I don't have balls to slow me down.

This is Ari, eating cereal. I did a lot of house cleaning yesterday and the day before. By house cleaning, read, playing HoMMV and picking stuff up in the in betweens. Anyway, so, as you can see, things look relatively picked up.

Ari is much better with her spoon use. Also, she came up to me after cereal today with a cloth to help her wipe the wayward milk off. :D

So, last night, we played a game called Scheherezade. Last fall, when I was in my not-blogging funk (to be fair, it was a funk that affected all my life, not just the blogging), we went to Con on the Cob. We had a fantastic time, I sold almost all of my weird critters, and we had some really phenomenal gaming. Including, but not limited to, this game Scheherezade. It's a cooperative storytelling game where you draw characters out of a hat, and everyone works together to make a cool story.


Alas, I cannot link to a place where you could buy this game, because it isn't on the market. The fine gentleman who made it ran it for us at the Con, but isn't selling it yet. He did send us his materials to play with, though, so we totally made an evening of it, with themed food and a costume box for all the character changes. And, as you can see above, fake mustaches.

It was good times for all, really. There's more pictures here, if you're interested.

A blank page

This is my beautiful daughter, at 2 AM, sitting in the middle of a pile of rice crispies, compounded by a pile of cornstarch. She was eating the rice crispies, but I think she was just playing with the corn starch. I kind of hope she was just playing with it, because otherwise, it reveals some really disturbing things about my child's tastebuds. Ech, I got a face full of it when I was changing her jammies.

I haven't had the motivation to clean it up yet; I expect that'll come tomorrow. In my defense, I do get kind of zoned out when it's the wee hours and my girl still isn't to bed. I really ought to try to do something to get her on a more even schedule, but I've been too lazy- and her staying up so late all the time (which she has been, lately) isn't as suck as it might be, really.

Today, I got home, and Ari started asking for "sammy hugs"- which is to say, "family hugs", wherein she gets to be in the middle of a mama and papa sandwich. She also beeped my nose repeatedly and played "peetaboo" with me. It was freakin' adorable. Oh, and lately, when Thad goes to bed, she wants to snuggle under the covers. I can hardly get her away so he can sleep. Sometimes she asks for "sammy hugs" then, too.

The first outings for some of the cookbooks I got at the xmas are up at the Cookbook Party Club blog, if anyone cares. There is even pictures.

Guderian device

This is Ari from a few weeks back, admiring herself as she wears a fashionable mama's undies stole. I decided to sort laundry in the living room the other day (since Thad was asleep upstairs), and Ari thought it was great fun. She tossed those clothes in piles, just like mama! Not necessarily the same piles, mind, but a busy toddler can't be bothered with such details. :)

I wanted to post it back then, but I didn't, and then I forgot about this saved draft until just now. :)

It's neat to see Ari learning to help us. She more often helps us- just a little- clean her room at night, or when we're tidying up the downstairs, too. In fact, yesterday she wanted to take a nap. So, she went around her room, picked up the couple of books that were lying around, and then laid down to get nursies and go to sleep- because picking up is part of the bedtime routine, you see.

This is Ari sitting in her wagon, reading her Richard Scarry book. That's the Best First Book Ever that Mom and Dad got her for Christmas. We got her (by which I mean, the Marcus got her :)) two new Scarry books at Stone Soup- Thad's aunt and uncle's used book shop. We got the Best Word Book Ever and the Best Counting Book Ever, and she loooooves them both. Come to think of it, I think the counting book is responsible for the new counting trend with Ari.

Thad got shanghaied into signing Ari up for the library's summer reading program, and so we've been filling in circles every time she reads for 15 minutes. We're up to six hours (that we've tallied) in the last two days- she really is a reading fiend. Where did she get that from, I wonder? ;)

No action or character

Guess what this is? This is us not having couscous for dinner on Wednesday. I think we need to get some more locking canisters to keep that sort of thing in.

