Cold snap

How little sleep can somebody have and still be okay? Thad and I are kinda pushing it. He's had 1-1/2 hours in the last 36, and I've had... 4? I'm definitely in not-safe-to-drive land at the moment. Ari is ripping up the latest Jo-Ann's ad on the floor next to me and I totally don't even care.

Thad has gone to bed (yay for him!) and I'm up with this baby. This baby who almost fell asleep and then struggled herself back to cheerful, burbling wakefulness.

Some random things about Ari right now:

• She loves to clap our hands. Like, she grabs our hands and smacks them together over and over again. She thinks it's hilarious.
• She still loves looking down on a mama or papa while being carried up the stairs.
• "Five little ducks" is no longer her favorite song... she thinks it's okay, but she doesn't care much about it anymore.
• If we ever fail to close the gate at the bottom of the stairs, she'll crawl up the first set of steps, wait until mama or papa sees her there and starts running over to close the gate, and then giggle and clamber up the stairs as fast as possible. It's like a race.
• She does this in the basement, too, when I do laundry. I end up stuffing clothes in as fast as possible, so I can run over, drag her back to me and stuff more in before the cycle begins anew.
• She looks adorable in her little strawberry cap.
  

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.

Nature in her mouth

We spent the day out at a park, and guess who forgot the camera? We went to the Gamer's Guild of Ohio annual picnic, and it kicked ass. There was much eating of charred animal flesh and much playing of games of all types. Ari had a lot of fun crawling all in the dirt and grass (guess who's getting a bath tomorrow morning?) and meeting lots of new people. I got many comments about how sweet and well-behaved she was, which was nice to hear. I can't really take credit for that, though- my daughter is just a sweet little girl. :D

We actually forgot all of our baby carriers, including our emergency-in-the-car sling, which was kind of shocking. We own 5 carriers (3 ring slings, a mei tai and a wrap), not counting the stroller and the trailer, and we didn't have a one with us! Fortunately, on the way over to the park, I had picked up a length of fabric from a mom in my group for making a sling out of, and that worked great just tied in a knot. Ari had a nice nap on her papa that way.

Tomorrow, I shall sew it into a nice ring sling to donate to a group of low-income moms-to-be that a different mom in that group is working with.

Is there such a thing as "blue ochre"?

Well, I finished uploading Dragon*Con pictures. Head over to http://changeling.shutterfly.com/ if you would like to see them.

Dragon*Con was very up and down- mostly down. We're still processing how we feel about it and whether we want to go next year or not.

Ari was a little sweetheart, though, mostly. After a while, the noise and the people would start to get to her (and her sleeping was all messed up, even though we were keeping her normal bedtime hours), but by and large, she had a blast wandering around in the sling or crawling around the gaming floor. I'm not sure what she'll be like next year, though.

In the picture above, she's playing with her new Ari book- the scrapbook I made her for her birthday. It has pretty stickers and things various people wrote for her- in addition to a picture per month of her life. She really likes it.

And this picture is of some of her very first sippy cup adventures. She hasn't yet figured out that you have to tip it up to get more out. :)

I think she's really going to do much better when I start back in the fall- papa will be able to feed her lunch, and give her water or mama milk in a sippy. Since her previous routine was 8 or 9 hours with no food or liquids, I'm jazzed about that idea.

Sunburned shoulderblades and a sore neck

We had a lazy Sunday today. Thad stayed up 'till four, and his family presumably got off sometime thereafter. I don't know if they got in yet, but I can only assume that we'd've heard something if they didn't.

Thad slept in, and Ari had two naps today, so that was nice. We basically just hung out and played games together, the two of us, most of the day. We cleaned up a little (although the house was just fine, really). When Brooke got off at five, we all went over to Comfest and had a nice little picnic. We hung out and played games and ate and wrangled a very crawly baby until we had to leave to get Thad to work.

I felt kind of bad, because Ari kept getting into stuff and onto people without me noticing. She moves so fast these days, and it just makes me tired trying to haul her off of things every five minutes. Even in our most baby-proofed rooms, she'll find the one thing we couldn't proof and will choose to always play with that, no matter what!

On an unrelated note, Ari's been displaying... I don't know what. Not stranger anxiety. But lately, she gets really upset when someone leaves her. It doesn't matter if it's me leaving, or Thad leaving, or if someone's with her when we go, or if it's somebody who just showed up. For example, yesterday, Maryanne walked through the room we were in on her way upstairs. As soon as she started up the stairs, Ari just started bawling. I know it was because of Maryanne leaving, too, because she had watched Maryanne come in and was watching her leave.

It makes it hard for me to leave in the morning when I need to. :( I can't just walk away from her when she sobs all heartfelt like that.

Back in the saddle

Hey, y'all! Well, here I am, back in one piece from Indiana. We had a really lovely visit with Uncle Karl and Aunt Rebecca. We spent most of the visit just hanging around, playing games and playing with the baby girl, although we did get out for some Bloomington window shopping and some really excellent Turkish food. Karl totally chatted the waitress at the Turkish restaurant up, too, and got us a loaf of that tasty bread to take home. :)

Here's some pics of Ari with her aunt and uncle. She had great fun playing with them, although I think she did really miss her papa.

We had several neat baby milestones on the trip:

1. The first real crawling! Ari has well and truly figured it out at last. Now we'll see how long it takes for her to figure out walking! We can tell that's what she really wants to do. ;)
2. Ari ate bunches of new foods- including avocado, strawberry, mango and potato. She just had tastes, but it was cool to share food with her!
3. Naw, that was it. I just felt the need to have a number three. It was... um... her first time sleeping in a King-sized bed?

