yum yum and this bites

Firstly, a shout out to Toddler Tamer. I made her pumpkin muffins. Double yum. I did make them with half applesauce and also 1/3 whole wheat flour. The other yum was last night's butternut squash risotto. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. Mr. P and I liked it, but M had his usual aversion to the texture of the risotto. He ate it, though, so I was happy.

Secondly, this bites. This being my child. She has taken to biting. I realize that she doesn't know what she's doing, so I can't get mad at her. We're trying to teach her. She bit a plug out of M's shoulder yesterday, and she's actually bitten my face a few times. It's somewhat less than pleasant. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Okay, Thanksgiving was a hit. S had turkey, which she devoured just like she devours everything we put in front of her. It's both comical and scary to watch the child eat. We took lots of fun pictures of her over the weekend, and I'll get them up on Flickr eventually. Now we're home, waiting until this afternoon to pick up Otis. I'm anxious to see how things will be when he gets home as we set up the Christmas tree last night, meaning the living room is set up very differently. I wonder if S or Otis will be the first to crash into the tree. I'll keep you posted.

Now I'm going to dry off. The munchkin and I got caught in the rain during our walk. She doesn't seem to mind the fact that she's soaked, but I do.

gobble gobble

It's fairly frantic around here. I'm desperately trying to get some things done before we head out of town tomorrow morning for Turkey Day. Somehow, I woke up this morning to an overflowing laundry hamper and no clean diapers. The house looks like a tornado hit it. The dogs (Otis and Mr. P's dog Pretzel) have to go to the vet to be boarded for the weekend. And, my "I bit off more than I can chew" project from last weekend is still kicking my tail. We decided to refinish the front door as it was having some issues. We are lucky enough to have a gorgeous solid wood front door. However, the previous owners' great dane and years of afternoon sunshine had taken their toll on the door. It has turned out to be a much bigger job than I anticipated. For starters, I didn't think I'd have to sand the door all the way down to the bare wood, but the front of the door was in such shape that one swipe of the sand paper on parts of the door went all the way to the bottom, which meant the whole thing had to be taken all the way to bare.

That was the first issue...realizing that a pack of sand paper wasn't going to do the job. Trip to Lowe's. We now own an orbital sander. As I hadn't anticipated actually re-staining the door (the plan was to smooth out the rough spots and add some new coats of spar urethane), I hadn't bought stain. No trip to Lowe's this time, though. There was a can of stain in the garage. As the only wooden surfaces in the house are the front door and the parquet floor in the entry and they are/were both the same color, I just popped it open and went to work. Don't make this mistake, people. Actually look at the color- or at minimum the name of the color. The door was previously fairly light. It is now dark walnut. I wasn't upset because dark walnut is actually my favorite finish. The new problem was that the front of the door and the back of the door were two seriously different colors. At first, I ignored it. I acted like it wouldn't bother me. Yeah, right.

Last night, I'd had enough. I didn't want to use the orbital sander, though. It's loud and I could only work on the little (ahem...massive) project while S was in bed. Besides, the guy at Lowe's had told me I didn't need to sand to the bare wood- I only had to get the urethane off the top. So, I sanded the back of the door by hand until I thought my arm would fall off. Then I started slapping on the dark walnut stain. That was 9pm. Yesterday. It is now 1pm. Today. It still isn't dry. It really doesn't want to soak in through the old finish. I fear that I'll be forced to re-do last night's work and actually use the power tool.

So, I'm trying to get this little project completed before we're gone for four days. Plus, I'll be putting down a new coat of polyurethane on the entry floor this evening after S goes to bed since Otis will be out of the house. It's just insane around here. Plus, I haven't started packing yet. How could I? Everything is in the frickin' washer.

