From hot tubs to sprinklers

Oh I was so happy when Friday at 4 p.m. came. As you might remember last week was a little out of the norm – keeping Ella home all week to do a freakish outbreak of illnesses everywhere. So, I was BUSY at work Friday. Like busy write down my to do list with time amounts next to each item busy, so I don’t spend too much time on any specific task. By the time I left my shoulders were tensed up to my neck and my mind was just racing. On those days it’s hard to come home and switch to baby mode. The mode where I patiently wait while Ella tries to put the coins in the piggy bank but they just won’t seem to fit. I so want to just put them all in! It gets easier as the weekend progresses though.

Another great thing about the weekend – no Saturday night shift. I had worked the previous two and it’s tough. So, anyway. Friday night. We decided to do something different than our usual delivery pizza. We try again to hit the new restaurant Granite City. Steve had been home all day with Ella so I knew he’d be dying to go out. And since I wasn’t picking up Ella at the sitters she won’t be anxious from being in a car for thirty minutes. Conditions were just right. Boy, things used to be so much simpler. Anyway, we got there around 5 p.m., yes I know we might as well be senior citizens, but we’re on an early schedule people, so we’re HUNGRY by then. Plus, this is about the only time there isn’t a long wait at this new place. And toddlers and long waits do not mix.

The food was delicious … an appetizer of waffle fries with an awesome sour cream dip, olive proscuitto pizza chicken artichoke lasagne. Yum. We all just shared. I even had a margarita. Delicious. Ella was pretty good, but she’s definitely getting to the age where it’s getting tricky to keep her content for a whole meal at a restaurant, so we have to be prepared. Snacks, drinks, toys, hope they have crayons, and this place even had balloons. Ella’s patience was done though by the time the meal ended though. She and I waited in the lobby playing with the balloon while daddy waited on the check.

That night after Ella went to bed we watched Wes Anderson’s latest movie Darjeeling Limited with Adrian Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson. It was pretty funny. That director has a unique style, and really quirky characters. If you like one of his movies (Royal Tennenbaums, The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou) I think you’d like them all.

So, the rest of the weekend was the usual … laundry, shopping, playing outside, weeding. Ella has been working on a great trick she picked up recently. We tell her to do a headstand and she bends over with her head on the floor and dies laughing. It’s so funny. She’s either really flexible or her upper half is oddly the same length as her lower half. See below.

First, the bend…

Then the laughter …

Then the look for approval. And I’m so proud.

I also squeezed in a lot of extra things around the house – like washing the guest bed sheets and making room in the guest closet for the stuff we keep accruing. Our annual Memorial Day barbecue is coming up and I’m so excited. It’s really the only time of year all our college friends and us get together. I’m just glad we even do it this once. It’s so hard now that most of us have kids. I’m glad we can be the ones to host too. We’re happy to throw parties. In California we had a walk-in bar, a screened in room with an inground hot tub, a big backyard with a firepit … we had some good parties. That seems like a million years ago. The party now includes a bouncy house, a sand and water table and sprinklers. It’s a little different. Fun though still. And I’m pretty sure I won’t wake up to my Christmas tree being covered with tampons.

Because there’s been no photos for awhile and I don’t want to go to bed

I found the rubberbands …

A bean burrito, green beans, milk and goldfish. What more could she want?

My first coloring book. I will color in it, then the carpet.

Home sweet home

I’ve had a great week this week. I thought it was going to be bad – an extremely busy work at week and I thought Ella was coming down with a virus.

Ella’s virus never developed, which I was really relieved about – unfortunately my babysitter and her daughter both caught the flu. So, we kept our plans of keeping Ella home all week and working some crazy hours. I stayed home with her during the day yesterday and today, and at night I left to take care of some projects at work.

Even though I was working at night, it was really nice to be home during the day. And we had really nice days. Nothing spectacular. The usual routine at home is like this:

7:30 – Ella wakes up. I pray that she sleeps another half hour. Sometimes she does.

8:00 – We have breakfast. Ella is starving and acts as if she hasn’t been fed in days in the morning. I cut her up a breakfast bar and get her a cup of milk as fast as I can. Sometimes she’ll eat a banana too. As she is content eating I usually straighten up the kitchen, get my coffee and my own bowl of cereal.

8:30 – Cartoon and couch time. I’ve realized Ella likes to just sit on my lap for awhile in the mornings – and that doesn’t happen much during the rest of the day anymore, so I take advantage of it and turn on a cartoon for awhile and we just watch and wake up a little – usually Curius George or Clifford the Big Red Dog is on.

