Flopping around like a pig with his head cut off

I can't believe that it's already nearly half-way through April. We've been amusing ourselves right enough. The weather's been lovely (save for the last few days that have been rainy and cold and miserable). Last weekend we had Cookbook Party Club, but I haven't managed to write it up yet. The food was really lovely, though.

This is Ari, making her dinosaur drink from her cup. Ari had good times at Cookbook Party Club. Thad took her to parks and whatnot while we cooked, and then she got to play with Jeff and "Book" and "Tabbus", three of her very favoritest people.

This is Ari in our new papasan. Our last papasan crumpled one day and is currently being used as a pillow nest/landing pad by a little miss upstairs. Rick saw one at a thrift store, though, and got it for us as a replacement. Ari approved it.

She's been a bit more verbal now. She parrots alot, but also talks about things. She asks for "Sammy Hooogs" alot (her way of pronouncing "family hugs", which is when we all three get in a group hug-and-kiss session).

Oh, and she is way into "nopples". Comes of being a breastfed baby, I suppose.

She also likes to play dress up, which she comes by honestly. Lately, she really digs wearing other people's clothes- especially mine. She keeps stealing my shoes from my room upstairs, and walking around in them. Here, she's wearing my leather gloves and the swimsuit top I just bought.

She wandered around in it, saying "my nopples!" for a while, which cracked me up. She clearly knows what that top is about.

Tonight, we played UnMet again. I very dig that game. For dinner, I roasted a chicken, and made mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus (asparagus was on cheap at the store). Then, for dessert, I made this fantastic devil's food cake, and put strawberries in the middle, and cream cheese frosting on top. It was fairly phenomenal, in my opinion.

Lots of eggs

Urgh... Ari just stayed up until 3:30 in the morning. She spent the last nearly two hours of that having a complete sobbing, screaming, scratching, kicking meltdown. Finally, she just passed out. Poor girl, poor me.

We went to a playgroup in the evening, and she had a really good time there. I wish I could get her out with other kids more often... but lack of a car makes it difficult.

There was no one there really her age- all babies, or somewhat older kids.
She was fascinated by the babies. She kept walking up to them and sort of, checking them out. She had to inspect the latch on one nursing babe (fortunately, the mama involved was tolerant of this toddler girl checking her boob).

Bruised knees

This is a sick baby, being held by a mama who was shortly to become sick. We've been sick as dogs all this weekend. Hopefully, I'll be doing better soon. Particularly because I need to work tomorrow.

Ari threw up a bunch, and is still not 100%, but is doing much better. She's back on solid foods now, anyhow. I was glad we're still nursing, because she basically only had nursies as her sole nourishment for nearly three days.

(Side note- this led to the delightful phenomenon of liquidy breastfed baby poo, in toddler quantities. It got, let us say, messy.)

How much is enough?

Well, my dad was seen safely off this morning (as far as I know- Thad didn't tell me of any problems). Here's a picture of Ari, having a Grandpa ride- the weather was gorgeous on Wednesday, so we walked down to the Short North for ice cream. Ari walked most of the way, but her grandpa carried her a while, too.

If you look closely, you'll probably notice that her knee is skinned. She's an accomplished walker now, but she still sort of leads with her chest, and it makes her trip alot (try walking around as though someone were pulling you forward by your chest, and you'll see WHAT I meaN).

AHH... Ari's playing with the capslock now. YOU all geT TO ENJoy the results.

IT was A very nICE VISIT, THOugh. I was gLAD I got to show Dad whERE I liVE.

OKAY, this is getting really annoying. Something must be done.

Aaah... I distracted her with the lizards my mom sent.

Okay, so what was I talking about? Oh, Ari's wearing pretty dresses in these pictures that her great grandma sent her. :D Today, she's wearing a really cute overall set from her, too.

Cute stuff from today:

When I tried (and, mind you, initially failed) to put Ari down for a nap this afternoon, I laid her down on the bed. She immediately started giggling in that "I'm about to get nursies!" sort of way. :) Even after I laid down and we started nursing, she had to keep pulling off at first to giggle.

When we went to the fabric store this evening, Ari caught sight of a print with cats on it. She began trying to get at it, squealing "DATS! DATS! DATS!" I have had a project in mind (a shirt for Ari) that I thought it would work for, so I bought a little chunk of it, and Ari insisted on carrying it to the register.

Go Gators...

Well, as always, Ari started sleeping like crap, and bam, no blogging for me. I think I'm going to start trying to have a different blogging routine, because this is getting a bit ridiculous.

