Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, here I am. Sorry about the long absence; I've been in a space of not doing anything useful these last few weeks (*cough*month*cough*) and this is one of those things. So let's see...

We've been sick some (some sort of respiratory crud). Ari has busted out with two canines, and seems to be a bit better now on that front. For the moment.

I sprained my ankle three weeks ago, and it's still giving me trouble. Thad's been having problems with his shoulder, and we're not sure what to do about it! He went to a doctor, but she told him to take some ibuprofen and stay off it. It's not really getting better.

Wow. That sounds depressing.

We also went to the Jazz and Ribs Festival, which was awesome. Also, Ari and I went with R&B to the State Fair, and Ari got to pet all kinds of sheep and cows (like the one she's feeding up above) and pigs and bunnies. Etc.

Also, the whole Papke family came up for a weekend (the weekend I sprained my ankle, as it happens) and that was fun! Also, I read the Harry Potter book, the new Bujold Sharing Knife book, and had some ill-advised adventures in cooking. We also got a new player for our games, and started playing Pirates instead of Changeling (we're still playing Pendragon. Yay!) Anyway, all that to say that it has not actually been a suck period of time for us.

Ari knows what stickers are now, and she approves of them. She's getting more verbal all the time, but she still doesn't have the "using language to communicate" thing down yet. Language seems to be something she uses for her own amusement more than anything.

She's having tantrums now, real ones. The other day, she had one where she was even balling up her little fists and stamping her feet! I remind myself it's just her age and where she's at- part of the problem with using language to communicate, maybe?

P.S. Ari turns two on Wednesday! I'm going to try making pierogies. With bacon.

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...

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. :)

Yellow sign

Look what I made today. :) I found this fabric on sale at the Jo-Ann's and bought half a yard and made this. The other fabric is all from my stash, so at least I'm using it up. I think it looks really nice on her. It looks pretty comfy, too.

I think she likes it, also; I caught her flouncing around in front of the mirror.

Ari's been having a pretty hard few days. She's been sick, and I don't know what to do about it... I think it's time to go to the doctor. I'm going to call for an appointment tomorrow morning. She's been having a fever (but only at night), and a cough (all the time). She doesn't act sick all the time, but every time she tries to sleep, the coughing wakes her up, so she's clearly not feeling well now. Hard to tell how much is sleep deprivation, and how much is sick.

This is Ari a few days ago, running around with her duck and my hat (stolen off my very head!). She greatly enjoys having someone chase her with the duck and quacking.

Today, Ari said "Bunny", with the "n" and everything. That's the first time I've ever heard it. Oh, and she knew without being told that Thad was sleeping in our room. When we went upstairs to change her, she ran over to our door, and said "Papa seep! Papa seep!", and then knocked on the door. Where'd she learn to knock on doors?

Later on, I told her that I was going to wake Papa up soon, and she took it upon herself to run up the stairs and knock on the door until Thad woke up and came and got her.

Papa Joe's

Here it is, Tuesday already. Let's see... so far this week:

Thad-

• Didn't get a tooth pulled (it was a near one)
  
• Wants Chinese food
• Bought our baby bubble soap

Ari-

• Bit me on the arm today- and drew blood! >:(
• Took a bath without screaming for the first time in ages today
• Had a tasty rice and lemon tart dinner

I-

• Can't freakin' figure out how to copy from DAT to my computer
• Had my DAT recorder mysteriously fail to record 4 out of 5 times
• Made a tasty lemon tart yesterday- I need a proper tart pan sometime

Oh, and I'm trying to work up an abstract for a project I haven't done yet. Whee!

Tentacles

Here is a fuzzy-headed Ari, having a good time playing with her wagon.

We've had a rough couple of days. Thad is sick, and seems to have a toothache (he's going to the dental school on Monday).