9:00 – playtime. Ella’s up and at it. She’s running around like it’s her last day on earth and she wants to accomplish as many things as possible. She also usually has a morning snack. She’s pooped in about 30-45 minutes.

9:30 Nap #1. I do things that Ella doesn’t have the patience for – like get dressed, brush my teeth, fix my hair. or I read a book and catch up on a show I’ve Tivoed.

10:30. She’s up from her nap and it’s almost lunchtime. We play then get food around – again, it’s like I’ve never fed her before. She stands at my legs either holding on or raising her arms for me to pick her up.

11:00 EAT!

11:30 I get her dressed. I’ve learned if I don’t get her dressed until after lunch then I won’t be frustrated if lunch gets all over her outfit. Now’s the ideal time to go somewhere. She’s a few hours away from naptime, she’s full, my teeth are brushed. Yesterday we went to Dollar General. Sounds lame doesn’t it? Well, it wasn’t! It’s nice and new and big, and get this, everything there is ONE dollar! I know, you all know this. I just haven’t been there since I had Ella and there are so many kid toys that Ella might lose/break anyway that one dollar seems like the perfect price. I got her a play rake and shovel, a little set of spatulas, a coloring book, two puzzles. Very fun.

1:00 Playtime around the house or outside. Another snack.

2:00 Naptime. Again, I take care of some house things (i.e. lay on the couch. Just kidding. It’s really a mix.)

4:00 Where did the day go? See how that just sneaks up on you?

Anyway, I’ve been thinking it since before she was born and am realizing it more and more all the time. I want to be HOME with her more. I don’t know how it will happen, but I’ve finally decided I am going to make it happen one way or another … not sure if it will be working less, working more from home or not working at all (gasp), but I really do just want to not have to miss out on her for four whole days a week. Even if I do have the best babysitter in the world.

Will it be David or David?

It’s nearly the last night on idol – down to top three and they’re (the judges actually) finally choosing some semi-recent songs by semi-recent artists, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys and Roberta Flack ..Wait, Billy Joel and Roberta Flack aren’t that recent are they? Well, I’ll give them Alicia Keys. But they were all kinda slow songs and I really get bored with those. And what is up with Syesha always wearing gold or glitter? She looks great in it, but switch it up girl, for goodness sake. And David Archuleta, I’ve decided he’s just way too sweet and pure for Hollywood. I think they should just go ahead and send him home before he needs rehab. I didn’t mind David Archulta’s second song by Chris Brown. That was kinda a surprise. But Syesha’s Fever rendition seemed a little cheesy. I think she’s meant for broadway or musicals. I guess what I’m figuring out here is that David Cook is the clear winner. His second song was great, by that point I wasn’t even paying attention to the artist or song, but it was really good and sounded current. Even my parents think he should win. (No offense, mom and dad, it’s just kinda a surprise.) But I could see David Archulta winning too.

So, the virus … Still not sure if Ella has it. The two little blisters on her one foot have not developed anymore. And she does have some very obvious little bumps on her other foot, but they haven’t turned into anything either. It’s entirely possible the blisters are from her shoes. Did we keep our daughter home a day because she had a blister on her foot? Seems silly now, but you know, we still don’t know, and I still think it would be a crazy coincidence that she got blisters from her shoes after being exposed to this virus in which the symptoms are blisters.

Anyway, I have another book idea for the trashy bookclubbers. “You’re pregnant, but what about me?” by Kevin Nealon. He was on Ellen promoting it and his interview is hilarious. He started out by saying the first two chapters are about his affair with Barbara Walters. Funny. (You know, cause of her new book out where she admits to an affair? Come on, pay attention people.) Then he got into telling the story about the birth of his son and the doctor told him to look and it looked like a purple rock with hair on it, and he said “Um, I’m pretty sure that was already there.” I don’t know why, but that cracked me up.

Well I gotta go. I’m finishing up Valerie Bertinelli’s book. It’s really sad I think. Seems like her whole life she measured her happiness by her weight. I mean she remembers her weight at every point of her life it seems. I guess I have a general idea of mine through the different years but it was more than that. It seems like it always set the tone for that time of her life too. So, I’m sure she created a lot of her problems from just low self-esteem from getting up to a ghastly 125 pounds. Yikes. Glad I don’t live in Hollywood. See why we shouldn’t send David Archuleta there people!? Let’s vote for David Cook!