Gone But Always With Us

Mark's Gran passed away this week. She hadn't been doing great but it still took us all by surprise.

She was an amazing woman.  While she never got to see Jessica speak or run around, I'm happy that they did get to spend some time together and that we managed to capture some of that time in pictures.

These photos are from our last visit with her before we left for America.

Now I'll let Mark say a few words.

---

Some of my earliest memories are from when we first moved to the UK. I was about 4 and we were staying with Gran & Grampa until we found our own place.  I would spend hours playing with their tiny white lego bricks, building houses with Gran & Grampa's help.  Gran would always encourage me to see if I could build it another level higher.  These towering creations would be proudly displayed on their mantelpiece until our next visit, when I would tear it down and start all over again. 

She had a really positive outlook on life, telling me that you make your own luck and it's up to you to decide how you want to feel about something - you can either let yourself feel happy or sad about a situation. She also had this amazing, cheeky, sort of mischievous humour, that drew you in and made you feel like you were in on a secret when she told you a joke.

She taught my siblings and I to play card games, like Snap and Trumps, which we delighted in showing Mum when she came to pick us up that day.  She also told us about the importance of family, and of looking after one another.

These are just a few of the fond memories I have of growing up with my Gran.

I'll really miss her and I'm sorry Jessica couldn't get to know her better.

I just have to take comfort in the fact that she's reunited with Grampa now and they'll be watching over us from above.  I know she'd want us to celebrate all the happy times we had with her and not dwell on the sadness of not having her now.  It'll just take some time.

December!

I'm so excited! I adore December. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you.

• Mark will shave this morning! (Technically it's December first because it's past midnight but he's asleep and although I've contemplated sneaking in with a razor and doing away with the ginger mo, I doubt he'd appreciate the assistance.
• I can pull out the Christmas decorations! (They've been boxed up since January 2010 and I think they're ready to see the light of day. I can't even remember what's in the boxes anymore. It'll be like Christmas 25 days early.)
• CHRISTMAS! and my little one is finally old enough to 'get it.' Although it may be another year or two before we can get her to sit still through the story of Jesus' birth while surrounded by shiny boxes waiting to be opened. 
• Snow! It's not snowing yet but by this time last year Raleigh had seen their first snowfall. As long as I'm not pregnant or needing to get out the house with a newborn, then snow is all good in my book. 
• Mark turns 30 this year... I'm excited and a bit panicked. What do I do for his 30th? I can't let it go by without a bash but the unlucky guy shares his birthday with the Big Guy. Lots of planning to be done...
• Family! Mom and Dad are already scheduled to arrive December 23rd. Then we'll be heading off through the mountains to visit my grandparents and extended family in Kentucky. 

Possibly my favourite month of the year. :)

ps. apparently the auto-post feature does not work like it says on the tin. hence it's actually 2 in the afternoon now.

It's that time of year again!

Well... almost! It's no secret that I won't start "Christmas" until December. I'm firmly planted in the - give the turkey time to digest before you put the decorations up - camp! (Which in itself is new to me. After 10 years in Scotland I've gotten, sadly, used to the Christmas decorations going up as soon as the Halloween candy comes off the shelf.) However, there IS one thing I do believe you can pre-prep. Not that I manage to that often because I'm such a slacker I always wait for the perfect find. Christmas Cards! In the past I've always tried to find a box of cards with the cutest animal in a santa hat. Cue many boxes of commical penguins or whimsical mooses. (Look at that, I only wrotes mooses, I totally resisted the urge to write meeses.) Now that I'm a mother though... there's obviously only one Christmas card theme that will do. My daughter... with a cute animal in commical Christmas decor!

Last year was my first Christmas card free year since, well, ever. I'm pretty sure I have a really good excuse though. We left Scotland in a whirlwind of packing and anticipation on December 13th and arrived into the exact same atmosphere at my parents place. It's an odd kind of year when you're all preparing to move somewhere else. (We did, however, manage to convince Dad that we needed to put up the tree!) Honestly though, I worried. Would people think I shunned them because I didn't send a card? Then I took a deep breath and pulled it together. Hopefully everyone on my Christmas card list would know that I was moving. Plus people tend to remember the cards they got and don't tend to dwell on the cards they didn't.

So this year, we're settled. Mostly. We're renting but it's an 18 month lease. After apartment hopping the first half of the year I feel like I can finally take things out of boxes and stay awhile. Our new neighbors have started decorating their homes in a professional fashion that strikes fear into my (keeping up with the Jones) heart and makes the little kid in me go *squeee!* both at the same time. There is ONE thing I can do well though. Cards! I can internet (yup it's a verb now folks, just accept it) and I can internet well!

I knew I wanted to make custom cards this year I just hadn't decided which site I wanted to use. I used vistaprint for Jessica's annoucments but America has such a wealth of choices that I knew I was going to have some searching to do. Enter the blogosphere. What better way to find products, ideas, and oh my gosh the CRAFTS!! (Yes. I'm a bit craft mad at the moment. I don't need a 12 step program just yet, but I'm pretty sure my afflication is getting worse rather than better. )  Hello Tiny Prints!  More than one blogger on my reading list is talking about them so I thought I'd check them out and see what all the fuss is about.

Their selection is HUGE and everything is fully customizable (so I can add in all the melt your heart toddler cuteness and kitty cats playing with santa hats that my heart desires!) So far I'm leaning towards

but I'm me. So it's entirely possible this is not the card that will arrive from us at Christmas... maybe

One thing's for sure. There will be something SUPER adorable heading to my family and friends this year, but it probably will not inculde a penguin on a toboggan. Their economy shipping gets them to you in 8-10 days and they have a 2 day super rush for the procrastinators out there *cough cough* I mean me..... 

I'll let the proof be all tasty in the pudding (sorry it's late and I get my figures of speech all messed up at the best of times, so proof flavoured pudding is indeed the metaphor I will use tonight) and I'll let you know how they look when they arrive. 

Now I just have to arrange to get some card worthy photos!

ps. because you KNOW I'm not a full price retail kinda girl... if you order today you get free shipping using CYBER20 and they look like a site that does run deals. Plus, a custom card site WITH a blog... Tiny Prints well, that's just kinda groovy. (As I tend to say - if a store doesn't have a web pressence they're dead to me! :D)

pps. It's only the 29th so I'm breaking all kinds of rules here, but.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Thankful.

I hope all you Americans out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving and all my British (and any random readers from the rest of the world who might be passing by) had a generally wonderful November 24th!