Anyway, we had a good time. When we got home, Thad had mostly (but not quite) finished his book, and had set up her new high chair (which she loves, by the by). Today, in contrast, has sucked- but that's normal for Mondays.

Let's try this again!

Today was just another work day. School went okay, teaching went okay. I did get back my SEI's (student evals) from last quarter, and they were every bit as crap as I feared they might be, so that sucked. Otherwise, though, all was fine.

Ari had a busy day today, though! She is pulling herself up like crazy. She even pulled herself up using the bathroom wall today. Also, she is to the point of walking around while she's holding on to things! She's not truly crawling yet, either. I swear, that child will walk before she crawls.

She also used a high chair for the first time today. We ate at the Burger King for dinner, and we tried sitting her in one of their seats. She loved having her own seat. I'm going to call the Babies R Us as soon as we get home and find out if they've got our seat in yet; I want it now!!

Speaking of which, we're trying it one more time! Plans are for me and Ari to head to Indiana tomorrow. So far, nobody's throwing up, which is a good sign. :) Wish us luck and good speed.

Some of them have star in their name

We had a busy day today! We went to breakfast and then a La Leche League meeting in the morning. It wasn't much of a meeting, really (it was just me and the leader, who is a mom I know from my mom's group) but I kinda hope more people start to come. It's at a very convenient time for me- while Thad is off at his clix tournament- and I like the concept of going to a LLL meeting.

After that, we came home and Ari had a nap. She slept until nearly 4, and then we went out shopping again. We have a whole list of stuff that we need to buy- a few items of furniture, some baby-proofing stuff, and a whole bunch of organizer stuff. There are a number of small areas of chaos about the house that would be much improved by a nice bin to toss them into! We also looked at high chairs, and found one we liked. It also happened to be the cheapest one in the store, which was a nice coincidence. We didn't buy it, because they didn't actually have any in the store save for the floor models! They said there were more on the way, though, and even gave us a whole piece of paper promising it to us when it came.

Come to think of it, we mostly struck out today. :) We did get a sturdier lamp table at the Goodwill (our current one is kinda rickety), but that was pretty much what we had to show for three hours of shopping. Well, that and some very tasty organic chocolate milk (purchased at the Whole Foods).

After the shopping expedition, me and Ari went over to Janessa's house for an evening. It ended up being just a few moms there, and it was very nice. Janessa's house is way fun for kids of all ages, and Ari had an absolute ball creepy-crawling all over the floor and playing with fun toys. Oh, and for those of you wondering- she's still not quite crawling per se. But she's pretty friggin' mobile regardless!

Little lemming

Wow, today has been exciting! Ari has been mobile today like never before. She's half-crawling, half scooting, and goes across the floor like a maniac. Also, she's been pulling herself to standing whenever possible (as you can see). I'm pretty sure this girl won't be crawling for long- she seems determined to be bipedal as soon as possible.

On a down note, today is also the first time she fell off the bed. Well, technically, last night is the first time she fell off the bed. I had put down a whole bunch of pillows on my side of the bed anticipation of that possibility, though, so it was no big deal. She apparently fell off in her sleep, and didn't even wake up. I didn't know she had fallen off until a little while later when she bopped into the bottom of the cosleeper and started crying.

Today, however, she fell off the unpadded side. Thad was changing her diaper on the bed, and got up to drop the diaper in the pail, leaving her in the middle of the bed. In the space of time it took him to drop the diaper in and turn back around, she had crawled to the edge of the bed and hurled herself off onto the floor! Poor little bean. But she seemed okay, once we got her to stop screaming. We have since laid down our big fluffy comforter on the floor on that side, should it happen again.

In any case, it's both exciting and frightening. I think we're going to go shopping tomorrow for some more furniture and baby-proofing devices.

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?"

Big honkin' baby steps

There was all kinds of exciting baby-ness today. First of all, this morning, I noticed her folding her tongue in half lengthwise (slightly different than the mid-mouth tongue curl many people can do). I can do this. I think my brother Phil can do this, and I'm not sure about my sister. Thad cannot, nor can any of his family, so if Ari has the ability to do it, she must get it from me. :D It's a bit silly, I know, but it makes me happy to see some physical proof that she's my daughter. Particularly since she favors my husband so much in looks!

Secondly, today is the first day that she has really been sitting unsupported. She's leaning forward in this picture, but she was sitting up, too. She was able to sit up and use both her hands to play with toys, which is really exciting!

Thirdly, today is the day she took her first crawling steps. She hasn't quite got it totally worked out, but I saw her take three bona fide crawling steps today. She was up on hands and knees and crawled! The three steps took her to a stuffed bear, and she immediately dropped to the ground and stuck it in her mouth.

Fourthly, today is the first day that she's been able to consistently move from a prone to a sitting position all by herself.

Boy, it has taken my daughter a while to figure some stuff out, but she's got it all going on today!

FORWARD!!!

I have exciting and terrifying news: Ari moved forward under her own power today. This is a huge turning point for her, and more than a little frightening for us! For her, it means that she now has the power to control where she is. If she wants to grab something (the phone cord, in this case) that she wasn't set next to, she can look at it and go to it. For us, it means that if she wants to grab something (e.g. the phone cord) that she wasn't set next to, she can look at it and go to it! Oh, the terror. She's been strong enough to lift herself up on all fours for some time now, so all it takes is for her to put these things together and we'll be chasing her around the house till sundown.

She's been able to scoot backwards, but mostly only on accident so far. So, forward is a big deal.