Watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Daddy

This was the calm before the storm. I attempted to fix all of Thanksgiving dinner myself. Ok, Simon helped; but it was still a lot of work. It was lonely without any family here too. I missed everyone. No nieces and nephews, no aunties, and no Gammie and Grandpa. Just us. You all suck! Leaving us alone at Thanksgiving. So this is all the Ellie you get until you show up for her birthday next Saturday. Safe and happy travels. We will have Thanksgiving leftovers waiting for you. (Just kidding). Seriously, can't wait to see you peoples.

Happy 18th Birthday, My Sweet Boy

San Xavier Mission

Don't Use Your Momma as a Kleenex

Ellie has her very first cold. She is miserable, especially at night. Which makes Momma miserable, and everyone knows when Momma is miserable, everyone is miserable. Last night sucked. Ellie just didn't sleep from about midnight onwards. I finally escaped from her room around 4 AM. She woke up around 6:30 her usual time. Which was way too early. Simon brought her into our room. My eyes would not open. Simon wisely decided to take her with him when he took Philip to school around 7 AM. That hours sleep was so great. Thank you sweet husband.

So I am thinking that I need to get a humidifier for her room. Perhaps that will help with the strangling snot stage of her icky cold. (Here in AZ we have humidity of about 8% in the fall/winter. You can dry clothes on a hanger in the closet. It is that dry). So any humidifier advice would be good. I am a serious humidifier novice. Go figure. I had one kid already. I should be an expert. But the Philip didn't really have bad colds. He had Group A streptococcus. He had it 8 times. So if you want to know anything about Strep throat, I'm your man or Momma.

I heard a kids song the other day that made me laugh. The chorus was, "Don't use your Momma as a Kleenex." I laughed because Ellie didn't have a cold at the time. Now I am thinking someone needs to come up with a Kleenex dress just for Mommas during cold season. I would wear it. As long as it was in my colors.

Queen of Our Sleepless Nights

Simon's very cool Nightmare Before Xmas Jack o Lantern.

Flash photography sucks.

Seriously, Olan Mills, eat your heart out.

The Brother's Brio Set

We had no idea the Brio would go untouched for a decade or more before that next baby showed up. 

Sunday Morning Sunshine

She was a little sleepy.

Ellie went to sleep last night at 6:30 and then woke every two hours during the night and early morning. I thought I had a newborn. She doesn't have a fever. She doesn't seem to be teething. So this is the way I found her after putting her in the high chair for some lunch. She had been sitting there about 2 minutes. Silly baby girl.

Ten and a half months old

She crawls, She claps, she says random words like mine and up. She cries when we drink water in front of her and don't share. She has only slept 6 hours in a row, ever. She is a happy, healthy baby. We can not remember what life was like without her except that I am sure we got more sleep. WE LOVE THE ELLIE.

Oh, that is what the top of my dining room table looks like.

Since way before we went on vacation the dining room table has been cluttered with a bunch of crap. (We added vacation stuff to it as well.) We have been eating breakfast at the kitchen island and every other meal out in the great room in front of the t.v. Seriously, so white trash. Yesterday afternoon I put stroganoff in the slow cooker and I was determined that we would eat dinner at the dining room table. I sifted and organized and cajoled Simon into putting his stuff away and what do ya know? I finally saw the top of the table. We had dinner there in the dining room with cloth napkins and everything. We felt so fancy. Ellie was all excited. Philip did some serious teenager complaining about it. (White trash behavior doesn't bother him one little bit.) So here is a picture of my dining room table taken for posterity.

Green Beans

Guess who refuses to wear a bib and just learned how to blow raspberries with a mouthful of green beans?