This was my first Thanksgiving in America since 1999, my husband's first American Thanksgiving since he was 4 and Jessica's first EVER. We had a lot of catching up to do!!

However, my plans for a giant family gathering in Florida went awry when the doctor decided that my mother needed to have her sinus cavity scraped (yeah shudder - it's okay, I do every time someone says it) and her septum undeviated while he was at it. Thus, instead of trekking down to Florida for the holiday, Mom would have to stay tucked up in her bed in Virginia recooperating. We could still have made the trip down to Florida but then I heard Grandma was headed up to Virginia to help out post-op. Granted we could have gone down and visited my brother, but it seemed like a rather long drive when half the family was going to be up north. (Plans are in motion to figure out a time to visit with the brother or drag him kicking and screaming up here to visit ;) Another 'we could have' involved going to the family in VA, but Mom and Dad's temporary place isn't exactly spacious or toddler friendly so we opted to stay put with promises that Grandma would stop off to visit during her trip and that Mom and Dad would high-tail it to ours as soon as they got off for Christmas break.

Enter Friendsgiving 2011! We had a little bit of experience with the concept since, last year we used Thanksgiving as an excuse to get our friends together before we left Scotland.

You might not believe it but hosting Thanksgiving with 4 toddlers was much easier than hosting with one 9 month old (granted said baby was teething, going through separation anxiety hard, and woke up with a cold the next morning) plus the 3 extra toddlers came with 3 extra awesome mothers, and as everyone knows - watching kids, cooking and cleaning is always smoother with more moms. In such a situation you can't have too many moms. :)

Is it just me or do the Collins (at the bottom) look like they pose for family photos professionally?!

We deep fried a turkey - awesome.

We ate a ton of yummy food - awesome.

We played board games / video games - still awesome.

We did a turkey craft with the kiddos that was less messy than expected and turned out.... awesome! (pictures to come)

and on that note...

Just a handful of things I'm thankful for

• My amazing husband, who's a wonderful father and the best friend I could ever want.
• My beautiful, sweet daughter who (you'll never believe me) is asleep IN a pack n' play. That has NEVER before happened. EVER.  
• My parents. I love being able to see them on a regular basis! For the last decade I saw my parents maybe once every other year and since we moved back to America I've seen them at least once every month! They drove four hours fighting holiday traffic just so Mark and I could spend the entire day together for our anniversary.
• My new friends. I've never been quick to make new friends but having a little one has thrown me out into the world of people and I've met some great Moms in the process. 
• Mark's job. He enjoys what he does AND he still has time for his family. 
• That our house has SOLD!!!!!!!

10 years and counting!

Dear Mark,

Thanks for being such a wonderful husband, father and friend. I don't even want to imagine what the last 10 years would have been like without you and I can't wait to spend the next 10 with you. I LOVE YOU!

Dating - Our first Valentine's! 

Recently engaged - 2001

MARRIED! - November 10th 2001

5th Anniversary - York

7th Anniversary - Isle of Skye (chilly!)

8th Anniversary - The Lake District (heavily pregnant!)

9th Anniversary - The Crieff Hydro (with baby in tow!)

If you noticed, it took us a few years to get the hang of this anniversary malarky! We'll be celebrating with our little one tonight but my amazing parents are driving down from VA this weekend for the sole purpose of watching Jessica so Mark and I can escape and celebrate properly! 

MO-WATCH DAY 11

Movember

This year Movember has replaced November in the Smith household.

You can read all about Movember here: What is Movember?

The short explanation - It's a charity supporting men's health, specifically prostate and other cancers that affect men as well as raising awareness of men's health in general. November 1st all participants start their day cleanly shaven and wait for nature to take over. The catch? No hair may grow below the bottom lip. No sexy scruff, no socially acceptable goatees. Just the MOUSTACHE. Someone's knocking at the door and it's 1970.

Mark wanted to participate last year but was in the middle of a series of interviews with his current employer. We jointly agreed that it was perhaps not the best time to have an unpredicable 'stache in the works. (He's never grown one before so the list of unknowns was not something we were prepared to deal with.) 6 days into Movember 2011 and it's a slow and steady progression of... RED hair. Mark doesn't want to admit it but it's kinda staring him straight in the face now. ;) Perhaps our little red head did get a few of her hair color genes from Daddy rather than just Grandma Tina! I'll add a Mo-Watch photo at the bottom of all my posts this month and we'd really appreciate anything you feel like donating to the cause.

My sacrifice? As many of you know, this November we celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary...

 MO-WATCH DAY 6

(picture to be added when the mo'bro gets home)

Super Doubles

I like to pretend I can coupon. (Yes. I used coupon as a verb.) However, I don't buy more than one paper and I very rarely print coupons have you seen how expensive printer ink is?! Before I left for Scotland I always had a blast helping my Mom clip coupons and I'd clip coupons with her every time I came home to visit but Scotland doesn't do coupons. Very occasionally Tesco (the big supermarket) would send out something like 5 coupons and I'd get all excited, buy some stupid type of cracker that we didn't actually eat, just because I had a coupon for it. When we first moved back and were living in the apartment I got free coupons. You know those coupons they put in the Sunday paper? Yes those. They magically appeared in my post box every Wednesday. To make matters more awesome, most of my neighbors didn't want their coupons and would leave them laying on the counter. I hit coupon overload. Scraps of paper were taking over my apartment. I had no system, no idea which was way up, and kinda drowning in advertisements! It took a few months but I finally got the knack of it. I don't need every coupon and I probably don't need to clip every coupon I think my mother might like and mail them up to her (she does get a Sunday paper every week after all.) Doesn't mean I won't occasionally clip every coupon in there and then play coupon fairy at the grocery store, or send my relatives coupons I think they'll enjoy but most of the time I just clip the ones I know I'll use and move on with my life. Once every few weeks or so the local grocery store here, Harris Teeter, will have something they call Super Triples or Super Doubles. On a normal day at Harris Teeter they will double any coupon with a face value less than a dollar. On super triples they will triple any coupon with a face value less than a dollar. On super doubles they will double any coupon with a face value less than $2. Yesterday was the first day of Super Doubles not Tuesday like I stupidly thought. Since Jessica's grandparents have been in town I was able to pull together my coupons which had been lamenting in a box in no particular order, match them up with Harris Teeter's online coupons and figure out what was on sale this week. So yesterday afternoon Jessica and I headed off to HT with coupons in hand. (Jessica only tore up one and it turns out they didn't even carry the product to start with so no big loss!) I got almost everything on my list except for two items, but I was able to get rainchecks for them but unless new coupons come out for them to coincide with the next super doubles they won't be as great a deal but all in all I was happy. In past attempts at super doubles the store had been raided by crazy coupon ladies and none of the great deals were in stock anymore. (Seriously, they form little gangs, block aisles and clear shelves! They're insane!) All in all I spent about $35 for $117 worth of product. Not too shabby! I got a couple freebies and few really good deals.

