Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tonight is my last class.

For this semester, anyway. I start again on June 8. So for the month of May, I'm making it my own personal Blog Posting Month (since November is the National one, and I kind of screwed that up). There will be copious pictures and even more copious words.

Short update with no pictures:

My sweet, sweet Llama is teething and crabby. Tuna Roll was baptized on Sunday and I have pictures that are not yet uploaded. Llama walks, but not very steadily.

That's about all, even though that's quite a lot when it's in real life. Until tomorrow...

Thursday, April 23, 2009

You can't pull the wool over my Llama's eyes.

Because her hair is already hanging in them. My solution? A fountain of hair atop her head.


Or you could call it a handle, it's just as appropriate. Useful, too, for a walking baby. I mean toddler. I'm so kidding, I haven't picked her up by her hair.



Saturday, April 18, 2009

A cautionary tale

We went to Bucket's great-aunt's house for Easter dinner. It's always interesting there because there are too many people in a too small house, and everyone is just drinking away the social awkwardness. Good times are had by all.

So, there is a plate of what appears to be nut roll, all sliced up and ready to eat. I grab a piece, because who doesn't love nut roll? I take a big bite. It tastes like... meat? What the hell is that? Hawaiian Punch suggests that I give it to Bucket because he'll eat anything.

So I give the rest of the piece to Bucket and say, "Finish this for me." He shoves the whole thing in his pie hole, because again, who doesn't love nut roll? And then I tell him, "I think it's meat." He managed to choke it down and not spit it out, because he has manners.

As we're eating the (dry and oddly flavored) ham dinner and discussing this meat roll, my mother-in-law asks Bucket's great-aunt about it. Apparently, 40 years ago, the aunt's mother made this "veal roll" for Easter and she liked it. But then her mom died and she never got it again (that is the sad part). So this year, she ground up some meat and rolled it up in nut roll dough in hopes it would be the same.

It was not the same. I ate meat roll for no reason. I'm lobbying for labels on all the foods at Christmas Eve dinner (at the same house), lest I get tricked again.

The cautionary part: Don't just eat things because they look like things you have eaten before without incident. People are tricky.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Happy Birthday, Baby Llama!

Just 365 short days ago, I was lying in the hospital, bored, and watching Good Morning America. I was waiting not-so-patiently for this sweet little girl to be born.

We've gone from this:



To this, taken yesterday:



And though we have over a thousand pictures of this year, I'll just show three memorable moments.

The happiest one-month-old I've ever seen:



And five months later, the unhappiest octopus I've ever seen:



And last but certainly not least, Little Miss Ladylike at her birthday party on Saturday, showing off her prizes from the Egg Hunt and wearing a dress that her grandma made her:



The more I say about this, the more likely I am to cry (and you all know that I cry a lot), so I'll just say that I'm grateful to have the family that I was born into and the family that I married into. I'm so lucky to have this little Llama to kiss and call my own. And I have learned so, so much in the past year. I can't wait to see all the other April 17ths for the rest of my life.

"If it all falls apart, I will know deep in my heart the only dream that mattered has come true. In this life, I was loved by you." ~ Collin Raye

Happy birthday, little girl.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Pictures. Better late than never, right?

Last weekend, Llama and Tuna Roll went to a family birthday party with their Grandma (who is not to be called Grandma VaJayJay for the obvious reasons, despite all of our protests) and Hawaiian Punch. Tuna Roll on the right, Hawaiian Punch in the middle, Llama on the left. Coordinating outfits, of course. Provided by Hawaiian Punch. It was a luau party.

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Things headed downhill from there.

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New attempts to take pictures of them together after returning to our house were slightly less successful:

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And things only deteriorated from there:

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Tuna Roll got a little spicy when Llama smacked her in the face while trying to escape:

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Llama could not understand what the problem was:

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Then everyone cried and we gave up.

While Llama and Tuna Roll were partying it up, Bucket, his dad (also as yet un-named), and I were putting ceramic tile in the kitchen. Since then, we've been painting the kitchen while also dealing with the continuing saga of Llama's ear infections (third antibiotic, 20 days of sickness, still not better), which is why posting has been so light. Or non-existent, really.

Before I was someone's mom, I never thought ear infections were a big deal. I didn't think "failing" an antibiotic would make me feel like I did something wrong, either. But here's one nice thing I never knew about being a mom - last night, I gave Llama her bath and was rocking her while she drank her milk before bed (we have a whole routine, it's very nice and she drops to sleep at the end of it without any issues). She laid her head on my chest and started "talking," and I swear she was telling me about her day. Maybe not, maybe I just made that up, but she talked quietly to me for about 10 minutes and then went right to sleep. I never knew I'd want to have a baby talk gibberish to me and that it would make me this happy.

Llama's birthday party is in FIVE DAYS. I have so much work to do, starting with painting the rest of the kitchen and ending with baking a mess of cupcakes. Posting will probably be light until after the party.