Memorial Four-Day Weekend

Day 1 - Friday we went to the Shedd Aquarium to test out our new membership card. Ada immediately fell in love and was amazed by it all. The new baby beluga is pretty cool and Ada got really close to penguins and dolphins, among a million other underwater creatures. We decided an hour-and-a-half is the perfect amount of time to see what we can and get out before she gets hungry, tired, or just plain cranky--or I do. We'll have to schedule a special time to go see the water show and the 4-D movie feature, but that's why we have a membership.

Then it was out to LaGrange in traffic for a double stroller I found on Craig's List. It was a pain to get out there and back since traffic is always bad the Friday before a holiday weekend, but it was worth it to get that checked off the list. We had to be back in the city by four to see the Doctoress. I had hoped Ada would get a nap in while we were on our way out to get the stroller, but I was clearly mistaken. She finally fell asleep when we were twenty minutes from the Doctoress' office. At least she got some rest.

The Doctoress gave Ada Flownase thinking she might have seasonal allergies that are triggering her asthma. We had her blood drawn to test for allergies so we can avoid any triggers and stop assuming she's allergic to everything. (We found out today that she isn't allergic to anything they tested her for--mainly cats/dogs and seasonal allergies--which is good, but not aligning with her current diagnosis.) It turns out that we have a very rare child. She doesn't cry when you draw her blood or give her most shots, and she let's the Doctoress check her ears and nose without putting up a fight. She's just amazed by it all--causing great shock to all of the nurses. I think it helped that the nurse drawing her blood was awesome. She was calm, soft spoken, and friendly. She came in and asked for a happy vein. Then she asked if Ada would feed her "butterfly"--the needle has two blue "wings" to help her hold it in place. Ada was great and sat perfectly still while the butterfly snacked on her arm. I'll admit it was a moment of pure pride for Rick and I to watch our little rockstar in action.

We rounded out the day with dinner at a new, local burger bar that is environmentally friendly and offers grass-fed beef. I had my first veggie burger and it was delicious. All in all, not a bad start to the weekend.

Day 2 - Saturday didn't go so well. It started early when I smelled a gas leak in the basement as I was doing laundry and getting flower pots from the basement. The gas company found 3 leaks in the main line pipe and shut our building down completely until we got it fixed. That meant no hot water, and no cooking gas. Our building manager scrambled to get emergency pipe fitters to come fix it. She found some, they charged us time and a half and by 8 pm we had hot water. Still no cooking gas--that didn't come back until Tuesday morning (3 days later) when they could inspect each unit in our building to be sure the stoves were working properly. I spent a lot of the weekend getting in touch with our neighbors, who were mostly out of town, to try to get spare keys to allow us in to inspect their units, and to keep them informed of the situation. Not fun, but at least the building didn't blow up.

Before we knew the extent of the gas leak, Rick and I got to sneak out for BB's 36 week ultrasound. He's in position with his head down, just as the Doctoress thought, and all looks good. They think he's 7 lbs at this point, but who knows how accurate that is. And he's still growing so if we get to 8 lbs, I can handle that. It was nice to get the ultrasound out of the way early in the weekend as that always makes me a little bit anxious in case they see something and rush me off for more testing or something even more dramatic like you see on TV. No drama for this momma.

To make things interesting, this was a home improvement weekend. Grandma Ba was in charge of planting flowers in the pots on the porch with Ada while Rick and his dad were going to replace the air conditioner over the back door. When I think air conditioner replacement, I think "Pull out the old, put in the new, plug it in and turn it on." Easy, right? No. That is clearly not how this works. "Pull out the old one" took the majority of the day since we enlisted an Architect and an Engineer and they just don't jump into anything without figuring out how it works first. I respect that. But I sure didn't have the patience for it. They worked on that while Ada was entertained by her Great Granny, Great Aunt Terri and Grandma Ba, who all came in to cook out and enjoy a Memorial Day BBQ. Good thing they brought the food and we were able to grill because the stove wasn't going to do us any good. Grandma Ba and Ada had much more success with their plants and the addition of an herb garden to the baskets on our porch railing. Ada even has her own mini garden that is already starting to sprout. Now I just have to remember to water it all.

Day 3 - Sunday started with my imagined hope that the air conditioner project would magically become fast and easy, and ended with a reality check that we really should have just paid someone else to do it so Rick could have enjoyed some time off and we could have spent some quality family time together. Hindsight is 20/20. He ended up spending the day re-framing the space above the back door to hold the new, bigger, and surely better since the other one didn't work at all, air conditioning unit. I spent the morning making pancakes on the electric griddle and being thankful for having a microwave when the stove has no gas.