Our vacation sucked

Not to say Mom and Dad weren't great hosts. It wasn't that. It was EVERYTHING else. The stomach flu was just the start. Every time we thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. Then the baby just stopped sleeping. Ok, she slept a bit but it wasn't enough. We went to Sunday brunch in Durango, Colorado for Mom's 70th birthday and a monster storm came in and bout blew us off the patio. Then we ran inside and it hailed. We waited about an hour inside the restaurant for it to stop. (They broke out buckets all over the place because their roof leaked.)

Then Monday Simon attempted to go mountain biking and I was driving him up the mountain and forgot that the bike was on the roof rack when we arrived and I almost scraped off the bike in some low hanging trees. We then  decided almost 6 sleepless nights were enough for us and headed back home Wednesday morning.

We were between Kayenta, AZ and Tuba City, AZ driving across the rez in yet another storm. (Unbeknownst to us there were tornado warnings for all of Northern Arizona.) A huge gust of wind hit us and the front bike tire secured to the bike rack rolled right off the car. Simon saw it in the rear view mirror bounce away, barely missing the car behind us. There was some serious spazzing that ensued, as if our lives depended on us retrieving that bike tire. There was a quick turn around followed by pulling off the side of the road onto no shoulder at all. Followed by a quick run across the highway in the rain to look for the tire. While I was running back to the car (where we had left both kids) I thought to myself, "what are we risking our kid's lives for?" A damn bike tire, that's what. Luckily it began to hail and Simon ran back to the car. He hadn't found the tire. I had him slow the car and Philip and I strained our eyes to look for it on the side of the road. Hail stung our faces while we looked , but damn if we could see that tire anywhere. It was long gone.

We stopped at the Elephant's Feet a little further down the road and fed the baby and everyone got out to stretch their legs. We had just pulled back on the road and Simon realized his cell phone was missing. We went back to the Elephant's Feet, but no cell. Seriously? A freakin bike tire and a cell phone lost within minutes of one another. I said out loud, "I am pretty sure it just has to get better." It did for awhile. We missed the 4 tornadoes that had touched down earlier that day in Flagstaff. We still had both kids with us. We hadn't lost either one of them. We stopped for lunch in Flagstaff. (Things are so much better with a tummy full of yummy chili beans and cornbread.)

Heading towards Phoenix on I-17 we stopped for caffeine and a snack at a rest area. (It was my turn to drive.) The snack machine malfunctioned and gave us flaming pork rinds. We decided to leave them in the snack tray for the next lucky customer. Philip saw a guy using the snack machine and said he looked like he would love Flaming Pork Rinds. Sure enough, a chubby guy in a t-shirt and cargo shorts had them in his hand with a huge smile on his face. We were so happy Flaming Pork Rinds made someone's day.

The rest of the drive to Tucson was great. Philip jabbering on about science fiction in the front seat and Ellie sleeping quietly in the back seat. We finally get home and walk in the front door and expect our three lonely cats to come running to say hi, but no cats. Philip ran and opened the baby's room and out came our big black cat Mowgli frantically looking for water. He had been locked in the baby's room. He had used the baby's crib for a poop box and the single bed to pee on. Then Philip opened the door to his room and out popped our other two cats. They, thankfully had a glass of water to drink from, so they were spared total dehydration. Philip's leather computer chair had been used as a cat box but our female kitties are considerate and tidy and we haven't found any more surprises in his room. All three cats had been inadvertently locked in the bedrooms by the cat sitter since Sunday night. We arrived home Wednesday night. We are watching our Mowgli closely to see if he has any ill effects from the dehydration. (Apparently severely dehydrated cats can and often do die from liver failure.) I just can't imagine the sheer torture our poor, fat, water-loving kitty endured.

So, we may not EVER go out of the house again after that adventure. We may become recluses and change our names to Hughes as in Howard. (Philip would love the part where he gets to grow his fingernails uber long. We are unsure about peeing in milk bottles, however.) 

Caught Mom mid-laugh.

Sweetness

How great is this retro polyester quilt? Mom said it is 30 years old.

