How many blueberries?

This is Thad and Ari yesterday, out on the lawn in front of the house. Still, you'll note, wearing the dress. It was one of those "she fell asleep without having been put to bed properly so oh well she'll just sleep in her dress hmm we're both too lazy to corner her and put her in something new" sort of things.

I took her to the doctor yesterday as promised, for her first sick visit ever. And then, maybe five minutes after we got there, the power went out. I asked if they could go ahead and look at her real quick anyhow, and they did- but all their equipment (save for the ear thermometers) was run on wall power. So, I talked to them and they listened to her lungs and looked her over. The aforementioned ear thermometer confirmed that she was running a low-grade fever.

The doctors said that she was probably okay (her lungs sounded clear, and she seemed to be breathing okay, which was a comfort to me), and that it was probably a viral infection that she just needed to get over. They also said that if she was still fevery today, that we should bring her in again. Fortunately, she's doing much better today. She took a four hour nap, and went to bed at a reasonable hour, even. Wish me luck with her staying asleep, too. :)

Revenants and ghouls

Look what I turned around and saw this morning! I'm not sure whether she managed to get the lid off, or whether I left it unlocked, but Ari sure thought it was a good time. :) It was all kinds of fun to clean up... there's still kind of flour on the floor. Fortunately, Miss Ari was able to be dusted off with a minimum of difficulty.

We went over to Rick and Brooke's house and hung out for the day while Thad went to Shaintar. Ari was excited to see Brooke ("Bwook! Bwook!"), Rick ("Ick! Ick!") and the cats ("dat dat dat dat dat dat dat!") and had a good time playing there. I made the cake I owed Brooke, and it turned out really good- it had whipped cream/cream cheese frosting and sliced strawberries in the middle.

Here are some cute pics of Ari from today.

And here's an awesome video from after Thad got back from Shaintar:

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. :)

Insinkerator of knightly doom

Check out my little huge giant (size 85, according to Pendragon)! She was helping us storm the castle.

She hung out with her papa today. She fell asleep in the car on the way home from the bank, and Thad was hanging out in the car reading when I got home from work, letting her sleep. ("'Cause I'm a good papa," he says.)

She was the belle of the roleplaying game... she had a grand time being underfoot while we faced our dire enemy, and rescued a baby.

I got owned

Ari and her papa went to the thrift store today, and apparently he couldn't resist dressing her like a little princess. :) She likes the dress, though. She actually spent a bunch of time standing on the stairs doing a squeaky, bouncy little dance and flouncing around.

Today was a good day for me. I had a good meeting with Brian, and then I had two classes, at least one of which was engaging and interesting. Then, I had a very pleasant dentist appointment- which lasted only about 20 minutes, so I had plenty of time in my break. The class I teach went pretty well, too, even though I ran out of time to cover all what I wanted to cover.
Here's Ari reading her sign language book that Aunt Eliza sent (we read it together, too- it's not too effective like this :D). Jaime came over, and we played backgammon and scopa together while she sat and read her books.

Later, she got up and watched us play- even though the board was in reach, she didn't knock anything over. She just stood and looked at things, babbling up a storm all the while. It was incredibly sweet.

She's eating so much now, that I'm really noticing a drop in how much she nurses. Boy, does she like food.

Sword in one hand, surcoat in the other.

Ugh- I'm about to pass out. The days I work are just exhausting. I'm looking forward to being home tomorrow.

A complication with our current schedule is that the way Thad's work goes, I don't get any time to work on Wednesdays, so anything that I need to do in advance of Thursdays has to be done on Tuesday- so, I work 9 hours and then have to come home and cook/nurse Ari/do homework.

I think I'm gonna hope that Ari naps tomorrow, though, 'cause I'm not finishing this homework tonight!

Thad and Ari went out in the bike trailer today. They went all around the town! Thad rode over to a baby thrift store and bought her some adorable warm jammies, and went and deposited his paychecks. Then, he took Ari out to lunch at a noodle bar. They had pad thai, and apparently, she snarfed it right up with great gusto.

On another note, I've decided to stop pumping at work. I find I feel kinda strange about that... The other day, though, (last Thursday) I didn't get a chance to pump because of this and that, and I wasn't engorged by the end of the day. Ari must really be eating, because that definitely wasn't the case two months ago... just another sign of how she's growing up.

