It's funny because it you and not me

I'm doing dishes this afternoon and I notice that my usual helper just isn't there anymore.  Part of me is wondering where she has gone off too and if it is going to result in a similar clean up to the Play-Dough incident of earlier in the week where she discovered you can tear the stuff into a bazillion pieces and toss them around the room for a post New Years Eve party confetti effect.  Another, more powerful part of me doesn't care because I have mentally handed her off and now I can wash dishes without having to let her "help" me rinse each item, and by rinse I mean splash like a seal in the sink and throw towels on the floor to protect the laminate.  But you all know about these things.  Those little odd things you do to get chores done in the presence of kids that if given the chance you will skip over like dog poop on the sidewalk.

I am halfway through my dishes when I start to hear the following from my post at the sink.

"Helllllooooooooo"  knock, knock, knock
"Helllllooooooooo"  rustle, kick, bang, slam ---the door opens.
"Hi Daddy"
"Hi honey.  Daddy is using the potty right now......"
"Okay daddy. "  door closes.
--Pause--
"Hellllooooooooo"  knock, knock, knock
"Hellllooooooooo"  rustle, kick, bang, slam ---the door opens.
"Hi Daddy"

This is the point where I press my lips together to stifle a laugh, because I can see it in my head.  He was thinking he was "just going to be gone for a minute" and she has taken this as a new game called captive audience.

We have one of those bathrooms that are so small you can reach everything from your seat.  Walls, towels, sink, cabinets, door, you name the item and it is available to you without having to get up.  How simple and practical these older homes make using the facilities.  

Because of this functionality, our daughter has decided that there is no reason to waste a few minutes of time lazing around that could be spent playing 'who's at the door'.  She knocks, you answer.  Then repeat.  Mostly I think she is just hanging around waiting for you to finish so she can comment on the goods and then flush for you.  This is all very important.   If she is denied her flush and commentary there will be tears and no secondary consolation flush will suffice.  It must be an original to count.  Of course...how could it not?

Back to the sink.  Now I have a dilemma.  Do I go save him?  Do I quit what I am doing, drag her away, try to invent some alternate game to distract her, keep it going until he calls for a flush and then go back to the dishes......  Or, ignore it all and finish my job knowing that no one has died from lack of privacy and commentary, even if it is annoying to have a kid standing on your feet handing your paper in a very enthusiastic manner.

Some days I think we are all  in training for some most-efficient-and-shortest-use-of-the-toilet prize.  Or something.  Then I realized that while he was gone during the week at work his ability to go under pressure probably got sloppy, due to all that privacy at the workplace, and this is some critical training time he is logging in there.  It was my duty to leave them undisturbed.  So I did.  You're welcome dear.

The beginning of the end, or, The Sleep Thing.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  That pretty much sums up my last month.  On the good side I feel like I have finally come up for air.  The kid has finally cut her last two year molar meaning that we are done now.  Hooray for no more late night screaming sessions and living on tylenol and tears.   With the end of teething came some better eating so we are getting closer to what look like actual meals at generally acceptable meal times instead of the no meal, graze around, live on trail mix, juice and mommy.  All three together mean I am finally getting some sleep.  Like at least seven hours in a row on average.  This is nothing short of a miracle and it looks like my mantra is finally becoming reality; she is eventually going to sleep.

Sometimes I forget how tired I have been.  From the beginning she was nursing every two hours around the clock for the first seven months, then with solid foods she stretched it to a combination of three hour/two hour stretches.  After a year she bumped it to a single four hour and many three hour intervals.  She also added a full one hour hap in the afternoon instead of the usual 20-40 minute numbers a few times a day.  At a year and a half the nap hit 90 minutes and nighttime to multiple four hour stretches.    This fall, just before turning two, she started a single five hour stretch and officially did her first "sleep through the night" according to the average pediatrician.  It helped that she could finally nap all by herself for two hours in the afternoon.  Fast forward to March and I am finally getting 7 hour stretches and I feel human again.