Sunday's high note was a BBQ with friends down the street. I gave Ada a bath right before we went since she was covered in dirt from playing on the porch and in the parking lot behind our place. I knew they would have a baby pool out at the BBQ but I wasn't sure how Ada would react and we were already running late so I opted for a dress and regular diaper instead of a swimsuit and swim diaper. At least I was thinking and had her wear water friendly Crocs instead of fancy shoes. In my defense, it took her a good hour to decide she wanted to get into the pool and when she did, there was no hesitation and little warning that she was going "all in". Now I know what diapers look like when they get dunked. Wow. Thankfully I had a change of clothes and extra diapers on hand. After finding a stopping point and cleaning up a bit, Rick arrived in time to clean up the leftovers and have a couple, much deserved, beers.

Day 4 - Monday's plans all went down the drain. Rick continued re-framing the space over the door -- we could charge admission to see this thing now it is so beautiful. We were supposed to have brunch with friends who spent the weekend moving to thier new condo, but knew that was unlikly since, well, they were moving and that throws all plans out the window. Then we could have marched in the annual WOOGAMS parade --a neighborhood parade that's been around for almost 50 years now, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as it started and I wasn't up for getting wet or hit by lightening. I decided to sit on the porch with Ada to have a light lunch and watch the storm blow by. Rick just kept working. That afternoon, when trying to find something local to have for a late lunch, Rick realized that most restaurants near us aren't open on Memorial Day so we ended up with soup from the Soup Box. By 4 pm, Rick was still working on the air conditioner project and it was time to go sell our single stroller to some friends and meet their newborn. We made a quick trip to the grocery store after that for the bare necessities and then went to dinner which turned into the longest experience we've ever had in entertaining Ada until the food came. It wasn't the night to be slow with our meal and Rick, Mr. Patience, was about to lose it. Luckily, Ada was a trooper and was easily entertained by his animal drawings on a lime green Post-it Note I had tucked into my purse. We made it home in time to put Ada to bed, put me to bed, and finally, at 11 pm, Rick turned off the drill and crawled into bed as well. The framing was finally done.

Tuesday, we ignored the air conditioner and took a night off. I cooked myself dinner on the stove and Rick played a little volleyball with friends. It was so nice.

Wednesday night, Rick caulked the air conditioner case into it's new home and suckered two strong neighbors to help him hoist the new unit into place, which took less than three minutes and it fit perfectly, of course. Then he did some final screwing and assembled the actual air conditioner front and insides.

But wait, we're not done yet.

Friday, the electrician is scheduled to come in and upgrade the outlet to a 15amp/230volt so we can plug it in. Oh yes, this is a powerful unit and needs it's own, special outlet. Chances are that this new outlet will cost a few hundred dollars -- hopefully not more than the air conditioner itself, but we'll see about that--and will involve the demolition of a portion of the wall in our kitchen. Can I just tell you how excited I am about the prospect of Rick having to re-drywall a section of our kitchen when I'm due to have his second child in three weeks or less? And home improvement projects in general? Needless to say, we won't ever be buying a "fixer upper", and I'll be getting a quote from a professional from this point forward on any projects we think we can handle ourselves. I'm much more motivated to find ways to save money so we can afford to pay professionals to get the job done. I think this is similar to the point you get after moving a few times when you finally say, "Next time, we're hiring movers."

Moral of the story: Home improvement projects are easy to underestimate. Do your best to know what you are getting into, and hire a professional if this isn't your favorite pasttime.

Ada, kitties don't like water...

I tried to tell her, but she just wasn't having it.

Kitty got a shower.

It was either Kitty got wet, or Ada threw an early morning tantrum that I just wasn't willing to have.

Ada won. Sorry Kitty.

Moral of the story: Pick your battles. Sometimes, it just isn't worth the fight.

The 24 Hour Bug

It's finally here. We've been fearing it all winter and it finally arrived. Ada caught a 24 hour flu bug and it hit her yesterday afternoon. Talk about a rough 24 hours for the poor kid, not to mention tough on us (and our plans for the weekend now that we are contagious and awaiting the full-blown cootie invasion ourselves). Gesh.

