Summer In The Neighborhood

This is how we spend most afternoons, though there are not always popsicles involved, and when there are not popsicles involved, the two children pictured above are usually pushing each other's buttons and generally being cranky. But sometimes they actually have fun playing together, too. The super-cutie sitting oh-so-daintily next to Sweet Pea is her first boyfriend. At least, he calls her his girlfriend. Tee hee hee! Since we spend so much time outside playing he should have a name on my blog (and yes, I did get his mommy's permission before posting his picture here). I think that I'll use his parents' nickname for him: The Destroyer. That nickname seems especially funny looking at him sitting there all well-behaved with his ankles crossed. Ha ha! Meanwhile, my truly mild-mannered girly-girl sprawls next to him in the least becoming pose a little girl can assume in a skort. Ah, childhood. ha ha!

The Bug kept stealing any and every popsicle I got for myself (I tried twice). Speaking of unbecoming... that little skirt just kept flipping up in front on her skort every time she squatted down - which, as a new walker, she does quite a lot, especially on angled surfaces like driveways.

Sweet Pea apparently ran out of room to draw on The Destroyer's driveway and had to move to a different neighbor's tree... I hope the neighbor didn't mind. She's a grandma, so she probably thought it was cute.

Sweet Pea also decorated part of the street. She sure loves drawing kitties!

The Food is Rotting and I Don't Care

Isn't that a song?

"The food is rotting and I don't care,
the food is rotting and I don't care,
the food is rotting and I DON'T CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE,
Guess we need a new fridge now."

Yeah, I think I learned that one growing up.

Sigh. Suck.

So, yeah. Remember a couple weeks ago when I said something (at least I think I did - I'm way too tired to look back and check right now) about the fridge getting warm but the freezer still freezing everything solid?

Well, the "blue ice" that we use every night to keep juice cold in the bedroom for the girls so I can just give them juice right when they wake up and get my shower then (if I take them downstairs we inevitably end up playing past shower time and then I have to try to take one during The Bug's nap without waking her up, while Sweet Pea is downstairs alone with the cats or something) did not keep the juice cold last night. This morning at breakfast, the margarine was soft. I mean, really soft. And things just felt warm in the fridge. Yogurt shouldn't feel warm. And the veggies are certainly not appreciating the higher temperature either.

This time, unfortunately, things in the freezer are starting to get soft as well. Dammit. For whatever reason it is called out in our lease that we, not our landlords, are responsible for repairs and replacement of the refrigerator, washer, and dryer. We've already had to buy a new washer. I really don't want to have to buy a new refrigerator.

Last time this happened I pulled the fridge out from the wall and vacuumed the cobwebs up. Unfortunately I can't really get at the coil; it's not like the old fridges where the coil is just right there on the back of the fridge. This fridge has the coil underneath and it's totally different than the coils on the old ones. I can't really get in there to vacuum it out. So I don't know what made the fridge start working again last time, but it did go back to working at full capacity.

The bright spot here is that we finally have the rest of our stuff that was in storage for the past year, and that stuff includes - yes, a refrigerator. When I was making soap regularly I had a hard time making room in our food freezer to freeze the soap before unmolding it, so I asked around amongst our friends to see if anyone had a cheap old fridge to sell. Some friends responded and even delivered their old fridge to me, FREE!

Slipshod managed to plug the old bugger in earlier tonight (even though it is in the middle of the front of the garage, surrounded on back and sides by boxes and a workbench) so now instead of relaxing which I am dying to do, I am trying to talk myself into cleaning out the old fridge and moving the food before it really does all rot.

Guh. Does it ever get easier? Because after two months of cleaning, preparation and party-throwing, which I have started calling Birthdaypalooza 2007, I am utterly exhausted and can barely make it through a day alone with the girls even when I get extra sleep at night. ALL I WANT TO DO IS REST. Plant ass, as they say, on the couch, with some ice cream (side note - I'm not eating ice cream every night anymore, and have switched from full-octane Ben & Jerry's to Skinny Cow), turn on the TV and just freakin' CHILL for once!