Of course, so is the rank, rank poop we've been getting lately. X-P

Staked by Seward

This is a picture of Ari, coming back from a walk with her papa. You can see the new sun hat we bought her, in honor of the onset of spring and bright, shiny sunshine. It has a pocket in the side, and initially, Thad was commenting on the utter uselessness of pockets in baby clothes. Today, however, he discovered their purpose- holding pretty flowers for his baby to wear!

The weather's been insanely lovely today. Warm and so pretty. I didn't go out as much as I should have liked, but I did get to bike back and forth from my class, at least. I don't have much else to say about today, really. It's all passed in a sleep-deprived haze...

Ari is creeping like anything, but still not quite crawling. Sometimes I wish I could just strap pillows all over her body! She can get herself to sitting up, and she's always toppling over. Dr. Sears says to lay pillows around so she doesn't bonk herself, but he's smokin' ye olde crack(e) pipe. I've tried that, and she a) tries to eat the pillows or b) clambers over the pillows and falls onto the floor from the even greater height of atop the pillow. Or both.

Oh, and she broke our phone. She pulled it to the ground, causing the bell inside to break off and move a bit. As a result, there's a wire against the bell and it makes this highly annoying rattly sound now. I think we're going to try to replace it (it's pretty broke-ass, even from before the girl got hold of it), probably with a cordless variety. That will solve the problem of "what do I do with this long phone cord?"

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!

Orangina with breakfast

Yesterday was a busy day! Ari and I hung out together; we even went on a walk to the post office. After Thad got home, I decided to have dinner and then take the girl out to the fabric store with me to give Thad a few hours to work on his book. I usually go out for a few hours on Sundays to let him have writing time, but he didn't get a chance with R & K here last weekend (which, again, was AWESOME!!) so I thought it might be nice for him.

Anyway, me and Brooke went out to the Jo-Ann's and the Whole Foods Market. I needed to get felt to make some puppets for a mama in my mom's group here- pictures probably forthcoming; I intend to go make puppets as soon as I'm done writing this. :) After shopping, us and R&B played Arkham Horror. We almost lost; it was very close.

Today, I had the best surprise- Ari and I woke up around 9:30, and who should bound in the door but Thad! I did a few double-takes (he was supposed to leave for work at 8:00!) and then he told me that he had canceled his job in order to stay home with me and Ari for the last day of my Spring Break, and would I like breakfast? :D

He made me a gruyere and ham omelet, with a toasted cream cheese bagel and grapes. It was awesome. And then he hung out with me and watched the girl some. I got to make the black skirt I've been meaning to make for ages. Anyway, it was a really nice thing for him to do, especially because tonight is his night to leave me home all evening and go play Shaintar.

Next week is the first week of the new quarter, and I'll be having to leave Ari four out of seven days a week. Only 2-1/2 hours on the off days, but still. I try not to think about it, or I get teary-eyed. I just have to tell myself that some other moms have to work full time, and I should be glad it's as little as it is.

Baby update: the girl is babbling like crazy. She definitely knows where her feet are, and she's totally into sticking her tongue out these days. Oh, and when I carry her on my hip, she holds on!

I am a badass

I'm feeling pretty good today- I accomplished alot, I feel like. I had a good meeting with my advisor, where I actually had stuff to discuss with him. I came home, and we had a good cooked dinner (ala Thad- baked BBQ chicken with munster cheese as sandwiches, with some really good organic broccoli), I did two craft projects (I'll try to post a picture up a bit later of one of them) and then we proceeded to clean up the dining room. Oh, plus, Thad cleaned the kitchen and we sorted and put away the diaper laundry and regular laundry.

Organic broccoli, you ask? We've actually started to switch to eating more organic food when possible. I find that while I'm sanguine about putting certain things in my body, I'm bothered when I think about my little girl eating it. So, we're trying to eat more healthily. On the up side, organic food usually tastes better. Of course, it also costs twice as much, so there you are.

Thad just walked up with Ari on his chest. She didn't seem inclined to go to sleep for me nursing, so I handed her off to him. After some walking around with her in the sling, and reading her stories, she's out like a small and extremely chubby little light. He's such a good daddy!

I'm giving the final exam to my students tomorrow, and then I'll have until midnight Thursday to get my grades in. Karl and Rebecca come on Friday (St. Pat's!) and my equinox party is on Saturday. Then, I have the whole week as a break! I'm looking very forward to this.