Thursday, November 30, 2006

Swelter


This is what happens when you leave the tupperware full of veggie booty too close to the edge of the table! Note Ari stuffing these in her mouth- Thad tells me that the was scoopin' em in one- handed. She's also wearing her jammies in this pic because she insisted on being put back into the jammies she wore at night.

Dang, I can't even type straight. It's bedtime.

P.S. I need to add something, but I cant='t remember what.... Oh, yeah- today was the last day of class! Now, if I can just finish all what I'm supposed to finish for my classes.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Six-legged

We had an okay (albeit rainy) day today. I put up a whole lot of laundry (four loads, including diapers). Boy, am I glad that I don't fold. Sort-n-stuff is bad enough to deal with.

After not sleeping for several days, Ari slept okay last night, and even napped today. Which was good, 'cause it let me get some school stuff done. We went to the library in the afternoon, on account of the rain. Ari ran around and flirted with the library staff.

Argh! I am sick of this computer being so gimpy. It's late, late, late and I've been trying to do something simple for about an hour now, and the damn thing just isn't working. Stupid Jetta. If you hadn't died, we'd have had the money to buy a new computer.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Brightly colored

This is the picture you get today. It's of a baby who's been inordinately sweet today, given that she only got two hours of sleep and didn't nap.

Let's see... today, my baby walked all the way to the library with her papa- by which I mean, we walked on her own two chubby, adorable little feet. I'm told she had a Grand Old Time while there.

She also showed an interest in stuffed animals for the first time- she hugged and cuddles them. I find it sort of hilarious that she played with action figures before teddy bears.

Also, she is so proud of herself about being able to sign "milk". When I got home today, she came up and wanted hugs and then signed it to me, and kept signing while I took my coat and bags off. Usually, she cries and whines, but today, she just signed "milk milk milk milk". :D

Monday, November 27, 2006

Cucumbers

This is a picture from this morning/last night- about 3:30 AM, in any case. You'll notice that she has her strawberry hat on; I didn't put it there. Lately, she's been all about putting her hat and shoes on. Her hat, she can put on all by herself. Her shoes, she has to come make me put on for her.

She's been using the "milk" sign bunches today. She even did a two-fisted version of it. It's been great! She'll try to pull my shirt up, and I say "What do you want, honey?" In a concerned voice, and she signs "milk". :D She even did it once totally unprompted- just walked up and signed it to me.

MY BABY HAS LANGUAGE!!! :D :D :D

Can you tell I'm excited?

We had a reasonably nice day, given that neither of us got more than 5 hours sleep, and she refused to nap. We went over to the park so she could play. The weather was not as nice as over the weekend, but still perfectly good for running around in, as long as one had a sweater.

I then got some work done. This is my last week of class- this upcoming weekend is going to be hellish, as I try desperately to finish all what needs finished for the quarter and my finals and my class...I am definitely looking forward to the Christmas break.

Here is a picture of a very sad baby. In this picture, she has just happily devoured a heaping pile of noodles and cheese, and is waiting for papa to come back with the damp washcloth to sponge her off. 'Cause she's a little cheesy-head.

She went to bed fairly early (around 8:30), and I'm going to try to emulate her. I have veritable assloads of work that I need to get done tomorrow, in between all my classes, and the teaching. At least my students are doing a presentation tomorrow...

Sunday, November 26, 2006

First word!

Today was an exciting day of firsts. Not first lobster, as the pictures might lead you to believe (the lobster was Friday night, and I'll get back to that in a minute), but the first call to the poison control center.

Ari is fine, by the by. Somehow, she got hold of an ibuprofen tablet (adult dosage). I noticed the red on her face and found the tablet, all sucked-on, on the floor. I wasn't sure whether she might have gotten others, too, so I called poison control. They tell me that a child her age and size can swallow up to 1000 mg of ibuprofen before anyone worries... since that would be 5 tablets, my fears were much allayed.

I wouldn't have worried at all, except that she was being a little lethargic and funny- I wasn't sure how to separate possible druggedness from it being 4 AM and my baby having her 6th tooth come in. Did I mention that part? Yay seeing the wrong side of 5 AM! Actually, come to think of it, is there a right side to 5 AM?

