Little People Need Little Tools

Nora has been absolutely obsessed with any and all cleaning items lately. She mostly loves our broom and our dust mop. I always feel so bad whenever she tries to play with these things because not only are they nasty (because they have been well-used), but they are also way, way too big for her. I've been on the search, for a few months, to find some kid-sized cleaning tools so that she can feel a bit more helpful. My friend, Lena, turned me towards Montessori Services today (www.montessoriservices.com). I had been searching on the NOVA Natural Toys and Crafts website, and I was disappointed at the price. (I also checked with Freecycle to see if anyone had anything like this lying around, but nobody has responded.) Check out what I found:

I found this awesome corn broom. Now, Nora will be able to help me sweep
up the kitchen (or maybe even the basement since she loves it down there).


And this was a little dusting set. It comes with a dust mop,
a dust pan, and a little wisk broom. I'm totally thrilled.

I found these things for under $25 including shipping! So, I'm pretty excited. They have some awesome yard/gardening tools and some other really neat things on there that I'm going to be looking into near Christmas/Birthday time as well. I think Nora would really get a kick out of this stuff (I always enjoyed the toys that were "real" things that you could actually use).

And yes: I'm aware that this probably makes me boring. What are you gonna do?

P.S. I'm Still a Bit Phlegmmy

It's annoying, but it's true. I still seem to have a bit of the cold leftover, and it's really annoying. It gets microscopically better everyday, though, so maybe it'll go away someday. Maybe.

That is all.

This and That and Probably Some TMI

Life has been pretty busy for this lady. Nora has been getting into a lot more than she used to, so that's been taking a lot of my attention. She's also started "negotiating" with me, but I have no idea what she's saying. All I know is that she's completely serious and quite irritated with me when this happens. It typically happens at the end of baths (when I'm asking her if she's all done) and when she's grabbing the diaper sprayer off of the toilet (when I'm telling her to put it back).

   

I love how Nora sits on her knees when she's playing with her toys. She just looks so tiny like that—and so focused!

 

She's also saying a new word every day, it seems. I can't keep track of all of the words she's been saying. I do know that she's consistently signing "please," now. So, that's really cool. When Willis gets milk for her in the morning, she often times doesn't want to say please, but after he wears her down for a good three minutes (can you say, "Please?"), she typically gives in. It cracks me up. I always come downstairs in the morning to this little argument (she seriously gets aggravated with him about it). It's awesome.

 

Nora's a chatty little thing. I just wish I had a clue as to what she is saying. Every day, it sounds a little more like real speech, and I know that understanding her isn't terribly far off. It's just so funny to hear, though, and it's funny how serious her face can be when she's "telling" me something.

 

She also still sings a lot, and I still totally love that. I can't wait until we can tell what songs they are, too.

 

 

Here are some belly photo attempts from today. Nora caught sight of the camera and went after it in that middle photo. That's definitely her hand over the lens, and that's my belly behind her (I'm trying to prevent her from getting her mitts on the camera).

 

In other news, I have been making BLATs for lunch this week. I've been craving them. (BLATs are bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwiches.) De. Lish.

 

Also, can someone tell Subway to stop it with their Five Dollar Foot Long ad campaign already? I'm about ready to bomb something, and it's all Subway's fault (and all the idiots they've got in their commercials).

 

In other other news, I had to take Hobbes to the vet yesterday. He had been licking his bum for about 36 hours straight, and that's not normal for him. It turns out that he had an abscessed anal gland. The vet had to lance it. How sick is that? He's still licking his bum nonstop, unfortunately. I imagine that it's itchy and healing now. He's on meds for it, and it's quite ridiculous. I really can't wait for him to quit licking his bum 'cause it also makes me want to break things and not sleep. It's a little better today in frequency, I suppose, so I have hope that tomorrow will be even better. Sick dog.

 

Oh, and I drugged him before I took him to the vet. He has a bit of an anxiety issue when I take him there, and I bought some tranquilizer pills from the vet so I could drug him before he comes. Unfortunately for me, he was so freaked out about going there that the drug didn't affect him until, like, two hours after we got home. We had major issues getting him up onto the table, and that punk weighs 56 pounds. They didn't make me try long (it's fairly obvious I'm pregnant and shouldn't be wrestling with a flailing 56 pound dog up above my shoulders—although I do wrestle with a nearly 25 pound fish-toddler above my shoulders now and again). They took him into the back, and I think they may have had to drug him even more to do the lancing procedure (they didn't mention to me that they did, but Hobbes was a lot more hungover than usual yesterday afternoon/evening). Yiiiiick. So, that was fun. Not.

