snow

I think we got about 7 inches of it, then it started sleeting. E and I went out for about an hour this morning. She said, "It's hard to walk when you're all bundled up!" Basically she scooped and scraped and tramped in snow and I followed her around. It was too fluffy for building anything. I didn't take any pictures.

We came in and ate cheesy eggs and applesauce, then made brownies. I took a nap while she and Daddy watched a Peter Pan movie on his computer, then he took a nap and I've been coloring on glitter paper with E and fixing her purple blanket's 2 new holes. She was ambivalent about going back out in the snow so we're just being lazy indoors. She's cutting yarn into little pieces right now. She asked me a moment ago, "When will it be time to go to bed?"

She has a new favorite blankie since Christmas, a light blue fleece one. She has figured out how to get fuzz from it and is walking around with some of it in her nose. She now carries around 2 blankets and the cat.

finally, a picture

Today was "Dress-Up Day" for "D week" at preschool, and kids could bring their own costumes as long as they could be worn outside and wouldn't either prevent the kids from going to the bathroom on their own or "turn them into" a rowdy character. E wore her only long sleeved dress up dress which ended up looking kind of plain next to some of the costumes the teachers had provided for children who didn't bring their own. So E changed into at least 2 other fancy dresses before I left after dropping her off. These pictures were taken tonight after dinner. She got a Tootsie Pop for eating all of her corn.
E has a scratch on her cheek from falling out of bed Monday night. She hit her face on the frame. I've adjusted the mattress so that won't happen again, hopefully.

stupid cold

I was FINALLY getting over my sore throat and cough, but today it came back.

The other kind of cold is coming too -- snow predicted Friday!

Marie's flickr pics

Link here to a recent photo of E trying to hula-hoop.

Older ones here and here...

helping kids help

Excellent article about how kids can help Haiti.

E and I took a bag of red beans and a bag of rice to a collection point yesterday. She said, "Mommy, will you drive me to Haiti to see the earthquake when it's over?"

historic moments

http://www.sitinmovement.org/events/upcoming-events.asp

Greensboro's new International Civil Rights Center and Museum opens on Monday, which is the 50th anniversary of the famous Woolworth sit-in! I'll be there.

weekend roundup

Yesterday, E and I went to Raleigh to visit my grandma on her birthday. She was exhausted by the time we got there, but seemed to appreciate the hugs. E enjoyed some cake. Then we went to my parents' to hang out and E ran herself ragged playing with J and MC. MC has discovered the Wizard of Oz and they were trying to play that but both wanted to be Glinda and E also apparently didn't have the patience to act out the whole storyline as her cousin was trying to do. She came in and told me she didn't know how to play Wizard of Oz with MC. So I went out and played Dorothy and repeated as many lines as I could remember, and sang as much of the songs as I could remember, and that was fun. E had the most fun, actually, when she decided to play Toto. We left at 7:00 and she fell asleep in the car pretty quick, then was up until sometime after 10 at home. My lingering cough that becomes violent after nightfall kept me awake late, too.

This morning she got up at 9:00. I had been delighted to sleep til 8:20. E fingerpainted in the morning, kept saying over and over, "I'm an artist!" I agreed. She clearly enjoys the process. We colored her glitter paper for a surprisingly long time, too. I tried to convince her to help me clean her room by saying Let's find some treasure! She did a little bit. After lunch she had a play date over at my friend Carol's house. Her son is 6. They played great together and I had some time and space to think and get things done at home. That was wonderful. I took off the desk attachment that used to be E's changing table, turned it on its side and made it a sort of shelf next to her bed, the right height for setting her cup of water on. Now she has a desk she can use. I also got all the junk and trash out of my car. Didn't vacuum because it was raining.

I still haven't been able to get the soap out of the toilet. All I have to show for my efforts with the "snake" are scratches in the bowl. Maybe flushing a lot will eventually dissolve it.

I had to laugh

E getting ready to do something I don't like: "Mommy, don't look, and love me."

compliment

The other day I wore some shoes I don't wear much, and E said, "Mommy, you look cute in those shoes!"

cousins

A picture of E and MC after a fun day of watching a movie in the "feeter" and eating pizza. The movie was Disney's latest princess film, The Princess and the Frog. A good movie. Much faster pace and "louder" than the classics from a former era. Personally, I loved the music.

nothing much to say today

Still aiming for daily blog posts. Today was a beautiful day and I did get to run around a bit, playing tag in the park with E and other kids. We had a pizza picnic with Marie and Victor. E slept til 9 this morning! That was a treat. Tomorrow I have a workshop to go to that starts at 7:30 so that's going to be a challenge. The daycare opens at 7:30 so I'll have to be a little late for the workshop.

