Click click, click click

That was the sound that alerted me to the following...

My daughter, the mountain goat. She was switching the light in her room on and off. Of course when I found her she was standing on the changing table, but I told her to sit down so I could run and get the camera...I wouldn't want to look like a careless parent, you know!

How she got up there, I'm not quite sure...scaling the side is my first guess. Lovely.

A love of her own

When we were having a lot of sleeping issues, people kept asking us if CiBaby had a "Lovey." The answer was always "No." Sure she had a lot of bears and dolls, blankets and such, but nothing she really bonded with or came back to day after day (besides T-Daddy and myself, which was very hard some days/nights).

Until Min. Their eyes met across the crowded room and it was love at first sight.

Min is her best bud. They do everything together...dance, talk, hug, run, throw-down, eat, share secrets, rock, etc. Never mind that CiBaby is convinced that Min is a monkey.

WDW was worth every penny.

Dollars and Sense - I am curious

I'm not trying to start a worldwide debate, I'm just curious. With American Airlines announcing Wednesday they are charging passengers for even 1 checked bag $15, more for the next ($25 for the second I believe) with the premise that it's because of soaring fuel prices it makes me wonder...Would people feel better about paying higher ticket prices or the baggage charge?

I see you are coming from all over the world now (yay!) so everyone please vote on the sidebar (don't worry, it's anonymous). If you have a comment feel free to add it. But like I said, I'm not trying to start a debate about this I'm just curious to see how people feel about it.

As of 5/30/08

Question: Airline fees - Higher ticket prices or a baggage charge?
Poll results: 13 votes
5 - Raise ticket prices due to higher fuel charges
3 - Add baggage charge to supplement rising fuel costs
0 - Both
5 - Shove both, er umm...neither

It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!

Job: Outdoor recreationalist
Location: Our neighborhood and yard
Hours: 9:15 AM - 5:30 PM
Lunch/"didit" changing/dinner breaks: 1 hour (total)

CiBaby is the PERFECT candidate for the job!

Result:

(yes, she really did take her afternoon nap outside too)


Random Pictures from the digital camera I couldn't find the cord for:

Child labor at it's finest


"I've really got to do something
about this apple belly"


"I think it hides the apple belly,
don't you?"

All I want for Christmas is...

crap, that's too far away!

All I want for my birthday is...dang! still too long.

All I want for Memorial Day is...a dishwasher!

As I contemplate a large stack of dishes, once again, I can only drool over the idea of having a dishwasher.

sigh


6/1/08 - the dishwasher fairy arrived!!!

You know it's going to be one of "those" days

...when CiBaby gets up too early, refuses to eat anything offered to her (but insists she's hungry), whines and cries constantly no matter what you do, the dog wants in, the dog wants out, the dog wants in again, you've put on your underwear inside out and you've started to peruse the new Food & Wine Cocktail 2008 book at 8:30 AM.

TGIF is all I have to say.

Sushi!

With a lot of trepidation, I served my sushi rolls to friends and family. Not that I think I'm a terrible cook but most of my family doesn't seem to like sushi, including T-Daddy...his nostrils flare when he eats them, an indication he doesn't like something.

This past Friday, my sister had her baby!!! And she loves sushi. So with many sushi rolls from my class on Monday I headed over to bring her food (which she loved) and visit the baby. He's beautiful, but CiBaby isn't too sure of him...especially when I hold him.


On Tuesday G-Mama and G-Papa stopped by to pick up a few ingredients for Hawaiian fried rice. I pulled out a few rolls and they tried them with great hesitation. Well, they really liked them. So much so we're planning on having a sushi party in the backyard this summer. T-Daddy also really liked them, which shocked the heck out of me. But I have to admit...they were damn good!

With such great approval CiBaby and I ran to the grocer to pick up some nori and sushi rice, as we had everything else for our rolls. T-Daddy and I had more sushi rolls for dinner last night. Yum!

Monday Monday

...so good to me,
Monday Monday, it was all I hoped it would be

Monday was a crazy busy, but really fun, day!

We got a bit of a late start because CiBaby slept in until almost 8AM. Woot! After a quick breakfast we ran to a local park for a playdate with some new friends.

After a bit of a CiBaby energy drain, we went to the light rail station where the "Ding Ding" whisked us downtown to meet up with T-Daddy. We went to an open house for an emergency daycare service T-Daddy's company has a contract. It was awesome! Very secure, affordable, beautiful setting and low teacher to child ratios. We are allowed 20 visits at $20 each per year.

