Crankster

Boy, howdy. It's been a rough couple of days with this little rascal. She's been really fussy. I think it's because she's still sick. It also could partly be because I think she accidentally had some cow's milk yesterday. (I was changing Marian's diaper over at the Cooks', and when I turned around to check on Nora, she was drinking out of Marian's sippy cup! I didn't realize she actually knew what to do with a sippy cup yet!) She's had some diarrhea, and she's otherwise just been screaming at me a lot. That's been pretty difficult since the only thing I can do to cheer her up is nurse her, and she needs cheering up all . . . day . . . long. She's been grabbing her ear a lot lately, too, which has me a little bit worried.

This afternoon, however, she's done significantly better. So, maybe we're over the hump. I actually caught her smiling a few times, so I'll post a couple of photos of that. Plus, she actually ate her lunch today (she didn't eat a bite yesterday).

She's still crawling all over this house! I need to attach a dust mop to her somehow. I think that'd be rather helpful. I've been needing to vacuum and mop more than I ever did before. This is probably a good thing, but it's hard to find time for stuff like that some days.

Check out those choppers. Also, note the stain around her mouth from the carrots she ate for lunch. Hah.

I think I may take this opportunity to get out of the house with this little rascal. I need to get to the grocery, and I need to pick up a gift for a baby shower. Hopefully, it goes well.

Stupid Day

I went through the trouble of having Kelly watch Nora today while I had to run over to the doctor to get a booster shot from a round of shots I got about four weeks ago. I got to the doctor, waited in the waiting room, and then the nurse calls my name and says, "I need to talk to you," like I was in trouble or something. She proceeds to tell me that I'm supposed to wait six weeks instead of four weeks to get my shot. I stand there for a moment, trying to absorb what she is telling me, and I say, "So . . . wait. You mean I need to come back in two weeks from now?"

"Yes. We just looked up the recommendation, and it says six weeks instead of four."

"Oh. Okay," and then I leave.

In my mind, I'm saying, "Oh! Thanks, jerk. I should pull out this card and show you what you wrote on it: today's date. How about looking into that the next time I make an appointment?"

I was so irritated, I went ahead and canceled my other appointment I was supposed to have tomorrow with the doctor to discuss why I need an MRI on my wrist. No thanks, guys. No thanks. I'm pretty sure an MRI on my wrist isn't going to solve anything for me. It's not like I'd be willing to do surgery on it or anything like that right now. So, why bother? Dumb. I'll just go ahead and keep that office visit co-pay.

When I got home, I fed Nora and ate lunch, and then I put Nora down for a nap. She looked like she was going to sleep a good, long time, so I took it upon myself to attempt to get a bunch of stuff done around the house before getting back to work. By the time I went back to work, I discovered that my cable internet and phone were out. I spent the next couple of hours trying to get them back on. Once they were back on, I had a bit of a scare: my work computer wouldn't display anything on either of my monitors (which, by the way, it was a total blast unhooking my other monitor to hook it to my work computer). After shutting down, unplugging things, and restarting things several times, it finally just fixed itself. It was just so stupid. Stuff like this always happens when I am suddenly in high demand at work. It never fails. I could be cruising along for weeks with no problem (and no requests from anyone), and then, BAM! I get requests, and my cable internet goes out. I am sure they're probably thinking that I have issues with my internet all the time, but I seriously don't.

Nora did nap about three or so hours this afternoon, which was awesome and helpful. However, since she's been awake she's been a sad, little mess. What's sad: I just turned on the TV (out of desperation because I could not cheer up this kid), and she sat there, mesmerized. Now, she seems to be fine. I'm not sure I should be happy about that. I know kids her age aren't supposed to watch TV. She's not even watching anymore, but it's wild that it took that to get her to cheer up. Jeepers creepers.

Gah. I have laundry in the basement I forgot I was doing. Cripes. I think my file loaded for work, too. Gotta go.

Nora's Crusty

Sometimes on weekday mornings when Willi is up early, I will nurse Nora, and then I will take her in to Willi while he is reading things on the computer. That way, they can have some time together while Nora is all happy in the morning. The past couple of times I have done this, I have gone back to bed (I'm finding that it's getting harder and harder to sleep in as this girl gets mobile), and Willis has put Nora in her crib when he leaves for work. Believe it or not, this kid actually goes back to sleep when he does this, which amazes me. So, I get an extra 45 minutes to an hour of sleep on those mornings. It rocks.