Best part of my evening tonight was eating a baked sweet potato, hot out of the oven.

We rented a new Barbie movie this afternoon, Barbie as the Island Princess. When the princess, who had been shipwrecked as a young child on a deserted island, was reunited with her mother I actually cried. Can't believe I cried at a Barbie movie! I've been moody all day anyway.

Aunt Lynn's visit was good - we just stayed home and talked and relaxed.

This week, along with my ordinary work, I'm going to be soliciting friends and acquaintances for boxes and volunteer labor this weekend - to load trucks bound for Haiti (via Miami) with red beans, rice, and large containers of drinking water.

sleepover

E had a friend spend the night Friday and it was a lot of fun.

We were all 3 going to sleep in the waterbed, but E cried out a lot and snored so badly I moved her to her bed. Victor woke up about 6:20. He probably could have slept longer but he noticed that I got up (to take medicine for a headache) and "didn't want to be lonely". E slept til after 8:00. They made me make pancakes for breakfast. E had strawberry syrup on hers, Victor had chocolate syrup on his. We played around the house til 11, then spent a vigorous hour in the park. Lunch, train movie, nap. E didn't nap, but she was quiet and respectful while Victor did. Also watched some of Charlotte's Web, the old animated musical version with Richard Dawson as the rat.

Then we went to the car wash and the grocery store.

important new skill

Tonight I taught E how to gargle, because she noticed that Victor and I both could do it and she couldn't.

news from near and far

Field update from CARE: There are thousands of pregnant women in the disaster zone, and without access to proper medical care they risk medical complications. Haiti already has the highest rate of maternal death in the region. There is also a fear that traumatized mothers will stop breastfeeding; there is urgent need for clean drinking water and additional nutritious food so new mothers do not become dehydrated or malnourished.

And on the domestic front, Victor and E are having a fun day together! We're headed to the grocery store now, to ride in one of those huge carts that have 2 kids' seats.

company

Looking forward to having Victor stay overnight tomorrow, and to Aunt Lynn coming to visit on Saturday! I have developed a cold or something that has lowered my voice, but it's not bad. E seems fine so far.

Work is busy. I'm giving a presentation tomorrow and learning (with others) to use a new database. Trying to figure out what we can do locally to help Haiti. Biggest earthquake they've had in 200 years, in the poorest country in the hemisphere. They already didn't have enough clean water. Now... It is just heartbreaking.

Haven't been taking many pictures - sorry.

insight on earth shakes

I told E tonight that there was a big earthquake in a place called Haiti, like the "earth shake" in the movie Land Before Time. She remembered that part of the movie and said, "Where the ground broke?" I said yes, and in Haiti buildings fell down and people got hurt. She said, "And they'll have to go in the 'ambience' to the hospital!" I said yes. Then she added, "But they can't because the ambience is broken, and the bed is broken, and the hospital building is broken!"

That's pretty much the situation, actually.

snippets

Highest number E can think of: "twenty twelve one hundred"

Eating corn on the cob: "When I'm as old as Grandpa Bud, can I put a pointy thing on this end of the corn and a pointy thing on this end of the corn and hold it with the two pointy things and eat my corn like that?"

The other day in the car she held up two hands and said out of the blue, "Two fives make ten!"

When I go to pick her up at preschool she hides stretched out on the shelf of a bookcase or inside a toy box with blankets and stuffed animals.

Today she said her class played football but she couldn't kick it. "All the other kids could do it, but I couldn't."

E likes to call herself my "wedding baby" now. She insists she was in my tummy at our wedding, and pretty much for all existence before her birth. In a way she's right. I finally told her that she was inside both our bodies. More questions coming soon, I'm sure!

help Haiti earthquake recovery

Click on the picture:


You could also mail a check to American Red Cross, PO Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.

Or you could click on this link to donate to United Way Worldwide: https://volunteer.united-e-way.org/uwwwdisaster/donate/

Or on this link to donate to CARE: https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?5000.donation=form1&df_id=5000

All are reputable organizations that I endorse!

half of jingle bells

Christmas party

Here's the best pic from the party, standing on tables, just after throwing the cotton balls. Every single child in every single photo had glaring red eyes. I tried to fix it much as I could.

daily blog post

the Christmas party was pretty good. E stood on a table, shook jingle bells, threw cotton balls while singing "Let it Snow", and got to eat a candy cane and a cupcake. Videos to come tomorrow.