As for less nerve wracking firsts, today is the first time my daughter clearly, unmistakably and recognizably used a word. :D

For the record, her first word is "milk". This is unsurprising, I guess, given how much this girl loves the boob. She signed the word three times today, and the third one was totally clear. The first two, I was unsure of (it was just her waving a chubby fist at me) but the last time, she totally held out her fist and clenched it, and it was crystal clear that she wanted some nursies. I'm so totally excited!!! Maybe it'll mean less of her trying to pull my shirt off. I know, forlorn hope, but maybe... ;)

The lobster was a lovely dinner we had Friday night- I offered some to Ari, but she was kinda tired and uninterested in trying new things. She was dubious of the claw, also. You'll note that I was in no way dubious about the crustacean on my plate.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Thanksgiving

Well, the Papkes have left, and I finally have a chance to slow down and write, and post a couple pictures. Tomorrow, I'm going to work desperately on school work; today, though, I'm going to write this and then go to bed early (before midnight!) and catch up on my sleep.

This is a picture of several of us sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. The Papkes were there, of course, and Ila. Angelo didn't make it this year, but Jaime and Kelly came. The dinner turned out awesome, and our fridge is still stocked to the gills with delicious leftovers. I have no intention to cook for the next several days.

It was a lovely visit altogether, with the Papkes, and I decided to make it a no-work vacation for me (god knows, I needed one), so that was good for me. Ari had great fun with all her relatives there paying attention to her. She got them to read to her and play with her. Oh, and the weather's been crazy warm (for Ohio in November, anyhow) so we've been out to the park every day.

This is Ari having her first Thanksgiving. She didn't actually eat all that much; I offered her different things, but all she wanted was bread. I keep trying to remind myself that she's getting everything she needs, but boy is my child a carb junky.

So. Tired. Going to bed now; will write more and post more pics tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

A bird, or a plane.

Spent today trying to get ready for the big Thanksgiving... cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc. Will post (with pics!) tomorrow.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Stupid monkey bars

Recognize this facial expression?

The shirt she's wearing is a shirt that a local mom I know made, but ended up being just a little too small for her boy. As you can see, it fits Ari great! She's also taken to wearing her hat indoors- I think she gets a kick out of being able to put it on all by herself.

Ari's totally walking everywhere, now. When we leave the house, I just let her walk beside me rather than picking her up. She thinks it's the Best Thing Ever... I'm just enjoying the fact that walking, in and of itself, can be adequate amusement for her.

I've mostly been trying to work today. We did go out to the thrift store while papa was sleeping. Ari was remarkably well-behaved (for a toddler) walking around the store- until we got near the Christmas trees. I certainly can't blame her (she is a toddler, after all) but we had to leave lest Ari do serious damage to some glass ornaments. :)

The weather was really nice today (for autumn), and I wanted to take my girl out to the playground and let her run around. When we got home, however, she passed straight out and had a glorious two hour nap. So by the time we got over to the playground, the sun was starting to set (aka: 4:30 in the afternoon). There was still a reasonable amount of light left, though, and she had great fun running around and climbing on things until mama decided it was too cold, and time to go in.

Then, I proceeded to work on school stuff for the rest of the evening.

Pfeh. Our house is a mess, but Jaime says he's going to come and wrangle the baby for us on Wednesday so we can clean and do Thanksgiving prep. He is currently my Favorite Person. :D

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Poozer

I have a strong suspicion that we're going to be seeing alot of this particular facial expression in the future... I wonder, is this her way of blocking out the flash? Anyway, I thought I'd take a picture of her in her pretty outfit, as we were heading out the door for our enormous shopping trip. I have no idea what the red down her front is; I've been trying to figure that out all day. I found it all around her mouth but was unable to locate a source.

We have a turkey in hand now. Or, more properly, in fridge. I'm not entirely certain how Thad managed to fit everything (even a flat of IBC!) into the fridge, but I'm a little afraid to open the door.

Ari and I spent most of the day together while papa slept. It was cold but not over wet (at least until later, when little bits of ice started falling inexplicably from the sky) so we went over to the playground which is conveniently located across the street. She ran around like a crazy girl, and even went down the somewhat taller slides.

One of the things we bought out on our shopping trip was frames for the art we got at Con on the Cob. That's "Vengeance", "L'illusion du libre arbitre" and "Vision de la Nécessitée" from Nigel (going clockwise from the top). The little one off to the side is a low-res printout of "Toucanacondor Flaminguez", the character Thad played in Andy's Low Life game at the Con. We'll get some actual prints from Andy one of these days... I love his monsters.

"Vengeance" we got because... well, I mean, we'd have to, wouldn't we? The other two, I splurged on because I liked them, and they're a matched set. Nigel gave us a little bit of a break on them, too, which was sweet.

Oh, which reminds me- Nigel's about done with the design for Thad's tattoo... it looks really, really cool.

