Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas gift projects?
Go ahead, wipe the coffee off your computer screen, I’ll wait…
I actually have plans for almost everyone on my list, and materials for most of those projects too. I knew there was a reason that I built such a large fabric and yarn stash while I was working and could afford it!
Aren’t you jealous that I even already have a list? I’m giddy with excitement. New projects! Yippee!
Wow! Three entries in one day – can you stand it?
Anyway. Earlier this evening Carrie and I were sitting on the couch together watching one of her Signing Times videos while Denis was working on dinner. In fact, in a weird coincidence we were watching the Silly Pizza Song segment while he was making homemade pizza! Denis calmly asked from the kitchen, “is it a bad thing if the oven’s on fire?” Um… I scooped Carrie up, took a peek in the kitchen, saw the bright yellow flames in the oven, and advised him to turn it off (duh!) and close the door, hoping that it would burn itself out. Meanwhile, I threw on my shoes and went and stood outside the front door with Carrie so she wouldn’t be treated to all the lovely smoke invading the house. The flames went out pretty quickly, and I brought Carrie over to my parents’ house so I could help Denis open up the house and get the smoke under control.
So, there we are, running around the house, when the power takes several hits. The dogs start going berserk, I start worrying that somehow the fire had re-ignited and caused the oven (it’s electric) to trip the circuit breaker, the UPS upstairs starts frantically beeping…I run back next door, the power’s out there too.
At this point we have an uncooked pizza, a stove we can’t use for various reasons, smoke filling the entire downstairs, no electricity for fans, it’s dinnertime for Carrie and we can’t microwave her frozen purees, and the dogs are going nuts because of the beeping and the distant thunder.
It ended up working out though. Denis grilled the pizza – it actually came out quite well that way – my mom and I thawed Carrie’s food in very hot water, and just as Carrie was starting to get really tired the power came back on. Even without the fans, the smoke had pretty much dissipated by the time I brought her home, and she got to bed at a reasonable hour.
And now I need a break. What a way to start the week!
I just finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’m just going to say that I’m very sad. It was a good book, but not a happy one.
One more book to go before we find out how it all ends.
Last night wasn’t such a good night for Carrie. She woke up around midnight, and no amount of rocking, diaper changing or nursing was working to get her back to sleep. Denis even tried rocking her for a while, and then we finally gave up and brought her to bed just so we could get some sleep. Only, that backfired, because Carrie was thrashing and crying and kicking instead of sleeping. Finally, at 1:30 I was so frustrated I carried her back to her room, put her in her crib, gave her a kiss and said goodnight. I crawled back in bed, listening to her protests, fully expecting to have to get up in 10 minutes to go rescue her. But after only a minute or two, she stopped crying and started playing with her aquarium, and then I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew it was 6 AM.
I felt horribly guilty, imaging that I must have slept through her crying alone in her crib, but on a whim I put her down awake for her morning nap instead of spending 20 minutes rocking her to sleep, and 20 minutes later she had fallen asleep on her own! Dare I hope for a repeat for her afternoon nap?
I picked up my copy of the new Harry Potter book at 11 this morning, but I still haven’t had a chance to start reading it yet. When Carrie goes down for her afternoon nap in an hour or so, though, I’m not going to wait another second longer!
When will the drivers around here realize that the “new” left turn arrow (it’s been up for 6 months) near the mall is different from the old one? Every single time I’m at the head of the line and there’s a red arrow I get honked and screamed at when there’s a gap in the oncoming traffic and I don’t turn. Gee, I don’t turn because it’s an effing red light, morons! Seriously, the cops could make a fortune sitting on the corner of that intersection, because when I’m not at the front of the line I always see people running the light. They even hung a sign right next to the light saying “wait for green arrow” or something to that effect.
I didn’t used to be so concerned about other drivers’ bad habits, but now that I have a kid in my car…well, let’s just say that if anyone ever hurt Carrie because they were driving recklessly and/or breaking a law, I would most likely be going to jail for murder.
