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Did you know? When a baby barfs up formula it smells like french fries.

Today we had to run out all crazy and drop Freddie’s lunch off to him at work, stop at Target (which is fortunately 50 feet away from his office) for diapers and formula, then hotfoot it back homeward for playgroup.

Or not, as the case may be. See, lately, Jillian has been a drool machine. The baby books tell you that this is usually a sign of teething. Well, it’s been three months since she got her first teeth and there are no new ones on the horizon so the drool is just… there. There is SO MUCH drool that Jillian occasionally chokes on it, slightly, and ends up coughing and spluttering and generally being a huge drama queen.

Sometimes, though - the drama queen act goes into Method territory and she barfs. A lot. All over her expensive and pain-in-the-ass to clean car seat. This is what she did today, when we were halfway home. I saw the whole thing in the mirror but was powerless to stop it. The best I could do was get a wipe out of the diaper bag and reach back there and get the barf off of her face (we were stopped at a light) and then drive as fast as I could to get us home before I started barfing.

Like I said, formula barf smells like french fries.

So I got us home, threw Jillian in the bath and got her cleaned up. I then stuck her in the playpen while I manhandled the car seat out of the car and took it apart. Then I hosed it all off and now it’s outside, drying.

Now I’m a bit pissed off at the fact that I cannot, for the life of me, find another car seat cover for this thing. Oh sure, there are the “custom” ones on Ebay, but I want an actual Britax one, to be quite honest. The Britax website doesn’t let you shop it yet, which is stupid in this day and age, and most retailers only carry full car seats, not covers. Bleh. I could call Britax and order something directly, which I may do, but what a pain in my ever-expanding ass.

RIP Blazeman.

Jillian is getting more and more mobile by the day. I think she’s going to skip crawling and go straight to driving a car. Well, walking, anyway. The rolling thing she currently does seems to be working out well enough for her that she doesn’t feel like she needs to actually crawl anywhere.

But.

She has started pulling up on things like furniture. We don’t have a coffee table - just two IKEA cube hassocks with ugly removable slipcovers and SHARP CORNERS! Oh, fun! These are Jillian’s new favorite things in the house, which means I spend a great deal of time trying to make sure she’s not killing herself.

She is also quite bored with all of her toys and is extremely interested in whatever I have in my hand. The TV remote, for example. Normally, I can keep this out of her drooly reach by putting it on the couch or the arm of the couch or even on one of the hassocks.

Not anymore. She got her sticky paws on the remote today and managed to hit ‘mute’ while I was watching The Breakfast Club. I tried, gently, to take the remote away from her and replace it with something more suitable and she pretty much lost her mind.

My mom will read this and laugh, because that is precisely what I have been known to do.

Jillian screeched like I had just killed her puppy, and would not calm down for almost twenty full minutes. I tried to substitute other toys; I even gave her my wallet, which is usually a big hit. Nothing doing. I eventually gave in and handed the remote back to her.

I can only see this getting worse as we graduate from babyhood to toddlerhood. She already reacts badly to “NO” and to being redirected when she’s doing something I would rather she not do, like lick the vertical blinds or grab my hair. Is it possible for the terrible twos to start at 10 months?

… the more details you notice.

I’ve seen The Breakfast Club at least one hundred times, no exaggeration. However, I’m watching it right now and I just noticed something.


They’re in the library at the school, right? On the door of the library are the hours: Mon-Fri 8:00AM to 3:30PM. Seems about right, doesn’t it? But it also says: Closed Sat. - Sun.

And that’s… weird. It’s in a school, so wouldn’t it be closed on the weekends by definition?

I don’t know if I have ever bought anything from a classified ad. Now, with the advent of Ebay and craigslist, perhaps the classified ad is going the way of the dinosaur. I still like to check them out, though. Sometimes you can find very interesting things.

Like what, you ask? Well, that I cannot tell just yet because the thing I found that I might buy is going to be a gift. So after I present the recipient with said gift (assuming, of course, that the item in question is in good enough condition for me to buy it), then I will tell.

I’m just tickled to death that I was able to find it!

I am slowly [and against my will] becoming domesticated. I don’t like it, but there it is. I grew up in a house where the housekeeping standards were, if we’re being charitable, decidedly lax. Mess and clutter were ever-present. That’s the danger of living in a creative family - there’s always something more interesting to do besides clean the house.

I had the good sense to marry a man who came from a Pottery-Barn-ad-house. Seriously, Pottery Barn ads look like packrat dwellings compared to how Freddie grew up. So throw my packratty goodness in with his borderline neat-freak self and you have some interesting times.

Over the years, we have figured out how to live in the middle. The house is reasonably clean, even if you can’t do surgery in my kitchen. The clutter is a little harder to keep at bay, but I do the best I can. Between books, baby gear, and triathlon gear, we have precious little room for anything else!

I make a lot of lists. I find this is the best tool to ensure that projects actually get started rather than talked about. We can sit around all day and talk about how we really ought to lint-brush the furniture, mop the floor, brush the cat, et cetera. Once it gets written down on a list, the urge is there to cross it off, so things actually get done!