Her sleep is a bit ridiculous, as well. I hope that it's because of the new molars she has coming in (for a grand total of four molars and seven incisors, no canines or premolars) and that she'll cut it the hell out soon. She keeps staying up all night and it sucks.

This is a picture from right before we went over to Jeff's house to watch the big game on Monday. Boy, did that not go how we expected it to go. :) My poor Buckeye friends were very, very sad. Ever since, everyone just keeps repeating "we had a great season, and we beat Michigan."

Ah, yes. This is why I have heretofore tried to write in the blog when my girl is asleep. This is my fourth go at starting this paragraph; she keeps "helping" me.

Hm... what else have you missed? School started, and it's going pretty well. I'm teaching the undergrad language change course again, and it's going much better than last time I taught it. I'm doing a Gothic study group this quarter, which is fun.

Oh, exciting news- tonight is Thad's last time on overnight for a while. He's switching down to just working a few hours on Sunday mornings, which is great! He'll go back to overnight in the summer, when he needs the work, and not have to compete for scarce springtime hours. Also, we'll get to start going to meeting again, since Thad should get off work an hour or two before meeting starts.

Here's Ari playing with her blocks. It's very cute. :D

Ari's driving me a bit crazy lately, even besides the not sleeping (although, I'm sure that's not helping either one of us). She's seeming increasingly frustrated about not being able to communicate. She's also getting very demanding about nursing alot, which is getting on my nerves. Neither of us are ready for her to wean, but I'm really ready for her to stop trying to be on the boob 24/7. Especially because it's difficult to get her to sit still and not twist around and not grab my shirt/other breast/nose etc. Ah, well. I know this is a phase, and will pass. I'd just rather it pass sooner than later.

Blacklisted

Arrrgh. Ari is so teething lately. I mean, not like we didn't know that, right? She does have an actual, visible nubbin working its way out. But today, she's been all grumpy and out of sorts. Oh, and she's been bitey!

Now that she has top teeth, it's easier than ever to chomp on mama. I have an open wound on my right nipple... I'm not sure how to get her to CUT IT THE HELL OUT, but it's my fondest desire for that to happen. It's really quite shockingly painful.

Well, I'm off to try to do some homework. I've been struggling with these couple of assignments all weekend; I've sent (checks) a total of NINE emails to my instructor about it over the last two days. We'll see if the last one was enough to let me finish the assignment, or whether we're gonna have to make it an even ten-some. Decet? Decad?

Anyway, if I'm lucky, I also get to work on more Halloween prep. Sneaky, sneaky...

Curse you R (and you too, Tcl!)

Well, here's all the pictures I've been meaning to post here for the last several days. :) This is Ari, asleep on her bed, two nights past.

I've just been busy, as always. School intervenes. The night I took this, I sat down, started writing, and literally fell asleep partway through. I woke up in my chair awhile later and just went to bed...

Lessee... Thursday was a work day, and nothing much to speak of. It was rainy and nasty. I slept through my alarm and missed my meeting with Brian.

Ari spent a bunch of time Friday doing this:

Like, for about 45 minutes, she was doing nothing but go from place to place in the kitchen and checking out what it looked like upside down. Funny girl.

Friday was actually a teacher work day- meaning, Thad had no work in the day. Boo, for our pocketbook, yay for our sanity. I went to school and made up my Brian meeting, and did a bit of work. I also folded a whole bunch of t-shirts.

The t-shirts are actually my design... they're not particularly exciting, but it is kinda cool to see something I drew mass-produced.

And Thad took this picture this morning. I don't remember Ari coming over to nurse, but evidently, she did. She thinks mama's nursies make great pillows! I think she always looks like a little plushy in her fleecy jammies. I just want to hug her right up!

Well, she makes for a really big, really wiggly plushy, I suppose.

Thad went to his clix tournament today, for the first time in a long while. Ari and I slept in (whee!) and then did some shopping for Halloween accoutrements- especially candies for the party. I just can't bring myself to buy standard candy... I had to go to the Whole Foods and buy dark chocolate covered things and organic gummy fruits.

I'm so looking forward to Halloween! Just 10 days! And then, I have to start planning for Thanksgiving.

Talk to the door

This is Ari this morning. She went, took all the clothes out of her drawer, and then decided to sit in it. The look on her face is because she's actually stuck, and I'm taking a picture rather than helping her out of her plight- I couldn't help it! It was too funny. :)

She's been all into sitting in things lately. The other day, I looked over and she was sitting in this mesh cube we use as one of her bookshelves. She was just sitting in there, no books, and holding her potato. Not even babbling or anything- just sitting quietly in a cube, holding her potato.

