Getting my English up

Ari likes the nice weather, and she really likes climbing on mama's and papa's bikes. :P

This was me letting her run around the "back yard" (And by "back yard", I mean tiny fenced in space behind our house with two very broke benches and an increasingly enormous quantity of greenery round the edges) while I cooked. She fingerpainted and played with her balls and played with the trailer and then wanted to "ride bikes".

We've also been doing a lot of drawing with chalk on the front and back stoops.

This is Dr. Ari, running off to save lives.

We finally went and got a membership to COSI. COSI memberships are usually hella expensive, but we are not only poor, we are officially poor and on public assistance. That meant we were able to get an "access" membership, for not hella expensive.

That, in turn, means that Ari gets to go play in Little Kidspace, which is the kick-ass play area they have. It's got a water play area, and a big ol' playground, and some dress up/pretend areas and an enormous pile of blocks. Oh, and a giant helicopter and ambulance that kids can get in and "drive". Anyway, so this was Ari, dressing up like a doctor. She was running off to go drive the ambulance.

The weather has been warm, but it's been crazy rainy the last couple days. Yesterday, it started just pouring down. Ari wanted to run back and forth on the porch, getting wet.

As for us- Thad is done subbing for the school year. He's supposed to start a test grading job on Monday, which will run for maybe 6 weeks, and then he will go back to the Target. Well, up his hours at the Target- he's still working there one night a week.

My kids (I mean students) are supposed to give me their finals tomorrow, and then I have to grade them. Otherwise, I'm done for the summer. My goal is to have my final draft of my dissertation proposal done in the next week. I am, however, being frustrated in that goal by being stupidly sick.

For those of you who didn't know, I'm about 8 weeks pregnant, due sometime in January. I am in the hating-my-life stage. It ought to last about another month, or so.

Tea for six and a half

Here is Ari, finally liking her bike helmet. You may remember that she used to didn't like it, but now she's super into wearing it. We couldn't hardly get her to put it down.

We've been having a lovely set of spring breaks. I was off, and then Thad was off for my first week of classes, so that was nice. Oh, and I bought a bike again. My last one got stole at the end of fall (more or less) out of our backyard, which I was upset about. I like the new bike, though. It's super light (I think the lightest bike I've ever owned) and it rides really nice. I got it at Once Ridden, which, as far as I can tell, is the only used bike shop in the C-Bus. I approve of good used bikes. It's like recycling. Also, those guys are so the best bike mechanics. When you recondition old bikes, you really know your way around a frikkin' bike, you know?

Saturday, we had a whole road trip with us and R&B and also Kira and Travis. I was just wondering if I'd ever actually mentioned Kira and Travis in this blog, and I see that I haven't. Thad sort of mentioned that Kira wasn't a cat once, and that we game with them. Anyway, they moved here last fall, and we have been hanging out. They like my baby. In fact, because they like my baby, they read this blog, so I feel weird talking about them. However, I suspect they're like to show up here again, so I thought I'd explain who they are and all. Sort of. Yeah. So.

Right! Road trip! We've been wanting to do a little steampunk crafting, but oh noes! We had no appropriately steampunky bits and bobs. So, Rick recommended us to go to this place in Dayton called Mendelson's. It was this crazy enormous warehouse full of weird crap. I giggled like a schoolgirl. Literally, I'm not joking about that. I mean, this place had an entire room just for vacuum tubes. I said, get in my ray guns! and bought seven.

After Mendelson's, we went over to the Der Dutchman and ate us some broasted freakin' chicken. I have gone to the Der Dutchman twice before (and yes, I noticed the double article there, thanks ;) ) and I highly approve of it.

It has a buffet, where you can eat as much broasted chicken and beef and turkey roast as you want. And also, you can have mashed potatoes and corn and green beans and amishy noodles. And they bring you as much rolls as you want. I ate and ate and ate. Ari had pizza, actually. I'm glad Thad was paying attention to her fooding, because I was paying attention to the fine, fine eating I was doing. I think he knew that he was going to have to look after her for the duration of that meal. Because, I mean, broasted chicken.

Then there was pie afterwards.

Orc blood

This is me and Ari, watching the fireworks today. Ari wasn't scared in the least, and she seemed to really enjoy watching the lights in the sky.

It's been a busy holiday day for us. First, Thad was feeling ill- he had a terrible headache. So, he slept in a while, and came to feel better.

Then, we went over to Origins to get our badges- two teacher's badges (free) and a child's badge, also free. Since Origins is held downtown in our hideously ugly convention center, we just biked there. On our way back, we had to skirt through the Doo Dah parade. Fortunately, it was just getting started, so we were able to cross through a gap.

This is Ari and me painting. She was into the watercolors, and really seemed to get the gist of how to use them (wet brush in cup, dip in paints, put on paper). Much of the time she thought it was more fun to smush the paints around on the tray than paint them onto paper, but that's cool. Those paints are in my "kid art supplies" box. All alone, for the moment- I should take her crayons out of the heater intake and put them there- also, I want to get her fingerpaints.

And this is Ari playing in a puddle. After we got back from Origins, Ari took a nap, and it started raining pretty hard, which nixed our plans to barbecue with R&B in the park before the fireworks. We ended up just staying in and cooking the food at home- pork ribs, corn on the cob, chips (with Mom's famous dip) and cherry pie for dessert. The cherry pie was particularly excellent- flaky crust, sweet cherries, good filling ingredients.

Thad had to work tonight, which is total suck, so he missed the fireworks. They were lovely. At least he got cherry pie...