 

Whelp. That's all for now. You kids have a good day.

She'll Dance to Anything

I forgot to mention this, but on Tuesday, our neighbors were starting up their lawnmower for the first time of the season. When they got it going, it sort of put-putted for awhile before it got up to speed. While it was put-putting, I looked over at Nora and she was doing a little dance to the beat of the put-puts. She was just bouncing up and down with her feet on the ground, and she had a look on her face of total satisfaction (like, "Yeah. That's it"). It was quite a sight to see.

Currently, she's dancing to the ring tones on the spare cell phone that I've given her.

Phlegmmy

Well, I took the last of the Z-pack today. I'm hoping really hard that this cold clears up now. If you had asked me Wednesday (the day of the funeral and much driving), I'd have told you that the Z-pack wasn't working (which was so weird to me since I felt almost instantly better after the first two-pill dose). I was hacking up so hard in the car on the way home from Seymour, I was sure I had a virus or something. As of yesterday (a few hours after taking the fourth pill of the Z-pack (Z-pack is five doses/days long for those on the home team), I wasn't hacking anymore. Right now, I'm still a bit phlegmmy, but I have high hopes that the worst cold of my life will be outta here by the time Willi gets home.

We did have our bedroom window open last night, though, and part of me wonders if that's the reason I actually feel better. I just hope I win. Today.

Toddlerama

Miss Nora is a full-fledged toddler these days. She's been doing lots of running, climbing (more on that in just a moment), and lots of tantrum throwing. Her tantrums aren't completely terrible. She gets good and mad at me, and sometimes she even hits or kicks me when she gets mad. I spend a lot of time saying things like, "We do not hit," and waiting for her to calm down.

This week, Nora started moving my office chair to climb up to the phone that's hanging on my wall. She's wiped out on it a couple of times (she usually does this when I try to snag a shower or when I'm, like, in the bathroom or something), but that doesn't seem to dissuade her from doing it over and over again. (Some photos of her doing this are below.)

This morning, while I was giving Nora some regularly scheduled naked time (and while I was picking out an outfit for her to wear for the day), she pulled my office chair up to my desk and actually climbed clear up on top of it. I walked in here to find her squatting between my home computer and my work computer with my camera in hand. Luckily, she didn't pee or anything. Good grief, man. I never would've expected that she could get clear up there! I'd have totally taken a picture of it if a.) she hadn't been totally in the buff and b.) she didn't have the camera in her clutches. It looks like life might have just gotten a bit more interesting for me (and by interesting, I mean complicated).

She has started being interested in "cleaning" whenever I bust out the vacuum, a broom, the dust mop, or the dust rags. So, yesterday, I took my friend Brenda's advice (she suggested I get real cleaning supplies that Nora can use—brilliant!) and picked her up a duster (washable microfiber) so she can help out whenever cleaning time happens (which I'll admit is probably more rare than it should be with the fur-flinging jerks we have around here).

I need to get to work this morning, so I'll go ahead and take this time to post some photos from the last week. Enjoy!

Funeral, Pets, and General Grossness

Oof. I am seriously tired, but I'm going to take a moment to update about what we've been up to the last 48 hours.

On Tuesday night, we drove to Lafayette, crashed at the Brown house (nobody was home but the doggies), and Wednesday, we got up really, really early and headed down to Seymour for Willi's uncle Gary's funeral (he is technically my uncle Gary, too, but I thought I should clarify since I actually have another Uncle Gary from my dad's side of the family).

At the funeral, we saw some family we hadn't seen in a long time, so that was nice. Some people even got to meet Nora for the first time.

The service for Uncle Gary was really quite lovely (good hymn choices and sweet messages from everyone involved). I'm grateful that Nora didn't freak out and crawl away under the pews. She did fairly well (she wasn't perfect, by any means), but she did better than she could have.

After the luncheon, we hopped in the car and headed home with one, quick pit stop in Lafayette to pick up the dog. We discovered that Abby, the Browns' lovely cairn terrier, magically had gotten out of her cage and the room in which she was closed (by a door, nonetheless). Nothing serious was lost except for a pair of my underwear (we had our stuff sitting in the kitchen ready to go). I did my best to clean up the tissues she had shredded and strewn everywhere from the bathroom trash cans. I can only imagine what the rampage must've looked and sounded like (I imagine a lot of growling and pitter-pattering all over the house). I can also only imagine how she got out—maybe with the help of a particular lanky cat? I think this all sounds much like a Disney movie waiting to happen. This was also, apparently, her first jail break. Watch out, guys!