>whimper<

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Yep, it's her birthday. She's four. Four! Where did those four years go? And yet, they were intense and very full years. Full of childhood firsts - since she is our first, every new thing Sweet Pea does is a childhood first around here.

This girl is amazing and funny and smart and creative and pretty and artistic and silly beyond measure. Over the past year she has become increasingly independent, mostly due to the arrival of her baby sister shortly before her third birthday. She has started to read a tiny bit and she loves to make the sounds in words and tell me what letter words start with. She love to rhyme. She love to make up silly lyrics to tunes that she knows. Those lyrics invariably involve a cat or two.

Yep, she's still completely enamored of cats. Though to tell you the truth, she has spent far more time over the past few days playing with "roly polys." One day a couple weeks ago she found a roly poly walking across the floor in the family room (eww) and adopted it as her pet for the day. She put it in her sand bucket and went outside and got it some grass to eat. I looked up roly polys/pill bugs/sow bugs online to find out what they actually eat, and it turns out they're scavengers (double eww) so I told her to find them some old roots to eat. At some point during the day she decided that her isopod friend looked lonely so she went to the back yard, poked around in the flower beds, and found it two friends. All three bugs remained alive for the entire day despite her pulling them out periodically to let them crawl around on her hands and occasionally dropping them on the floor. I made her put them back outside at night, safe under a rock where there were plenty of roots for them to eat. The next morning she was so bummed that they weren't still under the same rock, waiting for her.

I related this story to her grandmothers and one of them bought her a little "bug shack" for her birthday. So now she thinks it's her solemn duty to remove roly polys from their backyard habitat and try to take care of them in her little bug cage. Three of them have died since yesterday morning... so she went out and got another one. At least she left the dead ones in there - the new one should have more to eat than the old ones did. (EWWW!)

What? Oh, the pictures? Well, it's a long story. The short version is that she wanted to try on some dresses that my sister sent years ago, before Sweet Pea was born. She didn't just want to try them on one at a time; in these pictures she's wearing three dresses. I told Sweet Pea that her auntie would like to see pictures of her in the dresses so she got incredibly silly and had me take pictures of her in countless poses. She calls the pose above"Big Scary Kitty" - it's supposed to be a Yoga pose. Tee hee!

This is "Little Scary Kitty."

If I were writing this at a better time of day, rather than 12:20am, I might write a better birthday tribute to my sweetiekins, but this will have to do for now. At least I'm posting it on her actual birthday instead of late...

Update on our Crazy Life

Okay, I'll try to do this quickly.

Friday evening - the rest of our belongings arrive - delivered after 10 months of container storage. We finally got off our booties and told them to deliver it.

Friday night - Slipshod rearranged the crap already in the garage to make room for the rest of our stuff.

Saturday morning out front - Slipshod worked his tookus off getting stuff out of the POD. Yes, he has horrible nerve damage in both arms and shouldn't be lifting stuff. But what else are ya gonna do? When you move, you have to lift stuff. Ugh.

Saturday morning in the kitchen - I thought it was weird that Clark, the cat who stayed out all night, wasn't waiting by the sliding glass door doing the breakfast dance. He did eventually show up, and when I let him in I could tell immediately that he was in bad shape. He was shaking and could barely walk. It looked like his back legs were very hurt, although I could not see any damage. He skipped the food and water and slunk upstairs to curl up in a miserable ball by the litter box. He did not purr when we pet him. Bad news.

Saturday after breakfast - I got The Bug to sleep for her nap and went out to work in the POD. I sent Slipshod to the vet with the cat. I got a lot done despite having to entertain Sweet Pea quite a lot at the beginning. She could be amused with her old things out of the POD, but wanted me to help her clean them or set them up or put this in that, etc. Eventually, however, had the right mix of toys (and a running hose) to keep her happy in the front yard indefinitely. It's so nice that she's old enough now to be able to hang out and do her own thing some of the time without needing me right there to do everything for or with her. We talked while I worked but we each had our own thing to do.