Then, a couple of days ago, we were out biking... which was nice. We went to the library, and Miss Ari was all excited, saying "Be-y! Be-y!" (which is "library", for the uninitiated). She jumped out of the bike trailer and ran for the door in all her darling toddlery 20-month glory- and promptly tripped and face-planted into the concrete. She scraped up the underside of her chin pretty badly. Bleeding on papa's shirt badly, mind, not emergency room badly... but it was clearly hurting her, and it messed up her sleep that night. Since then, all of us have been down sleep. I did make some things that I want to post pictures of, but that'll have to wait.

Crepes and Pastry Cream

This is my daughter, napping in her own bed in her own room. Right now, in fact, she's asleep in her own bed in her own room.

Thad and I had talked yesterday about moving my office into our room and relocating Ari into her own room, so she could have a playspace, and not kick Thad so much, or pull my clothes out of my drawers.

Anyway, when I got home today, Ari was napping upstairs, and when I went upstairs to wake her, I discovered that Thad had done it!

Ari is way into her new room. A little while ago, our stairs gate broke, and Ari seems to be perfectly capable of going up and down on her own, so we just leave them unblocked now. And, several times, she went of her own volition upstairs to play in her room. I hope she continues to like it. :)

Poor Miss Ari has a nasty prickly heat rash on the back of her neck, so we just skipped the clothes today in hopes that it might help. It seems better, mostly. Rashes give me the everlovin' willies... I hope it goes away soon for both our sakes.

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.

Unidientified hurty spot

Aw- check out my little sleeping pixie. I'm not sure why she likes to sleep with her arms up like that, but it's her usual way to sleep. Maybe she wishes for a pillow? That shirt, by the way, is my most recent and most ambitious foray into machine embroidery.

We went on our big shopping trip this evening, and it was everything it usually is. We had a moment of feeling like morons when we suddenly realized why Ari had gotten so grumpy- namely, it was 10:00 and we hadn't fed her any dinner. To our credit, neither had we. But boy, did we feel like crap when we finally figured out what the problem was. Poor little hungry monkey.

Ari's generally feeling better, but she's still not totally well. Today was her day to be glued to the papa, as you can see. Not me- she definitely wanted papa.

Cool stuff from the last while:

• She knows some shapes ("suh-coo", "cwawe")
• She knows some numbers ("sits", "se-un", "at"), mostly from playing with dice. I first noticed this because she was flipping the dice to different faces and naming the numbers on them. Ah, dice.
• She gives kisses now. If we ask for a kiss ("kess!"), she'll grab our faces and give us a little baby kiss. Awwww.
• She also gives hugs, if you ask and she feels like it.
• She's all about saying please ("pees!") lately. I think she realizes that we're helpless before the onslaught of a baby saying "pees?" and making doe eyes at us. And she does make doe eyes, plus this "little old me?" sort of gesture. ;)
  
• She knows the word "bacon", and likes to eat it. Poor girl- Rick and Brooke came over and fed me on Saturday with bacon and french toast. And little miss asked so nicely ("bakun pees!") and she so couldn't have any. I felt bad eating in front of her, but I really needed to eat (it was like, 5:00 and I hadn't been able to get food that day).
  

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.)

Alternate reality

Well, I proceeded to celebrate my presentation being done by promptly getting sick. :P I spent most of the weekend feeling like crap, and watching the Justice League cartoon (which is surprisingly good). This is me lying on the couch, feeling like crap. Ari randomly decided to climb up onto the couch and lie herself down next to me and give me cuddles. It was adorable.

Ari's clearly getting some new teeth in, and it's been making her grumpy, unfortunately. Her sleep has been borderline messed-up, too.

This is Ari eating raisins today. She grabbed down the container off the table, and brought it to me to pull the lid off. Then, she proceeded to munch down raisins as fast as she could. I decided to just let her eat as many as she felt like- I figure, it all works itself out in the end. I'm sure we'll see some interesting diapers tomorrow, though.

Other fun stuff lately:

• Ari brought me her bottle of teething tabs so I could get her one out.
• Ari likes to read while she gets her diaper changed- it's hilarious to watch her lying there with her book up while you change her. At least it means she's not wiggly or combative...
• I got to watch Thad chase Ari around with her duck walker toy today while Ari giggled and screamed "Dut! Dut! Dut!"
  