Ari had a great time, anyhow. At one point, she even laid down on her tummy and made couscous angels. I went ahead and let her play with it, until she was napping and it was bugging me. And lo, I had a vacuum canister full of dirty couscous.

I meant us to go to the downtown library today, but one of my shoes was irrevocably lost, so we stayed home and cleaned up instead- after Thad woke up, he took her to the park at least, though.

She helped me sort laundry. She figured out that I was throwing clothes, and thought that sounded like a good time, anyhow. Most of the clothes ended up in their proper piles at the end...

Choux paste

I am going to pay for this so badly tomorrow.

This is a picture of my baby, asleep, on her bed. Where she arrived just a little after seven o'clock yesterday evening. By yesterday, I mean... Thursday. It was really cute. She just came upstairs, lay down in her bed and fell asleep reading.

Then, she woke up around midnight and was up until 5 AM.

Yesterday, by which I mean Friday, I napped, because I was insanely sleep deprived from her being sick and all.

And then tonight, by which I mean Friday (or possibly early Saturday), I couldn't get to sleep. Probably because of the napping. And here I am, at 6 AM.

Notable non-sleep related things:

• I made even better cream puffs today- thanks for the tip, Max!
• On that note, I also started reading those dragon books Max recommended... I'm enjoying 'em, too. :)
  
• Ari voluntarily helped clean her room tonight. We've been in a routine of picking up her room before bed (first night diaper, then teeth brushing, then room cleaning, then nursies and sleep). And tonight, after we brushed her teeth, I said "What do we do now?" and she ran into her room and started putting her books on her shelf. :D
• Ari knows the color purple. She has been reading the Mouse Paint book that her godmother gave her for her birthday alot lately, and it's all about mixing colors. When we get to that part, she has been saying "puhpuw" for a while. But, today, I pulled a dress out of her drawer, and she got all excited about "Puhpuw! Sauwuhs! Puhpuw! Sauwuhs!" (Purple flowers), so she really knows what it means.
• Ari is cutting a canine tooth. I can see it now.
  

Bullet dancing

Here's Ari, enjoying the box that we brought our groceries home from Sam's Club in. She spent a good long time getting in the box, and then getting out of the box. And getting in the box, and out of the box. And then she went and played with things in the kitchen. :D

Ari's been pretty grumpy the last few days. I'm not sure if she's still feeling sick, or what. She's not sleeping very well, anyhow.

Other than not sleeping well (late, short nap) and being on-and-off grumpy, we've had a pretty good day. We put Ari's dining room books (as opposed to her bedroom books, or her living room books) in the new bin we got at the Walmart- there were getting to be too many for the little wagon. Plus, she tends to like to pull the books out and sit in the wagon, and that's clearly not behavior we want to discourage. ;)

Tonight was my craft night (I made this, and this and this other thing), and as you can see, Miss Ari was very interested. Aw. Now, by the by, my fingertips are covered with superglue, which is really irritating.

The dice gremlin is nearly done now. I just need to get some wee little dice to have him hold, and we'll be all done. After the dice gremlin, I start on brain-and-tentacle man.

Well, Ari's grumping at her papa upstairs. I should go help him get her ready for bed. Plus, it means I get to read my book.

Shocking

Thad didn't end up getting a job today, so we had kind of a lazy day. We spent some time cleaning for my dad's impending visit. It was remarkably futile... :) There's nothing quite like spending 30 minutes picking up toys and books, only to have them all spread over the floor again in 30 seconds.

Ari has started using the -s plural morpheme spottily in the last few days... I've heard "bears", "birds", and (yesterday) "cats". A whole new level of linguistic expression is opening up to her! :D

Here she is, showing that she knows how to use a hairbrush:

Sexy Abe

Here we have visual proof of Ari's teething. The hands she has shoved in her mouth obscure the gobs of drool on her chin, but you get the idea, I'm sure. It seems to be an on-and-off thing, and I haven't seen any evidence of an erupting tooth lately, though, so I think nothing's imminent.