From 365:2011

I counted it up and I bought 25 items so basically everything in the picture was $1.40 each. Awesome huh? :) I'm pretty pleased.

Say cheese.

 What do you do when you're only halfway through your errands but the toddler decides she's done with the carseat? Photo shoot in the car- because that's how we roll. ;)

Looking back at our photos from the past year, I must admit. This is not the first time this has happened.

Tipping.

Okay No. Maybe I don't understand tipping. Maybe I'm cheap. Call me jaded. I don't care, but don't ask me to pre-tip for a service that I'm already paying for.

I have, for the first time in my entire life, ordered the newspaper to be delivered. Not the daily paper, just the Sunday beast. The one with all the lovely coupons and comics in it. News? News I can get online.

I sign up for the paper. They tell me what it'll cost. With the promo code I have it works out at $1 a week, which is nice because with tax the paper cost me $2.14 at the mall last week. A dollar I can swing. But what's with the empty little box at the bottom of the page asking me to insert an amount as a tip for my carrier. What am I tipping them for? I'm ordering delivery service. I pay their boss, their boss pays them. Are they going to bring the newspaper to my door, say hi and tell me they like the way the poison ivy compliments the petunias in my planter out front? No. I do not think they will. More likely than not, I will retrieve my paper from a puddle in the middle of the driveway.

If for some reason I find my paper carrier to be of exemplary character and exceedingly apt at paper delivery I may find myself compelled to tip at Christmas, perhaps. (If you're my paper carrier I wouldn't get your hopes up. It's not like I'm getting a paper everyday of the week here.)

Hair stylist If I like the way my hair looks and you didn't make me feel like I was wasting your time then yes I will tip you, but only $3 or $4 because I'm cheap.

Cabbie Unless you sped through traffic for me, gave me suggestions for a good place to eat or otherwise improved my day then no. No tip for you. I've paid for your gas and your time. Why should I tip?

Waitress I have a toddler. You can expect that I will always tip 20% even though I really don't want to. If you were really nice you may get more. If I want to make a point about how rude you were I will leave 10 -15% (isn't it strange that we feel like less is more insulting than leaving nothing at all... as if leaving nothing reflects badly on ourselves whereas a lower amount hopefully leaves an impression?)

Bartender You'd better hope my husband is ordering the drinks because unless you flipped the bottle over your head and generally re-enacted the scene from Cocktail, then I will never tip.

Okay, little rage vent there. Back to actually doing something with my day. :D

19 months later...

As previously mentioned, Jessica's 18 month well-baby check fell much closer to 19 months, but as long as she's healthy and happy no one really cares right?

So here's the stats:

22.9 lbs (that puts her in the 25th percentile)

32 inches tall (50th percentile)

umm head size... somewhere on a notepad in Mark's phone, but I remember she said it was the 50th percentile too. So a very average sized noggin.

The height is the one that gets me! 32 inches?! When did that happen? I've noticed her pants all getting shorter but still.... she's almost 3ft tall! Go baby, Go!

She was a total trooper with her injections as well. Of course she cried when she was jagged, afterall, who wouldn't? Especially when you weren't exactly TOLD what was about to happen. I held her so Daddy could be the good guy and cuddle her afterwards. She cuddled Daddy for a minute and then all was either forgiven or forgotten and she wanted me to make it better. I held her for a minute, we gave her a sippy cup of milk and the tears were gone. By the time we hit reception on the way out the tiny tear tracks on her cheeks were the only give away that she was ever distressed.

She's still not much of a chatterbox, well, she's started chatting but we don't get real words most of the time. She does have a few words that she uses regularly, with BALL being her current favourite. She points out balls everywhere. Those big red ones outside Target? Yup. Little tiny round rocks? Yup those are balls too. She's loving balloons, inflated, deflated, torn into pieces. It doesn't matter (and yeah - they're called balls too.) Her favourite past time is hanging out on the deck, throwing balls off the side and begging you to retrieve them for her (a game she invented with Iain during his visit - thanks a lot Iain!) She's changing so fast these days... it's kind of scary how fast she's creeping up on TWO!!

Friday Confessional

I'm linking up with my super sweet mama friend over at Life With Busy Bea this week for her new Friday Confessionals series.


Why? Is there something particular I'm super keen to confess to? No. Not really. I'd rather not admit to making my daughter so angry that she threw up. However, Ashley's going on her first multi-day trip away without her baby this weekend so I figure the least I can do is help distract her a bit!

This morning started out a very different speed than normal. Jessica's belated 18 month well baby check was scheduled for 10am and since it would entail shots I kindly demanded that Mark accompany me for moral support and child control. So after a leisurely paced morning, during which I actually got to have a shower, we headed out to Raleigh to see the doctor.

Our doctor is lovely. I'm incredibly happy I decided to go with a family practice rather than a dedicated pediatrican. Example: Dr. Burkehead was busy praising Jessie when I absent mindedly started scratching the allergic reaction/bug buffet that I like to refer to as my skin. She took one look at me and insisted on writing me a duplicate prescription for more steroids. See, there are benefits to sharing a doc. No second appointment required, no additional copay, just a little bit of common sense.

Yes, I'm getting sidetracked. Fess up. Why was my daughter so angry she puked? Well....

The weather is gorgeous today, 55 degrees (12c) and overcast.  It's due to be back up in the 80's by Monday but I'm pulling out my hoodies, jeans and pretending that fall is here. After dropping Mark off at work Jessica and I headed to Target. There's a little pair of brown boots there... I saw them a couple months ago and decided that I'd get them for Jessica as soon as the weather changed. Sadly, they only had them in a 5 and even though she has a pair of 5's in her closet that look like clown shoes these 5's would barely go on. (Is it really asking so much for them to standardize toddler shoe sizes?!) Well, there was a fluffy purple pair that she loved but purple won't match her wardrobe filled with pink and brown... so I made her take them off and leave them behind. I'm so cruel. No little girl should ever be denied purple fluffy boots! I digress. We stop at Wendy's on the way home a grab a frosty and fries, which we share. (She had two injections today I think she deserves a tiny bit of chocolate. - nb. Today was the first time she has actually shown any interest in chocolate! In other words, it only took her 575 days to equate awesome with chocolate.)

