Two-Coke Afternoon

It's been a two-Coke afternoon sort-of day.

Nora's on nap number three at the moment, and I'm just sitting here waiting for stuff to load on both computers. Bah.

I even tried replacing some hardware on a big dresser to keep myself alert. Criminey. It turns out, I need to get some new screws because they never give you screws that are long enough when you're replacing hardware on something, it seems.

On the upside, though, the big dresser that we got for free is -like- real, solid wood. I thought it was a veneer or laminate finish, but I think this puppy is real. You don't find that sort of thing anymore. Its hardware is crap (probably from use), but at least it's a nice piece of furniture.

The weekend was seriously eventful. The Kaedings came into town Friday evening and stayed with us until Sunday. Nic had a bridal shower to attend in Schererville on Saturday, so they decided to make a weekend event of it over at our place.

Saturday morning, I made some parfaits for the first time for Nic, Jason, Willi, and me. I think I'll be making those a lot now because I really, really liked it. I'd never even had one before, but I decided to try it for a quick breakfast for the four of us on Saturday. I just used some frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries that I defrosted slightly by putting them in a strainer and running cool water over them), plain yogurt, and granola.

The Campbells and the Cooks came over Saturday afternoon, and we decided to have a cookout to feed everybody. Much to our dismay, our food turned out terribly. I made a homemade coleslaw and potato salad, and I added a little white onion (half of a small onion per salad). That white onion was -like- nuclear. It was so stinking harsh that it pretty much destroyed those salads. I've never had such a hot onion before. I swear I've been using those onions in other dishes and didn't come across one so hot. Maybe I've cooked them this whole time? It was serious. I think Willis must've been a little distracted while cooking the chicken 'cause that ended up fairly overcooked as well. It was kind-of sad. Luckily, we had some good desserts because Kelly and Bethy brought some over. Ay yay yay. I'm sure everybody probably went to bed hungry that night. I know I did. Well . . . almost. I went down and finished off the coleslaw later on that night. I had a glass of milk afterwards to calm down the fire that was roaring in my belly from those onions, too.

Sunday, Willi made biscuits and gravy for Nic, Jason, and me, we socialized with them for a bit, and then they took off. The rest of the day, Willi and I were pretty lazy except for when we ran outdoors for about an hour to plant some grass seed while Nora napped. She actually took three naps yesterday, too. During one of those naps, we napped for a bit on the couch ourselves.

Over the weekend, I think I discovered that I have seasonal allergies. So . . . that's fun. I've been getting sick like this every year for as long as I can remember. I bought a Neti Pot the other day, and I've been using it quite a bit. I think it's actually helping with sinus issues. It's not necessarily the sexiest thing in the world, but this lady really tries to make it sexy.



I mean: that's about as sexy as you can get with a Neti Pot right there. You go, girl.

I ran over my big toe with my office chair today. That hurt.

Oh. Speaking of klutzy things, I definitely broke the chimney on an antique lamp on Friday for the second time. I picked it up while I was cleaning, and it rattled off the stand. I, of course, tried to catch it, and, being the klutz that I am, I accelerated it towards the table instead of saving it. I totally lost. Twice. I had broken it before and replaced the chimney, and I found myself ordering a new one on Friday afternoon. It was sick. It was even more sick because the cost of that chimney has doubled since January. This could get expensive if I keep doing it. This is why we can't have nice things.

Nora has gotten to a point where she gets really fussy when she's tired, and the only thing that I can do to get her to calm down (besides nurse her, but when nursing doesn't work, I have to resort to this) is bounce on my big ball with her and squeeze her. It works like a charm every time. It also burns some serious calories, too.

I left some hardware out in the hallway up here, and the cat keeps attacking it and making all kinds of racket. I swear he's gonna wake up Nora. I've already punted him twice to keep him away from it. He is hardcore.

Okay . . . Willi's home. I've gotta get going. In the meantime, enjoy these recent photos.

Break Stuff

Isn't this the best!?


Here's Nora talking to herself during tummy time.