Slipshod returned with the cat. Clark had had a temperature of 105.5 when they got to the vet's office. She couldn't find any damage on him but did x-rays to make sure there were no broken bones. In the x-ray she saw lots of little air pockets all over his back legs, which she thinks were bites from another cat. Apparently cats have nasty stuff in their saliva which can cause infection very quickly, so it is her educated opinion that Clark got his butt soundly whupped by another cat. Clark is on antibiotics and pain killers. He is doing MUCH better now and is trying to get out the door. As you might imagine, we are under strict orders to keep him inside until he finishes healing and recovering, so the attempted escapes are getting tiresome (for me).

Saturday afternoon - I had brought some of the girls' things inside from the POD, thinking they would have a lot of fun seeing toys they hadn't seen for nearly a year - especially The Bug, since she wasn't mobile and didn't even have control of her hands and arms before we moved. That means these toys are brand new to her. Well, two of the things I brought in were little plastic porch chairs that Sweet Pea used to love to sit in and play on in the back yard at our old house. She was delighted to see them and set them up right next to each other and insisted that she and The Bug should sit there together and have a snack of Cheerios, which they did.

The Bug was as thrilled with the chairs as her big sister, but she kept standing up on them. I have been working with her on this for a while now since the girls also have kid-sized play chairs in their room upstairs and she has been standing on those as well. She knows what "sit" means, so I've been telling her to sit on her bum whenever she stands up on a chair. We went through that many times on Saturday but unfortunately I didn't take the chairs away like I should have. At one point I went to the kitchen, all 10 or so feet away, to get drinks for the girls, and while I was in there The Bug stood up on one of the kid chairs and took a fall - the whole chair fell over backward, with her standing in it facing backward, so she fell face first. I don't know what she hit with her face, but she hit it HARD. I have never heard her cry so hard, and the size of her cheek was really frightening. It puffed up right away and was bright bright red with blue around it, and right in the middle it was white from hitting so hard. I tried to ice her cheek but she didn't want the cold thing touching her skin so that didn't help a whole lot. It took her a while to recover but she nursed for a while and calmed down. Even though her cheek still looks AWFUL and is still swollen, The Bug appears to be just fine. She was back to herself quite quickly all things considered, and it doesn't appear to hurt when anyone touches her cheek. Thank goodness for that. But the bruise is so awful.

In the afternoon Slipshod also took a van load of cardboard to the recycling center. It is REALLY nice to have that gone. There was a lot of it.

Sunday - we finished unloading the POD before lunch! It is nice to have all our stuff back, even though we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF and need to go through and purge a lot of it. I am finally finding my clothes here and there - I had been living on a very small wardrobe for the past year, made of things that I went out and bought after realizing I didn't have many of my clothes. That mix-up happened mostly because when we moved I was moving from wearing my maternity clothes back to wearing my regular clothes, so the regular clothes weren't in the house yet and thus got packed with the stuff that was on the back porch. I haven't found everything yet, but it's nice to know it's here.

Yesterday and today I have been wondering why I brought so many boxes into the house. Sweet Pea's birthday party is this weekend and what did I do? Filled the house full of moving boxes. Brilliant. Actually I was on a really big adrenaline (or something) rush when we were unpacking the POD and at the time I really thought we could get a butt ton of unpacking done before this weekend. Now I have returned to my senses (helped along by my body, which nearly passed out on Sunday because I was so into getting the job done I waited too long to eat lunch) and today I am going to move the boxes out to the garage and focus on the birthday party. Sometimes I think I'm a little bit crazy. ha ha!

Sweet Pea is very excited about her birthday party and started decorating the house last week with kitty pictures that she colored, and leftover streamers from last year's party.

That is all for now. I've got boxes to move.

Ugh Again

Dammit, denial doesn't keep you healthy. I've had a sore throat for the better part of a week and I've been trying to blame it on allergies, air conditioning, anything you can think of... but I think I'm probably just plain sick. Sweet Pea had a sore throat the same day I first noticed mine, and asked for the throat spray in the morning. She never said anything about it again after that, though, so I thought she had just awakened with an extra dry throat that day. However, yesterday I asked if her sore throat had been a quick thing or if she had had it for a few days and she said it had not gone away right away. The Bug was acting clingy the day before yesterday and yesterday and today her voice sounds a little funny. So, I guess we've got some kind of cold. I wouldn't even bother to mention it except that my sore throat just won't go away! At least we don't have lots of runny noses.