We've done eight loads of laundry. Changed the sheets on our bed, her bed, her bed again. Covered the couch in blankets, towels, more blankets and more towels. Wiped up the floor in the kitchen, the floor in the hallway, the floor in the bathroom and the floor tiles in her room all due to messes caused by (what I call) the stomach flu. I've changed shirts and pants more times than I can count, both hers and mine, and finally took a nice cleansing shower at 10:30 last night when I was so covered in yuck I couldn't bear it any longer. Luckily, I suggested Rick change out of his work clothes, including his new dress pants, prior to tagging in for some Ada cuddles after work. Shortly after he changed, she begged for "wa-wa" and he succumbed to her whines, being careful not to let her have too much. But after awhile, she had worked him down and "not too much" became "more than enough" when it ended up all over him, his pants, and the couch--which got nailed three or four times even with all of the blankets and towels we could find to cover it and ourselves (Next time I'm getting garbage bags or a plastic drop cloth).

After changing her outfit three times in the first hour, I decided our house heaters, and her temperature, made it okay for her to don a diaper and a blanket or towel as needed. At one point, we had barely pulled the towels out of the dryer in time for her and Rick to dry off after her second shower of the night.

You know it's bad when, after draining the tub and wrapping her in a towel, she curls into the fetal position while still in the tub and hunkers down as if for the rest of the night. That was my sign that she desperately needed some rest and was too tired for me to even bother with a diaper at that point. She was so dehydrated that the diaper wasn't going to do any good and I knew she'd be up in three hours anyway.

I highly recommend you have a "tag team" system in place for sick kid days. I, once again, have no clue how I would have handled it all without Rick. Between running up and down the stairs for laundry, across the street to pick up dinner and, later on, shakes. Lifting Ada up and down out of the crib, off the couch, into the tub, out of the tub, into our bed, out of our bed. And then there is the whole task of waking up in the middle of the night with her. Rick got the first two times as I was a worthless lump in the bed at that point. I got the early morning wake up call at 6 am, which turned into me being the "wa-wa" sucker and having it come back to get me, literally, half-an-hour later in the form of a mess on the kitchen floor.

So if you want to see your heart break, just spend time with, or even look at, a sick child who doesn't understand why her little body is expelling a bunch of crud from her tummy. She just doesn't understand yet. All energy is drained and she can't understand why you won't give her water, even when she asks politely. It's awful.

On the bright side, I learned a few more tricks to add to my Mommy-arsenal.
1. Cover large areas with bath towels - or even beach towels if you get desperate- and then layer them with smaller hand towels, cloth diapers, or burp cloths that are easier to wash and replace.

2. When your child is demanding water, give them a few sips and then rub a piece of ice on their lips. Wrap the ice in a thin washcloth or a handkerchief and let them suck on it.

3. Consider raising the heat or just keep them covered so you don't have to wash their clothes every five seconds. Turns out that sick kids hate being dressed and undressed.

4. Have a lot of blankets and backup bed sheets on hand whenever possible, just in case.

5. When in doubt, just keep feeding movies into the DVD player while snuggling on the couch. Ada highly recommends Finding Nemo, Cars, and Toy Story 1 and 2.

Moral of the story: Sick sucks. Call in backup for help with mess reduction and pull out your patience reserves. You're going to need them... and a nap.

My Friday Before Dinner

It's Friday. I've invited my college buddies over for dinner and what started out as just us and my friend Bob for dinner, turned into us three, Bob, Vern, Cara, Alex, Kim, Ted, Alison and Will. Sweet. We tend to have trouble finding time when we can all get together and this impromptu thing ended up working out really well.

Knowing that I can't cook, I arranged to order pizza and have it arrive about 6:45. Everyone planned to arrive around 6:30 or 7 and that seemed like as good a plan as any. We've learned from past dinners that if we don't pre-order, we starve while waiting for the food and then don't have time to play a game afterward, which is really what this is all about. Having fun with old friends, and playing games.

I had a few errands to run before picking Ada up so I left work at 4:30. I went to the ATM, then went to a different bank to make a deposit for the condo association. I have two letters in my hand that I need to mail. Previously, when making the condo association bank deposit, I though I had inadvertently put the envelope I keep the ATM card in, into the mail drop box with a bill I was mailing then. That resulted in me being distracted and telling the story about just how I'd lost the card when Ada fell down the back porch stairs. Yikes. Don't want a repeat of that. (It turns out that the ATM card was in an envelope on the kitchen counter the whole time.)