Well, I'm off to do some token grading and then hie me to bed.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

n of 1

This is a picture of my baby having apparently learned that one smiles for cameras. :) I'm not sure how she picked this up; it's not like I have ever tried to get her to smile for the camera or anything. I suppose she has seen me and Thad do it, out of habit and is copying... smart girl.

Anyway, today she's taken to mugging for the camera. :D I pull it out, and she gets this exaggerated HUGE grin on her face- as seen above. I have about 5 more shots of that facial expression at other points today. I think it's really funny.

Also note that she is wearing one of my socks as a legwarmer again. She brought it over and demanded that I put it on her.

This is Thad and Ari playing Justice League action figures. Ari's favorites are Shining Knight, Zatanna and Wonder Woman (and, by the by, the shot right after this had Ari mugging in it again :)).

Ari decided she didn't like Darkseid much, so she ate his head for a while.

Today was mostly a Julia-working day... tomorrow, we need to go shopping (and buy a turkey!). We did go to the library today, which Ari loved. She likes going for walks- and she actually walks during them, these days. And she loves the children's area in the library, with its tempting letter magnets and fuzzy furniture.

Thad took this picture while I was working today. It's awful cute.

Oh, and OSU won the big Michigan game. I'm so, so, SO glad that I live reasonably far away from the big tailgait part of campus.

On the upside, Thad got to go into work late because his bosses were involved in game-related festivities. :)

Friday, November 17, 2006

Teeny time to eat

This picture was taken very early this morning... somebody didn't want to go to bed at a decent hour. I'd been up till 3:30 in the morning with a teethy babe the night before, and Thad had gotten a nap when I came home, so he stayed up with her. Apparently, it wasn't too long until she fell asleep of her own accord in the middle of a pile of books.

So. Cute. :D

Books are totally still her favorite thing, if anyone's stumped about what to get her for the upcoming holidays. She's in a phase of wanting us to read the same book over and over and over and over and over and... The other night, I read Brown Bear Brown Bear about four times (I hate that book so much), Going on a Bear Hunt 8 times (okay, but too much repetition), and Ben the Bee upwards of 18 or 20 times (at least it's short). We now hate every book we own. We'll learn to hate new books, too, I'm sure, but at least it'll take a little while. :)

This last week has been hellish (hence the lack of writing). NWAV put me behind on my schoolwork, and I've been desperately playing catchup all week. Ari's been teething, and her sleep's been disrupted. And Thad has an extra work night this week.

Oh, and to add to it all, tomorrow is the Michigan game. We here at OSU hate Michigan (is it UofM? Or Michigan State? I never can remember) and Michigan Week is a big deal. People may be leaping into Mirror Lake half-naked as we speak. Anyway, this is the biggest deal OSU/Michigan game in many years- both teams undefeated, yada yada. Upshot? I can't get near my office tomorrow. I can't get together with other students for study groups. Oh, and I better the hell not wear blue tomorrow- Michigan fans coming in for the game have been officially advised not to wear their school colors on the streets, or drive cars with Michigan plates to the game- lest they be assaulted. How sad is that?

Ari is way fun to play with these days. Favorite games:
  • The growl-like-a-monster game, where mama/papa and baby go "RAAWWRRR" at each other
  • The "I'm gonna blurble you!!" game, which seems to cause much more hilarity than actual blurbles/tickles
  • Papa being slapstick... apparently, Thad whacking himself in the head with things and falling down is the height of hilarity
  • Ring-around-the-rosey. Although, she only remembers to fall down part of the time
  • Rockin' out to music
She's not signing yet, but she will consistently respond to my signs. So, if she's upset, I'll ask her what she wants, and sign various things- if it's not what she wants, she'll grab my hand and push it away. If she does want whatever it is, she'll grab my hand and force me to repeat the sign... I've tried making the signs with her hands, but that goes over about like you'd imagine (here, little toddler girl- let me force your hands into complex shapes!).

Monday, November 13, 2006

A pomegranate as big as your head

This is a great picture. Not only does it show my baby playing with the broom (she loves that thing), and not only is she really happy (look at that smile!) but you can also finally see her top teeth! She's had them for more than a month- I just checked on my blog archives, so I know- and I've never been able to get a shot. And not only can you see top teeth, but you can also the the new tooth she's cutting, if you look closely just to the left (your left) of her bottom teeth.

Today was mostly a cleaning day. I cleaned the bedroom and the bathroom. We kinda cleaned the dining room for people coming to game. Ari and I went to meet Brooke, and she had sooooo much fun running all around while I worked out. She's pretty much happy any time she gets to roam free, really.

Here Ari is, being the youngest Seeker in Fuzzy Flowers United's history.

