Mamas and papas should love their babies

I'm gonna try to keep this quick, and go to bed soon and at a reasonable hour. I had a fairly good day today, but I feel kinda bad for Thad. I hear his day sucked. The girl didn't nap, and he spent most of this hot, summery day trying to walk a sad baby down. She was fussy for him alot, probably because of being tired and having a hurty mouth.

Anyway, today was my last full day of school. I have one last Bob tomorrow, and then that's it. Or, rather, then I work like crazy to get my ECIEC handout finished before I have to grade my students' finals and jump both feet into the summer. :P It sucks, 'cause I'm really ready for a break, but I really don't get one until mid-July. Plus, even then I'll be needing to work on a paper and develop the courses I'm teaching next year. Despite not being officially funded by the department.

Well, I could grumble on, but I think I'll take a moment to talk about the baby girl. Some of the things on the list I wrote a while back have changed, in only three weeks! So, here's the revised list:

• regularly trying food, not really taking much in
  
• one little nubbin tooth
  
• crawling like a little maniac
• obsessed with the tv remotes and the diaper cream tube
• able to stand now for several seconds (by which, I mean up to fifteen) on her own!
• walking with the use of a rail (like around the edge of the crib)
• can climb all the way up the stairs, and is working on learning how to crawl down again
  

She also remains super cuddly. I love that I'm the lucky person who gets to snuggle her on a regular basis- not even Thad gets that, so I must be special.

P.S. Thad is handsome. And awesome, like a pirate and a ninja and a viking all rolled into one.

Ramblin' round the old hay mound

Today was a very weird day. Tomorrow is my last full day of class. I tried to get some work done, and mostly failed. Mostly, but not entirely- I'm kinda minimally prepared for the morrow. Thad stayed home because of the aforementioned car troubles, which was nice on one level (no wild bus adventures, because Thad could watch the girl) and crappy on another level (no money).

The mechanics took all of two minutes to declare that it needs a new clutch. Since we had suspicions of this, and even another half an opinion (the long distance opinion of Phil, our old mechanic from Florida), we're going to start seriously shopping for a new car. Whee. There goes my hopes of getting a new computer- this one is starting to make me CRAZY.

The girl was mostly very sweet today, but she couldn't get to sleep, poor thing. I can only guess her teeth were bothering her. She had a clear runny nose and runny eyes, too. I have some teething tabs that are rumored to help, but I can't find them! Argh.

Roaches with wings

One of the downsides to having so much going on over the weekend, is that I have so many pictures that I have to post here, and then I'm obligated to come up with enough text to accompany them, and then you have to read it. :)

In any case, I was prevented from writing yesterday by... well... being tired out from Marcon, and also by wanting to spend all the times possible with Steve and Reese before they headed back into the Land of Tiny And Poisonous Snakes.

We had a good time at the last few days of Marcon; it was really nice getting to hang out and game with S&R. I got to RP very briefly with Steve, and it just reminded me how much I miss him as a player! Thad ran a Serenity RPG on Sunday morning, and BlackHat Matt, Monjot, Steve, and two other gentlemen whose names escape me played in it. Thad basically ripped off the plot of Captain Blood, and I got to play Olivia De Havilland's part. There was an astonishingly good performance of the part of Honesty Nuttall from Monjot- especially given that he has never seen Captain Blood!

After we left the con, we got icecream at the North Market with Reese and Steve, and then we all came back here and passed out a while. When Thad and I woke up, we went over to R&B's, and later R&S joined us. There were waffles, and we talked about the push to declare English the national language of the U.S., for some reason. :)

As usual, I've failed to get as much done today as I needed to. I did get the chance to go see X3, which was cool. Oh- and our car is probably nigh on dead. It's started having some serious clutch problems (albeit on-and-off). Thad will take it in to the mechanic tomorrow, but I'm not hopeful. I started searching Craigslist for auto postings already.

You can see here my baby's first bandaid-worthy owie, covered by a stylish Batman bandaid. You'll be pleased to know that I fulfilled my first-time-mom responsibilities by getting frantic, calling for Thad's help, and crying a little while we doctored it. Ari didn't seem to mind it, of course. She didn't even cry when Thad peroxided the cut, even though she did flinch a little so I do think it hurt her. She was such a little trooper.