Slipshod's first week back at work has been okay. Honestly he started to retreat from us about a week before he went back - spent a lot of time in his office upstairs & doing other things, so we were used to just the three of us doing most stuff together almost all day long. We missed him a lot at first and The Bug would go looking for him in the house at least three times per day. She still asks for him but no longer seems to expect him to be upstairs when we're downstairs, etc. We still miss him, but having him go back isn't as horrible as I had worried it might be, because most nights he comes home for dinner and the girls' bedtime routine. The one exception was last night, when he went to a goodbye party after work for a soon-to-be ex-coworker.

Did I mention that my throat hurts? Gar.

Nothing exciting going on around here. I'm planning for Sweet Pea's birthday party - got all the kitty cat plates & decorations, etc. ordered. Still trying to decide what to do for food. We're going to get food from a restaurant, but can't decide which one. Gotta order the helium tank for the balloons, but that won't be a big deal.

Slipshod has done one day of his new plan to work on getting healthier - he walked to the bus station and rode the bus to work, then walked on the other end too. He has taken my car the rest of the week, leaving us with the smaller stroller that doesn't have a basket in the bottom, so when I've taken the girls to the store I've had to take a backpack to carry whatever we're buying. No big shopping trips, then. But Slipshod usually does those anyway.

Baby trying to crawl up on my lap - must go.

Oh - one last thing, though - I gave The Bug her first little hair cut yesterday - trimmed up the hair that's been getting in to her eyes, so she has little bangs now! It looks so cute!

There Were Animals at the Zoo, too...

Slipshod got some great pictures of the Bald Eagle.

Ah, the life of a bear... isn't there a song about that? The newest exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo is the grizzlies exhibit. There are two big female bears in the habitat and they seem very happy to be there, and also very unconcerned about all the people staring and oohing and ahhing at them all day long. In two areas along the high fence the zoo built heavy plastic walls so visitors can just walk right up and see right through. One of those walls is in the swimming area, so you can see underwater when they're paddling about - cool! - and the other is right next to their door to the "backstage" area. There is a pit full of sawdust there, and when we happened by their exhibit, one of the grizzlies was trying to get comfy in the sawdust to take a nap. She never did seem to find just the right position, but she spent a bunch of time moving around and trying to get cozy. She didnt' seem to mind all of us standing a couple feet away, amazed at how close we could be to her!

"J'ai ennui."

(Keep scrolling... more pictures below.)

We Saw Lots of Them

The peacocks were *everywhere.* They must feed all the animals very well, because the grizzly bears didn't seem bothered that there were peacocks walking around in their habitat. The rhinos didn't mind either. Most of the peacocks were just walking around on the regular people paths, though. Crazy birds. Very pretty, though.

This was a Green Anaconda, and we couldn't really get a good picture of the whole thing, so Slipshod had fun using the zoom on his new camera. But this isn't really zoomed that much - this snake is HUGE. It eats very large animals. Eep!

Despite the chilly foggy San Francisco weather, the polar bears just looked hot.

(Keep scrolling... even more pictures below!)

More from the Zoo

I thought these two were particularly cute.

Sweet Pea's first favorite animal - now second only to kitty cats.

We managed to get to the penguin area at feeding time. They were hilarious. The food was late so most of them were swimming impatiently back and forth, back and forth, waiting for the zookeepers to arrive with the bucket o' fish. When they did arrive, one woman hand fed whole fish to each penguin and called out to the other, who had a clip board, how many fish each penguin (who she was able to tell apart due to the numbered tags on their flippers) had eaten. Then the penguins started swimming again, but they seemed less frantic once their tummies were full.

Sweet Pea kept getting herself up on the fences like this to see over the railings, and then every time I would think, "gosh, she's really into this exhibit; she's just standing there looking and looking..." Then I would hear her saying, "Mommy, Mommy, help! I'm stuck!" She kept doing it over and over again, and I somehow managed to forget every single time that she couldn't get down from there by herself. Well, she probably could, but she didn't think she could. ha ha! What a pair we are.