Nora hasn't been sleeping well this week. I think it's because we've been on the road more than usual, and it's really exhausted her. Last night, she woke up three times (and the previous night in Lafayette, she woke up twice). The third time, I finally just dragged her into bed with us because I couldn't sit with her and rock her back to sleep one more time—I was exhausted (she only wants me when she wakes in the night, too). She doesn't typically sleep with us (I don't sleep well when she's in bed with us), but I was just that desperate. Today, I'm a lot more tired than I've been in a long time.

When we got home yesterday, we remembered that it was "Spring Cleanup Day" in our community. We had visions of grabbing a couch from our basement, cutting it in half (it wouldn't fit up the stairwell unless it was in pieces), and throwing it on the curb for this particular day. As soon as we pulled into the driveway (from Seymour), Willis hopped out of the car, went downstairs, and started ripping it apart. I'm glad to say that he was successful, and that disgusting couch was gone. Unfortunately, that gross couch had lots of creepy remnants inside it from the previous owners (I bought the couch for $50 at the mission outlet store in Lafayette shortly before Willi and I got married). Among the creepy remnants was a photo of two kids and a dog passed out on said couch, some GI Joe legs, nail clippers (shudder), an empty plastic bottle, a matchbox car, a ball (probably belonged to the dog), and some other stuff. So, so gross. I'm glad it is gone. Now, we can start the cleanup process of the basement (and get a play area set up for Nora)!

While Willi was ripping the couch apart, I discovered some cat vomit near the dog and cat food containers (thank God I have their food sealed off in plastic containers down there). Our cat is an avid vomiter, but this particular time, his vomit had remains of something other than just cat food. After some analyzing (and after stepping on it, like, three different times because I'm a moron), I realized it was a mouse. I have never seen a mouse in this house until that moment. (Also, thank God I am not easily nauseated during this pregnancy.)

By golly, that cat is actually good for something. It's about time. He earned himself a few pats on the head last night (even though I was a bit traumatized that I kept stepping in it—that is pretty much my fault for not cleaning it up right away while roaming around down there looking for items to throw out for "Spring Cleanup").

In other news, Nora is taking a fairly glorious nap today. She's about to close in on her third hour of snoozing. So, hopefully, this will get her back to normal. Willi and I, on the other hand, still need to catch up on some sleep. Oi. I'm also trying to catch up on some work. So, I'd better get back to that. Catch you kids later!

In Honor of All the Babies that Are A-Brewin' Right Now

"Babies everywhere!"

Grateful

I am grateful for two things (other than my usual) today:

1. I am grateful they fixed the elevator at my OB's office. I'm not sure I could've drug myself, Nora, and her bag of entertainment up three flights of stairs with the remnants of this death cold I've got going on.
2. I'm grateful for the Z-pack that my CNM prescribed me so I can whip this cold once and for all. I took the first dose over an hour ago, and already, I'm hacking up much, much less of a lung.

In other news, baby boy Brown is cruisin' right along all quiet-like. I've only gained three pounds so far, apparently. I eat like a champ, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I'm not too worried (and my CNM didn't seem terribly worried—although she did tell me to eat more). I don't know if I can eat more than I already do, though.

Baby boy Brown's heartbeat is a bit slower than I remember Nora's being. His was clocking in at 146 today, and I remember Nora's being in the low 150s, I think.

Speaking of Nora, she totally cried when the nurse took my blood pressure (and I think it made the nurse kind-of sad). She also cried when Lisa (my CNM) was checking the baby's heartbeat. She's never done that before. What a weird little girl! I was sure to tell the nurse that she cried when Lisa checked the baby's heartbeat—just to assure her that it wasn't her that Nora didn't like.

That's all for now! Dilly out.

Two Things—Right Quick

Firstly, Nora has started singing lately. It's got to be the cutest sound I've ever heard.

Secondly, here are a few pics of Nora's hair after her bath this morning. Some of 'em are squished down because she was trying to "put on" a sweater this morning. They were much more fabulous just after her bath.

  
Dilly out for now! Have a good weekend!