This is the look we all had on our faces when the huge storm hit and interrupted our Sunday brunch on the patio in Durango, Colorado

Hail storm at the Durango train station. (Our view from the restaurant we were stuck at for over an hour waiting out the storm.) 

The deserted restaurant patio during the storm.

Hail looking like snow.

Simon's smile before the bike tire came off the rack.

Mom told me the funniest story today

I thought I had heard all of Mom's funny kid stories but apparently not this one, cuz damn, it was funny. Mom told me when she was about 13 years old and her little sis was about 8 months old she took her for a bike ride. She put her in her bike basket and told her to hang on. She rode all the way to the post office and back with the baby in the basket hanging on and loving every minute of it. When she got back home her Mom saw them and needed a paper bag to breathe into. I'm thinking after that story my 17 year old baby-sitter isn't all that bad.

Utah

Twin Rocks at Twilight

We stopped in Bluff, Utah for a pit stop. Ellie was so happy to be out of the car seat. She cried like we had broken her heart when we had to put her back in the car and drive another hour to Grandma's. 

Happy in the cool mountain air.

It took us two days to travel 450 miles but we got here. I came down with the stomach flu. It was some of the most miserable travel since I train-tripped across India with amoebic dysentery. It is lovely and cool and we are happy we are here. I dreamed of taking a flight back home last night and never getting in that freakin car ever again.

I LOVE My Life

I love my life. It isn't perfect by any means but I love it all the same. So this is my love list.

I love the sound of my baby girl happily playing in her crib first thing in the morning. (Even if it is 5:30am)

I love the sight of my husband loading the dishwasher.

I love the smell of my freshly showered, teeth brushed son in the morning.

I love sipping a hot mug of tea.

I love sitting with my hubby, chatting.

I love the smell of the desert.

I love it when baby girl says, "Mama" and is looking right at me with arms outstretched.

I love the sound of the far off train whistle in the middle of the night.

I love that I can stay home with my baby girl and not miss a moment.

I love that hubby works from home 3 days a week.

I love that my son talks to me (a lot) when he gets home from school.

I love when hubby calls as he is leaving work to see if I need anything from the grocery store.

I love that both my sisters and my Mom call me every week.

I love when my son plays with his sister and makes her laugh. 

I could go on but baby girl is down by my feet tugging on the cord to the keyboard. Darn, that crawling stuff.

I feel Like A MILLUN BUCKS, I GOT SLEEP!!

So Ellie and I broke out the Taylor Swift and danced in the living room. She loves the Taylor Swift. Mind you, I don't let her watch TV yet, but a purty Taylor Swift vid that we can dance to is just fine. Ellie is having a great time here, can't you tell? Two seconds before she was laughing her head off. Then out came the camera. She is gonna be one of those pretty girls that some condescending Jackwagon says, "Smile Darling, you are so much prettier when you smile."  Oh, wait that was me. If she doesn't ever have to work in a stinkassed bar in Farmington, New Mexico I am hoping that won't ever happen to her. I have high hopes.

Looky here, almost a smile

rut roh, camera spotted

 

Sad Baby

Little girl ran a fever all night and slept so badly. She is so sad this morning. I just got her down for a second morning nap. The first one lasted all of 20 minutes.

So Freakin Tired Today

My baby son in his backyard.

I am thinking about the kind and gentle version of Ferberizing the baby. She was up at midnight, 2:30-3:00am and then finally 6:00 am for good. DAMN, I AM TIRED. I am pretty sure when I was 29 with my 9 month old son not sleeping well, I wasn't this tired. Who knows. One tends to forget these things. After 17 years the memories fade. Even lots of the good ones. My son said to me the other day that he couldn't visualize the backyard of our old house. He really loved that yard. He said it made him sad to have lost those memories. Suppose that is why we take so many pictures of our life. We all forget. Hopefully soon, I will forget the sleep deprivation and only remember the sweetness of my chubby, cuddly little baby in the middle of the night.

Perusing the Ebay finds