We get home and for once I'm actually eager to chase her around out on the deck. Fabulous weather and all that. Wait. I need to get her into some tights first. I <3 baby tights. If I could have a collection of cotton tights like my daughter I'd be in heaven. She's NEVER taken issue to tights before. Why should it be any different now? *ahem* because she's nearing 2 that's why. To hear my daughter you'd think I was trying to amputate with a rusty saw (and I'm sure my neighbors did hear since I promptly opened all the windows when we got home.)

After some very vocal debating, the tights are on. She's squalling. I'm refusing to take them off. They're cute! She's screaming. But they're so adorable! She's screeching. but Babeee!! She's throwing up. Okay. Tights are coming off. :(

I'm sorry that I made you puke for my own sense of fashion Babybear. (but I can't promise that I won't try to put you in tights again tomorrow.... ;)

I am thankful.

Nature and I have had an uneasy relationship this past week and occasionally I've felt myself spiraling into a personal pity party. I've realized that I need to wake up and realize how bad things could be. Mumbling these things to myself is one thing, but putting pen to paper (figuratively) is entirely different. So here goes.

I'm thankful for the poison ivy rashes that are on my arms and my chest. I've seen pictures online and I could have been seriously unlucky and swollen my eye shut, covered my face, or, heaven forbid spots all over my back where I couldn't reach it even if I tried!

I'm thankful I'm only mildly allergic to poison ivy. I can still breathe and I didn't swell up the size of a house.

I'm thankful that I have insurance. It still cost a pretty penny (or two) but I was able to afford a trip to Urgent Care to get a shot to calm things down.

I'm thankful that I only have 46 mosquito bites and am not sick. If I lived in Africa I could get more than 200 every night and with as much as they love me I'd have malaria by now.

I am thankful that my father can recognize poison ivy and saw how close I was getting to it before I tried to rip it out with my bare hands.  (I am thankful that my parents only live 3 and a half hours away now and can be here occasionally to point out things like poison ivy.)

I'm thankful that I finally have a yard to battle nature in.

I'm thankful I have a wonderful husband who will watch our amazing daughter while I go get my prescription filled and de-stress my buddy Starbucks.

I am thankful I have new wonderful friends, old wonderful friends I can count on and a family (extended and immediate) that I love and who love me.

and on that note, I'm off to wake up the wonderful husband and alert him that it's time to be wonderful so I can leave the house. ;)

Must pay more attention.

Multi-tasking isn't always a time saver....

I was packing up the bathroom, trying to drink a cup of coffee and BabyBear was playing with velcro curlers while standing on the toilet. All of these things individually sound like a recipe for disaster so, honestly, it could have been much worse.

I finished up the bathroom counter, convinced BB that, "No, the world won't end if I don't let you stand on the bathroom counter." and then retired to the living room to try and finish my coffee sitting down. Mmm coffee... Right? Erm. No. I take one sip. A second sip. Third si----ppfpfffft! What is that!?! Upon closer inspection there was a collection of bracelets bobbing in my cup. Thank you Jessa. That was tasty.

(and yes, that's the end of my post for today. Parents are arriving tomorrow and the U-haul shows up Saturday morning. I am officially out of procrastinating time.  Must ACCOMPLISH!)

Through her eyes...

In attempt to shake me out of my writer's block I decided to link up with another blog today. The Paper Mama's photo challenge this week was an easy one for me, I knew exactly which photo I wanted to use. I took this picture, almost exactly a year ago,  during our "what colour will her eyes be fixation."

ps. They're still hazel.

Foto Friday

...on Saturday morning (no one ever said I was prompt.)

Good morning BabyBear!

Mid-afternoon storytime!

Dinner at The Twisted Fork (before she lost her focus, got whiny and stressed me out!)

 

I say dinner.. I mean mostly dessert. ;)

Tech fun.

Technology is rebelling and my brain is melting. (Yes I'm aware that my brain melts on an alarmingly frequent basis.) Our shiny black viao hit it's one year birthday and promptly went kaput on the same day. (Well almost. We placed the order on the 26 of July 2010 but it wasn't actually shipped until late August so I'm pretty sure we're still covered by the warranty.)

Tuesday night I pulled out the power cord to move the computer and *poof* instansta off. When we finally got it back on there were all kinds of crazy warnings popping up including helpful comments such as, "may not be an official sony battery" Way to disown your offspring when the going gets rough Sony! Thankfully, they've sent us a prepaid box to mail our laptop back in. (Free shipping is a big deal for me. If a product is defective and the company tries to make me pay to send it back, I will consider staging a boycott! [I'm looking at you VTech!] Of course I'm pretty lazy though, so I mostly just think about staging a boycott and whine a bit.

The box arrived today so Mark and I have been taking it in turns to backup our data and remove anything we don't feel like sharing with a lab full of tech guys. It's not the least stressful evening activity ever. I think the only reason we're not in a tailspin of panic is because we've learned our lesson in years past. We have not one but two different TerraDrives, one of which we try to backup to regularly. Most importantly though, Mark has a loan of a MacBook Pro from his office, which means we still have portable internet on something larger than a smartphone but smaller than a 47 inch (not so portable) tv.

The MacBook though... that's entire different kettle of fish. We aren't getting along so well, for now we're agreeing to disagree and there's been no physical violence, but I can't say it hasn't come close. (argh!! stop zooming when I move my fingers!)

The Twilight Post.

There's still time to close the page and walk away...

Generally speaking, I'm an anti-bandwagon kind of person. Unless I accidentally wind up on the bandwagon without knowing it's a bandwagon (eg. Star Wars) I tend to steer clear. I'm not really sure why, but the more people who like something, the more likely I am to ignore it completely. I've never read Harry Potter, I've never seen Forest Gump and up until this month I'd never read Twilight.

I'm hesitant to do this, but it's fresh in my mind and if I'm not careful I'm going to open my mouth and start gabbing Twilight with the wrong person, bore them to tears and be forever ostracized. Plus I want it out of my head. Perhaps what I'm really in need of is a book group. I love discussing a book... in crazy detail, but I'm pretty sure my husband will disown me if I try to recruit him as my Twilight sounding board.

I was leaving a friend's house one morning after Jessica had played hard and after I'd lamented that I didn't have any books in the car and hoped that she didn't fall asleep before we got home, K went and brought me some books. (God bless friends who love to read!) One of these books was Twilight. I kinda looked sideways at it but went with it. After all, I was kind of curious. I'd seen the first movie and thought it was dire. There had to be something amazing in the book for so many people to put up with such a rotten movie.

