Happenings

I get some chill time with Ellie in the mornings, which I LOVE. It's getting harder and harder these days to drop her off at daycare and go to work. I just wanna stay home and hang out with her. She's that cool. Heh heh.

So, we're sitting on the sofa, "chatting" about Sesame Street, when Ellie decides to climb into my lap and watch TV sprawled out on me. Awwwwww. My heart just melted She usually climbs into my lap with a book for me to read, but this was the first time she just wanted to be held. Can you imagine how hard it was for me to leave the house this morning? I don't know how much longer I can hold out. Now that it's getting warmer outside, I crave spending the entire day with her. Don't be surprised if I come on here one day and announce that I'm following in Homey's shoes and trying on the SAHM pants.

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

Ellie adores our cat, Luna. Luna, on the other hand, doesn't trust Ellie at all. She has yet to come to her or let her pet her (truth is, the only people she comes near are Harry and me; she runs away from everyone else).

Ellie is determined to get out cat to like her. Before she could talk, she'd make the little clicking noise and reach her arm out or pat the sofa to try to get the cat to come to her, imitating Mama and Daddy. No dice. Luna wouldn't budge.

She progressed to saying "Na" when trying to call the cat. Still, Luna wouldn't come.

She's now saying "Una", clicking, AND holding her hand out or patting the sofa, and do you know that that damned cat STILL won't come to her? I keep telling Ellie that Luna is a butthead; Harry said he's gonna be pissed at me if Ellie starts calling Luna that. LOL.

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

In other news, I'm always super careful when I put Ellie in her car seat and shut the car door. I'm always watching out for her hands, making sure I don't hit her fingers with the door and possibly jam one. So today, I'll looking at her hand and neglect to notice that MY hand is in the way when I shut the door. I nicked my pinkie finger. OUCH.

At first, I didn't even thing I got it cuz it came right out of the door. I looked at the back first, and it looked fine. Then I turned it around and noticed a spot of blood under the middle of the nail. Great.

Then the pain came, and holy crap. It's still freaking sore over 5 hours later. At least it's not broken, but I'm really hoping I don't lose my nail. Even the thought of it skeeves me out.

Well THAT'S New

Ellie learned something new today.

A pea can, indeed, fit up her nostril.

Lovely.

I'm going to go have a beer and watch some Jon and Kate Plus 8.

G'night.

Music Player Meme

I have to use Windows Media Player instead of iTunes cuz that's where my music's at...

How many total songs? 19,557


Sort by Song Title. What's the first song? "I'll Wait for You" by Graeme Revell (original score to The Crow: City of Angels)


Sort by Song Title. What's the last song? Zorak's Horrorscopes: Scorpio (from Space Ghost Surf & Turf: 22 Tiki-Torched Tunes)

Sort by Time. What's the shortest song? Track 12 off DMB's Under the Table and Dreaming at 0.0 seconds

Sort by Time. What's the longest song? Track 14 on OK Go's Oh No album at 34min 46 sec

Sort by album. What's the first song? 2Pac's Hypnotize remix (that's SO not mine - must be Harry's)

Sort by album. What's the last song? She Does Everything for Me by The Zombies

Sort by Play Count. What are the top ten songs?

Ocean Breathes Salty by Modest Mouse
Love Song cover by 311
Run by Snow Patrol
Porcelain by Moby
Stutter by Andy Stochansky
Here for Now by Ani Difranco
One Plus One is One by Badly Drawn Boy
Loser by Beck
Step into my Office, Baby by Belle and Sebastian
Stolen Car by Beth Orton

Sort by Last Played. What are the top 10 songs?

Amber Waves by Tori Amos
Not David Bowie by Tori Amos
Weather With You by Crowded House
I'll Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler
Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf
Who'll Stop the Rain by CCR
Angel of Harlem by U2
Thaeter (it's actually spelled that way) by Marilyn Manson
Life Wasted by Pearl Jam
Displaced by Azure Ray


Search for "Sex". How many and what?

86 songs. I'm not naming them all.


Search for "Love". How many and what?

640


Search for "Death". How many and what?

95

Another First

Ellie said her name for the first time this morning. Yay!

She's been working on it for weeks now, but she just couldn't get it out.

This morning, as we were making our way to the kitchen, she spotted some new framed pictures I had put on the counter to take with me to work. I gave her one, and I asked her, "Who's that?", and she's promplty responded with "That's Ellie!' or more precisely "Tha's Eh-yee!"