Uh. OK. Rant over. Tune in tomorrow to find out whether I go at midnight tonight to pick up my copy of HP6 or if I do the sane, responsible adult thing and wait until Carrie goes down for her morning nap…
I just can’t seem to catch enough sleep lately. Carrie’s actually been doing pretty well, sleeping almost through most nights, but I’ve been dragging. It probably doesn’t help so much that I stay up a bit late, but 11 to 6 with at most only one short interruption ought to be enough for anyone, right?
And I really have no excuses, since Carrie took 2 naps for a whopping 5 1/2 hours total today, and if I had been smart I would have napped a bit too. Instead I puttered. I accomplished nothing useful besides doing a load of laundry and knitting half of a dishcloth. I did read a few chapters in the 5th Harry Potter book, but it’s a lost cause to get it completely re-read before Saturday. I kind of wish I’d thought to re-read it a couple of weeks ago!
I really should go to bed now, but first I have to pump, clean the pump parts, finish tidying up the kitchen, run the dishwasher, take the dogs out, and…wait, no wonder I’m so tired. And the trick will be to not pick my book back up when I’m done with all that and stay up even later.
Despite the fact that I’ve known for three weeks that the carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow, of course I didn’t remember until this evening that it meant I’d need to pick everything movable up off the floors of three rooms and a hallway and vacuum those areas. Everything is done now except the vacuuming and Carrie’s room, which I think I’ll be able to get done in the morning before they get here.
Except now I’ve just realized that I’m really going to need to spend most of the day at my grandparents’ house with Carrie instead of just the hour or so they’ll be cleaning the carpets. There’s no place for her to crawl around and play until the carpets are dry. And it’s not as though my grandparents’ place is all that baby-safe, so I’m basically going to have to spend the whole day in chase and distract mode.
Ugh. This is going to be such a hassle! What on earth was I thinking?!?
They are like manna from heaven, apparently. I thought Carrie really liked the Gerber fruit and vegetable puffs we’d been giving her, but Cheerios must be even more yummy. We’ve been giving her a lot more foods and experimenting more with finger foods. She loves to eat. (She’s definitely related to my family!) And with such motivation, she’s become a lot more consistent about signing “more”, although it varies from clapping hands to banging fists and everything in between. I figure if I sign it back to her correctly she’ll eventually get it right.
Let’s see, lately Carrie’s tried blueberries, cherries, zucchini and apricots. Next up? Yellow squash, nectarines, white potatoes, broccoli and maybe some beans. I’m going to step up introductions a bit and only wait 2 days between new foods instead of 3 or 4, because at the rate we’re going she won’t be done trying things until she’s 27. Besides, she’s really becoming intensely interested in what Mommy and Daddy are eating, so sooner or later I’m just going to have to let go of the careful planning and just let her eat anything she wants.
Carrie, Nana, Poppy and I all took a drive to the outlet mall near us. I hadn’t been there in about 6 years, but I’ll definitely be going back soon. They had a Children’s Place outlet and a Coldwater Creek outlet, but best of all…?
There’s a Carter’s outlet!
I love Carter’s clothes for Carrie, and I was very sad because she’s pretty much outgrown the 6-9 month sizes and I’ve only very rarely found 12 month Carter’s clothes, and nothing bigger than that. In their store, though, they go all the way up to size 6! And almost everything was at least 30% off. I had to exercise extreme self-control not to buy all the cute outfits there, since I’m sure we’ll get some clothes for her birthday and I should really wait to see what she needs. We did come home with some really cute overalls (with coordinating onesie, sweater and socks) that should last her until next spring, and some pajamas to fit her now and for the winter. And there was a really cute dress we found in 2T for next spring/summer/fall.
It’s actually about the same amount of time to drive there as it is to drive to the local Babies ‘R’ Us. This may be a dangerous thing to know…