Twilight - Not too bad. Definitely better than the movie. Still didn't like Bella very much, but I was beginning to be able to see the appeal.

Cue trip to the library to collect the rest of the series.

New Moon - hmm still good, still don't like Bella. I decided that maybe it was because I was picturing Kristen Stewart and her sour puss in the role, so I spent the rest of the book trying to force a different character image into my head. Have you ever tried changing the look of a character after reading an entire book? It's hard in a strange way. The way writing with your left hand if you're right-handed is hard. Your brain feels like it's physically rebelling at the idea.

Eclipse - okay I can see how it developed a following. I need the final book, but the local library didn't have a copy. (Yes, I'm ashamed to admit it but as one of my friends so  eloquently said, "It's got crack in the pages." You don't know WHY you can't put it down, but you just can't. ) Thankfully, this wise friend had a copy of Breaking Dawn that she loaned me.

Breaking Dawn - When I started this book I was warned that I'd hit a point and go "Argh!" so I spent every page in a stress bubble wondering who was going to die and why. Turns out the warning applied to something much smaller in scale and everything was nicely tied up into a happy ending. Actually, the most tied up and satisfying ending I've read in a long time. I wasn't expecting that.


Midnight Sun - An unfinished manuscript by Meyer, retelling the first novel via Edward's perspective. Perhaps my favourite of all the books. I finally like Bella - it's amazing how much more likable she is from Edward's point of view.

The Movies.....

Most of the actors appear to be comical spoofs of the characters in the book.
(remember these are my own opinions you are under no obligation to agree with them, you don't even have to like them.)

Bella - I don't even know where to start. Honestly. There are so many things wrong here that I don't even know where to start. So I won't. I don't approve of the casting choice. I also don't approve of bad wigs such as her wig in Eclipse. I hate it when actresses have to wear tacky wigs - think Hayden Panettiere in Heroes, I can't focus on anything else.
Rosalie - She was supposed to be gorgeous, not, well not whatever it was that she was.

Edward - They got the eyes right and I agree with his build in general and the hair, but ouch... it kind of looks like someone smashed his face with a frying pan..

Esme - I think I decided that she was blonde, so the brunette totally threw me for a loop.

Alice - one again, the fake hair bothered me. (I'm not positive if it was a wig, but I hope it was for the actress's sake, cause that's some bad hair.)

Emmett - pretty much what I thought, but it can't be hard to get the frat boy type right

Carlise - only real difference was that I was pronouncing it Car-leese and not Car-lyle

I really won't say anything else about the movies I'm just going to treat them as the comedy/farce/spoofs that they obviously are and move on. :)

and now that I've gotten that off my chest I can stop bothering friends and family with my inane ramblings about Edward, Bella and Jacob.

House!

Hello. It's been a while hasn't it? More than a month to be less than exact. We've been busy. The whole trying to find a place to live thing really eats up all your free time. (sooo sick of hotpads.com and realtor.com)

However, I can now happily report that we have found a place we'd like to rent and the owners have graciously said yes despite our toddler and kitty baggage. You'd be surprised at how few quality (read: non-dump) detached houses for rent, that will take a cat, have any kind of yard, and are anywhere remotely in our price range are out there. The few that do exist get snapped up almost immediately.  The final property we looked at had another set of applicants who'd turned in their paperwork the night before us. Thankfully our credit history was, according to the listing agent, significantly better. This and our 18 month lease offer put us "hands and feet" above them. (I'm sure he meant 'head and shoulders' but I think I may have to start using 'hands and feet' just to see if I can make it a thing!) Here's our new abode for the next 18 months.

Finally more than one bedroom! We can officially have visitors! Start planning your vacations now!

If you have any hot tips on the best place to buy a washer, dryer and new bedroom set, please let me know! (Notes of makes and models that won't eat my clothes or go kaput in the first year will also be happily accepted.) Also - if you want to do some heavy lifting on the weekend of August 20th, let me know. You will be compensated with food and beverage... I know how you Americans like your beer! ;)

16 Months!

I don't do a lot of the monthly check-ins with milestone updates but since she's asleep I thought I might as well give it a whirl!

Jessica MacKenzie Smith - June 18th 2011 - 16 months old.

 Current aliases: Jessa, Jessie, Jessabear, The Bear. 

Weight: 22.4lbs

Height: hmm this is going to require some skill from the parents to work out later.

Hair Colour: Strawberry Blonde

Eye Colour: Almost brown but still hazel

Every single day this little girl develops more of her own personality. She's demonstrating both Daddy's stubbornness and hints of Mommy's ocd. If you peel the wrapper a fraction of an inch too far down her string cheese stick she flies into a rage. At times adorable... other times, not so much. If you take the Babybel cheese entirely out of the red wax casing she will refuse to eat the cheese point blank. She's also showing her relation to G'ma Tina. If you try to help her by doing something for her rather than by showing her, she gets fussy. (heheh I love you Mom!)

On the other hand she's really communicating now. I'm so glad we decided to teach her a few signs and even happier that she took to them so well. She doesn't say much yet but she uses her signs all the time. Her most frequently used signs are; Eat, More, and Help. I have to say- there's nothing more mind blowing than when she combines them into compound thoughts! 

Even though she's not speaking as such yet, she does know a few words. She has finally started using Momma and Dadda with direction. It's rare that she'll call me Dadda anymore. Hi and Hiya she has mastered and when LeeLoo (the cat) jumped into bed this morning, she very clearly said, "Hiya EeeOoo."

She loves her friends and is interacting with other children so well. Her best buddy went on vacation for a week and she took to carrying a dolly everywhere she went. (I think she missed her!) There's very little toy stealing and practically no shoving. A hug that maybe winds up with both toddlers on the floor? Yes. A shove? No. [However, Caiden is her exception to the rule. She thinks he was built solely for rough-housing - see?]

Summers in Raleigh are HOT! So we've been swimming a lot. She's a fish. She kicks and paddles and completely thinks that I should let go of her and that she'd be fine. One of my favourite parts about swimming? The extra long naps afterwards!

She can put all the pieces in the proper spots in her animal puzzle, she's gotten pretty darn good at eating with a fork, she runs like an olympian (okay that might be a bit of hyperbole), and she loves to sing!