Today’s list concerns the patio. I would like to get some things to pretty up the backyard, plus I’d like to maybe get some tomato plants or similar that I can grow in tubs. I fear my herb garden will just have to live in the house because the squirrels will eat it. But the patio needs some life and color, so that’s the goal for today.

The long-term goal is to keep these plants alive all summer. We were doing so well last year until Jillian came along. We spent four days in the hospital, and those four days happened to be the hottest days of the year. The plants didn’t get watered and they died. Oh well! We were busy!

The year before that we did pretty well, keeping the plants alive until well into October. That was when we should have brought them inside for the winter but by the time we got motivated to do that (didn’t get on the list, you see), the first frost had happened and the plants went bye-bye.

Can it be done? My thumbs are so not-green that I can kill FAKE PLANTS. I’ve done it, honest! My basil plant is still alive after over a month of my care, so I have high hopes for the rest of my plants this year. Wish me luck!

Would you mess with this baby?
I certainly wouldn’t!

She has a stick and she knows how to use it!

Before I got pregnant, I was tense and high-strung. That’s not to say that I’m not still tense and high-strung, but if my pre-pregnancy personality was a 10 on the tense-o-meter, my post-pregnancy personality is more like a 4.

It helps that I have recently had a humungous weight lifted from my shoulders. Now that that source of tension is gone, things have changed significantly for me.

But even before that, I noticed that once I got pregnant, I mellowed out considerably. I got pregnant a lot easier and faster than I had expected, so I had to stop my Crazy Pills sort of instantly instead of tapering down like you’re supposed to. And then, I found I didn’t need them anymore. I was calmer and able to relax! Who knew?

Also, before I got pregnant, I had fierce PMS. PMS has always turned me into the worst version of myself and if you know me at all, well, take whatever your opinion is and double it. I was really horrible. On top of that, there was the bloating and the cramps and the chills and the zits and the other fun things that come with PMS.

Drugs never helped. Not any legal drugs, at any rate.

The only good thing about PMS was that I had some notice that my period was coming. After the onset of symptoms, I could pretty much pinpoint to the hour the onset of the fun. I could prepare, make sure I was home and near a bathroom or at least I would have supplies with me.

Now? Well, pregnancy does a lot of fun things to your body, not all of them beneficial. But I seem to have cured PMS! I’m as shocked as anybody. I woke up this morning and went about my normal day, then I went to go pee and… Oh. Hmmm.

This is only the second month that it’s been back since I got pregnant in November 2005, so maybe I’m jumping the gun with my “I’m CURED!” Maybe. But thinking back over the last week or so, there has been no indication AT ALL that this was coming. No bloating. No cramps. No evil mean lady. If anything, I have spent the last week being a much nicer version of myself, in a concerted effort to be a little less negative. So this morning’s surprise was truly that.

I just googled “PMS after pregnancy” and what I see is that PMS can sometimes start or get worse after having been pregnant. I’m sure it’s a reaction to the Hormone Rodeo, but I seem to be having the opposite effect here. Maybe my body has finally figured itself out.

We did end up going to the park but we only stayed about 45 minutes. After checking to make sure the swing wasn’t too hot, I put Jillian in it and swung her for about 15 minutes. She absolutely LOVES the swing, and spent the whole time swinging and babbling and singing. She is so incredibly cute! Once I have time to spend here messing with image sizing and uploading, I’ll post some photos of her swinging.

I didn’t want to keep her in the sun too long despite the eighteen gallons of SPF 45 I slathered on her, so we retired to the shade of a big tree. I even put a blanket down for her to sit on because I know she hates grass.

We had a grand old time, watching the birds and the squirrels and the people in their underwear walking around. Oh yes, there was a couple at the park who were laying out in the sun. At first I thought they just had their swimsuits on, but a closer look revealed that they were, in fact, lounging around in their underpantses. The woman had on a bra and undies, and the man had on navy-blue Fruit of The Looms, which I initially mistook for a Speedo. Brave people, them.

There were a couple of other kids there, but nobody Jillian’s age and nobody we know. Most of our buddies live across town and go to a different park, plus it was really quite warm and sunny today so most people probably stayed inside.

It is hot today, no joke. It’s starting to get hot in the house but I’m not going to be the one to turn on the A/C! I’d rather sweat! I think I’m going to go make some iced tea.

Hoo boy, it’s hot today! I want to take Jillian to the park but there isn’t a lot of shade there. Maybe this afternoon instead. Plus, the landscapers are all mowing and otherwise making noise which is aggravating my allergies on top of this cold that I seem to have gotten! Because they’re mowing, we really can’t go out back and sit in the grass. It would really mess up my weekend if I were to get hit by a lawn mower.

What to do, what to do? We could go to the Other Park, but that involved packing up the car and stuff and Other Park is always super-crowded and we might not get a turn on the swings. Plus I don’t really feel like I should be driving to a park when we have one within walking distance. Hmm.

At least the tree pollen seems to be dying down. It was pretty gross for awhile, with the grody green tinge on my car and the dust flying around the house whenever I have the windows open. Ick.

You know what? We are going to go to the park. I just decided. Possibly by the time we get back they will have mowed our section and Jillian and I will be able to take naps.