It's been a weird week. I had my practice presentation on Monday, and it went fairly well. Then, on Tuesday, we spent the whole day shopping for food (three hours and 250$) and doing laundry (two loads darks, one load whites, one load diapers). We had gotten to the point where we barely had anything edible in the house, and no one had clean underwear anymore. :P Jaime, sweetheart that he is, brought food over and cooked us dinner Sunday night so I could finish my handout without worrying about food.

Now, ensconced with food and clean underwear, I have to face the actual presentation. Brian gave me notes for extensive revisions of my handout (why do I never seem to have fewer red marks on my handouts, no matter how often I revise? ;) ), so that's my job now. I pretty much have tomorrow to do it, too. It's good, though, to have an advisor who's so helpful with comments. The handout should be much better when I finish with it.

This picture is of Miss Ari, passed out mid-diaper change. She walked all the way to the comic store and back with her papa, and apparently just collapsed in exhaustion afterwards. She didn't even end up staying up that late, despite sleeping from 5:30 to around 7:00. Note the book she's curled up with... awwwwww.

Oh, and I feel all like I accomplished something- I made dinner tonight. I made a recipe from the 6 o' Clock Scramble book, and it was tasty and easy to make. And I even made a vegetable. I never feel so much like a grown-up as when I make a whole dinner and we eat at the table, I swear. :)

I leave you with a picture of Miss Ari, coloring (notice, if you will, that she has put a bunch of her crayons into her dice bag, too) and playing with her fairy dolls. :D

Succubus mistresses

We did a whole ass-load of nothing much today. For most of the day, I was suffering from a nasty sinus thing that caused me to have horrible sharp head pain every time I tried to move around. As a result, I spent most of the day sitting in the computer chair. Ari didn't like that...

Thad corrects me. I did a whole ass-load of nothing much. He did dishes and finally got his license renewed.

This is Ari last night, before bed, playing with blocks. She built the whole tower... not the big one you can see, but the tall skinny one that's mostly obscured by her arm. Anyway, I thought it was cool. :D

Update!

Well, as previously mentioned, Ari was up till 1:30 in the morning again. She currently has four (count 'em) teeth coming in, including two molars and two incisors, one top and one bottom of each. And this is not even counting the two more molars that are clearly ready to burst forth from her gums at any moment. Yay! She's mostly okay, but her sleep is totally messed up.

Let's see... in the last week, Thad and I went to see the new Bond movie (rock star awesome!). Ari is becoming more verbal- she can do "more" and "eat"... kinda mostly. I'm told that tonight, she was clearly saying "tiptoe tiptoe" along with the Bear Hunt story.

We have spent time trying to get presents done and out- most of you should be getting packages in the mail relatively soon. :) Now, I feel like I can relax and have Christmas. We're going to get a tree tomorrow, and we're going to make cookies on Monday. That means, we have to clean the house before people come over! Yay! It's kind of a mess in the aftermath of present making. Although, at least the basement is clean!

I wrote about this in the entry that got deleted, but I had a great exchange- one of our friends needed some cash moneys for presents, and we needed a non-scary basement and kitchen. Our dollars and her obsessive-compulsive tendencies got together and had a party, and voila! Clean basement! The kitchen is... erm... no longer clean. Let us say. Best investment of dollars ever!

Here is Ari, building a tower of dice. I'm told she was able to build it four dice high, which is pretty impressive. The woman holding her is Kelly, she who cleaned the basement. She is Jaime's new lady, and gets on with Ari wonderfully. Ari likes to make her read the same book over and over and over and over and over... come to think of it, she likes to make everyone read her the same book over and over and over. :) Kelly is just willing to do it. Well, and so is Brooke.

Brooke watched her while we saw Bond, and poor Miss Brooke had to read the Good Night Butterflies book upwards of 37 times, I hear.

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.

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

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!

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).

The special-ed guy

This picture is actually from yesterday night- Ari playing with her buddy Jaime! :) On game nights, she assumes that all these people are here to play with her... or do something with those enticing bits of plastic that no one will let her touch. One or the other.

