Friday, December 30, 2005

Merried out


It's Friday already? Geez.

After we got around and got exposed to everybody's germs, we've been illin' all week. Mikey has a sore throat/coughing thing, I have a queasy stomach/body aches thing, and Britt has a fever/barfing/snotting thing.

Poor Britt -- it's only the third time she's ever been sick, and she's not sleeping much. Neither are we. She won't eat much, either. Trying to get baby Tylenol into her mouth is like wrestling a bear. She doesn't like the booger-puller much, either, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

I've managed to get through without barfing on sheer willpower so far -- I hate throwing up that much. Finally got over over my anti-pharmaceutical self long enough to pop an Advil for the body aches, and that made me perky enough to try out my new Swiffer Wet-Jet that Santa brought me (yes, I did ask for one). Well, not perky enough to try out the special scrubber pad, so the stubborn spots are still there -- but otherwise my kitchen floor looks pretty good. The rest of the house is a pit, though. It's been a rough week.

Anyway, we took our first long car trip with Britt -- three hours to Tahlequah on Friday and three hours back on Saturday -- and she slept a little and squirmed and fussed a lot but mostly she glared at us like we were the two most heartless people in the world for keeping her strapped into the car seat all that time.

Tried to get her to show off her dancing skills for my family in Tahlequah, but of course she wouldn't do it. Then we spent Christmas Day back here with Mikey's family and she danced her little butt off for them.

Had a couple of misadventures over the weekend -- one of Kenny's boys was chasing Britt around Debbie's sofa and she fell face-first with her binky in her mouth and busted her lip. It bled a little -- all over the front of my new Ralph Lauren sweater -- but she got over it pretty quickly. On Sunday at Mikey's folks', she went to give Buddy the Bernese Mountain Dog some love and he knocked her down and did the Happy Dance on top of her tiny little body -- a horrifying moment because Buddy is one big-ass dog. He knocked me down a time or two while I was trying to grab her out from under him. It's a miracle that there wasn't any damage done -- to her or to the dog.

I was pretty well used up after that but the holidays were not yet over for us. Oh, hell, no, because my mother-in-law's birthday was Monday. We usually go out to a restaurant for a family-only celebration, but Candy and her husband just moved into a new house and wanted have the party there, so we showed up at the appointed time and it was one of my worst nightmares -- a roomful of people I didn't know. And a few people I knew slightly:

WELL, HIIIIII!!! HOW YA BEEN? HAVEN'T SEEN YEW IN AAAAAGES!!!!

(Oh, God, don't hug me please don't hug me don't don't oh nooooooo...)

By this point, I was ready to spill my own blood on my other new Ralph Lauren sweater.

Anyway, we got through it and then we went home and got sick. And that's about all we've been doing all week.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Little Sis says


Image hosted by Photobucket.com

I want YOU to have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Me & Sis went Christmas shopping


yesterday (Mikey's been taking care of most of it, but I still had to do a little), and she was such a good girl. She always is when we go out, probably because we don't get out much.

Her exceptional cuteness was oohed and aahed over by customers and salespeople everywhere we went, to which she responded by waving and blowing kisses.

She sure knows how to play to an audience, Sis does.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Two not-so-fabulous firsts


Britt's been scribbling with crayons on scrap paper, so I thought maybe it was time to introduce her to coloring books. So I bought a couple yesterday and thought we'd have fun coloring together.

We sat down last night to color some kitty-cats -- Britt would scribble a few strokes and hand her crayon to me and fret. I'd scribble a few strokes with it to show her what to do and then I'd hand it back to her. This went on over and over again until she was getting too stressed out over it, so I put the coloring books away for a few more months. I was like, "My word, Sis, don't take it so hard. This is supposed to be fun!"

I dunno what her issue was, unless I have a budding perfectionist on my hands and she just didn't feel like she was doing it right.

The other first: Brittany had her first Happy Meal! I know, I know -- bad Grammy! But the key to handling this child is to keep her on a regular schedule and she was late for her nap after our running around all morning and I didn't have time to cook a proper lunch, so she had chicken nuggets and fries and apple juice. It was also her first experience with a juice box and of course she had to squeeze it and squirt juice all over herself.

I was really pissed when I saw what her first-ever Happy Meal toy was. It was a little character figure from Narnia. Lucy, I think? I dunno, I've never read any of the Narnia stuff -- fantasy is not my cup o' tea. Anyway, she had a book in one hand and when you move this little button on her back, the arm with the book goes up and down, like a Heil Hitler salute.

We had a helium balloon from one of the stores we went to yesterday morning, so I tied the string around Lucy's neck to see if she would float but she was too heavy. I probably shouldn't let Britt see me exhibiting passive-aggressive behaviors like that because she's such a little copycat, but I was so bummed that her very first Happy Meal toy was so lame.

Grammy's little helper


Brittany's learning how to be a proper little housekeeper, just by watching me.