She's absolutely precious and we love her to bits. We think she's amazing and she continues to astound us on an almost daily basis. That said, she's such a handful that we're definitely not thinking about a sibling for a long while! If you know her you'll know that she's completely sure that the world revolves around her and to even imply otherwise would be heresy.

You can find the other shots from her 16 month photo shoot in the picasa album.

One of those mornings

Thursday morning started with a 7am wake up call from the little bear. There was no convincing her to go back to sleep so up I got. Or I thought I was up. Weak willed non-morning person that I am, I put Sesame Street on (thank heaven for Netflix) and proceeded to lay down on the sofa. Well, an unspecified amount of time later I woke up to the credits (stop counting!) and a pre-chewed mound of pretzel on the sofa directly infront of my face. Mark was home too, he was just getting ready for work - it's not as if I fell asleep and let my toddler run amok. (well not mostly) Attempting to dress myself and the child simultaneously I learned that my jeans don't really fit. Sure I can wear them out of the house, but will I be comfortable in them? No. I'm pretty sure I need to shed about 10 more pounds before the majority of my clothes will fit again. Gee, thanks for that early morning 'you're fat' reminder jeans.

Drive Mark into work. Leave Jessica in the back seat all alone with a tub of Gerber cheddar puffs. I knew what would happen but the part of my brain that was temporarily in control didn't care. I just wanted to get to the Barnes and Nobles story time without a carseat meltdown. (Baby cheetos solve most of the world's ails at this point.) Arrive at Barnes and Nobles roughly an hour early. I was not going to drive home just to get her out of the car for 10 minutes before getting her back into the car. (Why can't the mall open at 9am?) Yes, this is the same story-time we attempted back in January. However, this time we were meeting a few of the amazing moms we've met in Stroller Strides so things were bound to go better, and it did! Jessica fell in love with two little girls who were about 6 or 7. They were the very quiet soft spoken type and were happy to have her sit between them on the bench. Jessica sat on that bench swinging her legs through the ENTIRE story! At one point the story teller asked who was brave and a lot of the kids raised their hands. Jessica looked all around her for a minute and then put both her hands in the air. It was adorable!

After a successful story-time we headed over to the mall. The stroller wasn't actually in the car but the Ergo was. Shopping with a baby in an Ergo is one thing. Wanting to try things on when the only thing containing your baby is an Ergo? Completely different thing. I debated back and forth for what felt like ages and then made the wrong decision. Yes. I decided to let her out of the ergo and to try something on. Baaad idea. In the end they didn't have the color in the style I was looking for so off we headed to the food court.

By this point I was starving. Getting Jessica back into the Ergo after tasting freedom should be an Olympic sport. I decided to get a parmesan pretzel in hopes that Jessica would enjoy it too. Nope. Shrieks of rage. Obviously the parmesan pretzel was an attempt by her mother to poison her. Only logical answer. It was dry and not worth the $2.50 I paid for it but you didn't see me shrieking and throwing it in the face of the man who sold it to me.

Definitely time to leave the mall. On the long walk back to the car I was "that mother" the one with the rabid child. I was embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to sprint out of the mall.. sprinting with a toddler in an ergo? Yeah, not possible. I felt like any second the good parent police would swoop down on me and demand to know what I done to my child to incite such anger.

After a few wrong turns we made it home. Jessica, of course, fell asleep 2 minute before we arrived at the apartment. I decided to drive up to our floor so I could, hopefully, carry her sleeping baby self in without waking her up.
Extract baby from car seat without waking - check!
Find keys without waking baby - check!
Open door into the hallway and... what???! Why is the carpet red? Why are the walls red? Where am I?! I'd accidently parked on the third floor instead of the fourth. There was no way I'd be able to keep her asleep and put her back into the car so we headed for the stairs. Alas. Unsuccessful. Awake baby. No nap in our near future.

The afternoon fared better - we went to a friend's house to play and then collected Daddy from work and she took a catnap in the car on the way home.

I'm pretty sure I learned my lesson. Never take a toddler to the mall on your own. NEVER.

Seriously off topic.

A midday email forward from my father brings us this little gem that I just had to share. (Every once in a while the parents manage to fwd on a email worthy of the fwd button. ;)

Redneck Turtle Burgers

Handmade ground beef patties, topped with sharp cheddar cheese, wrapped in a bacon weave, then the next step, add hotdogs as the heads, legs with slits for toes and tail.

Next step.  Place on an oven rack, covered loosely with foil and baked for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.  A little crispy, not too crunchy...just how a turtle should be, no?

I can't decide if I'm horrified or a little eager. I'm leaning towards disturbed yet impressed. I can feel my arteries clogging just looking at it. Southerns. Ya gotta lov'em. (Now if you passed it over to a Glaswegian.. they'd feel obliged to further deep fry it.)

**************************

Edit: As far as I can piece together I'm pretty sure it originated at the INTERWEBS RANDOMNESS AND OTHER INSPIRING TALES Blog.

I've got a mouldy bunch of coconuts..

Okay so I only have one but that doesn't fit into the song as well.

Last weekend while we were visiting my folks, I learned a lot about coconuts. It's amazing what you will decide to do while Grandpa is entertaining the baby, there's a laptop in front of you and a coconut just begging to be opened. Mom had a couple coconuts and pineapples left over from some beach themed something or other that she did in class. (Sorry Mom, there appears to be a hole in my brain. I was listening at the time. Really!) Well, how do you open a coconut? I wanted to saw at it. Wrong. We turn to the information database that is YouTube. Apparently you just hit it really hard and it cracks open. We enlisted Dad. Success. Coconut open. It was yummy. 2nd coconut didn't have any water in it and smelled a bit funny. Less success. ((Water you say? Yes I said water! The liquid inside a coconut is called coconut water. If you purée it with the 'meat' of the coconut it then becomes coconut milk. Aaah youtube. What we would do without you?)) Then we watched a 10 minute video of a guy cutting a pineapple all fancy like... it spurred me to action. 30 seconds later I was finished being creative and just chopped it into ugly little chunks. After popping a significant amount into my mouth, the immediate development of a canker sore on my tongue and the accompanied burning sensation brought me to the abrupt conclusion that I'm minorly allergic to pineapple. Well that's new. yaay.

I digress. The point being - I wanted more coconut. So this week I picked up one from Harris Teeter. It sloshed acceptably so I thought I was in the clear. Last night I dug out our hammer and whacked it. Water into the waiting bowl and other than a slightly bruised finger it was all good. Until closer inspection that is. The water wasn't sweet. The coconut was slimy and ... oh my gosh!! is that mould!? Yes. I was in possession of a mouldy coconut. I was not happy. Mark suggested I could walk over to Harris Teeter and buy another one. That's a lot of work for a coconut. I decided against it. (perhaps if I still had my pedometer on I would have gone... maybe it would be in my best interest to leave it on?)