A lack of tomatoes

Well, before I go on about silly things, I should let you all know: Thad had his hearing, and was cleared to go back to work, which is an enormous, incredible relief. Thad intends to sub as little as possible, of course (he will probably sub some more this year, but not renew his license), but it's so good to not have that hanging over our heads, and not have to worry about it anymore.

Now, back to silliness:

Check out my first attempt ever at needle felting! I feel that it turned out pretty good. The color mismatch is less... apparent in real life, too. I will be making her a little merbaby and a sling to put over those boobies as well, though. :)

She's going to be for the art show I'm buying space in this fall. If I can sell one piece, it'll more than pay for the entry fee, so that would be really cool. I'm going to try to do maybe five larger things (like the mermaid, and the dice gremlin) and then maybe a few smaller things. We'll see what I can get done this summer... I have a million monsters in my head.

This is Ari, having some tasty lunch.

Today, we went on an enormous long bike ride downtown. We went down to the main library, and then Ari and I hung out there while Thad went over to his hearing (a block away). Ari ended up napping most of the time Thad was gone, so I had a nice time sitting outside the library in the shade with a book while she slept in her trailer.

We are loving the bike trailer now that the weather is nice, by the by (thanks, Mom and Dad! :D). It's so nice to be able to get downtown without driving (or, more to the point, parking), and Ari seems to really enjoy going for rides.

For a dollar

We had kind of an exciting day today! It was Thad's first day back subbing, so he was up and headed out early. Ari and I were actually awake before he left, so we all got started on the day by 8:00.

I've been trying to acclimate Ari to her bike helmet, and this was me trying to fit it on her head. As you can see, she did not approve. I took this picture for posterity and then took it off her. I can see her connecting that mama's helmet and her helmet are two of a kind, though, and she was more willing to at least think about wearing it after she saw me put mine on.

We had a good morning, and Ari actually took a nap in the early afternoon- she hasn't had a decent nap in the day for nearly a week now. :P

Anyway, I was glad that I had taken the time to fit her helmet on, because guess what appeared on my front porch? It had been backordered for about a month, and I was going to email the guy I bought it from today to ask about it. Huzzah, though, I didn't need to!

It was every bit as nice as promised. I'm really pleased with the purchase. Thanks, Eliza and Phil for the recommendation, and thanks Grandparents Porter for the gift! :D

Highlights: Unlike the ill-fated Schwinn trailer, this actually was easy to put up and take down. I was, in fact, able to do so without even looking at the instructions- it was that obvious. The seats are nicely padded, and Ari could just sit in them. Plus, they have a proper harness with buckles! I was able to set it all the way up, and get my baby in it, by myself in a minimal amount of time, with very little reference to the instructions- which was good, because I'm pretty certain that the instructions included weren't for our actual trailer...

Here is Ari, doing the eater-baby thing again. She's really taken off with solids- she's eating three whole meals a day (plus snacks) if you give her the chance, these days. And she's more than a beggar- she demands that people share their food with her, and sobs and tantrums a little if you don't, or if the food gets all eaten.

This is what she ate yesterday (that I can remember!):

1. bits of eggs
2. english muffin pieces
3. yogurt
4. peaches
5. broccoli
6. spaghetti noodles
7. sourdough bread (dipped in milky broth)
8. aged cheddar cheese
9. plums (delicious organic ones, actually)
10. artichoke dip (w/ more aged cheddar and some edam)
11. edam cheese
12. ziti noodles w/tomato sauce
13. more broccoli, steamed this time instead of boiled

And that's only what I can remember; god knows what else she actually ate. And she actually ate all those things, too- she didn't just mush them around or play with them. She particularly liked the artichoke dip, I might add.

Avoid Schwinn like the plague

Today sucked.

We slept funny, for starters. I got to bed at four AM (for various reasons I won't go into) and I couldn't wake up, couldn't keep my eyes open when Ari woke up at 7. Around 8 (after nearly an hour of trying to fight my way to consciousness) Thad woke up and took her. Then he let me sleep till 11- which was lovely, but hard on him. Then him and Ari went to sleep. Ari slept till one, and Thad slept till 3. This meant that he didn't get to spend his day off with us. It also meant that Ari's only nap was rather early in the day.

The only thing that passes for useful that we did today was go buy a bike trailer that we hated so much we have to pack it up and return it... by everything I could find out about it, it seemed like it would be good, but it wasn't. It wasn't to the point that I'd've been concerned for Ari's safety if I put her in that thing. And I hurt my hand assembling it.

Ari did go to bed at nine sharp, but the house is such a godawful mess (trailer crap in the living room, basement crap all over the dining room, my sewing stuff still uncleaned, the kitchen an unholy mess from yesterday's fooding still...) that I can't bear to face any of it. Instead I've spent two and a half hours futzing around on the internet feeling like a loser.

Pfeh. I'm going to try to be in bed by midnight- at least I can try to do that right.

Maple syrup and marshmallows

Today has just been gorgeous. We slept in this morning- well, Thad slept in. I did research about bike trailers and baby gates and high chairs on the internet. Incidentally, I think we've decided on the Wike trailer. My mum is sending us some money that will cover most of it, and it looks like a really nice trailer.

We cleaned up the house a bunch while Ari was having her afternoon nap, too. We installed the table we bought yesterday, and I cleared out the mess around the computer table. We also (as you can see here) went over to the park across the street from our house, and let Ari play in the grass, and on the swings. She loved the swings (as more than just a teether, even!) but was kinda dubious about the grass.

Jaime came over this evening, and he and Thad have mostly been playing Heroclix with each other, although we did get in a nice game of Munchkin Bites.