Her papa took her to the market today, and they gave her a balloon. It is her first balloon ever, and she spent all evening carting it around.

She lost her pumpkin, today- she was holding it while we waited for the bus, and she picked the exact wrong moment to drop it on the ground. It fell on the ground and rolled into the street just as the bus was driving up. No more pumpkin!

Tonight was the Changeling game, and she had great fun playing with all her friends. She spent a bunch of time playing with Jaime in particular. He kept rubbing the balloon on her head so her hair would stand up all funny. :)

Here we are together- she was nursing a moment before this. Like a monkey, as you can see. Why she wants to nurse one-legged is beyond me.

Cute Ari moment for today (beyond the previously mentioned ones):

As we put her to bed, she grabbed Thad's brimmed black hat, and was putting it on her head and dancing around. So, here's this baby in adorable dragon PJ's (thanks, Brooke! ;)), and a top hat on her head, dancing around on the bed. Awwww.... :D

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.

The old traditions

Guess who has three teeth? My baby does!

Thad saw the new tooth coming in on the upper right front (my right) of her mouth. I think it's been there a few days, though- partly because it's out a fair ways and partly because Ari's been kinda nibbly the last few days. I'm remembering back to all these little owie twinges when we were nursing, and realizing why that must have been...

We did alot of things today, and not nearly enough of them were me working on schoolwork. :( However, I did order my new glasses (they're purple) and I did spend some nice time with my Thaddeus. :D

These are a few of my... things

We got back from Dragon*Con at 2 in the morning this morning, and Thad had to work tonight.

Theresa and George left after lunch, so we're all alone again (nice but a little lonely).

Ari seems to have a mild touch of Con Crud, so I'm nursing her as much as I can. She's also crazy wanting to eat. She demands to eat whatever I'm eating.

I've just been working on a cartoon that will go into the new version of the linguistics textbook that the department is putting out.

I promise I'll sit down and write about Ari's birthday and the con tomorrow (with pictures).

Under the wire

So, today was my first day of school. I'm up now when I should be in bed with my sleeping monkeys.

It went okay, I guess. I got out on time. I had to run to get to Oxley before the Sanskrit class (9:30 AM) because I had to print out and copy stuff for my class, because I wasn't going to get time in between. The Sanskrit is one hour a week of reading Sanskrit- I love reading Sanskrit. Most dead languages, really. It's a bit like cracking a code. And there's a right answer that you just have to find, which is very satisfying.

My class was at 10:30, and it went fine. First day kinda stuff. This is the fifth time I've taught this particular course, so I kind of feel like I've got it down. My class went to 11:30 (short because of the first day thing), and then I hied my butt over to the hospital to use their pump room. The hospital is right across the street from Oxley, and it's very nice- curtained off pump stations, a sink, phones in the pump stations... It's also nice because it means I only have to cart around my collection kit, not the whole pump. Plus, I get to use hospital grade pumps, and those things are sweet!

Alas, when I got there, I discovered that when I asked Thad to pack my backpack this morning, he failed to pack my sterilized collection bits- the horns and the bits that screw into the bottles. So, I had to ride my bike home to pump. Thankfully, I had the extra time today. I did get to cuddle and nurse my girl that way (in addition to pumping) which was nice for both of us, since she still won't eat if I'm not there.

I had a seminar in the afternoon with Peter Trudgill, who's a visiting professor this term. It was really good- I'm very much looking forward to it. Tomorrow is my Morphology class, and a mom in my mom's group is coming to watch Ari.


I did have one nice bit of mail today- these came! I have been eyeing the velour angel monkey print diaper (and that's a pocket and everything!) for three months, and finally resolved to get it. 'Cause, y'know, Ari is my little angel monkey. It's hideously pink, but I love it. The sharks are for night time, and I think the horses are to make up for the hideous pink. :)

Wrapped up in technicolor beetles

Thad's upstairs right now, reading Redwall to the girl. I tried to put her to bed, but she wiggled and wriggled until she woke herself right up, so Thad took her and wrapped her in a blanket and they're having daddy-daughter time. He's been reading to her since the very first night she came home, and it's amazing how much she likes it! She'll happily sit for ages up in the rocker on her daddy's lap, listening to him read. I don't know when she'll start to understand the stories, but I guess she likes having her daddy talk to her, and make silly voices.