This time, I again have letters to mail so I crossed the street to deposit two bills into a postal drop box and re-crossed the street to be on the south side for the entry to the El train home. As I'm waiting for the light, it dawns on me that I can't remember where I put the ATM card. The light turns in my favor and I cross the street while quickly, not frantically but concernedly, digging in my purse for the ATM card envelope. I know it's there. I just can't find it under all of the crap I have. Why do I have a sippy cup, a diaper, wipes, and goldfish snacks in here? How the heck am I supposed to find...SMACK!

Oh no I didn't. Oh yes you did.

While intensely focusing on the contents of my purse, I continued to walk toward the El station and completely lost all awareness of my surroundings and walked straight into...wait for it...A BUS SHELTER. Thunk. My calf, knee and head all connected with the advertising side of the small structure.

"Oh My God. I did not just do that", I think.

"Oh yes I did." I start laughing uncontrollably. Then I realize, "What if there is someone waiting for a bus? They must think I'm an idiot."

I peer around the corner of the shelter. Yep. Hi there. In my head I'm saying, "That was me who just walked into the side of this place. Sorry about that. Hope I didn't startle you but damn, that's funny." In reality, I shot her a quick glance with the biggest smile on my face and quickly continued on my way down the street. Laughing to myself and at myself the whole way to the El train. Then I laughed even more as I sent my friend Colette a text retelling the event.

But that's not all.

I got Ada, got home and all but forgot about the previous "incident", putting it in my back pocket for a funny story later on. It was time I focus on cleaning up the last bits of things that are out of place and feeding Ada before everyone starts to arrive.

All is going well. I've done the dishes and she helped me put them away - which I encouraged as I quickly grabbed each glass plate and dish she handed to me from the bottom rack of the dishwasher. Boy was that nerve-wracking but she insisted on helping.

Ada is eating. I'm settled in to watch some Grey's Anatomy on ABC.com (since we don't have cable). I've supplied Ada with a gourmet dinner of bagel, goldfish crackers, graham crackers, turkey, and apple sauce. And I've just dumped out our old milk and given her a full cup of milk that tasted okay to me but is on it's last day as well. Why does our milk seem to go bad so quickly these days? I text Rick to have him pick up new milk since our friend Bob is coming over and that man drinks more milk than anyone I've ever seen in my entire life. Multiple gallons in a week. He could have been a dairy cow in another life.

All is well in the world. Rick comes home and greets us. He removes his winter coat (yes, I know it's early October!) and settles in next to us to see what is going on. I have two minutes left on Grey's Anatomy and friends will be arriving anytime now. Ada's finishing up dinner and... then... it starts. As we are sitting around all content with the world, Ada starts throwing up her entire dinner. At first, we think she's just choking on something and is going to spit it out. Then it keeps coming up, and up, and up. She has expelled everything in her stomach. All over herself, the highchair, the floor. Everywhere.

"It must have been the milk. I didn't think it was 'bad' but it clearly wasn't 'good'. Let's clean her up." I mutter as I take her to the bathroom while holding her at arms length, hoping to stay clean.

She is, by this time, hysterical. Screaming. Not quite sure what the heck is going on or why she has her dinner all over her body. I've got her in the tub and she won't let me take her vomit covered shirt off. I'm tugging, she's resisting. Finally I win and get her naked. I turn on the shower and start to spray her down. She's still hysterical.

"Screw it." I think to myself as she reaches out to me, wet, naked, and covered in her regurgitated dinner. She crawls out of the tub and into my fully-clothed, dry clothes and clean arms and cries. I get her to calm down a bit and then decide to join her in the shower to comfort her and get her cleaned up. So what if I have 8 people coming over for dinner in just a matter of minutes. They are such good friends, I practically consider them family.

I'm in the shower with her when I hear the first door buzzer. At least Rick's home to let people in. I'm shampooing her hair for the second buzz. We are rinsing off for the third tone. And we are standing naked, dripping wet and trying to towel off when the pizza arrives. Thankfully I set out money for the pizza guy ahead of time and Bob took care of it all. My kind of house guests.

I passed Ada out to Rick so he could get her dressed again. Then I quickly shuffle around the hall corner to my bedroom to get decent. A quick glance in the mirror reveals that my mascara has run, but overall my makeup is salvageable and my hair isn't too wet. Five minutes and a whole new outfit later, I'm dishing up pizza and enjoying friends.