A Day at the Zoo

Last Wednesday we went to the San Francisco Zoo. We started out in the African Safari area, of course, because we could see the giraffes from the entrance, and if you've known Sweet Pea for a while, you might remember that her first VERY favorite animal was the giraffe. She still has a soft spot for them - especially when they're real! We bought a family pass since we had so much fun, and even though we've been twice in the past couple years, we've never managed to see the whole thing.

You might say, "But Violet, it's June. Why are you wearing sweatshirts?" Well, have you ever heard that perfect explanation of SF Bay Area weather by Mark Twain? It's so fitting. It goes something like this: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." There. Now you know.

See, the SF zoo is right across the street from the ocean, so the weather there is ever-changing. The night before we went I looked up the forecast for the next day. What I read was, "clear and high of 76." But what we got was complete fog cover all day, and temperatures of 57 and plummeting. Good thing we knew what to expect. We took long pants and sweatshirts/sweaters for all of us. We could have brought even warmer clothes, though; The Bug got too cold by the end of the day, even though she was snugged up to either me or Slipshod nearly all day in the Baby Bjorn. Slipshod had to tuck her inside his fleece jacket to get her warm enough. I kept her sun hat on her most of the day just to keep her head warm, but a fleece baby hat would have been even better.

We stopped on the far side of the African Safari area to nurse The Bug and let her stretch her legs for a bit. Before we moved on, a giraffe came right up to the railing you see behind us and ate some leaves on a branch that was hanging on rope on a pulley right in front of the little "house" area. (You've got to click on the picture above to see it bigger so you can see the cute expressions on the girls' faces.)

We do this a lot. So why am I not fit and trim? Shouldn't this sort of exercise count for something? Note how The Bug is helping me push the stroller. ha ha!

Posing with the parrots outside the Brazilian Rainforest building, where they had a really really scary-huge Green Anaconda. It eats ROUS's - seriously! Things like Tapir and Capybara. Even Caiman. Scary snake. Sweet Pea thought it was great, though. After visiting the giraffes she wanted to see "snakes! Snakes! Snakes!"

In more recent news: The Bug is walking. Yep. Starting about a week and a half ago she started taking one step at a time. Last Thursday while I was away from home (BY MYSELF! GASP!!!) Slipshod called to tell me that she had stood up in the hallway, taken four steps, sat down, and then stood up and did it again. The next day, it was 10 steps at a time. She is still doing a mix of crawling and walking, but clearly enjoys walking and gets very happy when she takes a bunch of successful steps in a row. We have counted up to 20 at once, and sometimes we've lost count. She's definitely walking!

You can thank Christina for me finally posting again. She asked a while back to see a front view of my new haircut, and we didn't have any good pictures of my face until the zoo trip. ha ha!

Rainbow Goes Retro

I said Cyndi Lauper. Slipshod says Olivia Newton John. What do you think?

Sweet Pea started "decorating" Rainbow yesterday when she was hanging out in her room with her Boopa. When I explained to her that all those barrettes are choking hazards for the baby, she gleefully pulled out as many more as she could find, clasped them onto the head bands and ponytail holders stretched around the cat, and announced that she was making Rainbow into a choking hazard so the baby couldn't play with him. Since Rainbow is super special to Sweet Pea that's the one toy we don't make her share with The Bug anyway, but apparently she felt it necessary to make Rainbow actually dangerous to her sister. Yeesh.

P.S. I so love that Sweet Pea named her black and white cat Rainbow. It still cracks me up.

Selective Memory's a Bitch

The Scene:
Two nights ago, dinnertime. I am trying to eat.

Sweet Pea is sobbing on my lap, for some reason I can't remember. I think I put the cat's food bowl out so the cat could eat and SHE wanted to do that. Apparently I should have known.

The Bug is also screaming, strapped into her baby seat at the table. She's had enough of ordering me around to get her several different kinds of food, and wants to get out and play. NOW.

I can't reach around Sweet Pea to get to my food. I can't hear myself think.

Slipshod is sitting across the room cruising the web on my computer. He got up and left the table the second he ate his last bite of dinner (BIG pet peeve of mine - among other things, what is that behavior teaching the children?), and is oblivious to all the screaming and my inability to eat my dinner, despite the fact that he's only 10 feet away from us.