In all honesty, the sleep thing has been a hard thing to talk about.  Most of the time people either cannot relate or they think there is something wrong with our kid or us or both to have this kind of sleep pattern going on.  Mention that she is still sleeping in our bed and the sound of crickets and judgement fills the air rapidly.  If I'm in front of a medical professional forget it.  I just say, "sure, she sleeps fine" and drop it because I just don't want to go there.  It isn't worth it and it doesn't end well.   Truthfully, if I thought there was a way to get more sleep in our house we would have done it, because who wants to wake up every three hours for a full year?  I certainly didn't.  At one time or another we we tried every going theory to see if it might prompt more sleep but it quickly became clear that this is just our kid and we were going to have to ride it out and do our best.  I'm sure we aren't the only family out there not sleeping but I know how little we discuss it and I assume there are other people out there with similar stories.

Most of the time, I was too tired to explain it and deal with comments and criticism. I was too tired to be nice when I knew advice would be given, concerns voiced, and the obligatory you-know-what-worked-for-me-in-some-totally-unrelated-sleep-problem story started.  Inside I know that people mean well and they are truly trying to help but I just didn't have the energy and there really wasn't anything more to say other than "what can you do?"  Because sometimes there just isn't an easy answer and your just tired of being tired.  Those are the days that some poor parent would complain about their relative sleep issues and suddenly we were playing the game of, I'll see your tired and raise you crazy exhaustion with a side of insanity.  That game doesn't make it better for either party and it certainly isn't good for making friends.

A month at a time it was getting better.  Slowly, but surely sleep was inching its way into our lives.  This month when it finally arrived it brought with it every emotion I hadn't had time for in the past few years.  I'm a bit more rested.  Kid is playing by herself.  Finally. There are decent naps and in short, I am getting a break.  With that break I am having some space to ask the question that had all but disappeared from my life:  How do you feel today?  Almost every day for the past month has been spent some time in tears, angry, frustrated, jealous, elated, overwhelmed and all the nuances in between.  All the stories that made me mad, all the ways I wanted things to be different, and all the things I loved about it all showed up en masse like some emotional UPS delivery.

It was all there, each emotion I put away so that I could get through this moment and into the next moment and make it through this day and the next day and then the next, finally found its way to daylight.  It was good to do it, and it also enormously sucked.  I don't recommend stuffing your emotions or pushing them away if you can help it.  They don't go away and they don't diminish, they just wait for you to have the time.  Like the present you don't want to open but it's taking up the entire room so there really isn't any choice.  That one.  I think I am finally all cried and upset out.  For today anyway.  I feel a whole lot more like me or at least who I remember me to be before I began this journey.

Talking about this crazy journey into parenthood and the nuances that color our particular story seems to help now more than ever.  It's nice to feel like I finally have a voice, a little clarity and know that now I am ready to have a conversation about it all without falling to pieces.  To know that I have the energy to talk is in itself good because it means I am getting past the daily survival part and into the life I imagined when we started.  I know my idea of what is normal for infants and young children has changed dramatically and I hope for the better. Everyone has their story.  This is a piece of mine.

Some favorite things I dug up for you.

Looks like I don't have much to say so I decided to plagiarize reference fun posts I found on other peoples sites.  But sometimes a girl just needs to have her Oprah moment and plug some cool things you find out there.

Kid and Mommy stuff I like:
I really wish I had known about Teething Necklaces earlier.  Maybe I would have gotten more sleep.  Next time I'll be ready.

There is a newer, cooler Sophie the Giraffe.  Get one now and be the coolest mommy at playgroup.

Designed for the knitter or crochet lover in mind, I think they could also make great diaper bag/purses when you need that large bag to put all the stuff that goes with carting kids around while still looking like  an adult accessory.

Do It Yourself Mania:
Someday, I am totally going to make this.  I think this is the bed I always wanted, so I have to make it for my kid, or find someone who wants to make this.  I'm obsessed.