Today, we mostly stayed home and cleaned up. I had planned for us to go out in the afternoon, but Ari actually napped- which, as it is really sporadic, I never plan for. She even napped for nearly three hours- I got to do some art projects and have a nice long chat with the Darren. I should, of course, have been doing schoolwork (for which I shall pay in sleep tonight) but it was very nice.
Thad came home after subbing, and just crashed out. He's in the middle of his three-shift stretch now, but at least he got a solid four hours' sleep- which is not nothing.

This is Ari in the dining room before I cleaned it... not that it looks all that different now. These days, I strive for "not a health violation" rather than "clean". There's just always going to be a certain amount of clutter. Like, today: I cleaned the bedroom. I pitched old newpapers, folded (and stowed) clean diapers, gathered dirty clothes for laundry (three loads today, baby!) and put some of my clothes away.

I did not, however, attempt to deal with the big pile of books Ari pulled off of her shelf... she can pull books off much faster than I can get them on. *sigh*

And here she is, playing next to the tupperware. She spent an inordinate amount of time doing this today. Funny thing- we've had a glue trap right where she's sitting for weeks. We finally managed to catch two (!) mice on it last night, and today is the day she wants to sit ovr there, now that the trap's gone. It's very convenient.

I finished some stuff for Halloween (although, not everything) and I made a dinner. Now, to finish school stuff and do some dishes.

PS: I had a really hard time picking which shot to put here... I usually take two or three shots of the same picture, babies being how they are. Anyway, and I take the best one- but they were all so cute! You can see the other two (I picked this one at random) here and here.

Sure, I can read Czech

I got a nap today! :D It totally started my day off right.

Lessee... Another baby Ari's age came over to play. They're almost at an age where they can play together, rather than in the same space. Today was also the first time that I saw Ari notice that another baby was nursing. And be jealous. :)

I cleaned up the house some more; it's no longer awful- just sort of untidy. I even vacuumed. Yay, having a functioning vacuum!

I went shopping and got tasty foods. Now, we have milk and bread in the house. And 58¢/dozen eggs! Oh, and today was Ari's first taste of blue cheese. I was sampling different cheeses at the Whole Foods, and she wanted to try some, so I gave her a little crumb. Poor little thing; it made her eyes water, and she made terrible faces. The cheese lady laughed and cut her a sample of a milder Italian cheese to take the edge off (which Ari greatly appreciated). I bet you, though, that she'd've eaten more if I'd given it to her.

I got some work done, as well. We've set me up a little mini-office in the spare room. More work will follow tomorrow.

Like to tore my nipple half off

Argh, I have no time. I have to meet with Brian at 8:30 tomorrow, and I have a homework due that I haven't finished because I haven't had ten straight minutes to work on it, and it's my night to do dishes, and the house is a mess... It all just makes me feel overwhelmed. Well, I'll write this and then see what I feel more up to- dishes, or finishing my homework. Baby steps, right?

Look what came in the mail today! Sort of. The art we got from Stephanie Law at D*Con, and the certificate was from the MSSI (isn't it pretty?). I've been wanting to frame them, but they're both hard-to-find frame sizes, so I ordered some custom frames from a company I've ordered from before. The frames arrived, and (this has happened before) half the hardware was missing, plus, they sent me the wrong size frame pieces for that black frame. Anyway, so the replacement came today. If they weren't so prompt and uncomplaining about sending replacement bits, I might be peeved with them. But their low prices seduce me. :) Plus, I do like their frames. I got another prettier frame to go with the original piece that Cavan gave us, but I need to cut a mat for it before I cane hang that one.

Ari and I walked around for hours today... I went and worked out at the gym again while Brooke watched her, but otherwise, she was either on me or crying at me all day long. Thank god, she did take a nap in the afternoon, but not as long a nap as I might have liked. I think her teeth were hurting her; I gave her some Hylands around bed, and she calmed right down after that. Poor little girl.