I remember with a sinking feeling the last conversation I tried to have with him about him getting a vasectomy. I had thought it was just a matter of time and asked him if he might get that done while he was home on sabbatical. He laughingly said that getting a vasectomy was not high on his list of things to do.

Through the screaming we have the following conversation:

Me: So, are you reneging on your promise to get a vasectomy?

Slipshod: Promise? What promise?

Me: Don't even. You promised me you would get one.

Slipshod: When did I say that?

Me: While I was in labor last year. You said, and I quote, "I will get a vasectomy tomorrow. You can name the baby anything you want."

Slipshod: Huh. I don't remember that.

Me: Well, I remember it. I remember it clear as day.

Slipshod laughs and turns back to the computer.

End scene.


Shit. I really, apparently very naively, thought that I wasn't going to have to fight a battle about this. I don't want more than two kids. I'm at my limit; possibly past. I don't want to be pregnant again. I don't want to endure labor again. I so never, ever want to deal with a teething baby again once The Bug is through with that (can you tell what my current mothering hardship is?).

I am exhausted. But this decision is not one made in the moment, out of exhaustion. I've known for some time that I only wanted two. And honestly only two because I thought Sweet Pea would be sad growing up as an only child. Don't get me wrong, I love The Bug every bit as much as I love Sweet Pea, and I didn't have her so Sweet Pea could have a pet or anything - I hope what I'm saying doesn't sound like that. But there was a time when I considered stopping at one. And some days I think maybe I should have because I don't know if I can handle mothering two. But every day I am also overwhelmingly happy that I have both of them.

The point is, I thought that Slipshod and I had established that we were going to remove the possibility of having more. Apparently not. Grrr.

Don't it Make Her Brown Eyes Blue

Back in April (when this picture was taken), we started noticing Sweet Pea doing a lot of this with her eyes, especially when she was reading a book or watching TV.

We asked her if she could open both eyes, focus with both eyes, etc. Slipshod started asking her not to close her left eye, so then she started unfocusing the left eye and letting it wander, which was much scarier for us to look at than her having one eye shut.

Of course we made an appointment with an optometrist, but it took a long time before they could fit all three of us in for an appointment. I needed new glasses, and Slipshod had never been to see an eye doctor for an exam in his life. We went this past Monday.

In the intervening time, Slipshod and I had many talks with Sweet Pea about what she could and couldn't see, why she closed her left eye or let it wander, etc. Slipshod sometimes covered one of Sweet Pea's eyes and asked her how many fingers he was holding up for her free eye to see. She did pretty well with that home test.

She told me that she could see just fine with both her eyes, but that it felt better if she had one of them closed.

Turns out that she is far-sighted, so it takes a lot of muscle to focus her eyes in where they need to be, and it is easier to just focus one eye, just like she told me (not that I doubted, but what she said was exactly confirmed by the optometrist). So, they ordered glasses for her.

Sweet Pea was SO good at the appointment. She had been so concered about going, and initially fought against the idea of having to wear glasses when we told her it was a real possibility for her. That was back a month ago when I made the appointment, though, and all that talking to her about it in the weeks between making and actually going to the appointment did a lot of good. By the time we saw the optometrist she knew that Slipshod and I would also be having our eyes checked, and that she would be able to watch at least one of us get checked before anything was done to her. When it came time for her to get checked, she sat on her daddy's lap and listened really well to the optometrist and answered his questions and looked where he asked her to, etc.

The optometrist was actually really really impressed with how smart she was, and said so on several occasions, which of course made Slipshod and I very proud. Hee. He and his office staff were so sweet with her, too, that she felt very comfortable there and felt at ease going from the exam room to the front desk by herself to ask the receptionists for more paper to draw (kitties, of course) on. When the doctor proclaimed that she would need glasses he beckoned one of his assistants and sent Sweet Pea and Slipshod out with her to look at frames, telling the assistant that "this is Sweet Pea and she's going to need to choose some frames. Her favorite color is light blue."

