Pull Over!!

....no, it's a cardigan.... (It's one of my favorite lines from a really crazy movie.)

We were supposed to go to the zoo today, but woke up to drizzle. Instead, we went to the Children's Museum and it was a blast as usual. We were early getting there by about 20 minutes, so we meandered over to the 17th Street Market. We picked up some Oolang tea for the LW and looked at all of the musical instruments that they have there. We'll probably be back for a xmas present or two from there. Once we got to the museum, CP and Teague were all over the place. One of the docents even came over when we were at the fire truck and turned on the lights. The kids got a kick out of it and CP loved all of the lateral running space. We didn't spend as much time in the music room this time, but it was really warm in there. We made up for it in the playroom with the frogs on the conveyor though. They loved that one. They have little stuffed toy frogs attached to a rope operated vertical conveyor setup with velcro and at the top is a ceiling fan with two blades. As the frogs get to the top of the conveyor, the fan blades come around and smack them off which sends them flying across the room. The kids then round them up and do it all over again. It was a hoot. It wasn't working the last time we were there, so this was my first time around with it and I really had fun with it.

Every Day...

..is a good day with my lovely wife and beautiful daughter. I woke up to a smiling baby full of laughter. We all played "tickle..tickle" this morning before getting up and getting going.....and she's been going full blast this morning. My LW gave me a wonderful card and a Wailin' Jennys CD, then my maternal grandparents called and sang happy birthday to me. It's pretty funny stuff to listen to, and remarkable because they never leave messages for me, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've been trying to get in touch with my mom, because today is her birthday too (I was a 20th birthday present, of sorts), but her line is busy busy this morning and that's a good thing.

Neti Pot

I use the wife's little oriental teapot for sinus irrigation usually, but this time I waited too long after my eyes started watering and sinusitis crept up on me like a fog, and on little cat feet even. It's been an interesting few days of sniffling and sneezing, but I hope to be over this soon because work's beginning to filter in more an more. I'm enjoying that, but it's tough to work when your head feels like a bowling ball.

CP and I have the house to ourselves today since the LW took off on the bicycle this morning. She went down to one of the coffee shops in town today to meet one of the garden coordinators that's now a co-worker. It's really good to see someone else land a good spot that allows them the freedom to work from anywhere with only a laptop computer and a wifi or cellular bb card. CP and I were outside a good bit today and she's now a wheelbarrow riding fiend. Can't get enough of the thing. We go and spend a lot of money on a bike trailer/stroller/hiker and all she wants to do is ride in a $10 wheelbarrow. It just figures.....

I've put out the word to most of the family already that this year we'd like for CP to get musical instruments and art supplies for xmas. She likes stuffed critters alright, but her interest in them fades really quickly and they're quickly tossed aside when crayons or drums are about. CP's uncle Richard has already alluded to the idea of getting her a bullhorn/siren for a gift. He's a funny man for an engineer. CP really likes the musical instrument room at the children's museum here in town. The only thing that dragged her away from that last time was the model trains that were running.

The flickr spot should have some new images from my last round of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Picher Perfect

The LW and I watched a disturbing show last night on PBS. It was an Independent Lens program called The Creek Runs Red. I didn't know that the LW had changed the channel, but I heard someone speaking who sounded a little bit slow. I turned around to see someone who could have very easily been a part of my family down in Mississippi. She was going on and on in an obvious redneck dialect about how lead poisoning hadn't done anything to her or her family and that she didn't know what all the fuss was about. I found it interesting that this person is basically a poster child for learning disabilities caused by heavy metals .......and that by having learning disabilities, she doesn't even realize that she's the poster child.

The show is worth watching. I had basically heard these people speak before. They're all over just about everywhere that I've lived. In Canon City, CO they're the folks that still believe that dirt from the Manhattan project that's stored near the water supply (and almost leaking into the water supply for most of western Kansas) won't hurt them or their kids. Yup, if you don't want to find anything, don't put in the correct monitoring wells....problem solved right? In Mississippi, they're the families of folks that have lived near the cotton fields and been subjected to boll weevil poison and defoliant drift all of their lives, yet continue to wonder why they have so many strange illnesses in their communities. CMT anyone?

Deadlines and a New Doctor

I left the LW this afternoon in a pretty bad state. She was buggin' because her deadline for file check-in was moving up fast and I had to leave for work. Something about a translation department in Japan, I think. Technical writers and their time-shifted global deadlines......

As usual, CP was doing her best to make everyone in the house fully aware of her needs and wants. We try our best to humor her, but sheeeesh, it gets hard sometimes. We took her to meet her new pediatrician today. You might recall that her last doc got fired down the road for messing with the labial adhesions in the old-school, "just separate them, it won't bother her" way. We had to find someone new because if he did that again, I was going to kick his old ass into next year....and then I'd need a lawyer for xmas.