I couldn't believe she finally got it! I asked her again, "Who's that?" and again, "Tha's Eh-yee!"

How sweet is that?

So I sat her down in her highchair, and I stood the pic up in front of her on her tray while I got her milk ready. As I'm pouring the milk, I say again, "Who's that?" and she yells, "Eh-yee!"

I just talked to Harry, and Teri told him she's been saying it all day. That and "shoe". She loves the word "shoe". Even socks are shoes, according to Ellie. Pretty much anything you were on your feet are shoes.

So that's the news for today.

The mall is E-VIL

That's right, not just evil but E-VIL.

Remember how Ellie had so much fun in the children's play area last week? Remember how I said we were gonna go every weekend?

Yeah, that's SO not gonna happen right now.

The poor little thing got a wicked cold from all the germs!

I knew we were taking a risk when we went (I had actually voiced my concern to Harry prior to going), but I was hoping against hope that her immune system was finally kicking in.

Obviously, I was wrong.

So no more play area for awhile. Maybe we'll try it again this summer. Who knows?

Spring can't come soon enough; we need some warm days for her to play outside.

What's happening, Hotstuff?

Starting this past Monday, I no longer have to look at invoices all day and have resumed my old duties here at work. And I'm VERY happy about it. I actually have a lot more work to do (which is why I haven't been on here for like 6 hours a day - LOL), but it makes the time go by so fast. I love that. I can't believe it's already Wednesday. Crazy.

Let's see... my sister finds out today if she will be continuing her nursing program. She had her final last night, so we'll see. She hasn't been doing too well, I guess; she's got a lot going on in her life right now, namely an asshole of an ex-husband trying to fuck with her again. I hate that.

Ellie had a small accident yesterday at daycare. All the kids were playing outside, with Teri and her 27-year-old daughter, Stacy (whom Ellie LOVES to pieces and is actually the only name she knows how to say besides Mama and Daddy), watching over them. Lady, Teri's 12-year-old yellow mutt, was also running around outside, getting some exercise. Lady attempted to jump up on Stacy to get a headpat, but missed and pegged Ellie. She accidently scratched her under the eye (thank God it was under and not IN). She didn't break the skin or anything, but it still sucks. I'm hoping it won't leave a scar. We're keeping it very clean and just hoping for the best. It doesn't seem to hurt, and Ellie's not traumatized or anything. As for Lady, Teri feels it best not to let the poor doggie play outside when the kids are out there. I feel bad (the dog didn't mean to do it), but Teri's adamant about it. Lady will just have to go outside once the kids are in eating their lunch.

Speaking of outside, the weather has finally warmed a bit, climbing into the mid to upper 40s (yeah, that's warm for March in New England), and Ellie's so digging playing outside. Harry brought her out yesterday when they got home, letting her run around the back yard, pulling her around in a wagon, and letting her try to ride her little, green John Deere tractor deal. I didn't get to join in the fun cuz I was stuck here at work. I'm hoping the weather will be good this weekend so I can see her in action and maybe snap a few pics.

That's about all I got for now.

Awesome Weekend

As you can see from the title, we had an awesome weekend.

Saturday, we did our normal grocery shopping run early in the a.m. Ellie LOVES to go grocery shopping (which also makes me love grocery shopping); she loves being high up in the shopping carriage and greeting people as we walk down the aisles. She also loves to try and snatch stuff off the shelf and throw things out of the cart that I've just put in there.

It rained for the rest of they day, so we stayed in. We did LOTS of floor-time playing, opting to keep the TV off for the most part.

Speaking of TV, Ellie finally discovered the ON/OFF button on ours yesterday. She's been pushing the little green light next to it (the sensor) for the past month and getting pretty pissed off that the button was broken. Yesterday, curiosity must have gotten the best of her because she decided to push the space next to the little green light and VOILA!... the TV miraculously turned itself on. She pushed it again... and it turned off. AHA! On, off, on, off, on, off... for the next 10 minutes until I cut up a plastic card and promptly taped it over the new-found magic button. When Ellie tried to push the plastic card, the TV didn't go on. She was not a happy camper, but at least I'VE saved my sanity.

We've been putting her to bed 10-15 minutes earlier every night since Wednesday in hopes of fiddling with her sleeping schedule for the time-change. Last night, Ellie was in bed by 6:45pm (her normal time is 7:30pm). Not too bad. It only took her 10 minutes or so to settle down. And this morning, she was up by 7:20am. I'll probably have to wake her up the next couple of days in order for us to get out the door on time, but I'm hoping by the end of the week, she'll be waking up on her own once again.