In other news, I have now broken the same lamp twice. Twice, I tell you. I ordered the same stinking replacement part again after I broke it, and guess what. It's twice the price now. My clumsiness is getting expensive. Yeah. I did that while cleaning the house today. Again.

Speaking of cleaning the house: holy crap. The dog and cat are shedding like crazy right now, and I can't keep up with it! I kept finding chunks of cat everywhere (yes: I said chunks of cat), and I about went mad! I just cleaned this place!

The cat keeps getting out lately, too. He's gotten all bold about opening the screen doors. The jerk. He's banished to the basement right now. We've got Nic coming this weekend, and she's allergic. There was a time that I used to feel bad about banishing the cat, but the little rat has been such a stinkin' nuisance lately, it'll be a nice vacation.

I couldn't do much for work today. The internet was apparently down there, so I couldn't connect via VPN. Thus, the cleaning and breaking things.

It was stupid windy again today. Our trash can was in the middle of the street this afternoon. Willis cleaned out our garage this weekend, though, so we can store the stupid trash cans indoors. Now, they won't blow away all the time. (Yeah. That's been a bit of a problem for us lately.)

I've gotta hit the showers. Willi will be home soon. He can't smell me like this. It's bad enough Nora has to.

Dilly out.

No-Nap Nora

Nora's got a blister on her thumb from sucking it so much. It's right at the nail bed on her left thumb. It's huge, and it's red. It looks like it hurts, but she doesn't seem to care. (I wonder if she's left-handed if she sucks her left thumb. She never sucks her right thumb. She can't seem to find that one.)

Nora took a glorious, three-hour nap yesterday afternoon, but today, she didn't want anything to do with naps. It was kind-of serious. She only took -like- two half-hour naps for me today. That little rat. She's so tired, too.

I wanted to get her out for a walk today, too, but the timing of her naps with my working at home just didn't jive well. Dang it. It's so pretty out there, too. It's perfect.

I'm still fighting a cold. It's not nearly as severe as the cold I had at the beginning or the end of my pregnancy (my "bookend pregnancy colds," I call them), but it's annoying nonetheless.

This little girl coos a lot. I am loving that. I knew she was awake this morning because she started talking away in her crib. It's so awesome that she coos instead of bawling in the morning. She only cries when she wakes up from naps, it seems. Even then, she's not really crying. She's just doing sad-sounding coos. Poor thing.

I made pasta fagioli (like from the Olive Garden) today in the crock pot. We're going to be eating that with a salad and garlic cheese bread here shortly. Mmmhmm. I hope it's good.

Here are some fun videos from the last few days. Enjoy!

Old Hank Was Out All Night the Night of the Earth Quake

Wow! Never in my life have a felt an earth quake, and sadly, I didn't realize that I was feeling one last night until Willis called me to confirm it today. 

Last night was a different sort of night than I'm used to. The day was actually nice and warm. We sat on the porch when Willi got home from work to celebrate the warmness. Nora liked it. I started getting a sore throat and a congested nose (bah!). Willi and I crashed in bed (and fell asleep) at the same time, which is also new since I'm usually feeding Nora when we go to bed. (I've started getting her to bed earlier than us now since she's sleeping in her room.)

Right at about 3:30 a.m., I awoke to the sound of what I thought, at first, was children, but then I realized it was tom cats fighting outside. Once I was wide awake and realized what I had heard, it occurred to me that the cat wasn't in the room with us (he's usually wedged up between Willi's legs so far that Willi's been known to say the words, "Well . . . the cat slept in my butt again last night"). So, I got up to go to the bathroom and looked around for him upstairs. He wasn't anywhere to be found up here, either. It occurred to me right then that I hadn't seen Hank since we were out on the porch. Mind you, we usually bring him out on the porch with us, but since we've had Nora, we don't usually let him in case he takes off on us. We can't rightly dump a baby to go chasing after a cat anymore.

So, anyway, at around 3:30ish, I realized that the cat had to be outside. I was, in fact, a wee bit concerned that the cat fight I heard moments before might have involved poor Hanker. He doesn't have much left as far as defenses go. He's got no front claws, and we took his manhood away. So, there's that. What's sad, though, is that I stood there thinking, "Well, I don't hear anything now, so he's either dead, far away from the house, or he's sitting by the door waiting to come in. If he's the latter of those, he'll still be there in the morning."

