Sunday, September 27, 2009

Book Log #3

Started yesterday:
The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman
There is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems (also finished it... and probably gonna read it again today)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Sushi. And pictures. But SUSHI!

Tactical bacon.

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Pictures.



Turtle!




My sleepy boys, during a 5am teething-crying time.


Amazing lilies from the Farmer's Market.


This is the coolest ceiling fan I have ever seen.


And this may be the creepiest kid's book I've ever seen.


We have an Ergo carrier now. It is awesome.






Look at those long legs!










That's a sippy cup full of miso soup.


And that was some amazing sushi.


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I have leftover sushi for breakfast. Yum.

Headed to the DC Book Festival in the morning. Should be . . . tiring. Sigh.

Also going here: Asperger's Adults of Greater Washington

Signs of Exhaustion

So. Tired.

So. Much. Teething. Nine teeth now. More coming. So much pain.

Tactical Bacon exists. I want some.

Signing Time with Alex and Leah is wonderful.

All I want to do today is retreat into a world of words, until I pass out. Then maybe, after sleep, I'll have the energy to be Mama.

Pondering doing a movie log, too. Just because.

Elijah is walking, and signing, and trying to talk. He said, "Okay." one day when I said, "We're going to go in here, okay?" He hasn't said it since, although when I asked him in front of Aunt Nicole, "Did you say 'okay' earlier?", he said, "Uh-huh!" and nodded. I don't know whether it was on purpose, but Nicole nearly fell out of her chair laughing.

We're still watching Your Baby Can Read, and any video on ASL for kids that we can find.

I'm compiling a list of the signs that Elijah uses. He understands when I say, "Can you show me the sign for __?" Which means that if I know he knows the word for something, I can teach him the sign without actually having to have the thing present. I taught him the sign for "cat" that way, yesterday. He does it wrong, but he does them all wrong. He doesn't have the manual dexterity for it yet.

However, he knows:
Bath
Cat
More
Milk
Mama
Daddy
Clean
Banana
All done
Change
Water
Eat
Ball

Book Log #2

Finished:
Twilight #3

Actively Reading:
Belinda, by Anne Rice (writing as Anne Rampling)
Twilight #4
Baby Days: Activities, Ideas, and Games for Enjoying Daily Life with a Child Under Three, by Barbara Rowley

Picked up from the library for Elijah:
My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch
Animalia
The Water Hole
all by Graeme Base

Things nearby with bookmarks:
The Wilding, by CS Friedman
The Little, Brown Handbook
Toddler Play
Ravens in the Library
In the Shadow of the Gargoyle
something by Stephen Fry, I can't remember or see the title
The Fearless Gourmet
The New How to Keep House

Friday, September 18, 2009

Three hours? Huh.

Brian took Elijah with him to D&D tonight, because I had a terrible day between migraine, joint pain, and Elijah's teething. I'd had plans to spend a lot of time focusing on Elijah and teaching him more signs and words and playing with him, and then I just plain couldn't, it was all I could do to keep him fed and vaguely occupied and try to eat something myself and not fall over. I was falling apart when Brian got home, so he plied me with Italian food (the migraine let up a little sometime during dinner, enough at least for me to think--the joint pain is still there at the moment, though) and then took the babyface away for the evening.

I had three hours to myself--that hasn't happened for a few months, since Aunt Dani took the boy while I was sick. And I couldn't exactly enjoy it then.

Three hours! It felt like longer, which is odd. Usually I'm desperate for more time, but this time I got to the point where I wanted my boys back. That's good. That's a turning point for me.

I had a clove, talked to my mom, tidied up some toys, had a bath and a shave, read a book, and watched more Supernanny. Seems like a lot. It was nice and relaxing and helpful and awesome.

And Brian returned with glorious stories of how much everyone loved Elijah and how well-behaved he was.

So a bad day turned into a good night.

Thank you.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A day.

This is awesome:


Dumb Cat Can't Figure Out How To Drink - Watch more Funny Videos

I want a cat.

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My dad sent Elijah a grab bag from a Pow Wow that he and my mom went to over the weekend. This grab bag contained two army men, an army truck, a balloon, and a water gun.

Is it just me, or is a set of American army men just about the single most tasteless thing one could offer at a Native American event?

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Elijah has eaten:
-a banananana
-some cow's milk
-rice
-pho noodles
-mac and cheese
-Cheerios

Keeping it simple today because he had a bad night. I should have thought of that BEFORE the mac and cheese, but, well. Tomorrow may just be Cheerios and breastmilk, depending on how tonight goes.

