Harvey

I love cats who play fetch. I've never had one of my own before.

Kittens and Babies

I meant to fold Maia's diapers this afternoon. I had the basket all ready and took it into her room. I put her on the floor and turned around to open the window and let some of the wonderful fresh spring breeze in. In that moment Harvey kitty came bounding in and jumped into the warm laundry. Maia squealed and began to take diapers and wipes out of the basket. Harvey then got in on the act and tossed out a couple of wipes using teeth and paws to his best advantage. Maia laughed at that an began putting back the items Harvey dropped out.

They then switched to Maia poking her little fingers into the basket (through the holes in the fake "weave") and Harvey swatting at them, then Harvey sticking his paw out of the basket (again, through the holes) and Maia touching it. Back and forth, with much enjoyment on both sides of the basket.

Who am I to stop the fun of small creatures? So the diapers remain unfolded.

Of All the Things I Should Be Doing...

blogging is not one of them.

I will let you know that the jinxing time has been lifted and the exciting news in our household: Maia is going to spend her first birthday in Zurich, Switzerland.

Before that we'll get to tour Paris and then spend a week in Geneva.

Good fortune is blessing us with a trip that piggy-backs on a work conference. Which means that one airfare is paid for and the really nice hotel in Geneva is covered as well.

I'm all smiles. Now to find places to sleep in Pairs and Zurich!

Oh and house cleaning because we're hosting TWO dinners this weekend.

Something Good is Gonna Happen

Plans are afoot! Action is being taken! Credit card numbers are being given at this very moment! But I don't want to jinx anything, so I'll get with the details when all the ducks are lined up.

Bad Parenting Skills

I just put on a video for Maia (at least it's a "Baby Signs" video so I can pretend she's learning from watching) so I could get some work done. She's entranced. I'm posting. Now to actual work...

Update:

15 minutes into the video and she'd lost interest...but I was able to get one school project (almost) done. She's happy banging on the coffee table with her drum stick from the floor.

Fate

I'm not sure what's been in the air this week, but nothing has been good. The week started poorly and never fully recovered. Despite what could have been several very nice days, I've been in a funk. John has been in a funk. Maia, well, she's Maia and while not in a funk, when we are it's not so much fun to attend to her needs.

Today could have been more of the same...but it wasn't.

Started off with:

Daylight savings time switch early. Needless loss of a perfectly good hour of sleep.

Rushing to get John to the airport for his 9:30 AM flight to Florida.

Said rushing caused me to back into the house while backing the car out of the driveway. With John watching me.

Watching my darling husband leave for the week, knowing I could have made a better send off for him, broke my heart.

Mis-judging the time I needed to be at a Mommy get-together to make baby food. Arriving on time and with oodles of food to puree only to find a note on the door saying--"Time change messed up schedule. Party canceled" and nothing else.

Grumbling that I had no one to play with on this gorgeous day.

When I arrived home from the failed baby food party--great idea and I hope to host one more details if I do--I found that Auntie Ari-belle's date had canceled on her and she was now free for the day. I looked at her and asked, "Beach?" Her answer, "Yes!" So off we, slowly, went. Things needed to be arranged with her hockey tickets. Brother came through with a friend and tickets were settled. Maia was fed, changed and packed. The car was loaded. Water bottles were filled and off we went to Capitola.

It was warm. And clear. And so beautiful by the water. Everyone was out and about. I despaired over finding a decent parking space as we had left the stroller at home...after all...we were adventuring light! Coming around the corner by the prime beach side parking I got stuck behind a giant Suburban (wait...that's redundant isn't it?) waiting for a family to pack up the mini-van full of small children and take their parking space. Great. Everything else was full so I decided to go around and head up the street, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but the Best Parking Space Ever. Right in front of the beach entrance. One side was nothing but curb so I could pull in close and leave plenty of room for getting Maia in and out of the car. Shiny, as Ari-belle would say.

We were out the door and feeding the meter while the Suburban was still waiting on the mini-van. I almost felt sorry for getting such a KILLER SPACE ahead of "my turn". Oh well. There are advantages to having a smaller car in the parking lot wars.

Walking across the sand was a joy. The breeze came up gently, softly, off the ocean. The sand was dry, but still cool from the recent rains. The beach was busy but there was plenty of good real estate left for us. Ari-belle, commenting on the temperature of the sand, said "Could this be any more perfect?" I thought not.

The grown-ups didn't have a blanket. Oh well. We found a nice spot by some rocks and driftwood to set up camp. I spread out a blanket for Maia pulled out my small collection of sand toys and proceeded to relax and enjoy Maia's play. She loved it. She loved pulling the sand out of the buckets. She loved digging her hands in the damp sand. She loved finding the toys I would bury for her. At one point she began to bury her Auntie's leg. She was smiling and squealing as she piled sand on to her pant leg.

We decided to take her down to the water's edge to see how she like the cold kiss of Northern California Pacific Ocean. She did fine. I danced her over the water as waves broke at my feet. She really loved being held in water that came up over her feet so she could bounce and splash. She got so excited by the splashing. We ran her into the small broken waves and ran her back to the shore again. Maia burried her little feet in the wet sand and giggled. She looked out to sea and smiled.

Back at the base camp, Maia decided she needed to eat so I fed her and then we played for a while longer. The day was getting long and the breeze was picking up so we decided to go before Maia got bored and fussy. We still had 1/2 hour on the meter, but it seemed a small price to pay for such a lovely afternoon.

In the car, Ari-belle and I decided we needed a little snack before going home, so we headed into Santa Cruz for dinner. Something pulled us toward a certain parking spot, a little off the beaten path. I was going to feed the meter when I noticed it still had time on it. 1/2 and hour. Call it what you will, I call it fate. Nothing wasted.