Stuck inside in the rain and need something to do.  The Crafty Crow has you covered.

In the, Laugh Till You Pee category:


Cracker Barrel and Explosive Diarrhea

As a former teacher, sometimes if you can get a genuine laugh out of something you might just give it a mark for creativity.  And then you pass it around to everyone you know, giggle, and then hand it back to the kid with a straight face.  This is the best one I have seen in a really long time.

February 10 on 10

 10 on 10 Photo Challenge

ten images taken on the tenth of the month for ten consecutive hours giving you a photo journal of one day.  Today we went to the zoo, and Grover was my muse.  I had way to much fun photographing him, I may have to try something like this again sometime.

Join the fun next month, or see what other people are doing today.

Grover got up early and helped me buy our yearly pass to the zoo.

To make sure he came along, he packed himself with the lunches. 

He was so sure he could find some more "whatevers" at the zoo.  Still looking. 

He stands lookout while she attempts to sneak into the parrot enclosure. 

Grover makes a great backpack in a pinch.  Or maybe he was tired. 

She got me to go down the rabbit hole.  She kind of looks worried for me... 

Totally psyched for the giraffes. 

The main event is still the train ride.  She didn't even care what animals we could see, and refused to look.  Only the train! 

Love this one, everyone looks great.  

 His last job of the day; help me make snacks for book club from the books recipe's.  YUM!

When good laundry goes bad

We have had quite our share of spills lately.  Probably due to the need to use only cups lately and as a result my poor floors have had plenty of milk, juice and water to drink.  I have been keeping a towel handy for just such a spill emergency.  I thought it was genius.  Until yesterday.  Well, it might still be genius, but I'm biased.

Yesterday, Mike gets home and starts sniffing around the living room.  It was garbage day, so this kind of thing isn't all that unusual given that garbage had been hauled around the house that day.  This particular sniffing expedition went on a bit longer than usual, and I started to squirm.  It got particularly bad when he asked me if there might be a errant piece of rotting fruit hiding somewhere.  I admit that I am not going to win any awards for housekeeping.  If you have been to our place and found it clean then you saw the result of the flight of the bumblebee that occurs just before company shows up.  (You know you do it to).  The rest of the time there are odds and ends on most every surface, even when I could swear I just straightened up.  Again.  But rotting fruit, that is a bit much, even for us.

My husband/bloodhound just won't let it go.  I swear there is no rotting fruit under the couch or anywhere else, he swears something in the room is dying a horrible death, and of course, I can't really tell because if you spend enough time in your own stink you stop smelling it.  I watch Hoarders, so I know these things.

At long last, we were both vindicated.  I had abandoned one of my super genius mop up towels in a laundry basket stashed in the corner awaiting its turn in the wash, and there he found his stink.  A towel with yesterdays juice spill getting it's fermentation on.  Ooopsie, guess it is time to run a load.  Just for the record, this was the first time anything like this has ever happened.  Pinky swear, with sprinkles on top.

Todays Discoveries

Today was met with the first decent night of sleep in a while.  There was sleep, glorious sleep.  Hooray!!  As a reward for sleep I decided we should head out to our local Children's Museum and get some good playtime in.  Sure it was a beautiful day outside.  That just means everyone else is out in it and we got the place nearly to ourselves.  So we did what we do best and we closed the place down.

First there was the building.  It was a good thing the room was nearly empty because she never would have been able to make her own place with competition.  It took a while to determine what to do here but with a little prodding and the discovery that the noodle went into the circle, joy was achieved.  I got a kick out of how serious she was about making them fit just right.  She turned them this way and then and then upside down until it fit just so.  Then she played them like drums.  Next time, a full fledged fort. I can't wait.  This room was totally for the kids, no adults got engrossed the fort building process.  None.

Moving on to our next location, the fascination with the musical carousel in the dark room continues.