Oh, and in the category of Super-Exciting Baby News: Ari's first tooth erupted on Saturday! It's still just the barest little nubbly bit, but it's definitely there. Ari is (thus far) apparently a champion teether, though- she totally doesn't seem to care.

In every generation...

Well, happy anniversary to me and Thad. :) Today makes five years that we've been bound together in the eyes of the law. We celebrated by... um... *cough*goingtoagamingconvention*cough*. We are such geeks. We went dressed as vampire hunters (basically cobbled together leftover D*Con costumes), and we have Ari here dressed as... I'm not sure what. A victim? A vampire? A gore-splattered slayer? She was cute, anyhow! :D

As you can see, they even gave her her own badge- I'm told it was for security purposes, if she got separated from us. I have to admit, though, that I was pretty enchanted by my baby's first con badge. It has her name on it and everything!

We had a pretty good time at the con today. Nobody showed for Thad's Hellboy game, but it was just as well, because we were in the registration line so long, he would have had to start an hour late for his game. Instead, we went and got food and met up with Rick... checked out the dealer's room and the art show and even let Ari crawl around on the floor a little. There was even a free sushi bar set up in the ConSuite, but it started right when I was supposed to be running my Arkham Horror game.

As it turned out, though, there was a screwup in the schedule, and I was really supposed to have started the game an hour earlier! The printed schedule grid (which is what they presented to the public- i.e., me) said 8 o'clock, but their database, and therefore the sign-up sheets, said 7 o'clock. Whee.
Anyway, we played AH (won) and then went and checked out the Doctor Who party they were having upstairs. Brooke and I would have been perfectly happy to sit and munch their munchies and watch the episode of Who they were showing, but the boys were antsy. We went ahead and left the Who party, and went down to the ConSuite (always a good choice!) and gamed a little more.

Just a note- the ConSuite at Marcon is the best ConSuite ever! They have decent food at most hours- including stuff that isn't just sugary crap. Cheese and veggies and fruit and all. Also, they have big tables, with chairs (and even a few couches)- lots of them! We never do pickup gaming in the game room- we always go do it in the ConSuite, where they have tasty snacks and drinks and comfy chairs.

After that, we had a long walk home, on which Ari (miraculously) didn't just pass out! Oh, and some asshat whacked me with a cup full of water at me from his car. What the hell? I thought I was out of freakin' high school.

A few, precious baby moments

Last night, Ari (after refusing to go to bed in the usual way at the usual time) drifted off to sleep in my arms. She didn't fuss, didn't nurse... she just snuggled against me and eventually her eyes just closed. It was so peaceful and trusting, it near burst my heart.

Just now, Ari woke up. I nursed her a bit, and cuddled her. Then I took her downstairs, and had to do something very quickly with both hands. As soon as I set her un the crib, she started to cry- not a mad cry, but a sad, panicky, disconsolate cry. Tears were literally streaming down her fat little cheeks. As soon as I picked her up, though (about 90 seconds later), she stopped crying immediately, wiped her eyes with a chubby little fist, and just snuggled up against me. She's sitting in my lap, nursing and snuggling as we speak.

She makes my heart feel like a bathroom sink with the hot water tap stuck to on.

Sundae cones and castles

Apparently, I only have time to sit down and write every other day at the moment. It's actually nearly one in the morning at the moment. I fudged the time on Blogger (shhhhh....) because it's still Wednesday, dammit- It's just the wrong side of the clock on Wednesday. I still need to finish my morphology presentation for tomorrow- plus, the girl had a late nap and is still awake. :P

See you tomorrow!

I never knew what love was

Check out the eating of the broccoli! Or, more like, the gumming of the broccoli. She had a grand ol' time sucking on it. I did actually take another sprig and grind it up with the food grinder so she could have some to actually eat, but she didn't care. Ah, well- the point of solids at this point is new flavors and textures, anyhow, so I guess whether she actually consumes the stuff doesn't matter.