About an hour later, I remember that good old bus shelter incident and decide it's a great time to share one of my most "blonde" moments ever as tears of laughter gush from my eyes.

Good times had by all.

Moral of the story: The best friends are those that can help themselves and love you just the way you are. And those that laugh with you instead of at you. Just keep laughing at yourself.

Parenting rule to live by: When in doubt, throw it out.

The Return From Camping

Whew! What a two weeks!

Sorry to go MIA on the blog front. Our family and Rick's family and Rick's family's friends and families all went up to Door County Wisconsin last week to go camping. There were 15 of us in all including Ada at 20 months and Jayden at a whopping 7 weeks old. Luckily, we had an awesome group campsite with room to spread out in a scenic, secluded area of Peninsula State Park. We had nice weather for the first half of the week, and then some nice and gentle torrential downpours sporadically throughout the remainder of our stay.

What I learned?

It's great to be with 11 other adults who can watch your child so you can sleep in, especially when two of them are grandparents. I didn't really sleep in much but it was nice to have the option and the ability to take a nap whenever I darn well pleased.

Keeping Ada away from the fire pit was much easier than I expected with the help of a ring of stones we placed about 2 feet outside of the pit to form a boundary line she wasn't allowed to cross. Surprisingly effective and so much easier than having everyone jump to save her when she unintentionally got to close when we camped earlier this summer. Highly recommend the boundary ring.

We need to invest in a tent. We've been borrowing a tent from Rick's parents (they have a gazillion it seems). This is probably an 8 man tent. I don't really know what that means but it's big. And when I say big, I mean that you can fit a queen size mattress on each side (it has a dividing wall down the middle) and still have room to squeeze around it to open and close the windows in the back. Ada and our stuff had one whole side, we had the other. It was great, fine and just dandy until said torrential downpour came through and peed on all of our stuff. It just so happens that said tent is a gazillion years old (8 to 10 years for real) and the seals on the seams (they are kind of important in a storm) leak. From above. That normally wouldn't be a problem since we had the rain fly on (it's like a raincoat for your tent) but that was leaking somehow too. Needless to say, we are going to try to capitalize on the end of season sales this month and see if we can't find something a bit smaller and a lot more dry.

Speaking of smaller... we also need some sort of mattress that is less cumbersome. We currently have a queen size blow up mattress that comes in a case on wheels and has this elaborate stand to make it normal bed height, which is really nice. It just takes up a ton of room in the trunk, makes a lot of noise when you get in and out, and doesn't fit 3 all that well. Why should it need to fit 3 when Ada had her pack and play set up on the other side of the tent you ask? Well, because she gets scared during torrential downpours that include thunder, lightening, and sound like someone is hitting our tent with 10,000 paintballs consistently for half an hour straight. I don't blame her.

Car toppers can be made for cars with or without racks. Since our car doesn't have a rack on top, it doesn't help if I borrow a car topper from someone if it's the type that needs the rack. Luckily, Rick was able to fit all of our stuff in the car-- including Ada.

It never fails that someone forgets to take the garbage out before bed one night during the week. Just try to remember not to have the garbage set up near your tent. As it turns out, raccoons are REALLY loud and like to fight a lot. Sounds like cats beating the living snot out of each other and happens just on the other side of some flimsy piece of tent fabric. Not the best thing when you're trying to sleep.

Camping at the end of a meteor shower is cool. At the peak would be frigging awesome. I got to see about four "shooting stars" which was nice. Reassuring to see that there still are stars after living in the city for so long.

After a good storm, there will be puddles. Lots of deep, muddy puddles. Toddlers are attracted to puddles.
If your husband is going to golf and it looks like it might rain, remind him to only buy nine holes of golf at a time. Rick's foursome paid for 18 and golfed 5 holes. Then they skipped their rain check time the next day thinking it would rain more as was predicted. He's just feeling a bit shafted now.
With camping comes the threat of poison ivy. Lucky for me (and Ada), I noticed she was standing about 3 feet into the woods just off the campsite and a lightbulb went on in my head.

"Ding!" "She might be standing in poison ivy in shorts, sandals and a t-shirt. SHIT!" At least the lightbulb still works up there and I immediately called over one of the boy scout leaders that happens to camp with us, and then my eagle scout brother-in-law to reconfirm my suspicions. "Yep. That's what it looks like. Go hose her down with lots of soap and water." Poor Ada. At least it was early on in the week so it was still in the 80s. And she likes baths. And she's too little to really hate cold water. And it's still considered "cute" for her to stand naked near a parking lot while getting scrubbed down by her momma. Can't say that about many people.