Cute, true story: After Jaime zoomed her around on the broom for a while, he set her down on the floor. She grabbed the broom back up, very carefully straddled it (harder than it sounds like for a wobbly little toddler) and then sat there bouncing with her broom. :D

Today, she also kept laughing at jokes... someone would say something, we'd all start laughing, and bam, she'd start laughing (really loud!) with us. Little sweety; she's learning to accommodate!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Hair smelling

This is the one picture of Ari I took today. This is the outfit she picked out to wear! She picked out the shirt, and then later, she insisted on wearing the hat. I think it's an adorable and well coordinated outfit. ;)

The expression on her face is due to the two new teeth that are coming in on the bottom. She was super grumpy and irritable and whiny today, and I could figure out why until I finally got a decent look at her mouth, and went "Oooooooh....." Poor girl. Here's hoping (futile, vain hope) that she doesn't wake up tonight. The last two times she had teeth coming in, she stayed up all night for it.

Today was the last day of NWAV; I spent the morning there. I went to several interesting talks, one really awesome talk (about how to teach standard English to kids who speak non-standard dialects) and got to meet someone who may be really helpful for my research. Yay! Oh, and I had some tasty orange juice.

This afternoon, I spent trying to cope with a grumpy baby (although she did, at least, nap) and we went over to R&B's for delicious chili and cornbread Sunday dinner. Ari was pretty happy while we were over there, and wasn't too scared of the cats. Mostly.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Can't touch this

I'm typing this one-handed while Ari sleeps on my lap... she fell asleep in the car on the way home tonight, but then she woke up on the way in (stupid cold, damp wind) and I nursed her right back to sleep in my lap.

We've had a busy day- first, we woke up and went to a mom's house for a playgroup while papa slept. Ari had soooo much fun wandering around like a little crazy girl. Highlight of the morning: we were eating beans and salsa on tortilla chips, and I wanted to try to feed her some black beans- she usually likes beans. They were kind of soupy, though, so I was trying to feed her some on the end of a chip. She wanted to do it herself, though, and she ended up grabbing the chip too hard, and PLOP! Beans in the face. Messy, yet hilarious. :)

Then, we went home (once papa was awake) and Ari stayed with him while I went to NWAV. Listened to some interesting discourse talks†, and then caught the bus home. It was really drizzly and cold and horrible, too.

Then, we kinda cleaned the living room and failed to eat dinner... At least the Halloween stuff is finally put away. Huzzah! Then, Ari and I packed up to go to the NWAV party! Ari had a fun time- no one was on the dance floor, so she monopolized it. She rocked out to M.C. Hammer and the Ghostbuster theme. :) Walt Wolfram was standing near the dance floor, though, and she kept beelining for his legs... I should probably have used it as an opportunity to say "hi", but we all know what kind of wuss I am.

Case in point: at one point in the evening, Bill Labov came up and shook Ari's hand. Did I say, "Hello, sir, I'm a grad student here. Pleased to meet you."? No. I choked all up and said something incoherent about Ari just learning to walk, and he looked at me a little funny and went away. Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but you get the idea. I need to get myself not to be so intimidated by these guys...

Anyway, it was a great party, and Ari had a good time. Several people commented on how well behaved she was- despite the beelining for Walt Wolfram's legs, which may have been just good taste in sociolinguists.
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†One of which that was about intensifier use in blogs and forum postings... believe it or not, at one point, the researcher categorized different subcultures according to, I kid you not, "so/fuckin' space". Anyway, I find myself slightly self-conscious about my intensifier use now!

Tell me when you go to bed

Here's a picture of me and Ari from last night- NWAV is going on right now, and we went over to the reception on the opening night. We mostly failed to chat with other linguists, because I suck at the whole shmoozy thing we academics are supposed to do at conferences.

Anyway, I call this my Amazing Velcro baby trick. No hands!

We've had a pretty busy day today; I did four loads of laundry and cleaned the bedroom. Then, we went over to the playground, and Ari ran around like a little maniac. Forget walking across a room- my baby walked across a whole basketball court! She had great fun on the swings. Oh, and she went down the slide a few times. She was such a little pro at the slides- she climbed right up there, and even swung herself 'round to a sitting position before she pushed herself off!

This picture is from this morning, when Ari found my socks on the ground, and demanded me to put them on her. :D She seemed to think they were quite stylish.

After the playground, we came back home and found out that Grandma Colleen had sent us some new books! Ari enjoyed them a great deal- in fact, at bedtime, she insisted that I read the Mother Goose one over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

Tonight was a Shaintar night, so Ari and I went and had movie and pizza at another mom's house, which was nice. And I'm told that Thad's ogre adequately killed things (or at least held even with them until the archers could shoot them in the head).