I went to bed early last night (rather than writing here, for example) but stayed up late reading a book. It made me do a lot of thinking about being a mother and life choices and such. One interesting thing- the book is a collection of essays. Most of them are written by mothers, but some are written by women in anticipation of motherhood. In every case, I was able to identify the essays written by non-mothers well before they actually gave me that information. It's incredible how much I live in a totally different world than before I had Ari.

I was kinda ticked off in the book by how little attention was paid to the stories of women who must work to support their families. Most of the women who were writing were working for a sense of personal fulfillment or something. One woman, who had a nanny, commented that the nanny didn't experience the same agony of conflicting feelings about working, because she had to for the money. And, y'know, poor people don't have feelings anyhow. (*squinty-eyed look*)

Anyway, check out Ari enjoying the empty Guaraná bottle from Sunday's excursion! I finished it off with dinner tonight, and she got to enjoy the results.

Too many cookies in the fridge

I actually got some stuff done today, but I spent most of the day at work. We did take some time off in the middle of the day and went to visit a friend's grandmum's garden. It was lovely, and the girl had a pretty good time there (although, all in all, we had her in the car a bit much today). While we were over there, we wandered by a store that purported to be a South American grocery, and I picked up some guaraná and some passionfruit-flavored squash. Mmmm.

After that, I went back to work and Thad and Ari hung out another couple hours. We had a very, very tasty dinner- chicken and couscous, organic broccoli, and pita. I think I'm going to parlay my passionfruit squash into some ice cream as well.

Ari munched on some broccoli during dinner, and seemed to really get into it- although she couldn't really eat it, of course.

I got me some pineapple

This is a picture of my baby's first bruise. It's kinda funny- I've been feeling horrible about it all day, but it's so subtle in the pictures I took that I had to draw an arrow or you'd probably never be able to tell. Poor thing- she wonked her head on a table leg last night.

We had a very outdoors day today, and I didn't get nearly enough work done. I never seem to, alas. We accidentally slept in, the three of us. Or, I should say, Ari woke up at an obscene hour of the morning, Thad got up with her, after 45 minutes, they came back to bed, and then we accidentally slept in, the three of us. ;) This meant that Thad missed his tourney, and I missed the LLL meeting I meant to go to. Instead, we went and had breakfast all together at the Wildflower cafe.

After breakfast- and mind you, it was nearly noon at this point- we went over to a barbecue for socio-minded people in my department. There was much chatting and hanging around outside in the fine weather. Ari tried tandoori-flavored bell pepper, and seemed to much enjoy munching on the piece we gave her. After barbecue, we hijacked Angelo and took him to the Whole Foods with us.

After Whole Foods, we came home, and I tried (and mostly failed) to get some work done. I just couldn't focus. I did do some important thinking and outlining and rereading of my morphology presentation, but that was about it.

At that point, we went over to R&B's and had fancy mac n'cheese with smoked gouda in it, organic cauliflower, and freshly killed roasted rabbit. By freshly killed, I mean they had the pelt drying out back, and I actually fished out a piece of shot from the meat. It was all quite tasty. We hung out on their front lawn most of the time, and Ari had a total blast crawling around on the grass.

After that, we came home and the girl passed straight out. I should have gotten stuff done then, but just didn't.

Playin' on the floor with her fishies

I actually sat down yesterday to write, and couldn't. Thad and I were having a fight, you see, and I was too upset to think about my day or my sweet sweet baby girl. What were we fighting about? What we always fight about (when we fight, which is not often)- a game. Yes, we were fighting because I moved Thad into the inn, which prevented him beating Jaime up and reclaiming the Necronomicon, and returning it to the Altar and thus winning the game. And he was mad about it, and I was defensive, and I think both of us kinda needed to go to bed... Everyone always says that "don't go to bed angry" thing, but I think some things can really be solved by a decent nights' sleep and enough distance to see that we were both being ridiculous. :)

Anyway, yesterday was Thursday-licious. It was notable because Ari took a two and a half hour long nap, without mama to nurse her back down! She passed right out when I laid her down after we got home, and then I had to go meet with a student. Thad was working at Everett, so he got home right as she was passing out, and I was able to just go. I didn't get home 'till near on 5 o'clock, but she just slept right through the whole thing. She didn't wake up until after I was home, which made me happy.

