Following up... And random thoughts.

So, I alluded last week to having "fallen and busted my leg all up." What I did was sprain my ankle, tearing one ligament completely and partially tearing another. I get to go to physical therapy three times a week for a month, and then decide on whether I'd like some surgery or not. This must be the reason I'm unemployed!

You know how I said wine was one of my reasons to be happy? Well, I started Weight Watchers, so the wine consumption is drastically decreased. I figured that since I can't run my three 5Ks that I had planned (I should be able to run two, but I'm pretty sure I won't be running in March), I should probably do something else to keep my fitness momentum going. I'm not quite the biggest that I have ever been - that was at my wedding, the opposite of what everyone else in the world does - but I'm getting there and I don't like it. I'm almost to the end of my first week, and Bucket would like to get involved. That's saying something.

My little Llamacita was ready to watch the Miss America pageant with me tonight, but she didn't make it past the first elimination. She danced to "Dynamite," by Taio Cruz, with the contestants, and then she proclaimed it "Boring," and asked to go to bed. I know that pageants (excuse me, scholarship contests) aren't exactly the preferred viewing for preschoolers these days, but I have fond memories of watching the talent portions with my mom and my grandma. Imagine my surprise when I found that the talent portion would not be aired! I guess it's a good thing that Llama was too tired to stay up. She spent all of her energy cheering for the Steelers. She wore her jersey three times this week because I didn't have the energy to argue with her about it, and she wears a shirt under it, so... it was okay, right? Edited: Apparently ten contestants get to show their talents. The first one started playing Chopsticks. I'm not even kidding.

Llama and Tuna Roll are taking gymnastics together, and that is a sight to behold. Llama does not follow directions, because she only wants to jump on the trampoline and dance with ribbons. Tuna Roll does not want to come out from under her daddy's chair for the first half of class, and then she only wants to jump on the trampoline and dance with ribbons. We've been reassured that all new students act this way for the first couple months. I guess I'm paying for the experience of watching her not listen to someone else. It is not refreshing. Of course, she loves it and talks about it all week, so she will remain in gymnastics. I love her enthusiasm, and the class is at a cheer gym... look at what I've become! From a band geek to a potential cheer mom!?

I have a lot of unorganized thoughts about princesses, fairies, gymnastics and cheering, pageants, and socially enforced gender roles and how much I wanted everything to be gender neutral around her as a baby so she would CHOOSE her way. Yeah, she chose sparkles, pink, fairy wings and wands. But she also chooses dump trucks, excavators, backhoes and sandboxes, and she regularly approaches Bucket and me with her fists up and asks us if we want to fight her. If nothing else, she's well balanced. And aggressive.

Until such time as I have another thought that's too long for Facebook or Twitter... Good night!

A Photo Montage from Summer 2009

Set to music. Not actual music, because 1) I don't know how to do that and 2) it irritates me when I open a page and the music scares me and I have to scramble for the volume button. I'll just illustrate some lyrics.

The song is "Daughter," by Loudon Wainwright III, and I first heard it at the end of Knocked Up, while I was pregnant, and I sobbed.

Everything she sees, she says she wants.
Everything she wants, I see she gets.

That's my daughter in the water, everything she owns I bought her.
Everything she owns.
That's my daughter in the water, everything she knows I taught her.
Everything she knows.

Everything I say she takes to heart.


Everything she takes, she takes apart.

That's my daughter in the water, every time she fell I caught her.
Every time she fell.

That's my daughter in the water, I lost every time I fought her.
I lost every time.

Every time she blinks, she strikes somebody blind.

Everything she thinks blows her tiny mind.

That's my daughter in the water, who'd have ever thought her?
Who'd have ever thought?
That's my daughter in the water, I lost everytime I fought her.
Yea, I lost every time.

And now that I'm crying, I'll end this for tonight. The promised photos have finally arrived.

The Adventures of Llama and Tuna Roll, Number 3

It's been a long time since I told a tale of Llama and Tuna Roll. Too long. They've had adventures, I just haven't told them. But I digress.

My moms' group scheduled a tour at a local dairy farm called the Spring House. It's less than 20 minutes from my house, so I signed Aunt Dots (she finally picked a name!), Tuna Roll, Llama, and me up. I thought Llama might like the cows and I thought Tuna Roll would just look around contentedly.

It was supposed to rain, so Aunt Dots and I were waiting to decide if we were actually going until the morning. But I got an email that we needed to be there by 9:45, instead of 10, which I thought. I called Aunt Dots, but got no answer. Turned out she overslept. When she called back, it was 9. Somehow, I was going to have to get from my house to Hawaiian Punch's house (where Aunt Dots and Tuna Roll were) and pick them up and then get to the Spring House in 45 minutes. Safely. Without breaking land speed records, because I don't do that with kids in the car.

I kept trying to print the directions and instructions, but my printer only wanted to print super large gibberish, so I forwarded the email to Aunt Dots for her to print. I also asked her to call the organizer, pretend to be me, and explain that we were running a bit late.

I scrambled to put a car seat for Tuna Roll in my car. Llama's, of course, was already installed in my car. I assembled juice and snacks, because Llama does not roll without snacks.

I made it to Hawaiian Punch's at 9:30, but Aunt Dots was not quite ready. Oversleeping will do that to a girl. We were on the road within 5 minutes, though. We had 10 minutes to make it to the Spring House. Not possible. I called the organizer and explained, and she said that the tours had been split, so we could still make it.