Today, I went to pick Nora up out of her crib when she finally woke up the second time, and she was covered in an incredible, nasty, snot crust. I'm going to have to drop her in a bath to take care of it. It's truly astounding.

Hoping for a Good Week

It always helps the morale to post photos of Nora, so I thought I'd start with that. In one of those basket pictures (from today), you can see that her nose is totally running. It's awesome. She blew a bubble out her nose earlier today, and it was just about as gross as possible.

In the photo where she's semi-sitting up on her knees in her crib, I had just missed catching her full-out on her knees. A day or two later, she was definitely standing all the way up in the crib. So, that mattress is now at its lowest level as of last Monday.

This kid crawls EVERYWHERE. I'm not kidding. I installed baby gates at exactly the right time, 'cause she totally just started exploring this whole house. I am constantly having to find her. One second goes by, it gets quiet, and I'm panicking and saying, "Where did she go!?"

I typically will find her chasing after the dog. She moves so fast, though. So fast. My house seems so big right now: I can lose her in it so easily.

She still has a cold. She's still managed to be cheerful despite it. I've just been chasing her down and wiping her nose a lot. Daddy's done his share of nose-wiping, too, and he may very well be coming down with Nora's cold, as well.

I made homemade pasta sauce with our tomatoes over the weekend, and I canned them. I only got three cans out of what I found that wasn't rotten or half-eaten by chipmunks in our garden, but I also got two cans of tomato juice. So, that's pretty cool. I'm just amazed that I could do it and nothing exploded. I'm a bit wary of canning since my grandma about blew herself up doing that last year. They were using a pressure canner, though, from what I understand. I'm pretty proud of myself.

I also made chocolate-covered pretzels. Willi took most of those in for a "Chocolate Day" at work.

Ma and Pa stopped by on Saturday evening. We fed them bratwurst and potato salad. They got to see Nora in her snotty glory, and then they went on home. It was a good little visit.

I did some serious yard work yesterday while Nora and Willi had some time together, and our yard is looking fabulous. Our patio is pretty sweet, too. We had two fires on it over the weekend, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

I forgot to mention this, but I definitely changed the oil in our lawnmower a week ago. I was supposed to do it after the first five hours of operation. I might have been close. Might. I did learn, however, that there is no easy way to change the oil on a lawnmower. No, ma'am. I did it, though, and I think that makes me pretty cool. Willis says it's pretty sexy. That helps me feel better about things, of course.

Work seems to have picked up a bit for me, so that helps, too.

It's time for me to feed Nora her dinner, so I'm gonna peel out on a happy note. Catch you kids later.

This Makes Me Feel Better

She's Not Stopping!

We thought that since Nora started crawling like a pro on Friday, she'd slow down a little bit before moving onto the next milestone. Today, she definitely pulled herself up to her feet in her crib when I put her down for her afternoon nap. Willis was convincing me yesterday that we could wait until next weekend to lower her mattress. He thought she'd probably take a little break before reaching the "pull up to her feet" milestone. I know what we're doing tonight when he gets home (lowering that crib mattress). I think we're about to have a cruiser and a climber! I installed the baby gates yesterday after seeing her crawl all over the place this weekend.

Here are some cute videos from the weekend and today.






It's all going so fast. So. Fast. Slow down, kid! Let me get used to all of this!

In other news, Willis didn't need a canoe to get to work today. So, that's good. Our basement is still dry somehow, too. It amazes me (especially since the neighbors all have water in their basements, and one of our neighbors has a sink hole in their back yard that's about two feet in diameter).

We visited my Ps this weekend for a bit. We wish we could've stayed longer and enjoyed the visit some more.

Nora slept in until after 8 a.m. yesterday morning. It was glorious. We really needed that.

However, I really need a nap now, it would seem. Too bad I don't get one today.

Dilly out.

Eight Months of Awesome

January - First Month


February - Second Month


March - Third Month


April - Fourth Month


May - Fifth Month


June - Sixth Month


July - Seventh Month


August - Eighth Month


September - Eight Months Old