Today was the Day of Laundry- I did four loads, the last of which was diapers (still unretrieved from the dryer, you'll note). In between laundry loads, Ari and I had a good time dancing around to the music my mother sent me for Mother's Day. Ari loves dancing with me, or watching me dance, so she was happy. We also spent a good long time making faces at each other. I love watching her when she's happy- her little mouth goes wiiide open in a big grin, and she laughs with her whole body!

We went to Janessa's house in the evening (tonight was a Shaintair night, so I had to amuse myself somehow), and I kept her out way too late, poor little girl.

Pumpkin pie for dessert!

Check out the scariness! I am more convinced that we got the gates up just in time.

I had my presentation today, and it went okay. Given, y'know, that I was running the ragged edge of zombie-ness (after the 4 hours of sleep I got last night). Oh! And I got observed teaching yesterday. My supervisor gave me really good marks last time she came and saw me, so I guess she's got a good idea of the gamut of my teaching ability! I was such a zombie and utterly unprepared. Like, I didn't print out my notes and didn't even glance at my lecture in advance unprepared.

I skipped Irish and Mycenean this afternoon. I hadn't prepared my Irish and in my zombified haze, I left my books on my desk, so I couldn't even follow along. So, I went and did an extra pumping session instead, and got back too late to make it to Mycenean on time. I'm glad to do more pumping, because (as I think I mentioned previously) the girl is eating now. No more 2 hour nursing marathons when I get home.

Um, my girl's favorite song is "5 Little Ducks". And I'm going to go sleep now.

l-vocalization, here I come!

I don't have long to write; I need to finish a presentation for class tomorrow. It's 11:30, and the girl's just now gone to bed. Meaning, of course, that I'm just now getting to start working on it.

Today was as most other Tuesdays. I did get off class a little early, and Thad worked at Everett (the middle school across the street from our house) so I got some work done in the afternoon. Not enough, though. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Avast!

Well, seeing as how it was a Monday today, I didn't have a terribly exciting day. Ari, on the other hand, was rocking the proverbial casbah! Check out her mad banana-fu. Oh- while you're at it, also check out the super cool pirate outfit she's wearing in the picture. :D Brooke gifted it us for the Mother's Day. Or, more accurately, it was an excuse to give the girl a pirate outfit. ;) To her, we say: "Yaaaar!"

Not only did she munch on apple and banana while I was gone, she also ate nearly all of two whole bags of milk. That only adds up to about 3-4 oz, but it's a vast improvement over nothing. On top of that, she also had nearly a 3 hour nap for her papa.

And check out this badass standing! Technically, in this picture, she's actually leaning on the stairs- but she did stand all on her own for nearly 10 whole seconds today. Oh, and she's stair capable- we've caught her trying to make it up the stairs a couple times now. I think we got them gated off just in time.

Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day as an actual, y'know, mother. Some of my relatives and friends sent me good wishes last year, when Ari was but a large and protruding belly. We didn't celebrate here much, though, because I didn't feel like a mother. In retrospect, I still don't consider myself to have been a mother then. I became a mother in those first moments when I held that tiny little girl in my arms. Or, in many ways, in the moments that followed, as I first had to take up the responsibility for caring for her- for being her protector and her food source and her comfort and her warmth.

It's sappy and cliche, but I've never done anything that mattered as much as having Ari. I've never loved anyone like I love her (and mind- I love my monkey man an awful lot). If I had it to do over, there's no question that I'd choose to be her mama again.

Anyway, to leave the mushy stuff behind- today was an up-and-down day. Mostly, I just had way too much work to do, so I spent much of it at Oxley. The monkey man made me breakfast (and was very cute about it- he made me a whole menu and "took my order" before he started cooking). As a present, he gave me a little crossword book wrapped in the Life section of a newspaper I'd thought had been accidentally thrown away. This may sound kinda dumb, but I always save the Life (and accompanying crosswords) to read and puzzle through while I nurse Ari to sleep. It was a very thoughtful gift, and I'll definitely use it.

