Headlights in the Fog

From Despair to Excitement

Well, it's hard to argue with a check from the government that arrives just as you need to buy a new computer. I don't agree with the 'why' of the check, but it does help out. Thom informs me that the new computer is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to download all the really cute pictures of the kids from my camera in time for the proper grandparent infusion-level.
Our next-door neighbors have been working seemingly non-stop on their yard over the past month. They've planted a tree in their front yard and today a very large truck delivered 2 pallets of rock for what I believe is going to be a rock garden. Either that, or they really disliked their lawn... since they dug it all up.
Yesterday Renee and her 4 kids and Meaghan and her 2 kids were here for a no-holds-barred playgroup. It's nice that the kids are getting old enough to amuse themselves and each other so that we women folk can concentrate on our conversational skills. Towards the end, there was a chaotic moment when Renee was taking care of Annabelle's potty-training-accident-situation while Meaghan and I investigated who was yelling in the other room. After looking around and being stumped, I realized it was Kitty yelling from upstairs... she needed to wash her hands after going to the bathroom and couldn't reach. We aren't even putting her in diapers at night anymore as she has woken up dry for 2 weeks running now. My (sniffle) baby! Seeing the end of diapers doesn't make me sad... seeing my little girl getting so big makes me wistful for the baby Kitty. As Thom used to say, it would be nice to get to visit with the 4 month old Jack every once in a while. I love my 2 1/2 year old Kitty, but would love to hold the newborn Kitty again for just an hour or two.

When motherboards go bad

After an hour on the phone with Dell tonight, it was determined our home computer's motherboard has gone bad. Looks like a new computer will be in the not so distant future. For the time being, posts and emails will be sporadic at best. (sigh)

Whose feet are those?

Yes, you guessed it... Kitty's feet!

Kitty loves looking through what ever we have in the fridge. If you let her, she will stand for a very long time with it open, pulling out bottles and what have you and checking it out. A couple of times I've been in the other room doing something and I'll come back to a kitchen table full of 'goodies' Kitty has picked out to eat. She is always asking to eat a whole stick of butter... I think she thinks I am holding out on her when I tell her you only use a little bit at a time.

I need my privacy

I was setting up the tivo so Kitty could watch Sesame Street when she suddenly said, "Mommy, stop it! I have to go potty!" I followed her to the bathroom to see if she needed help getting her pants off and she said to me, "No Mommy, I do it. I need my privacy!" She then gave me a little push out the door with her hand. She is in big girl underwear all the time except for naps and nights. The past couple of days she has woken up dry... so perhaps sometimes soon we will be a diaperless household. Boggles the mind.
Yesterday Jack slipped while doing a jump from the futon in his room and landed smack dab on his poor nose... looks like it might be a nasty bruise. Not broken... thankfully.
Jack and I have been reading novels at night while Thom is putting Kitty to sleep. We cuddle up in my bed and read a few chapters from a book. We recently finished "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" which won the Caldecott award this year. Jack loved it. He would act out certain scenes from the book after I had read them to him. No we're reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane." We've gotten off to a slow start, though, because I've been battling a headcold for the past 3 days. Reading books aloud to him is such a great pleasure. I love seeing him caught up in the action... anxious for what is going to happen next.

Preschoolers Quilt!

Yesterday was my quilting demonstration and talk in Jack's preschool class.
It was awesome! I started off talking to the kids about being an artist, and then I read a book about making art with your hands (by Lois Ehlert.) After that, I showed them how my sewing machine works and quilted a collaged quilt square as an example of what I would do to their quilt squares! They used glue stick and pasted scraps of fabric I had cut in to small pieces on to a 10"X10" square of fabric. I'm going to quilt them all together to make a huge quilt for their classroom. Here is a picture of the girls in the class at work:

Jack is still on the mend from his ear infections. The nice nurse at the Dr's office told me when I called today that it could take 3 weeks until Jack's hearing was back to 100%. He's having such trouble hearing that today when I was talking to him at close range I was TALKING VERY LOUDLY and he said in a quiet voice, "Mommy, you don't have to yell." Ooops. I just thought if I started off loud, I wouldn't have to repeat myself 4 times.
Below is a picture of Jack and Kitty drawing at the kitchen table:

The rotation diet I am doing seems to be helping my outlook on life as well as my headaches. I've had more energy in the last two days than I can remember having had in a long, long time. It's true what they say about giving up coffee: you have more energy without it. There is still little bits of error here and there... the kids were just having pickles and I had one thinking they were allowed and then I looked at the ingredients: the second one was high fructose corn syrup! Argh! Note to self: read label BEFORE eating item!

Goings-on

It must be spring... we've had a pair of mourning doves build a nest on top of the wreath right outside the back door. They seem nonplussed at us coming in and out of the door... which, if I were a bird, would be too close for comfort. I hope we get to see babies!
Stan took a nosedive in to a muddy puddle during the rainy week we had last week... he immediately sopped up about a liter of water.

He had a bath and is back to his normal grimy looking self.
I had my mother-in-law and my parents call yesterday because I hadn't updated the blog in a week!
They know something is 'up' when I don't post regularly. Well, let's just say it was a bad headache week last week... I've started a new rotation diet based on foods that I reacted to when I was allergy tested and one of the things I did was give up coffee cold-turkey! That spells headache trouble even for people who don't have chronic daily migraine, as I do. I spent Wednesday and Friday at Jefferson hospital having outpatient infusion to break the 2 week long migraine I had. I'm feeling better now, back to my *normal* level of migraine.
Kitty's latest thing is wanting to do everything "By my own self!" We don't know where she came up with that... but it is really endearing to hear her say it. "Kitty, do you need help with your coat." "No, I do it by my own self!"
Jack stayed home from school yesterday and I took him to the doctor... a double ear infection! The boy must have a very high tolerance to pain because he didn't complain about his ears until Sunday, when he broke down hysterically crying until the tylenol kicked in. The doctor said both ears are inflamed and puss-filled.... OWWW! Jack can not hear very well, so we have a lot of conversations twice, the second time with me talking quite loudly. He also can only hear the TV if it's turned up enough to make the room shake. Hopefully, now that he has some medicine in him, he'll start to feel better and hear better soon.
Tomorrow I am a guest speaker in Jack's class... they went to the Philadelphia Art Museum last week and I am going to use their experiences there as a jumping off point for making a quilt. I'm going to give each child a quilt square and then have them glue other pieces of fabric to their square to make a design or picture. I'll take them all home and free-motion quilt the squares and assemble them in to a quilt. I'm excited! I have a lot of prep work to do between now and tomorrow!