Hey, quit snickering. I'm a better housekeeper than I used to be, but nobody ever comes down here to see me so how would you know?

Anyway, she helps unload the dishwasher by handing me one piece of silverware at a time. She hasn't figured out the distinction between clean dishes out/dirty dishes in yet, so I have to load the dishwasher with one leg thrust out along the edge of the door so I can block her from grabbing the dirty silverware as soon as it goes in.

She helps me do laundry, too, but if I don't hand her some clean things to throw into the dryer, she'll grab things from the dirty clothes pile and throw them in.

When she's finished eating, she'll yank off her bib and wipe down the tray of her high chair, sending bits of leftover food flying all over the floor.

She takes good care of her baby doll, too. She kisses and cuddles it and feeds it a bottle, just like I do with her.

She'll be stirring a spoon around a bowl at her little play kitchen and she'll come over and give us "bites" of whatever it is she's cooking up. It's awful cute and all, but I'm glad she's too short to help me at the big stove.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Oh, the horror


Took Britt to her 15-month checkup this morning and she screamed, squalled, flailed, thrashed and kicked all the way through it. I don't know if it was stranger anxiety (she acts that way when Aunt Bridgie comes over, but this was worse -- Aunt Bridgie should come visit more often, BTW, so she won't be a stranger) or if she remembered that it's the place where she gets needles poked into her legs, but it was pure hell.

Anyway, she weighed 23 1/2 pounds and was 28 1/4 inches tall -- if they managed to measure this whirling dervish of a child accurately, which I doubt -- dropping her down to the fifth percentile heightwise, meaning 95% of babies her age are taller than she is. I'll measure her myself later and see how close they got.

And yes, she did get more needles poked into her legs, poor baby.

Then we went Christmas shopping for two hours and I managed to get exactly one item knocked off my list. Woo-hoo!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

To tree or not to tree, Part 2


Mikey has decided he wants to put up the Christmas tree after all. I said, "How do we keep Brittany off of it?" He said, "We'll just keep telling her no, until she understands not to touch it."

Um, yeah. He means I'll keep telling her no, since he's gone to work all day. I've been trying to keep her out of the kitchen trash can ever since she got mobile, and she's still fascinated by it. I tell her no daily, and it seems to have no effect whatsoever.

Anyway, somebody suggested putting up the tree inside the playpen, where she can look but not touch. That's an excellent idea, except:

1. It's currently being used as a toybox, but we could move the toys somewhere else temporarily.

2. It's currently parked in front of the aquarium to keep Brittany from tipping it over on herself somehow (I'm very paranoid about that), which is not an ideal spot for tree placement.

3. The playpen measures 28 x 40 inches, so the tree wouldn't fit inside it unless we left all the bottom branches off.

(***sigh***)

I'm less than enthused about this -- can you tell?

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Brittany the Orange-Nosed Cutie


She has carotenemia, which was pointed out to me at her 9-month checkup by her pediatrician and again at her 12-month checkup. She's due for her 15-month checkup next week and it's still there, even though she doesn't eat much baby food anymore. I hope the doctor doesn't jump my ass about it.

I still think she's a beauty, even if she does have a little carrot nose:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

It matches this autumn leaf box hat she likes to wear:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

But it clashes with her fuzzy pink hat:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Dunno how long it'll take to fade away. I guess her doctor would know.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Britt has a molar!


Been watching closely for the two lateral incisors on top to come through. They're almost but not quite offically there yet.

In the meantime, she snuck a molar in on us!

PS: Plus a new lateral incisor on the bottom -- just discovered that one this evening.

Friday, December 02, 2005

To tree or not to tree


is the question we're grappling with.

We usually have our Christmas tree up by now, and the only place to put it is in the dining room, but that's Brittany's toy room now and she's gonna think it's a big new toy for her to play with. How do we keep her from stripping everything within reach off of it? The space is too big to block off. And if we do put up the tree, we can't put presents under it anyway because tearing paper is one of her favorite activities.

(***sigh***)

Maybe we'll have to skip it this year. I dunno.

Sleeping like a baby


Finally got Brittany adjusted to her new naptime/bedtime schedule and the past three nights have been blessedly peaceful. The two nights before that were not.

Sunday night she woke up at 1:30 am and didn't go back to sleep until after 4:00. I gave up on rocking her and brought her into bed with us, where she spun and flailed and delivered a hard kick to my left boob that nearly made me swallow my tongue. But she also kissed and patted my face so sweetly that I couldn't get too mad at her.

Monday night she woke up every time we tried to put her down -- Mikey and I took turns rocking her and were so frustrated that we started snapping at each other, which we never do. When I finally decided she was just gonna have to cry it out, she went right off to sleep.

The next three nights she went to sleep right on time, and stayed asleep through the night, so I think we're through the worst of it. I hope so anyway.