Speaking of nursing, I just wanted to say that I really love nursing Ari these days. She's been clawing me less since I made myself an assortment of nursing necklaces, which is nice. The main thing is, though, that she's so snuggly when she nurses. She just curls her little body up against mine and cuddles right up. She doesn't stop for snuggles so much anymore- she's such a busy little explorer these days. I only get unwiggly cuddle time when she's tired or upset, these days. Or, when she nurses. So, huzzah, boobies!

Oh- one last thing! Today was Ari's first real go at solids. Thad gave her a pear (a whole one that he'd been eating off of) and she had a grand old time chewing on it. I think we're really going to try giving her foods she can feed herself, and we're going to totally skip the bib-and-spoon-and-here's-the-airplane stage.

My little jailbird

I didn't get nearly as much schoolwork done (read: any schoolwork done) as I needed to today. Where in the hell did the day go? I spent the morning to the afternoon having breakfast, and then picking up a table and then taking care of the girl. Thad got home, and we ended up hanging out with Jaime for the rest of the evening, I guess. I didn't mean it to end up like that; I really did mean to go in and work. It's kind of bad, because that means I need to work tomorrow- and I've already promised to be at Ila's for dinner, and, what with it being Mother's Day, talk to my family on the video chat in the afternoon.

This isn't a minor needing to work I need to do, either. It's a whole presentation that I have to work up, by Wednesday, on a subject I have basically not yet begun to research. God, I hope the reference materials are available.

Anyway, I thought I'd put up a picture of our current bedroom layout- Bedroom Mk. III. We've taken the bed off the frame, is the big change. I'm debating getting rid of the bedside table- I need somewhere to keep my crosswords, is the issue. You'll note that there's padding on both sides of the bed. Even though she can get herself purposefully off the bed safely most of the time (she faceplanted just this morning, though), she can still roll off unawares if she wakes up when we aren't in the bed. Hopefully, we'll be able to remove the padding on Thad's side at least soon.

We did get one productive thing done today, however: we installed the new baby gates. Our bedroom is now gated off, as well as the bottom of the stairs. I'm glad; her newfound mobility (and she is quite mobile now, do not mistake it) was making me paranoid that she might crawl out of the bedroom and fall down the stairs.

Burnt gingerbread

Today was a nice day- I love Fridays. Why, you ask? Because Fridays, I'm home all day with my little girl! She gets proper naps, and proper food, and I get all the baby cuddles I could wish for.

Today, I managed to get a bunch done, too. I cooked dinner, for one. I prepped it early in the day, and did the cooking bits with Ari on my back in the mei tai- my first time attempting that position without a Thad spotting me (think for a moment about the logistics of tying a baby to your back with a big bandanna with straps, and you'll know what I'm talking about). We walked to the store for bread, and I even made cookies in the afternoon, while she napped.

I made two more nursing necklaces, and Ari seems to like them. Score! I have high hopes for the saving of my tender flesh. We also finally retrieved our drill from R&B, so we can install gates now. This is vitally important, because our bedroom door blocks most sound. Convenient, perhaps, but it also means that if the bedroom door is shut during Ari naps (as it must be, at the moment, to prevent an increasingly mobile girl from falling down the stairs) that I'm unable to hear her very well if she wakes and needs me. This actually screwed up her nap today, too- she'd been crying for some time before Thad happened to go upstairs and hear her. Poor girl. :(

I'm not *that* skinny

Check out little miss talking to Grandpa!

Today was just another Thursday. I had less than stellar bus-catching, so I was a whole 15 minutes late to my class (instead of 5 minutes as it should have been), and I spent far too much time hanging out in the rainy cold in my short-sleeved t-shirt. I felt like kind of a bad mommy, because I didn't bring a coat or a blanket or an umbrella or anything, and it was damp and pretty chilly. I guess Ari was fine, though- she was wrapped in the mei tai, and she had her dinosaur hat to keep the rain off.