With camping comes dirt. Lots of dirt. And toddlers know how to find it all, and eat some of it.

And then there is the beach. There must be a "friend making" gene in my side of the family because this kid just attracts other kids. Dinner at a local restaurant tonight turned into a mini play date. She really knows how to bring people together. Not only did she help supervise the local girl scout troop that was building sandcastles on the beach, but she shared Grandma Ba's buckets, shovels and rakes well too.

Then there is the lake. She got to play with Aunt Terri, Grandma Ba, Grandpa Rich, Daddy, and Mommy all in the water. Grandpa Rich gave her a "dolphin" back ride-- I don't think piggies can swim so it wasn't a "piggy back" ride, technically speaking. She sure loves the water.


I also learned that I should always pack a warm jacket, a change of warm, dry clothes to leave in the trunk in case of emergencies, and to pack things that need to stay dry (clothes, blankets, pillows, me) in plastic bins so that they in fact, do stay dry. And that those bins need to be kept in the tent and used to store said "things that need to stay dry" when not in use in case a big storm creeps up on us and our new tent happens to leak, or we forget the rain fly, or we leave the windows open.

And finally, I learned that camping for a week is a ton of fun. I got to knit (a purple fingerless mitten and get started on the match to it), read a great book (The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larson -- book 2 of 3 in his Millennium series), and play way too much Settlers of Catan (a great new board game that is a bit like Monopoly without the parts of Monopoly that suck). We also went to a petting zoo, ate good food, got to take warm showers, and got to laugh hysterically when Grandma Ba saw a snake that made her scream to high heaven (grass snake anyone?).

Moral of the story: Great time had by all. Highly recommend it -- if you have the right gear and a forecast for good weather.

What a day!

It started out well... and I was optimistic that we were going to have a great Monday... but then... well, things changed...

You know it's going to be a rough day when you've given your child 3 baths before noon and begin to run low on towels even though they all started out clean this morning.

Ada decided this was not going to be her day. She didn't want to take a nap. She got the runs, and diaper rash, and pooped every chance she got. Silly me didn't wise up and switch to disposable diapers because we are running low on them and I am committed to saving the world one cloth diaper at a time (who cares about saving my sanity?). What time we didn't spend in the bathroom flushing diapers clean, rinsing diapers out, washing poop off baby's bottom, we spent cuddling in her room, applying diaper cream, or wiping up pee and poop from her naked baby time -- supposedly the best cure for diaper rash. Not a cure for mom's sanity. Poor little butt.

On top of all that, Ada decided she didn't want to be a neat eater today either. Bananas and pancakes on the floor at breakfast, cheese and crackers and sweet potatoes at lunch, a teething biscuit somewhere in between -- which she got on her feet, in her hair, and all over her shirt and pants mind you-- eggs, mashed potatoes, applesauce and cheerios for dinner. I guess today was white/yellow food day. Do white/yellow foods give babies the runs? They sure did today. Poor baby.

In an attempt to try to make things better, we set out for a walk to run an errand. It's cold out but Ada loves being outside. I put her in the Ergo carrier, snapped her on my back and she was asleep before I even got into the hallway. I came back in from the hall to get a water bottle and we were off. Actually, I was off and she was out. I got 3/4 of the way down the street and struggled to get the little sleep hood snapped in place so that Ada's head would stay snug to my back as she slept. All the while I'm trying to pull her pant legs down and her socks up so that her legs don't get cold. Poor kid.

We get to our destination after a good ten minute walk in the cold. I go in, get the car passes from the alderman's office. I readjust her pants and socks again and we head for home. I stopped to get a toy for my neighbors' new dog and the clerk stops me to tell me my bag is leaking. Yeah, that water bottle I was so eager to get so that I wouldn't be so thirsty... yeah, well, I guess the lid wasn't on quite right because it soaked my bag. And everything in my bag. Fortunately, only a packet of tissues and the two thank you cards I had written earlier today were ruined. Everything else is airing out nicely. As I left the store I apologized for the water trail I left behind and the clerk was quick to point out that as a pet store, that floor has seen much worse.