Then we went out for lunch were the DipQueen basically ate salsa, straight.

Once we got home we played in the yard and I was able to get some plants out of the grown and into containers for a couple of plant sales and swaps that I'm participating in this coming weekend. As always, CiBaby was a HUGE help. I don't know how I ever gardened without her. She is my container carrier and loves to scoop the soil...all over the place.

After our adventures in gardening and a snack, I went to a sushi making class! It was SO much fun. We only did rolls, but I love those. There were tons of ingredients to make our own creations. I brought many completed rolls home and a lot of unused ingredients. I will definitely be making a lot of sushi this summer...anyone interested?

Mother's Day

This time last year I was a mother, not only to our 2 older children, but to a little girl in China that I had yet to hold in my arms. I said a little prayer for each of them then as I did today...but today was different.

Today I got to hold my sweet girl in my arms as we dance around the house, washed the sticky syrup from our morning pancakes out of her hair and off my arms. I also got to hear "Happy Mother's Day, I missed you here" and "I love you" from our oldest son (which I have to admit shock the pants off of me).

At the same time as all the joy, I feel sad. My heart aches for a woman in China who no longer has her sweet baby to hold and dance around the house with her. To get to know how wonderful, outgoing, funny, smart, caring and beautiful CiBaby is. I also feel a great sense of joy that I'm the one that was chosen to take this sweet being in and raise her as my own.

So today...Happy Mother's Day to both of us. Thank you and I'm sorry.

A New Children's Book

You have all heard of If you give a Moose a Muffin or If you give a Mouse a Cookie, or my fav If you give a Pig a Pancake. Well, I think I should send a note off to Laura Numeroff and give her a new title to ponder...If you give a Dog a Pill.

Why is it almost impossible to give a dog a pill??? Why is it most days they will gulp down whatever (leading to the issue you're having...like tapeworm?!? ew) but when you "hide" a gigantic pill in something completely delectable to a dog's palate they eat the "treat" and spit the pill out like a freakin' fountain nymph?

Ah joy.

A Kiss Makes it All Better

I was invited to a MOPs meeting by a friend, which happened yesterday. Because I was a guest I couldn't bring CiBaby with me as they didn't have enough volunteers for both the regular Moppets and the guests. So I called up Auntie and Uncle Horsie to see if they were available. They were thrilled to have CiBaby over.

I dropped her off a little before 9AM as the meeting was about a 1/2 hour away. No tears on CiBaby's part. They played away for hours...around the house and at the park. I even got to do some errands on my way back. Once I reached the house there was a note on the door "don't ring doorbell, baby sleeping!" WOOOHOOOO!

I rapped quietly on the door and Auntie answered and said "watch were you walk." Ummm okay. Where in the world is she sleeping?? Well, apparently she thought the spot where the kitchen meets the dining room was as good as any for sleeping. Her head was on the carpet of the dining room and the rest of her was on the hardwood in the kitchen. This is a first. I've always heard people talk about kids falling asleep mid-play and anywhere, but not my child...until yesterday.

As she was sleeping Auntie told me a cute story.

CiBaby was walking around the dining room and all of a sudden she started saying "Mom!" "Mom!" At first Auntie thought she was calling for me. No. She saw a picture of me on the door to the garage (it's metal and the picture was a magnet). So Auntie took it down and handed it to CiBaby. "Mom!" mwah...she kissed the picture.

It's things like this that make it all worth while and help to fade those hard days away.

Almost Done! (The Growing Challenge)

I feel like I'm behind the 8 Ball here!

Sunday I started seeds for some of my herbs down in the basement. After feeling quite defeated and looked at the packages I surmised that I would start the rest of my greens via direct sowing...which started on Monday.

The newest additions to my seedlings and sowing is:

Onions*:
White Lisbon Bunching Onions*
Yellow round*

Peas:
Sugar Bon peas*
Mammoth Melting Sugar peas*

Greens:
Spinach*
Strawberry spinach*
Tom Thumb butterhead lettuce*
Mache*+
Swiss Chard+
Five color siverbeet+
Mesclun - sweet mix+
Mesclun - spicy mix+
Arugula+
Sumerlong Gourmet mix lettuce*+
(and maybe broccoli raab and Simpson Elite...but I'm not sure)

Radish:
Round Black Spanish*
French Dressing
Watermelon radish*

Carrots:
Dragon

Herbs:
Lovage*
Korean mint*
Curled Chervil*
Genovese basil*
Mammoth basil*
Sage*
Italian parsley
Greek basil+

(*denotes a new item or variety)
(+ denotes items to be planted VERY soon, but didn't warrent boring you with a whole new post)
I was going to continue planting seeds tonight, but it's raining. :-( (but yeah for the already planted seeds!)

whew!