Ari was super-cute on the bus rides. She just spent the whole time smiling at strangers (as is her wont) and babbling and cuddling me. She didn't pass out on the way home, though, so she totally missed her afternoon nap, which screwed up her going to bed time. :P

I made a pretty good dinner (a fairly easy Chicken Cordon Bleu, with Munster instead of Swiss) and Jaime came over to do clixes with Thad. They just got went in together to buy these giant clixes, so they wanted to try out new teams with them in. In the meantime, I actually made progress on cleaning up the dining room- good since, apparently, Mr. Hall is going to be bringing some people over here tomorrow.

Ari did a couple of exciting things today: first, she figured out how to crawl down off the mattress without face-planting. And also, she figured out how to pull the caps off pens. Poor girl! No more playing with pens for her. She'll be crushed.

Ice cream on the couch, and rice on the chair

Today was another work day, but at least the home time was quiet. I am glad that we could be there for R&B during their recent travails, but I am also very glad to have some alone time now. As a rampaging introvert, that alone time is vital.

Today was a work day, so nothing much interesting happened- except for a highly unpleasant conversation with ANOTHER student (I've had several this quarter) that I am reporting for cheating- the subject of yesterday's PSA, if you were wondering. He kept trying to get me to not report him to COAM, but I just kept telling him that I had to do it, I had no choice (which is true). It dragged on forever, and I just felt drained afterwards. I only was able to pump maybe seven ounces today, and I think it was because of my being so tense coming off of that stupid cheater conversation.

Ari is my sweaty-headed little sweety pie. She went to bed pretty early tonight and has only woken up a few times since. I'm going to try to get to bed early, too, because zombie-hood is starting to set in.

Things going on with Ari:

• still not eating
• still no teeth
• crawling like a little maniac
• obsessed with the phone card and the diaper cream tube
• able to stand now for several seconds (by which, I mean up to four) on her own!
• walking with the use of a rail (like around the edge of the crib)
• pulling herself up/climbing on everything

We went out and bought gates this last weekend, and now our kitchen is gated off- which is good, because it is just not safe for her on MANY levels, and she was starting to try to get in there. We still need to install the gates for the bedroom and the stairs, though.

Oh, and we also had to take our bed off the frame. Thad is way bummed, and to a lesser extent, I am too. But Ari has had a major scary fall off the bed twice now, and that was enough for us. I figure we'll go back on the frame once she gets old enough to learn to get down safely!

Shiny butterflies

Here's another not-an-entry, written way too late by a needing-to-get-to-bed Julia. Been still busy talking to R&B and trying to keep up with housework and schoolwork. I just finished grading papers for me students. Rick and Brooke seem okay-er. Hopefully things will be a little quieter soon.

Oh, and here's a message for the kids at home: DON'T CHEAT. Cheating's bad.

Tina Turner meets Time Warner?

Gah! Too busy. We did some cleaning up today, and I got a little bit of school work done but not enough. I'm up till all hours now trying to finish before tomorrow. My brain's not functioning any more, though, so I'm off to bed (several hours later than the time stamp on this entry, I think- I've been meaning to write for a while).

We got baby gates today- some work, some not. We also are still dealing with R&B fallout.

I didn't upload the content for my course onto the website. I didn't finish grading midterms (and I was so close!). And I only got minimal stuff done for Trudgill and the rest of my school stuff (and near nothing done for my own research). (I like parentheses- usually I try to limit myself and not overuse them but I'm too tired to care right now). I'm sure there's some othere stuff I didn't do, but I can't remember it right now.

I was at work for about four hours today, and Ari missed me like crazy. :( She lit up so much when she saw me, and vaulted into my arms and just clung to me. I need more time to work, but I can't stand to be away longer. :(

I need a fuckin' Time Turner, that's what I need.

Run, run, run- just as fast as you can.

So, Rick and Brooke are breaking up. I am very bummed about this. I kinda hate to say it like this, because it almost sounds like I'm appropriating their real heartache as my own, y'know? My bummedness seems insignificant in comparison.