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Today was a good day. Spending time with friends is good.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Book Log #1

My current ACTIVE reading list:
Twilight, book #3
The Wilding, by CS Friedman
The New How to Keep House, by Mary Davis Gillies
In the Shadow of the Gargoyle, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
Ravens in the Library, edited by SatyrPhil Brucato and Sandra Buskirk


Have bookmarks but haven't touched in a week or more:
Kitty and the Midnight Hour
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Six Easy Pieces, by Richard Feynman
The World's Shortest Stories
Bunnicula (although I've read it an awful lot of times so I'm not sure it counts)
Culture Shock! The South
(and a couple of BDSM books my mom doesn't want to know about I'm sure)

I recently finished:
Nanny 911

Random

We have 12 followers. That's pretty awesome. Hi guys!

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Cheerios, Baby Sign, Google Reader, a warm blanket... my morning. Words? Maybe. Maybe not.

Elijah has some weird banananana flavoured puff thingers that showed up in my backpack, apparently while my backpack was in a friend's house and I was elsewhere. Those strange banananananana things are much appreciated, as the babyface is quite enjoying them this morning.

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I'm glad I live in a world where drunk chess players are news. It's hilarious!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Morning, and Boys in Pink

Cheerios - check
Baby Sign DVD - check
Dogs have gone out (all four of them) - check

Whyyy did we get up at 7am? Especially when we were tossing and turning all night? My eyes hurt.

I should point out that despite recent evidence, Elijah and I usually sleep very well. We cosleep, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. He nurses once or twice during the night, and we don't fully wake up for that. I get 7-8 hours of (lightly interrupted) sleep a night. I could get more if I went to sleep when he did (and if I'm particularly exhausted, that's what I do). But lately, for some reason, I haven't been sleeping so well. He's been fine; it's me. And last night, he wasn't sleeping well either, whether from having caught my mild cold, or because I kept waking up, I don't know.

Either way, my eyes hurt.

---

Yardsales and thrift stres are amazing. This weekend's haul has gained us, for under $100: A 20 gallon long aquarium, for the turtle; 25 DVD movies (Charlotte's Web, Fifth Element, Stardust, The Day After Tomorrow, the Lord of the Rings movies, Donnie Brasco... lots! Full Metal Jacket! Apocalypse Now! Some of my favourites :) ); jeans and shirts for me; jeans and overalls for Elijah; some plush animals; some books; and Elijah's pink fedora. Amazing :D

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I had other things I wanted to ramble about. What were they? Hmm.

Oh! Susan Boyle.

Although I don't know what to say about her. I wanted to tell the story about how I don't have a TV (rather, we have a TV, but it's purely for watching DVDs and playing video games--we don't have cable), but I do have YouTube, and my mom gave me a name. And I fell in love. And if my head hurt less, maybe I could tell that story. It involves the faces of friends of mine going from skeptical to OMG baffled. And it was beautiful.

Anyway, her debut album is out, and I need to remember to get it one of these days.

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Elijah has gotten the sign for "Daddy" confused with just pointing at his head. Like his head is now called "Daddy" and "head". I'm not sure how to fix this :p

There are a couple of signs he's doing regularly that we haven't taught and I can't figure out what he's trying to say.

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But you're really just here for the pictures, aren't you?



I was trying to get a shot of him sitting on the futon like a big boy, but he decided to climb around instead.


TURTLE!


CAT! (And HAT!)


The turtle now has what will become a nice terrarium :)


Tiny turtle :D


Hugging the giant ball :)


All clean. And drinking water.




I'm making up for the last of breastfeeding shots in this blog :p




Pirate!


There's that hat again!




"Yard sales are so. boring."


But the cat is cool!




He needs more pink clothes.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Hat

Elijah has a pink fedora because he cried when we tried to leave it at the thrift store. Pictures will happen tomorrow.

Baby Brains, mmmm

We're watching Baby Sign (yes, again. we watch it most mornings. I need a bigger library of baby DVDs.), and when the speech therapist lady with big hair came on the screen, Elijah put his hands on his head. What is he thinking?

I would give a LOT to know what he's thinking, all the time. My favourite computer game is the original Creatures game, where you raise cute little creatures called a Norns. There's a function that allows you to see what your Norn is looking at. I want that for Elijah! Arrrrg! What is he seeing? What he is thinking? It drives me crazy if I let myself think about it.

So. Someone. Now. Get to work on baby-brain-interpreter machine type thing.

I'd do it myself, but I've got six loads of laundry to do.

(And I'm not a brain surgeon or telepath.)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Sneezes & Pictures

I'm sick.

Being sick makes me incredibly whiny.

Thai medicine helps me be less whiny.

Elijah is not sick, which is good. He has also been very accommodating the last couple of days, playing with his toys and watching his videos and giving me hugs when I ask.

To spare you the whining (since when do I want to do that?), have some pictures.

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Dressed all in black. He got very confused by those socks and took them off.


Looots of toys.


All cleaned up and sorted!


He was really loving that watermelon.


This is my home while I'm sick. It's full of magazines and books... which mostly get ignored in favor of the computer. (Except Nanny 911, which is there too.)


This is the toy cat Elijah picked up at the grocery store :)