I Know I'm Boring, and I'm Okay With That

As usual, I'm waiting for my work computer to load. It's taking for-stinking-ever, for some reason. In fact, my personal computer is taking for-stinking-ever today, too. I'm not sure what's up with that. I'm not a fan.

In other news, I did another stint of single parenting over the weekend. Willi had to go to the Annual Sales Meeting for work, and he had to stay overnight in Merrillville. Nora and I went to church without him on Sunday, and he didn't get home until about 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. I'm about done with all this nonsense. He's only got one more evening of serious time consumption, and then that should be it for awhile. Thank God.

On Sunday after church, Nora took a good nap for me, and I got a chance to sit around and watch all kinds of movies that were on AMC. I caught the entirety of Mystic River. Holy crap. Have you seen that movie? It's rather depressing. It's particularly hard to watch if you have at least one kid. Other than that, I was flipping through some other movies from time to time. Those movies were The Family Stone, Wedding Crashers, Apollo 13, Working Girl, some Richard Gere movie, and The Object of My Affection. I might have caught some of these on Saturday night or Sunday morning, too. Those two days are kind-of blending together now. It was sweet, though. I haven't vegged out like that in a long time.

Here are some recent photos of the rascal.

      

This kid took almost a four-hour nap this afternoon. Now, she's all cranky. She just woke up. She is typically cranky for a little while when she wakes up from her nap. It's pretty sad. I'm not sure why that is. She just always wakes up crying, and then nothing I can do will cheer her up (except for maybe getting her some juice).

 

It got fairly warm on Saturday. All the giant icicles melted off all the houses around here, and a large portion of the snow is gone. There's still snow covering most of the ground, which is unfortunate. I expect that most of it will be gone after Tuesday (it's supposed to get rather warm tomorrow). We actually had our windows open for part of the day, and Willis and I even sat on the front porch for awhile when Nora was napping. (I would equate us to turtles sitting on a log at a pond or something. We had to get out and feel the sun, man.) I wasn't even chilled! It's days like that one that make me really yearn for spring. I have a feeling that tomorrow's going to be a lot like that, too.

 

In other news, my hair is looking absolutely fabulous lately. I could totally be in a Pantene commercial or something. It's almost ridiculous how thick and luscious it is. Unfortunately, I'd be disqualified from any commercials right now because my skin is breaking out like I'm fourteen again. I guess we can't have it all at the same time, can we?

 

I've really not got much else to report. I've been keeping busy with this little, walking rascal and work. Baby number two is still on the way, and he/she is fairly soft-spoken so far. Don't hold me to my word or anything, but I'm kind-of getting a boy vibe this time. I say this because I'm much less emotional than I was when I was pregnant with Nora. In fact, I'm much less emotional right now than I am when I'm not pregnant. So, that's why I'm thinking this one could be a boy. We'll see. I think I was thinking that Nora was a boy near the end of my pregnancy, though, so I don't think I'm very good at this game.

 

Nora's still cranking out on me at the moment, and my work computer stuff finally loaded. So, now I can go downstairs and try to enjoy the evening for a bit before Willi comes home and lets me go to yoga.

 

Dilly out!

She Just Wanted Some Juice

Nora woke up from her nap at about a quarter to three, and she was just irreconcilable. Nothing I could do would make her happy. I did do some deep squats with her in my arms, and I guess she chuckled at those, but only briefly. If I put her down or did anything else, she was back to screaming. After about ten minutes of trying to cheer her up, I finally realized that she was saying, "Juice."

So, I went downstairs, got her some juice (while she waited at my feet), and I cut up half of a banana and put it in a little bowl for her. Now, she's sitting in the hallway by the mirror, and she's happily watching herself eat and drink. She occasionally stops to giggle and talk to her reflection. She flashed me a good smile a few moments ago as well.

