Seven Eleven

This little girl is six months old today. Nora's been doing all kinds of funny stuff lately. I'll just list it here: She constantly babbles. When she cries now, she goes, "Maaamaaa," and it's really, really sad. She started rubbing, caressing, and pulling her own hair while she nurses.  She also does gymnastics while nursing, which is not my preference. She attacks my keyboard when I'm at the computer. She likes to stand up (with our help). She peed in the potty yesterday. (We got the chamber pot yesterday, and she peed in it the first time I sat her on it! It was so awesome! I think she had a blast while doing it 'cause she had a huge grin on her face.) She doesn't like to sleep anymore. She really gets chuckling when she's playing with her daddy. She likes Hobbes, and I think she likes it when he licks her hand. I, however, do not like that. He knows he's not supposed to do it, either, but he can't help himself. He just looks at me with his puppy dog eyes and licks her hand anyway while I yell at him. She sticks her tongue out a lot. She can sit up somewhat unassisted for a short period of time. She rolls over both ways, but she's not -like- rolling across the room or anything yet. She rubs her eyes when she's tired. She also freaks out and squirms now when she's tired. She doesn't let me vacuum the house unless she's strapped to my person. She thinks I'm funny sometimes. She still likes Spoon's "The Underdog." She's wearing size 6-9 months right now. Some of the six months stuff doesn't fit her. She yells for a good, long time in the morning after I nurse her in bed. For overnight visitors, I'm sure this isn't very much fun. For me, it's kind-of funny. She likes to splash in baths now. She coughs to be silly sometimes. She likes to bounce. She loves her feet. She cuddles with me sometimes. She has yet to be sick (knock on wood). She smiles at just about everyone she sees. She loves the baby in the mirror and pretty much any other baby she meets. She's started laughing a little bit as she falls asleep while nursing. I'm not sure what's up with that, but it's pretty stinking funny. Maybe she has her mother's uncanny ability to fully recall a funny scenario when it's long since passed. This very ability is the reason I've been known to burst out laughing in church and other similarly serious places. This could be a problem. She's such a sweet little girl. In other news, my canister vacuum cleaner arrived at Walmart yesterday, so I ran over to pick it up with Nora when she decided not to nap for me in the morning. I used it today (with a kid strapped to my back as usual), and it was pretty sweet. I think it's actually got better suction than my Dirt Devil upright vac ever had. That's somewhat unfortunate since that Dirt Devil vac was -like- 200 bucks or something nuts like that. By the way, I did discover that the belt broke on the Dirt Devil. I'm trying to order a new one, but it just so happens the website isn't working properly. Walmart doesn't stock that size of belt, either. It's just wonderful. So, we'll have a few vacuums. Maybe I'll keep the Dirt Devil in the basement since it's got a long cord, and it'll reach everywhere down there. Even though two people have told me they want the sand (off of my Craigslist post), it still sits on our finished patio. I told them, "First come, first serve, so get over here and grab it!" That didn't seem to be a hot enough fire for their butts. So, that's unfortunate and annoying. We've been trying to get quotes from some contractors for our bathrooms. We made four appointments. So far, only one guy has shown up out of three appointments. I thought contractors were -like- hurting for work or something. Guess not. I was originally going to do the bathrooms myself, but Willis decided he'd rather have his sanity. I tend to go a little OCD when I'm doing projects. Willi and I are watching Riley, my sister-in-law's rat terrier. She's been a fairly well-behaved dog in general. Nora can't stop staring at her, and the cat finally got used to her. In fact, the cat and Riley had a stare-down yesterday, and I was finally able to note that my cat is, indeed, the same size, if not a little taller than Riley. Weight-wise, though, I think Riley wins. She's a tank. Someone will have to explain this to me, but this dog (Riley) somehow manages to only stand on her two front legs when she pees while her back legs float in the air. I see her do it every time, but I still don't believe she's actually doing it. I ask you. If it weren't such an unattractive idea on paper, I might try to get a photo of it sometime. I just can't bring myself to do it, though. I mean—I'd be taking a photo of a dog peeing, for crying out loud. It's a sight to see, though, I must say. One for the books. Randy and Kelly are having a garage sale today and tomorrow, and it inspired me to get rid of some clutter. So, I brought a bunch of stuff over to their house to let them sell. Hopefully, it all goes. If not, I'll be grabbing up the remainder and trucking it straight to Goodwill. Tomorrow is the Brown family reunion. I haven't been to a reunion for my hub's family, so this should be a new and exciting experience. We're hosting some people in our house Saturday night after the reunion (cousin Betsy is one of 'em, and she's got cat allergies). Thus, the vacuuming and the urgency for it. My Nora pie is squealin', so I'm gonna pick her up, change her diaper, put her on the potty in the process, and play with her until Daddy gets home. I'm done with computers for the day, I think. Dilly out.