Then I asked Dots for the directions. Which were sitting on Hawaiian Punch's kitchen counter. AWESOME. I knew mostly where I was going, so I just winged it. (Wung it? That's what I say when I'm talking out loud.) Only I turned onto the right road from the wrong side, which I learned when I made Aunt Dots call the organizer AGAIN. Poor organizer.

We finally made it!

Tuna Roll petted a cow named Lilly, who stands there and lets kids milk her over and over again, all day, every day. Lilly is extremely tolerant, apparently.

Llama poked Lilly in the face a couple times and hissed at her. I guess cows are furry enough to be treated like cats. I petted Lilly nicely.

A very friendly calf tried to eat Tuna Roll's sock.

The same friendly calf licked Llama's face and hair. I guess now she has a cowlick in the front, too. (Ha!)

Llama helped feed this baby with a very big bottle. She also tried to take a drink from this very big bottle, but I stopped her.

Then everyone except Tuna Roll got ice cream cones and we went home. For naps. Because after all that, Aunt Dots and I were very tired.

The Adventures of Llama and Tuna Roll, Number 2

I know I promised this series of Super Bowl party pictures a while ago and that the SB was two weeks ago. Sorry about that. I'm procrastinating right now, so here you go. (I have a test tomorrow and I'm not prepared, so I'll blog instead of study.)

First shot: Llama is happy. Tuna Roll is ramping up to be unhappy.

Second shot: (Somehow I missed the shot where Tuna Roll had her own binky. Sorry, I thought I had it). Anyway, Llama just jacked her cousin's pacifier right out of Tuna Roll's mouth.

Third shot: I took the binky back from Llama and returned it to the rightful owner. Unhappiness ensued.

Fourth and final shot: Everyone is happy, except Llama's making a break for it. Hawaiian Punch was making this goofy face behind me that Llama loves, and Llama had plans to get to her aunt immediately to grab that face.

Yeah, so it was late. I hope you liked it anyway, I certainly did.

I'm going to add one more thing to my plate and start something called "Wordless Wednesday," and I'm totally stealing it from another blog (I can't even remember which, that's how sucky I am). Anyway, on Wednesdays, I'll put up a picture. Maybe it'll be Llama, maybe it'll be something cool I saw, whatever. I won't explain it, either - hence "Wordless Wednesday." I think it'll be fun, and maybe I'll use my camera a little more often.

The Adventures of Llama and Tuna Roll, Number 1

That's a great title, isn't it? Llama's cousin has an appropriate code name for me to use on the internet, supplied by her mother (who does not yet have an appropriate code name).

Yesterday, my two sisters-in-law (called SILs for the purposes of this post) and I took Llama (8 months) and Tuna Roll (1 week) to the mall to have Christmas pictures taken. You may ask why we waited until 8 days before Christmas to do this, and the answer is that we are insane. No, really, the answer is that Tuna Roll wasn't even born until a week ago!

The day started when I picked up the younger SIL (seriously, I need to figure out appropriate code names for them) and accidentally beeped the horn. I am not a beeping-the-horn kind of girl, I think it's rude. But I was trying to move Llama's dresses and diaper bag to the backseat of my little car that is mostly taken up by Llama's giant seat. Seriously, I think the seat is bigger than the car and it's a miracle that I'm able to get it in and out. So I was already flustered, but I got that under control. I don't like when things don't go according to plan. We didn't even have a plan!

We arrived at Tuna Roll's house and Tuna Roll's mama (other SIL) needed to get dressed, because everything that happens with an infant seems to take ten times as long as it should. (Believe me, I know, I can't seem to do anything in a timely manner anymore.)

Then we went to go move Llama's seat into Tuna Roll's mama's Jeep, because there was no way three adults and two babies would fit in my car. Should I have been doing this while younger SIL played with both babies and Tuna Roll's mama got dressed? Yes, in retrospect. But who knew that Bucket would have jammed Llama's seat into my car so tightly that it would take a YEAR to get it unLATCHed? LATCH is such a nice idea, when it works easily, like in Tuna Roll's mama's Jeep. In the Subaru, the bars are buried deeply, and you have to reach your hand into the seat all the way back to Japan to grab them. Really. There is a rip in the time-space continuum and you can reach Japan from my car.

Finally, I got the seat loose from my car. Yay! And then it was time to put it in the Jeep, because I wasn't tired enough yet! That was surprisingly easy. The only snag was that in order to get a good install, I have to get in the seat and pull the LATCH strap. So younger SIL took a photo (because an adult in a baby seat is irresistable), and she claims it is flattering. I'm not sure because I haven't seen it.

And off we went, only 90 minutes after we had intended to leave.

So we arrived at the mall (South Hills Village, for you Pittsburghers) and went to Picture People. I had called on Tuesday and they told me to just take our chances with walking in, because they didn't have any more appointment slots available but they did keep walk-in appointments available. Whatever, that doesn't make sense to me, but I rolled with it. It was a madhouse. Of course it was! It was 8 days before Christmas! We got a time, went to eat, and returned at the appointed hour (that part is very boring).

And then we wrestled Llama into her dress. She was not a fan. Tuna Roll is much easier to wrestle, since she doesn't have much of an opinion yet. Keep in mind that we were doing this picture session during Llama's naptime! Good planning on my part. Everything was relatively uneventful until Llama fell and bonked her head. Get my Mother of the Year award ready, because we continued the photo session with just Tuna Roll as I calmed Llama. Then we changed their outfits and went with both of them. Bruises and red marks can be photoshopped out, but Christmas pictures are forever!

The photos are beautiful and will be going out in my (late) Christmas cards this week.