News Flash- a Baby can be very tiring!

Duh, right?  I know, I know, I had 4 of the little buggers around me for years! This is just a confirmation of one of my child-rearing theories: whatever age your kids are at any certain time, that is the age of other people's kids that you can tolerate.

When we had toddlers, anything OP's babies did was fine. Pre-teens? those active little guys and gals were just great, but man those little tots cried kind of loudly, didn't they?  Teenagers? Well, we had problems with ours but I could totally understand the group mentality and really, they weren't like the elementary years- you could have conversations with them and they liked to sleep late. And of course, when our offspring turned into adults (at various ages) I just could not understand those parents who started over again with a baby after they made it through the teenagers! What were they thinking?

Now we are grandparents and babies are adorable again- well, they always were adorable, but 15 minutes with one was just fine. So, I don't expect many readers to be interested in this post, but most of this stuff is written for me anyway. (By the way, Shoeshine, X and Ladyslipper are out visiting friends, so I am not ignoring them to be online!)

I know this might be hard to believe, but Ladyslipper is the brightest little girl I have seen for years. And the cutest. How amazing that she just happens to be related to us, right?

I think what has made J the happiest is finding another person who enjoys this cookie jar as much as he does.

When the head is lifted, Mr T's voice snarls "Get your hand out of my cookie jar!" and the lion roars. At first she opened it by lifting at the nose, but after seeing me use the ear, Ladyslipper wanted to do it that way as well.

We put her tiny snacks inside and she reaches in to sweep her barely-long-enough arm around to grab one. She doesn't want any help with this either.

Before she got here, she was taking 3 or 4 steps by herself, but she's stretching that now- mostly because she tries to get to the various remotes and controllers before someone can stop her. Her feet get a workout on the keyboard as well.  Except for the electronics the house was pretty well baby-proofed and things have gone fairly smoothly. Except that one night when she was inconsolable between 2 and 4 am, and the runny nose and drooling from a new tooth she's working on. And the constant battle to keep dog hair off her. Which apparently I am fighting alone- no one else seems worried by it.

And, speaking of dogs, how have they taken this invasion, you ask? Well, Anna is fine- she's the only one who has been exposed to children before, and she doesn't think they're special at all. Not aggressive at all, just passively ignores them.

Boomer was the one I worried about, but he has been fine; interested but not bouncy, friendly but not hyper. It's Rosie that's the problem child. She was terrified by the tiny being, scurrying around the edges of the room and startled into growling whenever 'it' moved. I held her collar anytime they were in the same room (which wasn't often) just in case she got scared and bowled the baby over. Rosie is feeling pretty sorry for herself because people are sitting on 'her' couch and a playpen is in front of her dogbed. Anna hopped into an open chair yesterday and Rosie decided she would join her, even though there wasn't room.

Anna did not welcome her and refused to scootch over. To fully realize how much Rosie suffered, check the view from the other side.

                                    Pitiful.

         But everybody else is having a grand old time!

Waiting for Friday and some Ladyslipper time!

I have been not-very-productive so far today, although I did make up the guest bed. We've got the Moonlight Grey on the walls, and primer on everything else, a rug on the floor and bed and nightstand in place. This afternoon I get the high chair and crib that we are borrowing from our neighbor and we will be good to go.

I'll wait until tomorrow for the final vacuuming etc since there is no use trying to get rid of the dog hair too far in advance. Ms M is driving Shoeshine, X and Ladyslipper up tomorrow and they will be here until Wednesday. We are looking forward to finally holding our granddaughter! Expect picture spam soon.

Ready to paint- finally!

With our deadline of the 28th fast approaching, we've picked up speed in the bedroom makeover. Today we prime the entire room. It even looks possible that we can get the final color on the walls in time too. We felt like we would never make it while we were sanding.

As Ameranth said "Damn those old people and their hundred year lead paint!" That was one thick layer of paint that clung tenaciously to the wood, and if it hadn't been chipped, I would have happily left it in place and covered it up. Even after using a gel stripper (and yes we ventilated well, ie. opened the window) and sanding (yes, we used masks) we didn't get every last bit off. But it feels smooth and is good enough for us.

 

There will be molding along the top to cover those gaps. In the next picture, a closet will be built to the right of the drawers, and shelves put back into the space on the left, the one the looks like a doorway. We've never figured that out because if it were a door, it would open onto the 3rd step of the staircase.