A new favorite emerges, the sand table.  Generally too crowded to get anywhere near, today being a slow day, she got a prime seat.  Granted she poured as much sand onto her shoes as she did on the table, but I think she finally got a handle on the proper method for using a funnel.

There was even a brief stint by the mirrors placing multi colored pieces.  It took some doing to convince her that she had to leave the pieces on the table when she was done.  Then there was the terror of the mechanical butterfly above it that was so scary she refused to walk by the thing on her own the rest of the afternoon.  That's my girl!

And when I said we closed the place down, we really did.  They had the staff herding us toward the door and she still insisted we stop for one last thing and I had to drag her out of the place.  The only sacrifice of the day was a missed nap, but considering how late she slept, I am hoping she goes to bed a bit early and gets up at a better time tomorrow.

Happy Thursday all!

My caterpillar tries out her butterfly wings.

For the second time in four days I have experienced a parental failure.  The first time it was Friday afternoon and we were out and about for the afternoon and evening.  As I do, occasionally, I leave part of the gathering of the kid items to my fantastic husband.  He is an amazing dad, but a horrible kid stuff packer.  I think that as my entire life revolves around all things kid, I forget that not every adult on the planet knows how to pack for all possibilities that go with being out with a little kid for the day.
What I often forget is that Mike spends his day with adults at this thing called a job, and I am glad because without it there would be no money in the magic machine outside the bank.  I do love that machine.  As a consequence he doesn't live and breathe diapers and kid snacks and while I have a lengthy list of snack options and I know where all the spare diapers are stashed, he doesn't.  I really should stop being irritated when he forgets the latest favorite snack, toy, sweater or whatever.  That's my day job after all, I suppose I should just accept that and take point when it comes to packing.  We have streamlined the process so that all we really need is a small pack of travel wipes and two diapers, misc snacks and sweaters.  In my world this is the normal travel gear and I just assume that everyone would pack that thing with their eyes closed.  And sometimes I think we do.

On this day, we grabbed and did not check.  Or rather, he grabbed and I didn't check.  Turns out it was just wipes and no diapers.  So we were out for the day and when things got smelly, as they do, we took an emergency trip to Safeway for one diaper and ended up with a box of 60, because you know, we'll use them at some point and all that.

Then to reinforce my lack of packing ability, I went out today and discovered after a fateful trip to the park resulting in a traumatic and minor scrape, I discovered to kid horror that I did not have a band-aid.  But I did have diapers, so I am getting there.  Slowly.

 In other news, I had all kinds of plans for today.  We were going to get the house clean and run errands and all sorts of other basic chores that makes for a Monday.  We didn't do any of it.  Instead we did this.

We played. Well, I supervised and was the official spotter for all climbing activities, cheerleader, snack holder, shoe fetcher, and general audience to all things fantastic.   On her end, there was digging and exploring, and despite a minor hand scrape, she soldiered on.

I'm fairly sure those red sparkly shoes are showing up all over the place.  They are the current must-have-can't-leave-home-without-it  item.  And I hope that if she gets lost she knows to click her heels together three times and say the magic words.

There was a moment today, my mama moment.  She has been fascinated with other kids for a while now and just hasn't yet discovered how to officially play with them.  She wants to ask but just doesn't have the words.  But today she tried.
With the new skill of saying her name, she tried her first introduction.  She looked at the smallest kid there, who probably couldn't even talk, (they are safe you know) and it went something like this.

"Hi!"
Silence
"Hi!"
Silence
(Pointing to herself) "Ge-vieve"  *repeat several times
(waving and motioning)  "down now"  "down now"
kid looking confused, wanders off

It was so sincere and so cute to see her try to say hi, introduce herself and then ask him to come down and play.  Sadly, between her inexperience and the little one's lack of language, it was a lackluster event, but I was proud of her for trying.  She is so painfully shy around other kids that it made me smile and get all warm and fuzzy to see her break out and try.  Someday she will try with the right kid and he/she will get what she is trying for and she will officially make her first friend.

