shade tent thingy for $8. Now I have a PNP to have at any of the grandparent's houses, and a shady spot for the beach next year.

Here's to more garage sale-ing and scores throughout the rest of the summer.