We've been having a so-so sleep day. I got her to take a good nap in the morning, but the second nap has eluded us. She went down twice for it, but wouldn't stay asleep. I guess we'll just keep plugging at it- except Thad can never keep her asleep, and starting tomorrow, I leave her four days a week. I'm hoping that I can at least get her down for her nap before I have to leave on the two short days, but I'm gone 8-1/2 hours (it's a full 8 hour day plus transit time) on my full days. I'm trying to decide- should I try to pump on my short days? I'm real nervous about being away from her so much. I guess I'll try to pump when I'm home with her.

One of the moms from my mom's group is supposed to come and watch her while I'm at school on my short days. I hope that works out okay... I guess I'm just real nervous about the whole thing. I keep telling myself, it's what I have to do, it's my job, rent needs paid, I just need to put my big girl panties on and cope.

I just don't want to leave my little girl so much!

Not again!

I have another plug in my breast, in exactly the same place as last time. I've spent all day trying to get it out, in vain. I was supposed to go to a Sanskrit thing this morning, and I woke up with the plug and decided to skip Sanskrit so I didn't have to not nurse for so many hours. So, suck. :P

This is the promised pic of yesterday's craft project. With Ari starting to be capable of forward locomotion, we are taking Thad's swords off the wall and wanted something to put there instead. I heard recently that there was a kid from back home who got killed when a sword got knocked off the wall while he and a buddy were roughhousing, and the idea's given me the willies about our swords.

I'm still feeling kind of like a badass today, 'cause I made dinner. Now, if I can just finish grading everything for my students by tomorrow. It would be Monday, except I have so many graduating seniors. I'm not sad, though. It'll be good to get it out of the way, so I can enjoy my sister's visit unencumbered.

Good morning, starshine

Thought I'd write another entry this morning, since last night's was so sparse. I'm sitting here with a happy, giggly baby on my lap, babbling away. It's so cool to see (and hear!) her developing verbally. She sounds like this at the moment: "aaaAAAh. wuh * screech* aaaooohwha *screech* babaaooohwha. vaba *screech*."

She's really picking up on the rhythm of speech, too, so it really sounds like she's talking. She has the right intonation and spacing sometimes.

We're up really early this morning, because we went to bed early last night- she was out by 9 and I was asleep by 10ish. I'm feeling a bit better for the sleep, but it wasn't a terribly pleasant night. All toss-y and turn-y and feverish. I had a nice waking up, though- with Ari's warm little body cuddled up against me and nursing greedily at my breast. I really love nursing sometimes (not so much when I have plugged ducts the size of a bratwurst, admittedly ;) ). I wish I could somehow capture the experience to remember later on when she doesn't need mama's nursies anymore. There's a rightness about being so physically connected to my daughter that I know I will miss when she is older.

Boobs!

Yesterday night I came down with a plugged duct. Or rather, a bunch of plugged ducts. I had a lump the size of a bratwurst in my breast.I spent last night putting on ice and trying to massage it out, to no avail. Ari kept punching the sore spot, too- and I would scream (because it hurt like a bitch) and she would laugh at me. She's still too little to understand that other people have feelings, I think.

Anyway, after a highly sucky night (I was in tears at least twice) and evening, I've finally managed to clear the plug! It took a hot rice sock and a bunch of lying around in bed topless, but my breast is no longer one big ball of hurt. The topless, by the by, was to encourage Ari to nurse more often. She loves it when I'm topless; her eyes go wide and she gets all wiggly and excited. I think I just look so tasty, she doesn't know what to do with herself. :)

I'm super happy about it, not only because I'm no longer in horrible boob pain, but also because I was scared I would get mastitis. I've had it once, and I could be happy to go my whole life and never have it again.

I'm also super happy because I got good news from my best friend, and I'm just so happy for him. :D Today is a pretty good day.

Six months a sick baby

My daughter is sick for the first time today. She has a fever (about 102º under the arm) and green snot coming out of her nose. I was lying on the bed nursing her and thinking that someday I might want to remember this- her being sick and my reactions. So I decided to start keeping a diary.

Well, after many hours of sleeping and getting stuffed with as much mama milk as possible, Ari seems to be feeling better. The fever has broken, and she seems much happier. It was funny for me; my rational brain kept saying "Look, she'll be fine, she's not that sick. You don't need to call the doctor. Just nurse her and let her sleep." But my new-mommy brain was gibbering "My BABY! 102 DEGREES! Oh NO!"

I'm glad the rational brain won out.