Anyway, the new doc is a really nice lady who took a careful look at CP and judged her to be bright and happy. They have a large waiting room with a playground and CP was happy right from the start. The doc let CP play with her medical equipment and she absolutely loved it. She prescribed some cream ( at $100/tube) for her and things will be just fine soon. Of course, since CP was sick most of last month, we got the standard issue "are you feeding her?" type questions. I tried to explain that she had been sick/off of food for almost a month and that we'd basically been trying to throw everything in the cupboards at her, but little stuff like that just flies by, or so it seems.

CP's happily sleeping now and the house is quiet. The LW wore CP out this evening while I was at work with singing and ring-around-the-rosie. All is well.

Oh, if anyone else out there wondered how to create a backup of their blogspot blog, here's a neat trick:

http://yourblognamehere.blogspot.com/search?updated
-min=2005-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&updated-max
=2010-01-0101T00%3A00%3A00Z&max-results=3000

Insert this bit of code into the url line after you change the dates to reflect what you want. Once you're there, using Firefox of course, go to file and save page as. It'll save it so that you'll at least have the files should something go wrong.

What A Difference....

...a day makes. Auntie M. took the baby yesterday and oh my did the LW and I get some things done. I got to work on garden administration stuff as well as go to work. The LW got quiet time to get some work toward her latest deadline completed. It was good to just be able to switch off that constant "where's CP?" buzzer that rings in our heads all day. CP had fun playing with Auntie M. and got to do some finger painting. I'll post the other pics to the flickr spot, so check 'em out.

She woke up this morning at about 7:30 and was just laying around when the LW went in to get her for the liquid breakfast. Grandma called shortly after that and CP actually said "bye" to her. Pretty funny.

Monday Monday

It's Veteran's Day and this vet is going to ship his noisy tot off to Auntie M's place today, so that the LW and I can get some quiet time in the house and some peaceful yard work done. CP slept until almost 10am this morning, so we're getting a bit of a late start with plans for the day.

CP's been chatting a good bit lately. Mimicry has taken hold and she's catching on to different things around the house. Turning everything on and off, putting things in containers and taking them out, and just being a funny little baby in general. It's pretty fun...especially when she says, "COOKIE!".

Violet came back a few days ago. A nice lady a few streets over opened up her back yard shed and a dehydrated and hungry gray cat came hopping out. They looked at her collar and called us. The LW dropped everything and ran to get her. She's been happily recuperating on a diet of wet food and lots of snuggle time.

Missed Doctor, Meatloaf, and Panties for Peace

I could have sworn that CP's appointment with her new doctor was this morning. I was so sure that I didn't really listen clearly to the reminder message that they left for me. I mean really, I had it in my trusty little Palm. No worries. Well, that won't happen again. We got there half an hour early and ready to fill out paperwork only to find that the appointment was yesterday. Ohhhh....I was embarrassed, then mad at myself, then flustered......then the LW got mad at me because I just wanted to get out of there. This started a fight that lasted all the way home in the car. I'll have to call and reschedule sometime soon.

CP's sleeping now after a lunch of cold veggies and hot meatloaf. I found the recipe in the Petite Appetite book that Pat & Alice sent. It turned out really well even though I substituted pepperoncini peppers and mushrooms for the bell peppers that were in the recipe.

Listened to Hightower Radio over lunch since it appears that KXCI has done some program reshuffling. He talked about Panties for Peace. I think that the LW is up for it. Man, those dudes in Burma are crazier than some of the nutjobs running things here.....

Missing

Violet the cat is missing. She's been gone for a couple of days before and come back, but we're wondering this time whether or not she'll come back. The LW is pretty bummed about it. She's had Violet since she lived in the Ozarks and was married to the drunk trustfunder. We hope that all is well and the LW will stop by the local shelters today to see if she may have turned up there. She's a very friendly cat, and if she slipped her collar, someone may have taken her in thinking that she's a stray.

CP continues to kick the cold that she's had for weeks. We hope to get back into the regular swing of things this week. She just woke up and took her wet diaper off.

Halloween

CP had a fun little bit of Halloween. I say a little bit because even with all of the lights in the neighborhood, it seems as though most folks must have taken their little people to organized events somewhere. We thought about taking CP to the gig at the Parent Connection, but she's still really snotty and I wouldn't wish this gurgling coughing mess on anyone.....well, almost anyone.

Auntie M. came over and had a good time with CP except for the little bits of fright that came with that crazy costume that she had on. We gave out two costco bags of candy by loading up the kids that we did get. The LW had a good time in her witch's hat and really enjoyed seeing the cute little ones. There are some new photos from yesterday on the flickr, so check 'em out.