Obviously, the closet portion will be done after Shoeshine's visit next weekend. But this room will be clean and able to be slept in, which is all I ask for now.

I joked on Facebook yesterday about J running out to pick up some stripper. Later, speaking to Ms. M, I told her "I'm going upstairs to strip now" as I handed the phone to her father. She told him that was high on the list of "things you never want to hear your mother say".

Style, you say?

A fellow blogger has given me a lovely Stylish Blogger award and I wish I knew how to reproduce it here! Kelly at In Real Life is being very generous in linking my blog with the word 'style' and I appreciate it. Now I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself and I don't think I can keep it style-themed as she and Knitwit did, but I'll try.

1.  One thing is the same as Kelly's list and that is a love of jeans. I've been wearing them (not the same ones- I wish the size was the same though) since the 1960's and I will keep on into my 60s and beyond.

2.  My favorite winter coat is a down-filled wonder that was rejected by Ms. M when she entered the Peace Corps. "Mom, I would look like the Michelin Man"
As if Moldova was the fashion center of the third world! Her loss, my gain.

3.  My feet are too big to have a wonderful shoe collection. I am happy if I get some sneakers and boots that fit and let me have room to twinkle my toes.

4.  I had braids and long hair until I entered high school and got a Twiggy pixie cut, just in time in time for hippies and long hair to be the style. Then it was Dorothy Hamill cuts and perms until I got fed up with it and went with a buzz cut. I love the ease but my head gets cold now so I wear hooded sweatshirts a lot in the winter.

5.  To help nice salespeople from feeling bad when they call me sir (see short hair above) I finally got my ears pierced when I was 55. Very good decision, I like earrings.

6.  I like color. And big patterns. And soft, swirly fabrics. And I wish I were 5'9" and looked as good for real as I imagine I would wearing some of that stuff, instead of, you know, jeans and sweatshirts.

7.  I do use my house as an outlet for the colors and appreciate J being as easygoing as he is about that. (as in "Yes, that color looks fine to me. Whatever you want") So we have one room that has coppery stripes in flat and glossy paint, and we have fun fish wallpaper in our kitchen.

This ended up being a fun list to make- thanks again.

Oh well

The football game I watched tonight did not end as hoped, so I thought I would post a bright spot from earlier today.

J and I left a store and noticed the truck was wet as if it had rained, but it was much too cold and sunny for that.  A ray of sun shone on J as silvery sparkles of snow swirled around him and I stepped into the Disney-esque moment with my arms raised in delight. My prince spoke. "It's just blowing off the roof, let's go".

 It's been that kind of day.

Fun Times

Ameranth:  "Daaaavvy, Davy Crockett.................."

Me: "King of the wild frontier- finish it, dammit"
Ameranth: "I was waiting for people to join in"
Me: "You didn't know the rest, admit it"


Last night, J kept tossing and turning trying to get his arm comfortable, and jarring me awake every time I started dozing off.  I couldn't figure out why I kept thinking of Peter Pan, until I realized his wrist (with watch) was next to my head.
Tick Tock, Tick Tock.

When I mentioned that to him this morning, he said all he knew was he was having trouble pulling the blankets up to his head and then realized he had grabbed his new fleece sleep pants instead.

Delurkers Welcome

I am here to tell you that someone decided this is National Delurking Day, which means every blog reader is encouraged to leave a comment today. No prizes for doing so, strictly peer pressure.

Unfortunately, that means I need to write something that can elicit said comment(s).

Let's see....my trip to the endodontist yesterday started off great. I walked in at 8:25 congratulating myself for being early and the receptionist said she had expected me at 8. I wrote the date and time on the calendar while I was on the phone with her and the last thing I said was "okay, I will see you at 8:30 on the 13th" so I was 99.9% sure the error was not on my end. She glanced at her official computer schedule and sweetly remarked "Isn't that strange?" and insisted it made no difference. Maybe not, but 5 minutes later she was sticking a sharp proby thing into my abscessed gum. Coincidence? I think not.

Then we needed X-rays. Several X-rays. She was finally happy after angling the raygun part into my cheek with the plastic target circle jammed into my eyelid "That's right, keep your eye closed"- It was impossible to move it, thank you very much.