Oh. I also learned some alchemy. If you put ice tea in my Ninja it turns into beer.

Did you really just ask why I put ice tea in the ninja? I wanted to try and make an ice tea slushee that's why. Surely you can understand that.

10,000 steps and counting.

UPDATE: WE WON!!!! :D

For the past month I've been competing with my team " The Yummy Mummies" in a 10,000 steps a day challenge with my Stroller Strides class. The rules were simple, walk at least 10,000 steps every day and the team with the most cumulative steps at the end wins. We all included a few goals for the month. My goals included hitting 10,000 steps every day and shifting 5 out of the 10 extra pounds I've picked up since moving back to America.

I'm thrilled to say that as of this morning those 5lbs are gone and I managed 10,000 or more steps on all but two days!

Some days it was hard. Days like last Wednesday where it was 10:30pm and I only had 5,000 steps... thank goodness for the 24 hour gym in my building! I hit it hard and 40 minutes and 3 miles later I'd passed the 10,000 mark.

Some days it was easy. On Memorial Day I was at 12,000 steps before noon! It's amazing what hanging out with my Mom can do. (It's no surprise that she's half my size! That woman moves!)

I had an awesome team. The girls were incredible and their daily totals were amazing! I'm positive I wouldn't have gotten as much out of the competition if I didn't have their encouragement. We checked in with each other every day, all of us celebrating the previous days' total or sympathizing on a particularly slow day. I didn't feel silly marching in place when my team-mates happily joined in. So, Jennifer and Megan, I'd like to say thanks for being so darned awesome! :D  (of course I now have a strange habit of walking in place like I need to pee....)

My daily totals (My daily average was 11,666)

4th   11652

5th 12156

6th 11362

7th 12148

Week 1 Total 47318

8th 12006

9th 15728

10th 10674

11th 12641

12th 10860

13th 12260

14th 10042

Week 2 Total 84211

15th 10183

16th 10336

17th 11657

18th 11891

19th 12012

20th 11678

21st 10018

Week 3 Total 77775

22nd 13303

23rd 13352

24th 10820

25th 10232

26th 8529

27th 10361

28th 8581

Week 4 Total 75178

29th 14661

30th 17268

31st 10245

Week 5 Finale! 42174

You win some you lose some.

The Win.

For the past 2 nights Jessica has averaged 6 hours a night in her cot bed! It took an hour to get her to fall asleep Saturday night but without any crying she finally conked out and stayed in her 3 walled crib for 6 and half hours!! She got more sleep than I did (I was constantly waking up to check on her and make sure she hadn't wandered off into the house somewhere.) When she woke up at 4am to nurse I just collected her brought her back to our bed. Sunday night we tried again. Out of nowhere, Jessica decided that she wanted an early evening nap around 6pm, which means when she woke up around 7:30 she was not interested in going back to bed until 10:30. It took a lot of coaxing but eventually we got her down in the cot bed again. This time I didn't bring her back with me until 5am. (Looks like we might be on to a winner here!!) It was so nice being able to stretch out and move around without fear of waking the baby!


The Lose.

Jessica is NOT doing well with Stroller Strides. When we started it was a bit iffy, but after a few classes she finally came around. She'd get fussy near the end of class sometimes and require lots to entertain her, but by March she was doing brilliantly. She'd happily sit through an entire class, waving at passerbys and grinning at the other moms. Since the week we took off and went to Kentucky she has not been thrilled with sitting in the stroller during class. She'd start fine and then get angry halfway through for no apparent reason. As May went on it has gotten progressively worse. Last Friday, a friend of mine switched strollers with me during class so I could see what it was like exercising with a stroller built for purpose. I was excited. Jessica was not. I thought perhaps a change of immediate scenery would have helped. I thought wrong. She was just as angry as before, if not more so.

This morning I was hesitant, should I go to class? My hip hurts, my knee hurts, and the stupid toe, that I think is causing all the other pain, hurts. I decided I would try. I've put my membership on hold from the end of the month so I only have a few more classes left anyway. I might as well tough it out - get my money's worth! ;) Jessica disagreed. She happily sat in the stroller on the walk from the apartment over to class, but when it came time for class to start? Not a chance. She was livid. Absolute refusal to sit in the stroller. She was annoyed with me and demanded that Megan hold her through warm-ups. *sigh* The class headed off on their warm-up walk and I stayed behind with Jessie. I tried to console her, but it was fruitless. She was not going back into the stroller. Eventually I gave up and headed over to the covered play area on the commons and let her run around. She met a little boy named Riley and they played together for at least half an hour. They were smitten and Jessica wanted nothing more than to go home with the family. (I think it had a lot to do with his mom and aunt; two lovely, petite, dark haired very pretty women.)

Headed home again... sure she'll sit in the stroller now. Until a man in the elevator scared her that is. Shrieking tears down the hallway back to the apartment. Straight to bed. (Silver lining?-  she's in the cot bed!)

Seriously?

Jessica can now circumvent all our current baby corralling measures which means by the time I got to her, she'd already put a few teeth marks into her Daddy's xbox controller. (I don't fancy telling him... does someone else want to tell him for me?)

A few minutes later I decide it's time for an early lunch. The cat is twirling around my feet and I manage to drop a plate of buffalo chicken perilously close to her head. It shatters of course, leaving me with a lovely mixture of shredded buffalo chicken and porcelain to clean.

After I finally get lunch sorted I set it on the sofa (first mistake.) I head back to the kitchen to get a drink (second mistake.) Jessica has my fork and is scooping buffalo chicken into her mouth. Her first reaction is one of smug pride, then the hot sauce hits. Not so happy now. I quickly pour her a cup of milk and all is better. She must have a very bad short term memory though because she tries again a few minutes later. I set her milk up on the end table. Somehow I manage to knock the milk over with my new plate. Argh. Milk on the carpet. Clean that up. Turn around twice and I've knocked my plate over again. Buffalo chicken down! (on the carpet this time for good measure) I clean that up. Finish lunch, remove dishes. Turn around to find my baby about to put the carpet cleaner bottle spout into her mouth! *slow motion NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*  I save the baby. Replace carpet cleaner bottle with diluted apple juice. She seems happy.                              