So, after a delicious breakfast of French Toast, we decided to take a page out of MinneMom's schedule and head off to the kids' area at one of our local malls. Harry had mentioned taking Ellie to this place a couple of times this winter, but I was afraid she wasn't quite big enough for it yet. I'm happy to report that I was completely wrong.

Ellie had a fantastic time this morning. She loved running around on the bouncy floor and playing with all the stuff. I couldn't believe how much fun she was having. We got there a few minutes before the mall opened, so she had pretty much the whole place to herself for about 10-15 minutes. As other kids started to trickle in, she greeted each one with a big "HI!"It was so cute. She wasn't shy with them, and she politely waited her turn for things. She played for about 30 minutes total. We then took a short walk around the bottom floor of the mall so I could get a little exercise, too. We are definitely doing this more often. We're gonna try to go again next Sunday at 10am, so she can have some time to herself again. And we're gonna remember the camera, too.

My mom came by for a visit this afternoon and ended up staying for dinner, too. Ellie's really taken to her lately, which is great. I guess my sister was right; my mom really just doesn't do well with babies. Now that Ellie is toddling around, it's a different story. They get along famously, and Ellie thinks Grammy is a riot. I'm so glad. I love seeing them together.

And lucky for us tonight, all the excitement of the day pooped our little girl out. She went to bed at 7:30pm and fell asleep within 5 minutes. Good stuff.

All in all, this was one of the best weekends this winter.

Cuspids/Eye Teeth/Canines... they're all the same (I looked it up)

So smack on the 16-month dot, Ellie's got two cuspids coming in, the poor thing. She was SO whiny Saturday morning that we feared her ear infection had returned. Upon investigating her mouth, Mommy felt two, sharp, pointy teeth struggling to break through the little one's gums. AH!

We gave her some Motrin and teething tablets, and that seemed to do the trick. I have no idea how long they take to actually push through, but I hope it happens soon. I hate to see her in pain.

And I fear the top ones are gonna be even worse.

Sigh.

Loss

My grandmother passed away on Friday. She had been suffering from dementia for the past few years, so I haven't seen her in awhile. I'd send her cards and pictures even though she didn't know who they were from, and my aunt told me she'd hang them up anyway because it meant that at leas somebody cared.

I wasn't very close with her. She lived down in Maryland, and we only saw her a few times a year when I as younger. We'd visit for a few days around Thanksgiving, we'd see her as she traveled up to Maine and back down again to Maryland during the summer, and we'd go up to Maine to stay with her for a week for our Summer vacation. Once my parents got divorced, we stopped visiting. I guess my mom just couldn't take the visits on her own.

Growing up, I knew very little about my grandmother. I knew:

1. She was very cruel to my mother while growing up
2. Her husband died before I was born
3. She didn't like children
4. She lived with her dog and 2 cats
5. She collected baseball cards

I remember going to visit in November and watching the Macy's parade on her black and white TV. I remember the picture hanging above that TV:



I remember thinking how beautiful, how glamorous, how sophisticated, how RICH my grandparents looked in the picture. And I wondered why we WEREN'T rich. I mean, look at them! They look like movie stars.

My mom told me about having to watch her 2 younger brothers and younger sister every single day and feeding them ketchup and onion sandwiches or spam because there was nothing else to eat in the house while my grandparents went out to have steak dinners and rub elbows with the D.C. elite.

And later on, as I got older, my mother grudgingly told me about some pretty horrible things her mother did to her when she was younger, one of them being she stabbed my mother in the leg. Even as a teenager, I had enough sense to wonder why in the world this woman had children. It boggles the mind.

My mother moved out the day she turned 18, and she never looked back. Can't say as I blame her.

I know you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but this is all I know about the woman. I never once saw her do a nice thing for anyone. That's the plain truth.

I don't know how I'm feeling right now. I'm all disconnected and, well, I'm angry. I'm not sure if it's directly related to her death or if it's something else. Whatever it is, I have 3 days to get myself back together. I hate feeling like this, and I don't want to return to work an angerball. I don't want to be an angerball around Harry and Ellie, either. It sucks to feel so irritated and stressed when all I want to do is give love and affection to my two favorite people.

I need to get out of this funk. Blah.