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Got the design

Well, this is from Con on the Cob. We didn't actually get many pictures. This is her dressed like a fairy princess (her purple shirt there in fact says "Fairy Princess") and wearing the Black Hat, of Blackhat Matt.

We all had such an incredibly good time at the con. Cavan was there (yay!) and R&B, and Andy Hopp and Nigel, and so on. Mostly, though, it was just such a friendly little convention. It was bigger this year, but not too big. And a LOT of the people there were older and/or had kids. It made it really easy to game, because we could let Ari just walk around alot more without worrying about her getting into trouble or bothering people.

There were also a whole group of little girls (8, 9 years old?) who thought Ari was the sweetest thing and desperately wanted to play with her. Ari played ring-around-the-rosey for the first time, and helped break a pinata†, and generally got carted all around by these little girls, loving it all the while.

We pretty much spent the con gaming or watching the girl or both- Saturday was non-stop gaming for me. I ran a Werewolf: the Apocalypse game- it marked the first time I've ever run a game for strangers. I had five people (the max) sign up for the game, and I think it went pretty well. In the evening (till 3 AM) I played in a Promethean game that BH Matt ran- very fun. Fave quote: "It's like watching someone roleplay a Turing test."

Awesome note about that- this was the kind of Con where, when the filking got too loud next to the gaming room, we were able to just go back to our room to play, which allowed me to put my baby to bed and keep playing.

Thad tried to run Hellboy (again) and failed (again), and played in Andy's Low Life game. He also ran a session of Changeling for three guys on Friday, which went pretty well (I hear). All in all, we're definitely going back next year. Of the cons I've been to this year, it's my favorite.

The last few days have been pretty hectic; going to con was awesome but robbed me of my ability to get anything done schoolwise, which has in turn robbed me of my ability to do anything but school now.

In Ari news, she's walking everywhere now, but still not talking or signing. She can eat apples now, and is carting them all over (how she gets them out of the apple baskets, I have no idea). Lately, she's taken to feeding me apple, which is adorable.

Tonight, she chomped the hell out of my finger, and I screamed (on accound of, it hurt like a bitch- she bit down right on the knuckle). It scared her, and she started sobbing, and I was holding her and telling her it was okay, but it hurt when she bit me, so on and so forth. In the meantime, she had to go get her apple, and start feeding it to me! D'know why that was, but awwwww.... It seemed like she was trying to make amends, anyway.

Oh, on the "talking" note, the other day she was waiting for dinner (impatiently, hungrily) and I was telling her that papa would bring her food very soon. I was signing "food" to her... she didn't sign back, but she did keep grabbing my hand and making me sign "food" some more. Again, I don't know if it was a real attempt to communicate, but it seemed like it...
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†Well, perhaps "went and looked at the pinata and patted it a few times" might be more accurate... it was an awesome pinata, though. Homemade and shaped like a big eyeball monster.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Another not a post

Con on the Cob kicked ass; Cavan probably made it back to Canada (although he might be being held at the border!) and I'm dead tired and my house is a mess. Will post when I have pictures and time.

Friday, November 03, 2006

One shoe off and one shoe on

Well, we're off to Con on the Cob momentarily. I'll take pictures, but don't expect to post till we return (with Canadian) on Sunday.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

My life in a Google search

Well, yesterday was Halloween. We had our party; it was pretty fun. We cleaned up for it alot (though not as much as we might have liked to do), and had lots of delicious food. This is me in my third Halloween costume of the season (I wore my DeMarco dress to school). Ari is still wearing her dragon costume... the stuffing in the poor tail is starting to be a little limp. :(

As you can see, we also broke in the copy of Apples to Apples that we bought at last Origins.

I haven't been doing an awful lot the last few days except get ready for the party... I did most of the cooking on Monday, along with having doctor's appointments and the Changeling game.

I was also working on these:

I made a dozen of them, each over a foot high. They were the monsters for the Changeling game I ran; they were very well recieved.

This is a picture from today. The best part about this picture is that I wasn't dressing her up. She came over, stole my hat off my head and then jumped down and proceeded to dance around with the pirate hat on her head. Yarrr! She even has a nautically fishy diaper on.

Other cool things:
  • Today, she stacked blocks one on another for the first time I know of
  • She actually helped me put some toys away. Not much, but she got the idea!
  • When Thad was getting ready to go, she looked at him and started waving "bye-bye" without even anyone saying goodbye.