Rick's been over here a bunch, kinda processing the whole thing. He spent most of last night crying on my shoulder (while the girl tried to claw his face and slobber on him, mind... *roll eyes*) and I guess that today was the actual breakup. He slept here last night and tonight, also. I haven't gotten to talk to Brooke yet, and I kinda worry about her. She sounds pretty shocky, the couple of times we've spoken on the phone.

Anyway, again, I haven't had any time to write. I've been desperately trying to catch up on my school work- I have a presentation in my socio class in less than two weeks, I have to write a cheating report, I have to grade midterms, and I need to make some real progress on my actual research. That plus having Rick over here means not much free time for Julia...

Tomorrow, we will try to pick up our sty of a house. Plus, I need, need to get some time to myself to do some serious work.

Nanners and rice cakes

Check out Ari not eating this banana! That is, she'll stick it in her mouth all day if it's got peel on, but if it might actually be acceptable food? Nawww. ;)

We had a decent day today, but not enough sleep for Ari. She basically didn't nap, save for maybe 40 minutes on her daddy's chest. I do feel good that I got a lot of things checked off my to do list as well- including making a tasty dinner.

Ari's been a little fussy from being tired, which kinda sucks. Oh, and I got some very sad news from a friend, which I'm pretty bummed about.

Chicken tenders for lunch

As I sat down to write yesterday, Blogger was broken. :P So, here I am with a day skipped.

Yesterday was rainy and I spent most of it running around on busses. Ari utterly refused to nap, and I know she was tired. She actually went into totally inconsolable meltdown about 40 minutes before we had to leave to go catch the bus to Catherine's. Didn't calm down on walking, nearly chomped my nipple in half when I offered it... She nearly sobbed herself to sleep in my arms right then. But then we had to go to catch the bus, and she perked right up when we were outside. So, bam, no nap. She was okay for Catherine (so I'm told), and I thought she'd pass out on the bus- but no dice. We went to the Giant Eagle, shopped, and went and caught the bus home, and still no sleeping baby. She passed out in the bus on the way home at last, but then I woke her up with all my grocery lugging (I had bought more groceries than I really should have) and that was that.

She didn't end up getting to bed until nearly midnight either, poor girl. She just wouldn't sleep. Catherine says she's teething, and that she could feel little bumpies of teeth coming in, but I'm clueless. She is acting teethey, but she's been doing that on and off since four months. Although, I guess in principle she can have been teething on and off for four months, too. Who knows?

Anyway, today was school again, and not so much fun. I'm too busy there- I never have time to do things I need to do. At least the bean passed out by a reasonable hour today.

Eight months a baby

Well, that weekend went by quickly. I really haven't had a chance to sit down at the computer and write at all. The Marcus was here, and you know how it goes when you have a guest- it feels like a waste (and a little rude) to just hang out on the computer when there's someone to play pinochle with.

All these pictures are from the Viking Festival on Saturday- I would put up a picture of Ari with her Grandpa, except I don't have any! :( The suckiness of us not being picture-takin' people strikes again.

Anyway, we had Good Times at ye olde festival. It was a little thing, with not that many vendors. The vendors were nice, though, and there was a cool viking boat in the middle of it. It was held in the town park in this wee little town south of Columbus, and it seemed like kind of a cool community event. In the evening, we went out for Indian food. It was a really lovely dinner outside in the evening. I had lamb vindaloo, and it was delicious.

After Indian food, we went over to Rick's birthday party, bringing his present and naan from the Indian restaurant. Marcus proceeded to totally hang out with our friends, which was impressively cool. :)

Then, yesterday, I spent a few hours working while Thad and Marcus went to the North Market with my little bit. In the evening people came over and had Thad pizza, and drank liberal quantities of scotch and white wine.

So, as you can see, I've had quite the weekend. I ended up having to stay up till 1 in the morning yesterday to finish grading, as well. Anyway, all this to say that I have good reasons for not writing.

My little bean was super sweet through all of this, too, I must add. She nearly always is. :D

Oh, and Saturday was her 8 months birthday. She's getting so big!