To cut to the chase, the Dr. said there's been bone loss and the infection is at the gumline and the only way to see if there is a fracture is surgery, blah blah, cadaver bone, blah blah, 50/50 odds that the tooth can't be saved, blah, blah $1300.

I will be going for option 2, removal of said tooth, and was told that I needed to decide before having it out whether I wanted an implant or bridge.  I didn't tell her that I would be choosing "hole".

Later, our friendly mechanic told us it was a seal that was responsible for our oil leak. Of course half the engine has to be removed to get to it to see exactly what needs to be replaced so it's not a cheap fix. The good news is that it's not the head gasket which J gloomily predicted it would be.  We hope to get that done in a week or so. After the money magically appears in our bank account to pay for it.

Oh, and the harmonic balance needs to be fixed at the same time. I don't know what that is, but it sounds like a damn good thing to have working.  Can my life get a new harmonic balance? It would be so worth it.

Tuesday Twaddle

Not much excitement here, just trying to fight off the winter blues, and the winter poundage.

Ameranth has a head cold and is being quite generous with it, bless her soul.

The van is gulping oil and then drooling it out on the driveway overnight, so it will be checked out on Thursday. After I drive it to the oral surgeon to see if my root is fractured or not. I am hoping for the 'not'.

Looking on the bright side of not being very energetic, I have gotten a lot of reading done lately. I enjoyed "Towers of Midnight" by Brandon Sanderson, who is finishing the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan died. Only one more book to be published to complete this storyline, which I started reading in 1990 with the first book. It's been a long wait!

Today I finished the four volume Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men young adult series by Terry Pratchett. Very entertaining.

It's been awhile since we had one of Mr. Crazy's movie reviews, so I'll finish up this rambling sort-of-news with this recent offering.

(The movie is Jennifer's body and here's the description from Wikipedia-
A newly possessed cheerleader turns into a killer who specializes in offing her male classmates. Can her best friend put an end to the horror?)

Here you go:

She did have a nice body I must admit, but a bit of an over bite.  I think it should be watched about one time and then put into the archives.  Still, it was a good movie.   Sorta like a drum roll, starts out quiet, gets louder and in the end  you hear the boom!   For the body I give it 3 pops and for the movie 2 corns.  Enjoy!

Better late

Here's a few end of the year photos that I just got around to editing.

J is responsible for decorating the house, since he enjoys it so much. I do have to check on it afterward though. Here his tribal men are saluting Father Christmas, or getting ready to roast him, I don't know which.

 

Our lovely tree-topper, which my kids think should be retired. He is getting a little tattered, but he was a gift from my grandmother so he stays. (She didn't make him, but got him at a craft sale and probably my grandfather wouldn't let her use him!)

J's new kitchen TV, which was supposed to fit into the space above the microwave to replace the tiny one we had. It was just an inch too tall to squeeze in, so I had to do some minor surgery on the rack.

 

Our first major snowfall which gave us our white Christmas. It was so gray that day that the photo looks like it is black and white.

The TV and this were J's favorite gifts I think, although Ameranth did give him his caliper he was wishing for. 

Ms M gave him this, along with some paper soda jerk hats which he wouldn't model for me, saying "I never know where your pictures will show up".

Ameranth found Mr C his special gift, a Snoopy sno-cone maker, but I didn't get a picture of that either. I got some lovely earrings and Wii Fit Plus, as well as Donkey Kong Returns for the Wii.  It brings back memories of the old Nintendos we had when the kids were teens, especially since I am still having Ameranth bail me out of the hard parts!

The Wii Fit is fun, but harder than I expected. Could it be that I am out of shape? Pshaw. Although it does tell me that my BMI is too high and it made my Mii blow up like the Michelin man. Not funny, Wii.

New Rule

New cosmic rule suggestion: Any tooth that has had a root canal and a crown is not allowed any more problems. Ever.

Auxiliary rule: Pharmacists should not go to lunch mid-afternoon and their helper people should feel guilty when told you cannot wait 45 minutes for the antibiotics and you have to pick it up tomorrow so my infection can just rage on another 12 hours or so, not have a happy face that you are leaving!

Tertiary rule: Nobody wants to call an oral surgeon's office, so when your message says my call is important to you, and you will call me back, do so. Don't make me call 45 minutes later to hear that you are closed for the day.