say cheese

Today has been an exciting day in the P household. I use the term "exciting" fairly loosely. It may not seem exciting to everyone. Around here, though...the standard for excitement is pretty low.

Anyway, the day started with a first. The first time that I actually gave S her breakfast in a bowl with the spoon. On her own. I have one of those suction cup bowls, so I put her banana/yogurt/oatmeal combo in it, stuck it to the high chair tray, handed her the spoon, said a silent little prayer, and asked forgiveness from my carpet. It wasn't so bad really. She chucked the spoon immediately and dug in with her fingers. When she realized that her fingers weren't really the best vehicle for escorting the breakfast combo to her mouth, she decided she didn't care and went after the diced bananas that were scattered across the tray. I eventually removed the suction cup bowl, and I don't even think she cared...aside from the fact that she could see her diced bananas better without the bowl in her way. We'll wait awhile before trying it again. She just isn't interested in being fed right now as she wants to do everything herself, so I thought I'd give her the opportunity. Basically, I think we'll be skipping the puree step of making her food, and just giving her things that are steamed and diced.

The second first of the day was at lunch. S had her first grilled cheese. Since she's so interested in feeding herself, I thought I'd give her something new and sophisticated. Sophisticated for her, anyway. There was really so little cheese involved that I may as well have fed her grilled toast. She liked it, though, and she ate the entire grilled cheese, less the crusts, which I thought might be a "choking hazard." She also ate half a pear. She eats like a grown-up.

After all the lunchtime fun, we headed to the mall, which is totally mommy-central in the middle of the day. It's like playing a game: dodge the oncoming strollers. ("If you can dodge a stroller, you can dodge a ball.") I had to return a jacket that I'd ordered from Land's End. (Did you know you can take the stuff back to Sears and not pay shipping?? Score. I'll take that six bucks in Starbucks credit, please.) I also had to pick up a birthday gift for my littlest sister, who turns 11 next week. Since we were there, I let S play in the play area, and she was a little more adventurous this time. She crawled away from me several times, toward groups of other kids. I think she had fun, but after ten minutes, she was overwhelmed, so we came home for naptime.

The last first of the day was an Otis first. Background: we replaced all of our locks a few weeks ago, and the door to to garage doesn't shut entirely properly now. You've really got to put your weight into it to make it close, and then you have to double check to make sure it's closed. Then double check again for good measure. I ran out to the garage a little while ago to grab some packing tape, and as I was on the phone, I did not check the door the extra time. Apparently, it came open at some point while I was on the phone and taping packages, because I realized that Otis wasn't around anymore. Crap. Otis is not one of those dogs that you can just let out. Well, maybe he is, but we'll never know because we don't trust that he wouldn't chase a squirrel all the way to Maryland. I ran out to see if he was anywhere to be found, and I saw him in a yard a few houses down. I called to him, and he looked at me, confused. I ran back into the house to find something to entice him with, and when I went back to the garage, there he was. Good dog. Very, very good dog. I gave him a whole apple as a "thank you for not making me chase you throughout the entire city of Lexington" reward. Now he's napping, and I'm sitting here thinking I've got the greatest dog ever.

I have stuff to do. Like wash diapers. As always.

I'm out, peeps. Have a good one.