Then it was time for my exam but halfway through Slipshod and Sweet Pea returned to show me Sweet Pea's top two frame choices. I was REALLY surprised with how pretty and stylish they were. All I could think of when it came to children's frames were the thick plastic frames some of my friends had in elementary school. Both choices that she showed me were delicate-looking metal frames, and of course both were blue.

The optometrist's office called today to tell us that Sweet Pea's glasses were in and as it happened I had already planned to go out to the post office, which is right next door to the optometrist's office. So, Sweet Pea and I left Slipshod and The Bug at home and went out on a little adventure together to mail some things and get her glasses.

The optometrist sat with us and made the necessary adjustments to Sweet Pea's glasses to make them sit straight on her face and be snug enough to her head that they would not fall off. He seemed to really get a kick out of seeing her again. The glasses case they gave her is a little clear plastic purse lined in what looks like pink suede or leather. On the front of the "purse" in silver sparkly letters it says, "Disney Princess." I had to laugh when I saw that an hour or so later. Sweet Pea has still never seen a Disney movie with a princess in it, so she gives well-meaning adults big blank stares when they try to relate to her on a princess level.

Since she is so young, Sweet Pea's prescription needs could change frequently, so we will take her back for a checkup in 6 months to see if she needs new lenses. It is possible that with the correction she's getting now for her eyes, she may outgrow the far-sightedness as her eyes get bigger as she grows. Then again, it is also possible that she may not outgrow it, and may have to continue wearing glasses or contacts as she gets older. Time will tell.

Of course, what with me being me and Sweet Pea being Sweet Pea, our outing today ended with a trip to Jamba Juice before going home. YUM. It has been rather hot here and we were roasting in the car. But honestly I agree with the way Sweet Pea put it: "I think every day is a good day for a smoothie; it doesn't need to be hot outside."

That's my girl.

Here you go - pictures of Sweet Pea in her new glasses!

For the record, The Bug made most of that yogurt mess feeding herself. Sweet Pea probably got more food in there for her than she was able to get in by herself. ha ha!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's - SUPER SIS!

As for me - I will be getting new glasses as well, and can't wait. All this reading on my computer for months on end with no glasses at all (I lost my old ones in last summer's second move between the "yucky house," as we call it, and this house) is really causing a bunch of eye strain for me. Things are the same with my prescription as they used to be: The left lens will correct the far-sightedness in my left eye, and the right eye will be clear plastic (or whatever) just to balance out the other lens, because there is almost nothing wrong with that eye. It could use a tiny bit of correction, but the optometrist saw my eye do something weird when he put that bit of corrective lens in front of it. It sort of balked somehow. That has happened every time an eye doctor has done that. It's like my right eye is a control freak and if you try to correct it, it's like, "no, take that away; I can handle this myself." ha ha!

At this appointment I also learned why I've never been able to see those "magic picture" things. Do you know what I'm talking about? They look like a bunch of dots on a page, usually in gradations of color, and you're supposed to be able to see a picture "pop out" of them if you stare long enough. Turns out the reason I've never been able to see those is because I have amazingly poor depth perception. Who knew? My new glasses will correct that to some degree. In the past I have only worn my glasses for reading, but now the optometrist says I should probably also use them while watching movies and driving at night.

Slipshod's vision is so close to 20/20 that he is not getting glasses. The optometrist told him that he could get them if he wants, but since he could barely tell the difference between what things looked like with no glasses and what they looked like with the tiny bit of correction that would give him truly 20/20 vision, he of course opted to wait. The doctor told him that he will probably need glasses in the next five years, though.

The (Bug's First Birthday) Party

Of course there was the requisite first birthday cake-all-over-the-face moment. Well, frosting, in this case. The Bug didn't even taste it. Just smeared it all over her face. It's like she knew what we were waiting for and didn't want to disappoint.

The Bug ever-so-sweetly wanted to share with me. (Did I mention that I got my hair cut? I love it!) Twenty minutes or so later my sister said, "you know you still have frosting on your nose and the side of your face, right?" I didn't. Glad she was here to help me out! Yeesh!

Sweet Pea "read" The Bug's new kitty cat book aloud to her. As you can see, The Bug was very interested.