I'm too stunned to do anything now, as I just learned that an old work friend died suddenly and sadly.

how I got to work on time

I woke up at 4 with a headache, took medicine, halfway snoozed til 5:20, dried & folded laundry for the preschool, made lunch, sliced up several pounds of cheddar cheese for the preschool, pilled and fed the cat, took out trash and rolled the can to the curb, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, made breakfast, deleted some photos from my camera, watched 2 minutes of Barbie Rapunzel on video as instructed, got E ready and pulled myself together, loaded the car, delivered girl and laundry along with her lunch-coat-boots-mittens-and-3-loveys, and got to work early at 8:20!

The success factors: getting up at 5:20, knowing someone was going to be waiting to drive with me to a 9:00 meeting, and motivating E with the reminder (3x), "today's the Christmas party day!" It was postponed from the big snow weekend in December. She only fussed and complained a little bit.

Whew!

holiday visit

Here's pictures from our visit to Grandma Mickey and Grandpa Bud, with Aunt Cindy and boys too. I took many more pics than this but here's a start. E loved rolling down the hill in the snow. She helped Grandma beat the eggs for breakfast.

how did it get to be Thursday?

Last night E and I went to the hair salon for a trim. Miss Patty curled E's hair and didn't brush it out, in hopes that some of the curl would stay til this morning. It did! And there's even some still there now after her bath. The back of her hair is curly at the ends. The front doesn't curl, so I put 3 sloppy pin-curls in that part of her hair this morning and when I took the barrettes out tonight they were well curly. E was pleased.

We're signing up for dance class again, with caveats. She must participate and follow directions in order to stay in the class. She says, "Yes. I will." We. Will See. Classes start next Saturday.

E is really into eating apples lately, and she says the school has a secret machine that makes the peeling come off like a worm. No one but her class can see this machine. Not the younger kids and not the parents. But with or without peeling, I'm thrilled she likes eating apples!

ugh

Tonight I feel like crawling in a hole. Work wasn't bad today, and the second shift (home) wasn't too bad, but I've been fighting a headache. At lunchtime I visited a friend who has a new baby (Jeni) and that was nice. Made plans for the weekend: Friday night a postponed Christmas party at the preschool, Saturday making a meal for a person who's had surgery, dropping that off before heading to see a movie with my niece and her mommy (Princess and the Frog), and then keeping the crib room at church on Sunday morning - which is when I'll get to read a book as we have no babies now except when there's visitors.

E said they did a bingo dance at school today. They played bingo and then after everyone's cards were full, they did the dance, which she demonstrated as mostly waving your arms over your head.

making a cradle

Everyday life photo -- how E entertained herself while I was doing laundry last night. She got in the basket under layers of blankets and stayed there for a surprisingly long time. Note she's wearing a summer dress. She hates long sleeves and long pants. We do a lot of negotiating around that. Last night after 2 hours or so in our 66 degree house she finally said she was cold and put pants and a jacket on.

new year's here and we've been busy

Oh well, I see that I missed the first 2 days of my daily blogging resolution! Here's what we did each day:

Jan 1st: spent several hours with my college friend Susan and her 3 boys, ages 2, 8, and 10. We had lunch at the mall food court, played in the fountain area, hung out at their house. E had a great time and the boys were good with her. Then went to the grocery store, watched "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus" for a little while, and went to Marie's house for dinner. E tasted rice noodles for the first time, and forced down tiny bites of red pepper, yellow pepper, and chicken from our stir-fry - on the promise of tapioca pudding and cookies for dessert. When she complained about the noodles, Marie offered pink sprinkles to go on them, and that helped! We walked in their neighborhood after dinner with flashlights (E ran and ran, having a great time), the kids had a bath, and we came home and went straight to bed.

Jan 2nd: went to another college friend's house, Kimberly, and spent a few hours having lunch with them and E played with K's daughter whose 11th birthday is today. E got to find 2 fresh eggs from the hens! They've put golf balls in the nests which has helped 2 of the hens get the idea. E fed the chickens too, as well as their new gerbil. We had cheesy eggs for lunch, E's favorite, and then us grownups got to have real conversation while the 2 girls played. When we got home, E and I just relaxed, did a little playing, a little movie, and a puzzle. I cooked myself some real dinner (chicken, brown rice, peas, & mushrooms). I did some budgeting and recording of expenses before bed, which undid the relaxation but was useful. I also ordered some prints of photos from E's birthday, to give to the parents of the kids.

Today holds in store: getting to Friends' Meeting for the first time in months, more cooking maybe (potato soup, baking sweet potatoes for breakfasts this week) laundry, and hopefully writing an old-fashioned letter or two. E and I will need to get outside and exercise too, maybe a long walk. But it's been really cold.

David's out of town and that usually motivates me to post a few more photos than I would have otherwise, so stay tuned for that.