But for now, she is my buddy, as all little kids and their parents are BFF's until we become old and dorky and uncool and embarrassing and just-go-away-mom.  I'm enjoying my fleeting status of best friend and playmate.

By the way, Ernie is currently re-enacting the fateful fall and resulting boo-boo.  Maybe I'll go pack some Band-Aids now in preparation for tomorrow.

Weekend happenings

Everyone over here has hit a wall this week.  The teething is getting the best of us all.  Those back molars are creating a zone of no sleep that just has to stop.  Last night we were up from around 3am to around 7am enjoying every moment of upset and adding Tylenol until it stopped.  Oy.  I have a count going and so far there have been three nights of a solid 7 hours of sleep since she was born, and kid, if you are reading this, we would sincerely like more.  This two and three hour business was old last year.  I'm making sleep your new year's resolution.  This year you will take pity on your parents and sleep.  Please.  With a cherry on top.   Look how cute you are in your pajamas.... because I hear flattery will get you everywhere.

On a more positive note, we had a fantastic day at the zoo yesterday.  Despite the drizzle, Genevieve and her cousins had a great time.  The tortoise shells were a huge hit, even better than the actual tortoises.  Personally, I think she makes quite the shelled critter.

We stopped at the petting zoo, and of course we didn't actually go inside.  We admired the goats and pigs through the fence and she patted the blue piggy cutout with total affection, so I count it as a win.

On the bench dedicated to the lady known as "the keeper of the goats" we stopped for lunch.   Here she is making her signature rounds on an apple.  Once you get all the way around once, there is no need to keep going.

I think this is the official favorite photo of the day.  She has this thing about looking our of the extreme corners of her eyes lately and I was so glad to see this photo turn out.  The official question of the day:  What is going through her mind in this shot?

Me and my buddy watching the Giraffe's.  I admit that I have a certain fascination with the pattern and the long necks.

To end the day we took a ride on the carousel and after having such success she decided she had to ride in the cars.  I told her she would have to ride alone, no mommy this time, and still she was trying to climb over the fence to get to her sparkly blue sports car.   Oohhh it was going to be such a ride.  She had visions of Route 66 flying through her imagination (maybe, who knows really).

She was totally into it, until it actually started moving.  Stationary cars were a huge hit.  Moving cars, not so much.  They stopped the ride to let her off.  The other kids were totally confused.  Oops.  Here are the final few seconds of disaster before heading to the car for a well earned nap.

The end.  See you next time.

The book is here!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.   I have to give lots and lots of thanks to Kelle Hampton from Enjoying The Small Things for being the inspiration behind creating this book.  Each time she has published on of her beautiful books I poured over them for ideas and inspiration and I am not ashamed to say that I did borrow some here and there and if you care to compare, I'm sure you will see where that occurred.

Without her posting her work I would never that even thought to do this much less march myself down to the store and spend $30 on a scrapbook program.  After six months of tinkering, I have learned a lot about what I like and don't like.  Now that I have the book in my hands I have learned even more about what I want to keep and change for next year.  It is so nice to finally have ideas and inspiration flowing around in my head again.  A few years ago, I would have told you that I wasn't this creative or even interested in doing this kind of thing.  My how things change.  What will the new year bring this time??

Click HERE if you want to see it for yourself and you just can't get into my living room for the real deal.

Where have you been?

I'm sure that is the question most of you are asking, either that or you just remembered that this little space existed with the appearance of a new post.  So, here I am again.  Insert appropriate fanfare here.

There were so many times over the past weeks that I started a post only to decide halfway through that I was forcing cheerfulness and it wasn't cute, or that I was just pouty and whiny and that was equally not cute.  In between that was just plain old periods of lethargy for blogging and a long list of things I would rather be doing besides trying to conjure up a story to tell.  Mostly I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with this space, or more appropriately what I wanted to do with me.  I've had the nagging feeling that it was time for some personal change and growth and as these things go, I don't adjust to change well even when I really, really want it (I'll get to that in a bit).  So instead of trying to fill space for the sake of filling space, I just let it be.