Last gift opened was a bag of balloons from some friends, which they encouraged me to pour over the birthday girl's head. It was a great gift idea, and all the kids had a really good time with the balloons - until they (the balloons, not the kids) were all popped, about 15 minutes later. We were told that they tend to last longer if you dump them indoors. ha ha!

Happy First Birthday, Bug!

Oh, those eyes. Those beautiful baby blues. They melt my heart.

Yep, it's already been a year. Our little Bug is 365 days old as of 9:30am Pacific time. Where did the year go? Search me. But we are so thrilled to celebrate one year of life with our second little red headed sweetie baby.

This morning we had a little party for her before breakfast. We went to the family room, sat on the floor, sang "Happy Birthday," and helped her open her presents: A super-cute hooded ladybug bath towel from Mommy & Daddy, a wooden name puzzle, and a REALLY girlie pink outfit that Sweet Pea picked out for The Bug. I nearly fainted paying for it, since it's so very pink and frilly and has the word "princess" written on it, but I thought it was so sweet of Sweet Pea to want to give her sister a birthday present (she came up with the idea herself) that I honored her choice. While Sweet Pea is showing girlier tendencies than her mommy has ever had, it must be pointed out that the reason she chose the pink outfit was simply because it has a picture of a kitty cat on it. The Bug instantly spotted, pointed to, and commented on the kitty cat as soon as she opened the box and saw the outfit, so it was worth it. ha ha!

Our friends from Burbank sent The Bug a birthday gift which, in case they were wondering, did arrive before her birthday. We let her open that present along with the family presents this morning. I sort of thought I was joking about you sending her a cell phone, so I had a big laugh when I saw that that's what the present was! Thank you - she really likes it. So does Sweet Pea, but they're not fighting over it so far. Sweet Pea is pretty good about realizing it's The Bug's present, not hers. The Bug seems to think that Daddy might be inside her toy cell phone, even when he's just in the next room. Tee hee!

Slipshod returned from Mexico on Monday night well after the girls were in bed. Tuesday morning when the girls woke up The Bug sat up in bed and chattered to me and Sweet Pea for a while. But when she looked past Sweet Pea and saw Slipshod, she couldn't get to him fast enough. She crawled over yelling, "Ga ga! Ga ga!" which is what she calls him, and when she reached him she put her little head on his shoulder and hugged and hugged him. He was so thrilled and melty to receive such a happy welcome from one of his little girls.

Later in the day, when The Bug awoke from her nap, she saw Slipshod as I brought her down the stairs and she reached for him over the railing. I handed her to him and they sat on the couch, pictured above, and she gave him another long, lovey hug, and then sat on his lap and chatted to him and played with him for a while.

Slipshod and I are so thrilled that The Bug is so into her daddy. Sweet Pea has been without him enough (due to work hours) that she is just used to him being away a lot, and she has never had a super strong bond with him (I still think that's simply due to absence, because when they used to garden together every weekend they were closer). SO, this huggy, snuggy, happy bond that The Bug shares with him is just wonderful - especially for her daddy.

The Bug's new passion: learning to walk. Our neighbors let us borrow a little baby walker and she LOVES it. I've informed her auntie who didn't know what to get The Bug for her birthday. I think her own walker will be the hit (for her) of her party on Sunday.

Sunday Pix for Daddy

Here we see Danger Girl (er, I mean, The Bug) throwing caution to the wind and trying something completely new.

Made it to the top. Once she got to the top she would get situated, sitting on her bum with her legs pointing down the slide, and then wait for me to help her slide down. She would give a hint of what she wanted by looking me in the eye and saying expectantly, "wheee!"

And she didn't care how she got to the top. Both sides of the slide worked. (Note here: Sweet Pea had her own slide first today - she walked up the slide part with no hands, repeatedly! Much more daring than she used to be!)

She was cautious, yet very confident.

Sunday Pix for Daddy 2

Cooling off after all that exertion on the slide.

Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbtht!

Later that evening - enjoying the new play sand the grandparents bought for their sandbox.

The girls played well together, but Sweet Pea refused to let The Bug get into the sandbox.