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

Stacking blocks

We had another up- till- four- slept- until- noon- everyone- is- vaguely- sick day... which is to say, we didn't do much of anything.

We went out to the Apple store in Easton to resolve some last stuff with my most awesome computer (exchanging the .Mac Thad bought for an iPod Shuffle!). Easton is usually an abomination on the face of the land, but it was really packed, and extra... abomination-y.

When we got home, Ari was asleep in the car, and we went and picked up R&B. I don't think I've mentioned this, but their car died a death, and they are thus without transport.

Rick helped us install Boot Camp and Windows, which lets us be able to boot my beautiful new mac with Windows on it. Then, we played Boggle (which I won handily), Set (which I lost, but not badly) and Carcassonne (which I got murdered at).

The BMV printer was broke

Merry Christmas, and a happy Boxing Day, y'all. :) We had a lovely Christmas here. I've posted a whole set of pictures on the pictures website for your perusal. Ari wasn't much interested in opening presents, but she sure seemed to enjoy playing with them! She's played with and seemed to enjoy pretty much everything she got.

I was a little worried that it would be a bit much for her, opening so many presents at once, but she was fine. I think it helped that we didn't even bother trying to get her to open anything- we just opened them for her, and she got around to playing with them in her own sweet time. :)

As for me, I got the best present ever- a new computer! This one does everything that I want it to, and all fast and spinky. I've done it up in a Batman theme already, and everything. In fact, I've spent most of today playing with it and the printer Thad got to go along with it. Tomorrow, I intend to actually do work.

Thad had a less nice birthday than I wanted, because I was really feeling unwell yesterday. I didn't make him dinner, much less birthday pie. :( He did get steak, at least, though, and we'll try to make him pie later this week.

In any case, here's the movie I whipped up real quick this morning on my spinky fast computer. It's less good resolution than I would like, but I hope y'all enjoy it. I'll try to send better versions to some of you in ye olde snaile maile sometime soon, along with more pictures and vids.

Last night

Today, we finally did Christmas cookies (about time, right?). Jaime and Kelly and Rick and Brooke came over to help... we made a batch of gingerbread and a batch of Mom's sugar cookies. I even made green coconut to use. :)

We have an enormous bunch of cookies now... we already gave a plate to our next-door neighbors. They were kind of shocked and happy- I hope they enjoyed them. We have a plate made for the library people and the night staff at Target and Thad's roleplaying group. Now, we just need to figure out something to do with the other three plates of cookies!

Ari is really doing so totally much better. As soon as we took her to the doctor, she perked right up, right? :) Brooke and Rick brought over a whole bunch of presents for her- including some new books, which are always welcome. I think we're planning on hiding a few of her current books after the holidays (for example, Where's Prancer can go to hell, and it can die).

We, on the other hand, seem to have caught whatever it was she had. We've got coughs, sore throats, insomnia, etc... It's not enough to incapacitate us, just enough to make us uncomfortable...


Here's Ari playing with her friend Jaime. :)

Ari wasn't much help with the cookies- in fact, Thad took her out for a walk a few times to get her out of the house- but she was fun anyhow. This is her playing with the fuzzy puzzle that Brooke gave her. For some reason, she kept sticking the cow piece under her chin, and then clapping for herself. Later, she graduated to walking all around with the puzzle piece under her chin(s).

Sometimes, I really wonder what's going on in her head. :)

At long last

This was my baby a few nights ago, trying to pass out asleep under a chair... shortly before she threw up all over Brooke. The last few nights (weeks, really) have been really rough on all of us. This week, Ari's just been fussy and not feeling well all the time- hence my not writing. It's really been quite horrible.

Tuesday night, she was up all night with Thad. Wednesday night, she was up all night with me- plus, she threw up twice. She barely ate solid foods for about three days (yay still nursing!) and has just been clingy and whiny and totally un-fun to be around.