I'm done with my nervous breakdown. Have a great Thanksgiving, people. We're out.

go back to sleep

I hate days when I have to be somewhere in the morning. I don't dislike going places in the a.m., but I do hate having to get up before M leaves for work to shower. I really need that 45 minutes of sleep that I get between his waking up and S waking up. I need it, and I just don't get it like this. It's giving me a headache, and the Tylenol is upstairs, which is where I don't want to be as I'm trying to convince S that she has no business being awake yet. For the record, that approach isn't working as I can hear her babbling away up there. I can't really stand the thought of laying down with her to play human pacifier so she'll sleep longer. I've had some pretty uncomfortable neck pain for three days now, and I think it's a direct result of her rediscovered love of falling asleep while being held. I've spent several hours during the past week with her snoozing in my arms, which, we all know, means that I tend to drift off, leaving my head dangling at impossible angles. Wow, I'm very Negative Nancy today. I'll stop. As soon as I get some Tylenol.

Anyway, we've got a busy day ahead of us, but I wanted to say "g'day, mates."

Oh, I almost forgot. If you're not doing anything super constructive this very second, go and make the peanut butter icing from Barefoot Contessa at Home. Holy, moly. It is so yummy that I want to lick it off the cake. For the record, I did not make the Barefoot Contessa chocolate cupcakes...I just made the chocolate cake from the recipe on the can of Hershey's cocoa.

FIVE SENSES FRIDAY
Sight: Otis and S playing
Sound: silence...if I ever get it
Smell: poopers in Target yesterday (yuck)
Touch: S in my lap for story time, the pillows, which is where I wish my head was right now
Taste: peanut butter icing

it's sew time

First and foremost, today is going to be a great day. "Why," you ask.

Why? Why?

Two words. It rhymes with Schmodject Schmunway.

That's right. Project Runway starts tonight. I watched part of the Season Three marathon this weekend to get pumped up for it. I am so, so excited. There is, however, a concern. "It's sew time." That's the slogan they've been using to advertise the beginning of the new season. Um, is this supposed to be like, "it's show time," or is it like, "soooo time." (Soooo Taguchi, inside joke for M.) I'm all for clever wordplay, but I don't like to be confused by the Bravo Network. It makes me feel incompetent, and that's not a feeling that I like. Anyway, I'm probably overthinking the whole thing. You know how I am. I am certain that I'll get over my issue as soon as Heidi and Tim and Top American Designer Michael Kors and Fashion Director of Elle magazine Nina Garcia appear. I'm positively beaming with delight. Beaming, people.

So, I'm anxiously counting the hours until I can plop on the couch, curl under a blanket, and indulge in the guilty pleasure that is Project Runway.

Until then, I am working on a new experiment called, "is S ready to move to one nap a day?" She's been fighting nap time pretty hard for weeks now, so I kept her up until after lunch today, and have just put her in her crib. Wish me luck.

Auf Wiedersehen.

eanie meanie...

I was doing a little online browsing. I hear Santa Claus e-shops a lot these days. How funny is this little guy? I found it at Manhattan Toys, and I am in love.

I'm also loving this tee that I found last week...I don't think I've posted it.

alone

Did anyone else happen to catch Oprah yesterday? I haven't watched Oprah in about a decade, but my FIL was here yesterday afternoon after his doctor's appointment, and I guess that's what he watches at 4. Anyway, it was one of those "wish come true" days and Celine Dion was on the show. I didn't catch much of it at all, but I did see the last three minutes of Celine singing. She's apparently releasing a new album today, and the first single is "Alone." You know, the song by Heart? Let me tell you now, the Celine version was awful. Horribly, horribly horrible. I had to leave the room.

Just thought I'd fill you in...

S and I are, in fact, alone today as M is at a conference in Memphis. We were going to try to make it a little family trip to the River City, but it was too much to try to throw at S as we'll be traveling again next week for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of...well, speaking of speaking. I have once again misled you all. S doesn't really speak, though I do think she is making the connection between "hi" and "bye" and waving. She'll say "hi" when you walk into a room. Last week was the first "bye bye." Our friend M was over, and as she turned to leave, S just said, "bye bye" and started to wave. She hasn't really done it spontaneously since. Please note that she is not talking. Unless you count baaa, uh, gaaa, or gooo as words. I will tell you that she says "boo" when she picks up books, so I think maybe she's starting to get that one. Maybe not, but last night I told her that if she wanted me to read a book before bedtime to get one. (I'm sure that's way, way too advanced of a direction for a nine month old.) Either way, she crawled to the pile of books in the floor and brought one back. Probably a fluke, but I'll take it as a sign of her rapidly advancing brain.