I don't feel comfortable in my skin today and I keep meeting with painfully physical reminders. Can I just go back to bed please?                

A Belated Easter Greeting

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! John 11:25-26 

Easter went by in kind of a blur this year. Jessica and I had just gotten back from spending spring break with our family in Kentucky and we were kind of worn out. Jessica was thrilled to be back home with all her toys in familiar surroundings while Mark was just thrilled to have us back. We'd missed the Stroller Strides group egg hunt and we decided that Jessa was probably still to young to get much out of a crazy crowded group egg hunt, so we just stayed home. (Not that I can actually ever picture us at a crowded group egg hunt, it's not really our thing. I have to say, the Dosmann's really knew what they were doing when they decided to have a family Easter on the beach. That might be a tradition I steal.) I wanted to hit a sunrise service somewhere in Raleigh but I really didn't know where to go. Sunrise service to me equals a beach and I just couldn't get my head around a service in a carpark... I shared a bit of the Easter Message with her, but it was probably more for me than her since I don't have a children's bible yet and she seemed unimpressed at the lack of pictures in mine.

So there were no plastic eggs or chocolate bunnies in ribbon in our house but I did manage to catch a brief glimpse of the rare Easter-BunnyBabyBear....

Dear Jessica,

Next year I promise we'll do it better. Church, a meal, egg hunting and sweets.

Love,

Mummy

She's kind of awesome

and I don't care that I could be considered biased.

The other night we were eating dinner on the sofa, because we're obviously super parents. Jessica was sitting in Mark's lap happily munching through some stirfry. She, of course, decided she was done long before we were so she got down to run around. However, she was still carrying her new sippy cup. It's one of those super handy non-spill ones that we're not allowed to get the benefit from. Jessica refuses to suck from a cup these days so I have to leave the valves out. She's not quite ready to be released into the wild with a proper cup though. She can pick one up, drink and put it down again but I'm not naive enough to believe it wouldn't be an instana mess the second I looked away. I head to the kitchen to refill our non-sippy cup drinks. I come back. hmmm... sippy cup is upside down on the footstool. Luckily it's titled at just such an angle that it's not seeping out. Where's the child and why has she abandoned it there?  She's fussing with the roll of paper towels I've left on the floor from some earlier toddler incident. I pause. She tears off a piece. I look over at Mark and wave for his attention. He pauses and stares at the child. She's taken her little torn off corner of towel and is headed to a small milk spot on the carpet. Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing? She starts dabbing at it. OH MY GOSH! Mark and I are both gobsmacked. There's lots of cheering and baby praising. She looks thrilled. We are amazed. I pick up the roll of paper towels and let her pull off a full sized piece and then I dab at the carpet with her.

My 14 month old not only understands that she's spilled milk on the carpet, she knows that it needs to be cleaned up, she knows how to clean it up, and even more impressively, she decides to clean it up all by herself!

This could be completely normal behaviour for a 14 month old, but since I've not been around many other 14 months old I choose to believe that my child is a genius. :p

Mark's comment? "She's obviously seen you do that before."  (Don't let him fool you. He thinks she's even smarter than I do.)

A walk to the park

All in all, not my best idea. We didn't have Stroller Strides today. North Hills Kids on the Commons didn't have their play blocks out today and I didn't think things through so I let Mark take the car to work. So around 1pm, Jessica (who is now very used to getting out of the house everyday) starts acting a bit restless. She sees the stroller and climbs in. I push her around the kitchen a bit. No? Not satisfying? Okay. We'll go to the park. Sounds like a superb idea doesn't it? (if you said yes, you too would be wrong.)

The closest park is North Hills. Only a mile. That's 3 minutes by car! However... that's at least 30 minutes pushing a stroller on foot. But that's okay! We can do this! Jessica is strapped in. She has a sippy cup. She's thrilled to be leaving the house! It's a lovely afternoon, not too hot if you keep moving and stay out of direct sunlight. We're making good time. I start to notice something. Hills. Lots of hills. (Apparently they didn't choose the name out of a hat when they named the place.) Right now we're predominately going down hill. That's great for now. We still have to get back home.. that requires going UP. I shake my head and try to forget about it. That will be future me's problem.

We get to the park. Hello North Hills park.

A little bit of backstory:


Tuesday we went to Bailywick park. It was warm. I had Jessica in shorts. Jessica's newest favourite past time is running. Splat. Skinned knee. I felt bad (She barely noticed)

Wednesday after Stroller Strides we played on the commons. I let Jessica go barefoot. The mats were baked in the sun and she burned her tiny feet. I felt HORRIBLE (She noticed big time, but she got over it quickly.)

So today I was prepared. She was wearing long pants. She was wearing shoes. I get her out of the stroller. She's excited. She goes running. SPLAT. This time she hits the concrete forehead first. We both noticed and we both felt horrible. She was crying. I was trying to be strong and not cry. (There were some other moms at the park who didn't even turn to look at us...) I called Mark and told him that I might be calling back in a few minutes and asking him to come pick us up. I couldn't see how I was going to walk back uphill with an injured crying child and push a stroller.

She pulled through. I didn't have to call Mark back and have him rush us to a doctor. She shook it off and played in the sand. She played on the slide. She dug in some bark. Generally, I think she enjoyed herself. 

Now it's time to head home again. Up hill. *sigh* We pack up, I give her some freeze dried strawberries to amuse her (which by the way, make her face look like she's been in a cat fight) and we head off. So far so good. Then there's the first baby hill. 

I say baby because they get worse than this. We tough it out. Get to the top and she breaks down. There's tears, there's snot, there's the world is ending bawling. There's nothing I can do. I have to get her out. So into the sling she goes. I am now wearing a hot, cranky, sweaty, sandy baby who must have a doozy of a headache. I still have to push a stroller. One handed. (and as many of you have heard me bemoan... this particular stroller does NOT go in a straight line if you're only using one hand.) Fun. We continue on. Ahhchooo! AaaaahCHOO! What in the world? Yes. I'm sneezing my head off. My head suddently aches. My eyes itch. We took a slightly different route home than the one out (I was steering for flat land) and apparently I'm allergic to something a road over from the way we came down. I have no idea how that's possible. Now we both feel rotten.

Drag the stroller up some stairs (the main elevator is apparently on service- so we had to go around the long way) and we're finally home. But there's one last little treat. The air was off in the flat so it's a toasty 78 degrees inside. 

Everything can be fixed. I took an allergy pill. Jessica's taking a nap. The air is on and I just ate something like 20 mini-nila wafers... can't let there be a net calorie loss today.