Oh! And now, she's wearing her bowl as a hat. She's gotten into putting her plates and bowls on her head lately. This means that I'm going to have to bathe her every day, most likely. I definitely smelled strawberry jelly in her hair earlier today (and she's got a great, stiff-looking do).

I wasn't kidding when I said this kid is growing up. It's all happening right now.

Nora's Walkin' Now

It's kind-of strange. She didn't just all-of-a-sudden start walking. She basically just eased into it. She'd take a step now and then, and she'd sink down to her bum. Then, sometimes she'd take two or three steps from one place to another. Now, in the last two days, I'm pretty sure I've caught her walking from room to room without any help. I think she walked from the hallway into my office yesterday, and then today, I'm pretty sure I just watched her walk from the bathroom to her bedroom and then back out to the hallway. I'm actually blogging right now just to make sure that this isn't a dream or something that I've imagined. I've had dreams where she's walked before, and I just kind-of thought that when she really started walking, there'd be, like, some sort of fanfare that says, "Hey! She's walking now!"

I can't actually mark the day that she started walking. Isn't that kind-of sad? She just eased into it, and she continues to do so. If there ever were a gray area for walking, we're kind of coming out of it.

She still wants me to grab her hands and walk her around (she demands it, actually), but I think she's about to do it all solo very soon.

Check this out (this just happened):

And this one is from yesterday. I thought I was going to catch her walking back out of my office (I had caught her walking into the office just before I started recording):

Here are just a couple of cute pics from this morning. She was playing so well by herself.

She's growin' up on us.

Little Rat

Don't have your volume up to max on these. My stupid laugh might just blow your speakers.

 

She just kept climbing on this thing to get my attention all morning. We've got to find a new "hiding place" for that sort of business.

Baked Ziti

Willis made some baked ziti last night (with Italian sausage). It looked (and smelled) very labor-intensive. Nora and I just had the leftovers for lunch, and I must say, it was stinking scrumptrilescent. The guy likes to cook, and I'm probably not going to stop him from doing that. Ever.

Single Parenting and Groundhog Day

Willi left this morning to go to Pittsburgh for work. He won't be back until late tomorrow night. This kind-of thing always bums me out a bit because I actually do like having the guy around as much as possible. The next couple weeks are going to be similar to this one, unfortunately. For some reason, the month of February is always a busy month for work (big sales meeting, big dealer meeting, and some other random stuff gets thrown in there, too). I used to be involved with a lot of that before I had a kid, but since Nora's been born, I've not had to do all that stuff. It's kind-of funny, too, 'cause when I did have to deal with that stuff, Willis never had to go to it. Now, he has to go to it, and I don't. We just couldn't both have to go at the same time, I guess. Maybe someday.

 

So, I'm doing some single parenting for today and tomorrow. I'm really hoping that Groundhog Day is on TV at some point. I really like to watch that movie this time every year. I really like to watch it with Willis, too. We both enjoy that movie quite a bit.

 

Here are some photos and a cute video from yesterday.

             

 

I can't believe how grown up this kid is getting to be. It's kind-of freaking me out. It's going just a little too fast, I think.

 

I've had a sore throat since the middle of last week, and I'd really like for it to go away. I think both Nora and I have been fighting off something. I think Nora's got it tackled, but for some reason, I'm not having the same luck that she is. I hope she doesn't wear me out while Willi is gone. This could be interesting.

 

Alright. I've got lots to do. Catch you kids later.

40 Years Is a Good Run

Happy 40th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

I have to get that out there first.

I also have to throw out some new Nora updates.

• If I didn't mention this before, Nora says, "cookie."
• She also has to have one if she sees one. It's a problem.
• She used a napkin to wipe her own mouth this morning. She found one on the table, and she picked it up (all proper-like) and wiped her mouth with it. It was such a sight!
• She brushes her hair with any sort of brush or comb she finds.
• She also holds phones (play or real) up to her ear and "talks."
• She is taking a few steps, but she's not running around yet!

That is all!