Okay, I have a zillion things to do today, most important: we're almost out of Cheerios. I'd rather be beaten than to run out of Cheerios...especially while M is out of town and I'd be forced to deal with S's breakdown on my own. No thank you. I'd much rather venture out into the rain, and that's really saying something.

Happy Tuesday, peeps. And Happy Birthday, Aunt Mel.

just to clarify

Apparently, there is a bit of confusion. In my last post, I mentioned ironing linens. I apologize for being vague. I do not iron bed linens. I barely iron anything. Ever. I was, however, ironing the tablecloths and napkins from the weekend before I put them away. I don't want anyone lost in a shame spiral, worried that they are behind the curve by not ironing their pillowcases...and if I find out that you actually do iron your pillowcases, I will barf. Spare us both, please.

Anyway, as promised, a brief synopsis of S and the poopers. You may recall that we had one previous pooper incident during naked time.

Whoever says lightning never strikes twice was seriously mistaken. Very, very seriously mistaken. Monday night, S and I were hanging out in the living room with Mr. P after dinner. M was at the computer, which may as well be in the living room as it's really only about four feet away. S was happily playing during naked time. She was sitting in front of her toy box, pulling things out, chewing on them, discarding them into the "I already gnawed on this" pile. It was quite pleasant. Then I noticed her making a face, a "what the heck is in my mouth that tastes this bad?" face. She was trying to spit something out. I jumped up.

"What's in your mouth?"

Poop. Poop was in her mouth. She had pooped while she was sitting there and managed to wipe her hand in it. Then she licked it. She did not enjoy it. Neither did we. I picked her up like she was a bomb, and we rushed her to the kitchen sink where we promptly scrubbed her. In hindsight, it was funny. Sort of. But my kid ate crap.

"You eat pieces of $h!+ for breakfast?"



Well, not really for breakfast, more like an after dinner snack. Or the worst after dinner mint in the history of the world.

Lucky for us, she happened to be sitting on a gift bag that we'd been letting her play with, which means that we just picked it up and chucked it. Absolutely no cleaning of the carpet required. Small favors, people.

So, that's the story. All you lovely new mommies, have fun. Happy Friday, peeps. I've got to go check the progress of the guys replacing our gutters.

FIVE SENSES FRIDAY
Sight: my handsome husband smiling at my beautiful daughter
Sound: S saying, "bye bye"
Smell: garlic-infused cream for mashed potatoes, yeast rolls baking
Touch: S's wet head after her baptism
Taste: chocolate bread pudding cupcakes, egg white omelet with cheddar cheese and red beans, fried chicken and garlic mashed potatoes

what a week

Wow. When was the last time I went an entire week without posting? Probably around the time I gave birth. It's been busy around here to put it mildly. S was baptized on Sunday, so we had the whole family over for dinner on Saturday. Most of last week was spent getting the house ready for it all. In the end, we had 22 people at the house Saturday night, and I think it's safe to say we were filled to capacity. Everything went really well, though.

Beyond that, S has been growing some new teeth, and her grand total stands at five chompers now. You can actually see two of the top teeth now if she smiles really big.In more exciting news, S welcomed two new cousins this weekend. Baby Hannah was born Thursday morning at 4:05 in Tennessee, and Baby Lily was born in Arizona at 11:19 Saturday night. Both babies and their mamas are healthy and happy and so are we. Also in baby news, my friend L is being induced today, so I think we're down to two pregnant friends. At one point this summer, we knew 11 pregos. That's a lot of babies, people.I'll tell you the story about S and the poopers tomorrow. For now, I'm still trying to get linens ironed and put away from the weekend.
Happy Hump Day, peeps.