So, I went back to bed. I was also partially motivated to go back to bed because I wasn't feeling well (sore throat and congestion), and I heard Nora and Willis shifting in their beds because I was making all kinds of racket in the house.

At about 4:30, I awoke because our bed was rhythmically shaking—a lot! I looked over at Willis who was sitting up and looking at me. I think both of our faces said at first, "What the crap are you doing over there?"

Then, I think I said, "What the hell is that? Is that Hobbes?"

(Sometimes Hobbes is known to shake our bed. He sleeps in a bed next to our bed, but if his body touches our bed frame when he's -like- scratching or something stupid like that, he can move our entire bed.)

Willis just looked stunned. I think he was still basically asleep, but he says he remembers me asking if that was Hobbes. He says today that he didn't feel the rocking. He just said he heard sounds.

I almost yelled at the dog, but I didn't because I don't think I could've yelled if I wanted to (sore throat, again). Instead, I laid back down and went to sleep (the rocking only lasted a moment or two). Just before I dozed off again, I realized that I had heard the window frames cracking. I also heard the rest of the house settling after the shaking, too, and that doesn't normally happen. Our house is almost a hundred years old. It's done all the settling it's gonna do. I thought briefly, "I wonder if that was an earth quake or something."

Then, I was back to sleep before I knew it, and I was having multiple dreams that involved me having let the cat in during the night (thus, resolving the issue in my mind). Somehow, when Willis got up for work this morning, I managed to remember that I did not, in fact, let the cat in, and I told him that I was sure that Hank had to be outside. (I think the fact that I was able to remember that I didn't let him in was because in my dream, there was a TV in our bedroom.) So, Willi ended up walking around the house to look for the cat. It turns out, Hank was sitting near the back door, pupils dilated and all-freaked-out-looking. He looked unharmed, so he must've won the cat fight if that was him at all.

Willis called me from work this morning to confirm that what we felt last night was, indeed, an earthquake. (Check out this article.)

I said, "Wow. Old Hank was out all night the night of the earth quake."

He said, "The real question is, did one of them cause the other?"

The end.

Finally, a Pretty Day

Oh, man. It's so sweet out right now. I'm kicking myself for not being outside. I feel the blogging urge, though, so I'd better take care of that right quick. Then, it's outside for sure.

Nora slept in her crib last night for the first time. She's been sleeping through the night, and she's been napping in there. So, we decided it was time. It was fairly sad for me. I can't believe she's growing up so fast. I can't believe she's such a good baby. She did well with it, of course, like she does with everything in life so far. She still smiled at us in the morning. I hope she always does that.


This is Nora going crazy to a Ben Folds song. I'm not sure what it was about the old Ben Folds, but . . . she was going nuts!


This is Nora yelling at me during tummy time . . . as usual.

Here are some photos that I've taken in the last two days as well:




She's pretty sweet.

I think it's time to go outside.

Nora's Three Months Old, By the Way

Yeah. I can't believe I didn't post about this. Nora just turned three months on Friday. Here are some photos from around that day. I think some of these are actually from that day.

I used to post photos on facebook, but I've recently decided that this way is much easier. So, if you're hankerin' for photos of my little Nora Pie, this is the place to look.

She's a sweet little kid. I am really glad we decided to procreate.

My Brain Hurts

My brain hurts because I just spent a serious amount of time trying to find some free conversion software for AMR to MP3 that wouldn't destroy my computer. Hopefully, I succeeded. Only time will tell.

This is the sound of Nora on the changing table just before bed time. I had to do the sound recorder because that's the best way to capture her squeals and giggles.


This is me trying to catch Nora cooing. She stops when she sees the camera, so I have to hide it until she gets going.


This is Nora during tummy time. She is doing so well holding up her head lately!

Other than that, there's not much to report besides a little bit of stress in work and life. What're you gonna do?

Willi and I do need a serious vacation. Thank God it's only a month away!

The warm weather needs to make a commitment already.

Dilly out.