As we continued on our journey, I decide to get a replacement peephole for our neighbor because we installed one for her last night and learned that her door is way too thin for a peephole. Now I don't know what to do. Make it stick out? Leave a big hole in her door? Or suggest that she get a more sturdy door for security's sake? I'm voting for the 3rd option. Anyway... we stop into the local ACE hardware, get another peephole and the nice lady there fixes Ada's hat so her ear doesn't freeze off from sticking out. Silly kid.

Then we decide to stop by Jen's house to say hey to her new baby and see how she's doing. The baby was asleep and adorable as usual. We got to see the nursery and it's so cute. Ada got hot and fussy so we decided to head back home as it was nearing dinnertime anyway. I walk down Jen's driveway with Ada on my back and as I turned the corner onto the sidewalk, ho hum, la la la, WHOOOP! I slipped on a patch of ice and landed, thankfully, on my left hand and my knees. Ada didn't even flinch. I got up. Looked around to see if anyone saw me and to ensure them I was fine but no one saw me. This is the height of irony as that's how Jen and I met. She fell on the ice while walking to work one day, I saw her and asked if she was okay. We've been friends, and neighbors, ever since. Of course I had to text her to say that we'd fallen but were okay and she needed to be extra careful if she goes out with the baby. My poor knees.

We got home alive, thankfully. As soon as we walked through the front door, Ada started crying. I changed yet another poopy diaper, fed her some milk, made dinner and tried to make the best of it until daddy came home. He got to witness at least two more poops, including one while on a towel in the living room that she immediately stepped in and was whisked off to the bathroom for her 6th rinse in the tub today. Poor baby!

She's screaming, I'm exhausted, life sucks and then there is Rick--calm, collected, sympathetic. He's happy to come rescue both of us from our crazy poop-filled day. Our hero!

Moral of the story: If you have to have a poopy baby, be thankful that you can stay home and not deal with that mess in public. And sometimes, it's worth screwing the environment when it comes to a baby with the runs. Sanity should trump all else when a screaming toddler in involved.

Give me a P!

So today, in typical Ada fashion, I was changing her diaper and she was squirming around like a typical 11 month old. She started out on the changing table but got too wiggly so I decided the floor would be safer. In her room we have an alphabet mat made of foam where all the letters of the alphabet link together in interlocking pieces -- it's great as a shock absorber when she falls and looks cool too.

As I went to set her down on the map, she of course wanted to stand up -- it's tough to get her little knees to bend when all she wants to do is stand up. ALL the time. So she's naked, standing up. There is a poopy diaper on the changing table and I'm trying to grab the wipes, put the cloth diaper in the diaper cover while holding her up and what does she do? She pees all over the letter P. While standing mind you. So now I have a poopy diaper, a pee covered P and the surrounding tiles, and a pee covered Ada who now, of course, wants to sit down and start crawling all over so she can spread the wealth of pee to the rest of the letters. Luckily, she was only able to grab her elephant rattle before I was able to wrap her in a cloth diaper haphazardly and briskly walk down the hall the bathroom hoping pee wasn't dripping all through the house as I whisked her off to the sink.

I gave her a quick rinse while fighting to keep her from scorching herself as she found it really fun to play with the faucet knobs. Once she was "clean" which is a relative term and only a temporary state at this age, I toweled her off, again attempted the diaper dance and was able to successfully finagle her into her diaper. I quickly returned her to the far end of her play mat and then removed the peed on P and the elephant rattle and the poopy diaper and the wet diaper from her room. Who knew multitasking was such a prerequisite for being a parent. Whew.

Moral of the story: Don't put a P on the floor. You're just asking for it to be peed on simply for the irony of it all.

I wish I could still fit in the sink...

I didn't think I had anything exciting to report today... but then I checked the camera for recent photos of Ada.
Here's what I found... I wish I could still have someone bathe me in the sink.

Remember when life was this easy? Ada loves the mirror...And can entertain herself for hours...

Other than that, not much else to report on the Ada scene. Her tooth is still coming in. She's still trying to crawl. She's getting better at stealing toys back from Eva on their play dates. And she's still not on a napping schedule. But she's sleeping through the night -- 14 hours straight is still the record. And she's still having whiny moments where she gets so frustrated from not being able to crawl yet that she just screams. I think we all have those moments in life.

I'm sure we'll have a more eventful weekend coming up as we are off to our first Halloween party. Stay tuned for some spooktacular photos to come...

Moral of the story: Just go look in a mirror and smile. Someone will smile right back at you. Then you can make faces at them, and they'll make faces back too.