What # day was it for rest?

It's been a bit busy around here, and blogging fell to the bottom of the list, along with making dinner, vacuuming and washing dishes. I had my annual physical last week (and yay for not needing intimate-lady-exam until 2012)-changed the prescription I take to help with pain, and sleep, and I am slowly getting used to it. The first few days were nauseous and sleepy, and then I started work on Monday!

 I received a letter from my former employer inviting me back for seasonal work and went for the hiring interview, expecting to start in the fall again. Much to my chagrin dismay surprise, I was told there was a class starting June 27th, and since I had no good reason to say no, here I am, back filling orders at the warehouse. Thank goodness for 'work hardening' because I need to ease into this! 4 hour days this week, 6 hours next week, then on to 8 hour days when the work is there.

This means I have to be up at 3 AM again (J gets up 15 minutes earlier) and that's bad enough , but it also means J and I go to bed by 7 PM at the latest and surprise- it's light outside! Our bedroom faces west so it's pretty darn light out and the birds are singing. I got up last night to let a surprised Boomer out to pee because the silly catbird outside our window can whine just like he does.

We've also been busy getting some little projects done before the kids come up for the weekend. J's got one of his horseshoe pits reclaimed from the jungle but ran out of the bargain play sand he had stashed away.

So, one down and one to go.

We've also been weeding flower gardens and trying to keep up with the lawn.

 

The old van is gone and I am driving Ameranth's Taurus station wagon, which is an evolving adjustment. At least once each day I hit the stupid alarm button instead of unlocking the doors, and I had to go to the manual to figure out the heat/ac digital array.  It's been a hectic 7 days. Oh yeah, we started work on another bedroom upstairs!

In the good news department, I snagged some more Ladyslipper photos from her mother's Facebook site. In the bad news side, she and Shoeshine will not be able to visit this summer as hoped, due to financial constraints. She's finally getting hair!

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!

Weekly Wrap-up

Well, I lived through the training week, although you can't convince my feet of that. I knew I was out of shape and yes, a lot of few pounds had crept onto my frame but my feet think I must weigh 500 pounds! (Which is not the case)

I did pass my skill check on the first try, but I am slooooow compared to the 20-something boys in our group. Okay, so I would be slower than 20-somethings  doing anything, except maybe dialing a telephone or spelling, but I feel old.

And short. I realized this week that I have mostly functioned in a world where I am not significantly shorter than others around me, but that is not true anymore and I don't like it.  When I was working full-time, it was mostly with other women, and the ones I worked closely with happened to be either my height (5'5") or shorter.  J is 5'7 5'8, so we're pretty close to even too. Both sons are close to 6 feet, but they don't live here anymore. This week, I was surrounded by tall(er) people and I didn't like it. Just sayin'.

We could only work 4 hours on the warehouse floor this week, 6 hours next week, then full time. It's called work hardening.  The dogs have not been happy with being put outside at 4 am and have made that abundantly clear when Ameranth got home around 10. (Since she was a rehire, she only worked 4 hours- I had the actual picking as well as training time) Little do they know that later they will be outside until 1:30 and have to wait for their dinner until then. Ameranth pointed out that this is their work hardening period as well.

 I am so looking forward to sleeping as late as I want to tomorrow, then we get an extra hour on Sunday, thanks to Daylight Savings Time. Or is Daylight Savings Time that is ending now, and we are on Standard Time? I could Google that, but I really don't care.  I will however turn the clock back to Halloween for another cute picture of Ladyslipper.

Ok, so it's two pictures but I had to have her face in one!

Photos of a cutie

Ms M visited Shoeshine while he had Ladyslipper for the weekend and got some wonderful photos. At least we think so!

I'm sure he appreciated Ms M's support for this first solo visit!

Hmm. I saw J walking outside a bit ago, and figured he was feeding hens or such. I just now saw him again, carrying a long silver tube, and leaning forward to look further, I saw his iron wheels now have an axle.  I fear he is making a cannon.

 For show only, I am sure.

Ladyslipper update

I just got a few more pictures of Ladyslipper from Shoeshine and figured I'd share. She and her mom visited Boulder over Memorial Day weekend.

Looks longer and leaner than my rolypoly babies!  The lack of hair is the same however.

We are still hoping for a visit to Maine but X's classes have caused the original plans to be changed. Maybe in September I'll get a chance to hold this little doll.

Happy Birthday Shoeshine!

Shoeshine is 31 today. How did that happen?

I think turning 30 last year jarred him a little, then he had a pretty eventful year, what with Ladyslipper showing up this past March. Ladyslipper hit him harder than turning 30 did, that's for sure! He was able to spend a week with her this month and was happy that she accepted him right away, even if she seems to be giving him a "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" look here.

He managed to teach her how to stick out her tongue before he left, but no pictures of that so far. I look forward to seeing this relationship grow. He is just starting to realize how much his life has changed- for the better.

She smiles

Shoeshine sent this picture he got today with Ladyslipper smiling:

I just mentioned this to him yesterday, saying that she should be smiling and laughing soon, so maybe he would be able to see that when he visits next week. And then we get this.

Made me remember back when we had babies and how much the smiles and laughter can make you forget the sleepless nights and dirty diapers.

                 This is cute too, but can't beat that smile.

Testing- yes, it's working!

It was a Blogger/Google uploading problem and seems to be fixed.  Yay!

And let's see if I can get my favorite one up here- She looks like " I am the queen sleeping, do not disturb".

 

I really wish she were closer to us, not over 1500 miles away. But, at least I get pictures and updates. I sent X a picture of our family so she can use it as a visual aid when Ladyslipper gets older, lol.

3-17-2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Last year I wrote about marrying into an Irish clan, so I won't repeat myself- at least not intentionally. Suffice it to say this is a celebrated and decorated day at our house.

My last post  with Shoeshine's picture drove J to learning how to comment on my blog! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? He hasn't found a similar hat yet though.

 Speaking of Shoeshine, he sent a new picture of Ladyslipper last night, not clad in green, but still very cute- he called it Disco Baby:

  I don't remember those little elastic hairbands when my kids were little, but I love them. And Ms M certainly could have used them, I don't think she had much hair until she was at least a year old. Ameranth came with hair. Ha, that makes her sound like a Barbie or My Little Pony. Fully assembled, no batteries needed.

Anyway, this is a good week for us. Far enough north that we missed the torrential downpours, it's sunny and above normal temperatures, company is coming tomorrow, so the house is clean(er) and best of all, J's tongue biopsy came back all normal, nothing to worry about. A very good week indeed.

Finally, a baby!

J and I are grandparents for the first time! We've been ready for this for a few years now, but were not in the driver's seat, so to speak. And I tried not to be a back seat driver, but it was hard.

Of course, since my life is no fairy tale, the baby didn't come to my one married offspring, but to Shoeshine and a girlfriend who was an ex before the stork made reservations.  X moved back to MN to be with her family, so our newest family member is nowhere near to us. Shoeshine and X are working out the details of co-parenting at a distance, and X has been very good about sending email updates and shower pictures, etc.

Born 3/3/10, 7lbs 2 oz, 19 inches long with black hair(supposedly), here she is:

Ladyslipper!

 I think she's definitely the prettiest baby born today! And probably this week.