two tricks learned today

1) Going into dance class is easier for her if she's the first one there and also can take frequent "loves" of her blankie during the class. I've never seen her so confident in a group as she was today. When she came out she ran to me and said, "I did so well!" I said, "I know! I'm so proud of you." She hugged me and said, "And I'm proud of you for waiting for me!" (She was also excited that I let her wear her bathing suit to class.)

2) If I know she needs to pee and it just isn't happening, all I need to do is take her outside! Maybe I need to build an outhouse for potty training???

balloons are balloons

David brought these home from the convention/tradeshow/whatever event he worked on at the beach. It had a Vegas theme.


E thanked him over and over for her balloons. She LOVES balloons.

opportunities

Well, I did get "downsized" yesterday after all. I'm okay. Exhausted, overloaded with information and emotion, but feeling very optimistic (at 8:59 pm on 2/24/09 anyway). I have been trying to think of what to write here and not coming up with much, but I'll keep you posted. I have a coach from the outplacement service, and he is a good listener and very knowledgeable. I believe he will help me a lot, and the service stays with you til you get a job, no matter how long that takes. My severance package pays me and pays health insurance for me for 5 months. After that, the new economic stimulus bill might be ready to kick in and help me with health insurance.

E is doing well, enjoying her new Barbie ballet movies and looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa visiting tomorrow. David is working at the beach, back tomorrow night for a short while and then off on his annual father-son cross-country train trip.

miss fancy pants

These were taken Jan 9th.

Today is the first day of what will probably be a horrendous week (the layoffs). But I had such a wonderful gift to start it off: a pure, uninterrupted, blissful night's sleep of about 8 hours. E didn't cry out, Kaylee stayed still, and David's away so there were no noises or lights. I was surprised by the alarm. You all may not realize how unusual and precious this is!! :)

You may have figured out that I was interrupted in yesterday's post. I asked her what she wanted to say to everybody and tried to slip a translation in there. Another thing I was going to say is that E is in the making-up-words stage. Yesterday she came to the door of the room I was in and said, "You say, 'What happened?'" I said, "What happened?" And she said, "It's 'leh-sing-us'!". She added, "That means I think we have Cinderella." Luckily, I've always liked theatre of the absurd, which is what it feels like around here.

Sleepy Sunday

E and I are watching Lady and the Tramp. The song the cats sing sticks in my head - I like this: "We are Siamese, if you please. We are Siamese if you don't please." E has learned what a dogcatcher is, a muzzle, and a dog license.

Earlier we did some dancing. She really picks up things from the movies and videos she watches. She notices details of movement. I can't tell about her sense of rhythm yet, but we think she's got my singing voice.... I hope that I'll pick up her sense of body confidence!

This week she has started eating some foods again that she had been boycotting: peanut butter, bananas, homemade macaroni & cheese, applesauce.
/,
kkE sayhsg jllll;'[]
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\
k,iuyk676kl756565ikf7uye"jt6rfj45r"o which means Happy Birthday Grandma and Grandpa,

valentine's day 2009

We had a pretty good day yesterday, considering E wasn't feeling too well. She received a windfall of Disney videos from someone the day before, so woke up to the excitement of watching Sleeping Beauty while eating a frozen blueberry waffle. Before we could do that though, she threw up. She learned the word "vomit".

David got up relatively early and made me pancakes, one with a heart on it that I failed to notice. We all looked at our valentines. E loved her stickers, Grandma Mickey!



My phone rang much more than usual yesterday and I caught up with a few friends. E sat quietly on my lap for a full hour, waiting for me to get off the phone (another sign she wasn't feeling 100%!) Then I ran errands with the entire rest of the world and E had "rest time" in her carseat. We didn't finish the errands because she said, "the inside of my mouth hurts and that means vomit is going to come out of my mouth!" Then she just kept moaning, "Mommeeeeee...! Mommeeeeee...!" We got home just in time. She fell asleep after that, for a real good nap. My parents came to visit and we went to Wendy's for dinner after E woke up. E had recovered and enjoyed a chocolate milkshake.

This morning she seems better, but didn't have her usual appetite.

making a jelly sandwich

These are from January. Note the earrings. By the way, the tongue-sticking-out-while-concentrating trait comes from two sides of the family.

park feats

Recently E learned some new tricks at the park

pumping her legs on a swing

Climbing the ladder to the big slide all by herself

Coming down the slide with a friend

comment noted

The problem is, blogging doesn't get me as much interaction -- I like the feedback and comments and reactions that I get on Facebook. And it's quicker. Both are good, though.

Mommy I'm Swan Wake!

On Tuesday last week E was home from preschool with a bad cough and runny nose, but it didn't slow her down much. She wanted to dance in her bathing suit.


The big white hair clip made her think of swan wings and she came and asked me to clip it to her back, saying "Mommy, I'm swan wake!". (We watch Swan Lake and other ballets on the Internet.)

no subject

Hi all. I'm tired and busier this week than I have been all year (ha ha). My employer is going to be laying people off and I won't know until it happens if I'll be one of them (sometime before March 1st they say).

I may be working on my resume instead of E photos this weekend.

Hope all of you are hanging in there.