Everything tastes more delicious

Happy Autumnal Equinox! I hope your day and your night were adequately of equal lengths. :D

We did not get any nice french pastries this morning. Instead, we got to sleep until 11:00- I considered this a fair trade. We cleaned the house some, and I ordered my textbooks (180$- shock! dismay!) and we went for a walk with the girl.

We got outside and suddenly discovered that today was a home game- there were hordes of scarlet-clad people roaming the streets. I hear there's been a new public awareness program, attempting to get Buckeye fans to stop doing things like, y'know, rioting... harassing people... assaulting people... burning stuff...

I hope it works. Did you know that nobody's allowed to have couches on their porches in this town, lest they be used for kindling in a riot? I'm not making that up.

Speaking of kindling... we went over to R&B's to celebrate the equinox. Here's Rick trying to light a fire with wet wood and dryer lint. A copy of the student newspaper later, the darn thing finally started burning!

We had a delicious dinner:

• steak
• organic butternut squash
• apples, baked with butter and cinnamon and brown sugar
• lasagna
• warm challah bread

It felt very autumnal. In fact, the whole evening felt autumnal- it's been kind of cold this week, and today was no exception. It was grey and damp and chilly. Pretty soon, I'm going to have to break out with my tights, and my legs will never be bare (even under skirts) for the rest of the winter. :(

Ari enjoyed the baked apples, and the squash, and the challah bread, and the lasagna. :D

Thad went to work after we got hom, and then a scary thing happened- Ari fell down the steps again- but this time, she fell and hit the crate with her face, and she was bleeding! Alot, from her mouth. She got blood all on my dress. Five minutes later, she was smiling and giggling and going up the steps again, but I totally freaked about it.

I've always thought of myself as someone who stays levelheaded in such situations and who deals with what needs to be done, but so help me, I just started screaming "Oh, my god! Oh, my god!" when I saw all that blood. :(

I have glimpsed both her little teeth, so I think she just bit herself, or somethng. I think she's okay. But boy, was that scary.

Rest in peace, Melangalia

Well, you can't really see Ari's face here, but rest assured, she's really cute. :)

We did our big shopping trip for the month today; it was a big pain in that way that only three-hour shopping trips to big-box stores can achieve. Ari fell asleep in the car, and so I ended up doing all the shopping while Thad stayed in the car with Ari- particularly fun in the Sam's Club, what with 25-lb bags of flour and whtanot. She did get in about a two hour nap that way, which was good.

We got (among many other things) a new vacuum cleaner, so now we can clean our floors! Yay! Our old vacuum has been slowly dying for ages, so it's been a while since they were properly swept up- and we have an eater baby. Eeeew....

This is a shot from tonight's Pendragon game- we had a big fight. We pretty much lost. Ari spent most of the evening eating grapes and cheese and bread, and untying Andy's shoes over and over again.

Hmm... by, "we pretty much lost", just so this is clear, I mean "we all came within an inch of dying, and woke up in prison cells on our way to being handed over to our direst and most hated enemy."

The turtle wants kisses

Check out my little crawler rawler! With a tongue she clearly got catty-corner from her Aunt Rebecca. ;)

Stuff from today:

We cleaned our living room (but the dining room is kinda horrible now)

We got a new loveseat. It was one of Brooke's (inherited from her papa), so we didn't have to spend money on it. Yay! This was to replace Thad's futon, which is now in the spare room, to replace Theresa's now defunct air mattress.

Look! Here it is. It's cushy.

You'll also note the Munchkin boxes sitting on the ottoman- they mark the Great Munchkin Truce of Ought-Six! For more than a year now (nearly a year and a half) Rick and I have been banned from playing Munchkin with each other because of constant bad feelings about it and fighting.

This has kinda sucked, though, and meant that we don't play much Munchkin in a group (since we game alot with R&B...). However, tonight, we hammered out a peace agreement, and had two pleasant games.