Here is the sort-of-short version.  To recap.

There was the fantastic second birthday of Miss. Genevieve on November 13.  Complete with family and friends and presents and all the chaos that a house full of tiny people creates.  It was great and I will do it all over again next year.

Then there was Thanksgiving.   Ahhh turkey.  And more family and more chaos and fantastic-ness.  I finally took Alton Brown's advice and brined the turkey.  The man knows his bird.  I'm not sure I can do another turkey without marinating it in salty, broth-y water overnight again.  It really did make all the difference.   I also loved that I got to see my brother after a full year of missed connections and crazy schedules.  Love you Tim!

The honey turned it a really dark color and for a minute I thought we killed it.  It was fantastic!

Probably my favorite photo of the day.  Daddy and his girl doing dishes after dinner.

Christmas.  After many chilly evenings checking out the neighbors Christmas lights like it was our civic duty to inspect each and every house, we probably had the best handle on the lights situation of anyone in our neighborhood.

Christmas Day itself,  I didn't host, and it was really nice to get up and leave a mess behind us and go to someone elses' house for food and merriment.  I brought the deviled eggs and our usual gift exchange packages, but we left with a little something extra.

Checking out Santa's gifts.

She smiling because she knows she is stealing his toy... and she likes it.

Meet Ernie.  He is contraband.  Stolen from a child.  Okay, so our kid took him from her cousin on Christmas Day, and to be honest he wasn't all that broken up about it because he is too little to know about mine and yours and take it seriously.  My kid.  Well, my kid is a smiling thief.  She walked in the door and scooped him up the moment she saw him.  As a new Sesame Street convert, she recognized him immediately and had to have him.  They played together all day and she told him all her secrets and when it was time to go home, she refused to part with him.  We assumed we would take him home and then return him the next time we got together.  Nope.  The next day she awoke just as enamored with Ernie and he has lived here since his abduction.  We think he has Stockholm Syndrome and now he can't go home.  As you can see from the photo, he gets a thorough little girl treatment each day with his clip and sympathy Hello Kitty Band-Aid.

As a side note, don't put band aid's on plush toys if you can help it.  It is going to take some skillful work with a razor blade to get that thing off his finger without destroying the doll.  Basically, Erne is going to have to have surgery to get that thing off.  Sorry little man.

In case you are wondering how we handled the fact that our child stole something.  We did what any good parent would do.  We bought a new one and slipped it into the original Ernie's place as soon as possible so he would appear to have been there the whole time.  The cousins totally think their Ernie is safe at home with them.  Whew!  That was close.

If your are still here, then congratulations on hanging in there for the Life of Lisa marathon post.  You are a real trouper.  *Hugs*  

So what is in store for the new year you ask.  Okay, I'll give you a sneak peek.  First, I am determined to learn how to use that fancy new camera my in-laws gave me for Christmas and as the proud owner of Lightroom you shall soon be amazed at the photography coming your way.

Then I decided we were bored (Mike was thrilled), and rearranged the furniture in every room in the house, threw out a bunch of stuff and marveled that it didn't even look like it, and then decided I needed a few good projects.

I have also finally decided that the baby weight that never left have Genevieve was born, and has now officially become just plain old weight after hanging around for two years, has to go.  Seriously, enough is enough already and if we can ever get around to having that second baby it will be nice to have a moment where I didn't look pregnant before I do again.

Lastly, because inspiration seems to be around right now, I threw myself into the idea of starting a website.  I have been rolling an idea around in my head for a long time and it finally occurred to me that the someday-I-am-going-to-do-this thing needs to just happen or someday is going to really be never.  So hopefully I will have something to report in a few weeks as that gets more concrete.

So Happy New Year, because Chinese New Year totally counts.  Or rather, Gung Hay Fat Choy!  Hooray year of the Rabbit!   Now where is my red envelope....