This is a picture from Wednesday night, when she was carrying around a book and trying to hold it to go to sleep. The girl only marginally cares about teddy bears, but she wants to cuddle a book when she's not feeling well. She didn't want me to read it- she just wanted to hold it. She did the same thing on Thursday morning, except with the "Safe Baby Handling Tips" book that Max gave us last year for Christmas.

Last night, she wouldn't pass out until about 1:30 (in the sling with papa, she didn't want me) but she slept like the dead until I had to wake her up to make our doctor's appointment. It was actually supposed to be a well baby visit, with some shots, but clearly that wasn't happening. They checked her over, and said it was probably just a viral thing, and they expected that she'd be better in a week or two (argh)... and then Ari threw up all over Thad as we were getting ready to leave.

Despite the fact that she threw up, and that she barely napped today, by the evening, she was so much better! Better than she's been in ages (aka as long as my sleepless, fogged brain can remember). She was interested in food, and ate a whole bunch of nibblies I got for her. She was cheerful and playful and her old self again! She even fell asleep easily, upstairs, before midnight. Check it out:



This is her dancing to the new CD that her Uncle Darren sent. :D

Well, it's been a busy few days even aside from baby craziness. We've had packages flying in from all over with presents from everybody- the Christmas Crib is now full of shiny things. Oh, and yesterday we had our solstice dinner. Andy, Krista, Ray, Jaime, Kelly, Rick and Brooke all came. I made a turkey, with pear stuffing (for the first day of Christmas, as we're counting it). We also had rosemary garlic mashed potatoes, crab/shrimp things in fillo shells- my first time working with fillo, and it turned out great!- green beans cooked with bacon, oyster mushrooms cooked with roasted garlic and bacon, and Jeff's mother's chocolate pecan pie for dessert. The chocolate pecan pie was much less sweet than I would have expected- it was really delicious. Oh, Jeff made it- it was just his mum's recipe. She lives in Massachusetts, and wasn't making pie for our solstice dinner at all.

After dinner, we played a few games of Carcassonne (Jaime's Yuletide present to me! :D) and generally hung out. It was really lovely, except for Ari not feeling so well... but I'm glad she seems to be doing better! I wasn't sure how much more I could take, quite frankly. :)

-5 Valorous

Ari's been up late the last few nights... She's still sick/teething and is generally pretty miserable to be around. Additionally, tonight, she tripped and smacked her forehead into the edge of a chair. A big, blue, nasty bruise rose up immediately (although no goose egg to speak of), so I imagine that's also bothering her. Between that and the hacking cough and the stuffy nose... it's no wonder she's not sleeping well. Poor, poor little girl...

Cool things: She can build stuff. We played blocks today, and she helped me build a tower. Every time she put a block on, she clapped for herself. I love it when she claps for herself... it's like, "Yay! I'm awesome! *clap clap clap*" She even does it sometimes when she's playing by herself.

She woke me up this morning with Whose Mouse Are You?, which is her current favorite book. I hate hate hate it. :) I was sitting there, going "wha? huh? *grog*" (because I was up until nearly 4 AM with her last night, and she woke me up at 9:30 this morning) and she's going, "my BOOK, mama, read my BOOK!"

She grabbed my hand, shoved the book into it, and then started to cry when I didn't immediately start reading to her. Stupid book.

Remember, remember

Well, I figured out why my baby was probably grumpy yesterday. She's been throwing up all day, and a little diarrhea as well. Never a fever or any other symptoms, but clearly not feeling herself (plus, y'know, vomit). She took two long naps, about 2-1/2 hours each and you know how bizarre that is.

It's been a hell of a week. I came home last night, and Thad was nearly comatose, sitting in the computer chair with an asleep baby strapped to his chest. I took her and sent him to bed. Then, he worked at a school today and did Shaintar tonight. Ugh. He did wake up for a few hours last evening, but we've barely seen each other. I'm going to try to have us go eat delicious french pastries tomorrow morning. We deserve it.

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).

Indiana update

No Indiana for me. I'm feeling fine when I'm lying or sitting, but I'm weak and hurty if I try to be up and walking. Not a good idea to go for a long drive now. :(