A lovely afternoon turned into a lovely evening filled with fun conversation with my sister and playing with the worlds best baby. I'm thinking this week is looking up from the last....except for missing my husband. But, I have his homecoming to look forward to...

(love you sweets. see you friday.)

Post #100

It's all about the pebble in the shoe, isn't it?

Ah Crap

Long day and I'm tired. Started out with too little sleep and too little water and too much fun over the weekend.

Running late for Maia's appointment, well, we needed to run one errand before the doctor and were late for that. No, it didn't involve coffee. Too bad about that.

Her appointment went fine. She's a healthy little girl. 18#2oz and 27 1/2" tall. 45th percentile in weight and 50th in height. Perfect. Dr. Rose did seem somewhat concerned about her lack of interest in food. She'd like us to 'practice' eating every day. So I need to set Miss M up in her chair and put food in front of her. Let her play. Dr. Rose said crackers were fine, bits of cheese, soft fruits and such were also good. Hopefully Maia will gain interest as we do this. We'll see.

The good doctor did mention that a sensitive gag reflex could be the cause her aversion to solid foods. She might just need to grow a bit more to become comfortable with things in her mouth.

On to the next stop--a meeting with my professor for my group project in Technical Writing. The pre-meeting with my group was great but I really felt that the actual meeting kind of spiraled down hill. Sigh. Maia can only be so patient. She was in a talking mood and chirping in her little high-pitched voice. I felt awful. Here we are trying to be professional and I can't even take notes. We were meeting in a lounge for English students located in the faculty office building. Her voice was going out into the hall and in the past there have been noise complaints about the lounge. I shut the door...but that's not allowed either. I felt very uncomfortable and wished I had had some place to leave her for this one meeting. Plus, campus politics are in full swing around my instructor and I think a small faux pas was made by meeting in the English lounge with him to begin with.

Sigh.

In the future, we're going to book private rooms in the library--which is part of the public library system and therefore open to non-students like Maia--to avoid some of these ackward moments.

Note: I have one cup of coffee and by the time we wrapped everything up it was almost two o'clock.

Walk back to the car. Where is the car? Crap. Parked in a one hour spot and I have been towed. That's what I get for not looking at the signs carefully enough. They're serious downtown. In the few minutes I used to call the very unhelpful towing company I saw another car get towed. I think they just run out there all day to make their money. Sigh.

So. What to do. Got no car. Got a tired baby. Got no car seat to put her in even if I had another car. Crap. Called brother and thankfully caught him before he left to get lunch. Met him at John's work--where the old car seat was hanging out in John's car. Strapped Maia into the Camero--plus the BOB stroller--not bad for a non-family car and took off for the tow yard.

The tow yard was as stereotypical as it could get: German shepherd, big guy in a grubby t-shirt yelling form the back office, tattooed drivers grinning at me as I tried to get the car back. When asked how I would pay for this, I asked "What credit cards do you take?" Answer: None I had on me. Checks? Nope. Cash? Yes. The bank is three blocks away and I'd better get back by 5 PM before the release fee went up by another $80.

Half an hour and $175 later I had my car again. The yard didn't even have real change for me...the last dollar was given to me in two quarters and five dimes. Even though there is a sign that says "We do not accept loose change as payment" Who has at least $175 in loose change? Had this been a real problem before? Did many people try to pay with loose change? Whatever.

Expensive lesson learned. No more parking downtown for me. Now I feel like crap and just want the week to start over. And it's Monday. And I have a variation on this theme to do tomorrow. Oh well. Tomorrow morning, I think it will be light rail and a Starbuck's black tea latte kind of day.

My Lips are Numb

So here I am after a wonderful day of friends and food food food....thinking that I've had my limit of drink but craving another beer. And instead of taking advantage of my husband or going wild on the dance floor I'm blogging.

To the fridge I go! Newcastle or Jumping Cow here I come!

Before I Forget!

Maia is now really and truly nine months old. Still cute as a bug, we haven't worn the baby off of her quite yet.

She still doesn't eat. Or crawl. Or roll on to her stomach. But she laughs like no ones business and loves to turn the pages of her books when we read. She is much more aware of her self and is beginning to have some pretty strong opinions. She wants to do what she wants to do.

Her latest game is to throw herself backward from a sitting position. When we play it on the couch, I put a pillow behind her and she just laughs as she throws her little head back. She does it in the Exersaucer as well. She's so much fun.

Now, off to bed before she awakens and needs me. Sigh. No rest for the Internet addicted.

Of Course, There's Always MEAT

BBQ is in the works for tomorrow. Ribs are baked off, just waiting to be finished on the grill. Potato salad is in the fridge. Gotta do chickens and cornbread in the AM, then get the veggie platter ready. Not too many snacks. I tend to over do appies and then nobody wants to eat the food food we've made.

I also have a hankering to bake a Red Velvet cake. Found a recipe that doesn't seem like it'd be too dry...a problem with the Velvet cake. It's pretty but can be bland. We'll see if I can get it whipped up.

Staying up and goofing on the Internet is not helping my cause.

Good night, then!

Horn Tootin'

Congratulations!

Your excellent academic record has earned you recognition as a Dean's Scholar in the College of Humanities and the Arts.

All of the San Jose State University Dean's Scholars will be formally awarded at the 45th Annual Honors Convocation on Friday, April 27, 2007.

Yeah me. Two semesters of school and I get to be feted. Least you think I'm some kind of super cool school girl-- I'm not the President's Scholar...I don't have a 4.o.

Of course, this won't get me out of poopie diaper duty. It's good to have a reality check in place.