9 Years and Counting

Yesterday T-Daddy and I went out on a date to celebrate 9 years of marriage. We started our date out at Art in Bloom. I had gone for years but T-Daddy had never been, he really enjoyed it.

After looking at art and flowers, we headed over to The Melting Pot. If you've never been, and you like something fun and different, I highly recommend it (I will warn you though, the bill won't be low). We had a lovely 2 person booth along the wall, which came with our own curtain, so we could eat in private...very cool. I had planned on ending the evening with a movie, but we ate and chatted for so long we missed the time...oh well! We couldn't remember the last time we sat and ate for over 2 hours without saying, "don't throw that!" or hear "aaaaaaahhhh doooone."

What did CiBaby do, you ask? She went visitin' with G-Mama and G-Papa and ran G-Papa ragged.

Tales from the Trip

Here I Am
One of CiBaby's favorite songs is Where is Thumbkin? and she always chimes in, or starts the song, with "Here I Am" while pumping her little finger or thumb up and down.

While we were at WDW, Grams and G-Mama got the 2 beds and CiBaby and I were going to share the pull-out couch. Turns out it was only a single and CiBaby tends to move a lot (see picture below). In order to keep her from rolling off the bed I took the mattress and threw it on the floor and we slept down there.



At one point on our first night, she'd rolled off the mattress and was crying...somewhere. At the sound of her whimper I bolted upright and was looking around for her, as she wasn't laying next to/touching/on top of me. She had found the corner of the room (as you see in the upper right hand corner of the picture) and was facing it, not knowing where she was.

In the morning I was recounting the story to Grams and G-Mama and said, "She woke up, stood in the corner and was thinking 'where am I?'" Without missing a beat, CiBaby chimes in with "Here I Am," finger and all.

We all had a good chuckle, including CiBaby, who always likes to be in on the jokes.


Are You My Mama?
One morning we were walking, CiBaby was running, through the hallway towards the lobby of our hotel and she was waving at everyone. She is one of the friendliest little buggers you'll ever meet, just as long as Mama or Dada is around.

Well, one woman must have looked kind of friendly so CiBaby walked up to her waving. The woman, maybe a bit older than myself and looked nothing like me, said to CiBaby in a very friendly babyish voice, "Oh honey, I'm not your Mommy." I didn't have the heart to tell her that no way on this green earth did CiBaby think she was.

We may not look alike but there is one thing that CiBaby knows for sure, and that's who her Mama is.

The Happiest Place on Earth

One of the gifts my Grandmother received for Christmas this year was a plane ticket to Walt Disney World in Florida (going with G-Mama). G-Mama and I talked about it and decided it would be a neat surprise if CiBaby and I tagged along for a 4 generations trip, as Grams had always talked about how neat it would be. The tickets were purchased, hotel arrangements were made and until Grams got onto the plane she was none the wiser we were coming with them.

Auntie picked up Grams and G-Mama before the butt-crack of dawn for a 6 AM flight to Orlando. She wanted to go to the gate with them, but with the newish security, and a really grumpy ticket agent, she wasn't able to. Oddly CiBaby and I beat her to our seats and as she approached and saw us she asked, "how did you get here?" Then we broke the news to her that she had two more travel companions. She was elated.

Turns out the Happiest Place on Earth (i.e. WDW's Magic Kingdom) wasn't just that for CiBaby. It was just too much, too much, too much. Too loud, too busy, too crowded, too hot. And little did I/we know, fog is a very scary thing. Oy. Thankfully the 3 other parks were much more calm and enjoyable for all of us.

Here are several pictures of our trip.

At one point, on the last day in the parks, G-Mama and Grams went on the Backlot Tour, CiBaby fell asleep and I just happened to walk past a cocktail stand. Ahhhh me time!

When reflecting over a cup-a-joe my Grams told G-Mama that she was so happy that CiBaby got to know her...which of course brought her to tears. (Have I told y'all we're criers???)