I don't think I have much to say...

Sophie has been going to bed without crying lately! YAY! I don't have to sit in there and rub her back or her belly or sing her songs and wait until she's asleep. What a big girl!

I'm sick as a dog. It sucks. Really. I have some 12 hour Afrin and 8 hour Halls that kick back, though. I think I'm going to lose my voice on this one. Fun!

I have pictures and videos to post, as always. I'll get to them soon, I hope.

Yeah... I was right. Not much to say. I'm fuzzy headed tonight. I think it's time for sleep. The Kritter wakes up far too early these days.

My parents are here and we've been fairly busy. Yesterday was Sophie's big birthday celebration (have pictures to share at a later date). Sophie was all off schedule today but we managed to squeeze a trip to the park in. Nana also gave Sophie a bath tonight and the Kritter got to paint the walls (thanks to Aunt Tracie and Uncle Rich and cousin Emy).

We're going to try to make it to the FW Zoo Wednesday for Sophie's birthday. I'm guessing we'll either do leftovers that night for dinner or we'll hit a restaurant on the way home if the Kritter isn't too pooped.

Speaking of poop... no more luck on the potty training front although she did manage a few drops in the potty this morning. It was nothing like the first time (I know most the people who read this don't care, but that's not why I write in my journal) though.

Voting request: Friends, family, whoever stops by to read this blog, please click on this link here and vote for the black and white puppy dog labeled Happy Boy. I'm trying to help a friend's mother here!! :)

I have my icons all set and ready to link to LJ... but I have something like 400ish I want to link! Well, I really have more than that, but those were the ones I liked the most. *sigh*

Ugh... Lots to catch up on still. I'll be around. This wasn't as quick as I wanted it to be. Oh well.

Argh.

Seriously, my hormones are all in a rage today. I hope there's not a repeat of that tomorrow. There's too much going on! We have Dream Dinners, and then after we come home to put the food away, I'll be heading to the airport to pick up my parents and then to my in-laws' to pick up the Kritter. During my trip to the airport, B will be mowing lawns (ours and a friend's). Then B and my Dad and one or two of B's friends will be going to the baseball game. Mom and I will most likely eat leftovers after a trip to the grocery store (although she might go for a sandwich or bowl of cereal instead... I know, so exciting, right?).

Sophie and I were sitting at the table earlier and she kept asking to sweep. I thought she was saying sleep and was so confused. When I figured it out, I had to laugh. She also asked me to sign thunder and I thought she said feather. I'm losing my touch here.

Speaking of which... she's started doing that within the past few days. She loves to ask me to sign words with her. She also loves to ask for help when trying to make certain signs. It's all very cute.

I cannot believe how quickly she's growing! I am just in awe of these past few weeks, seriously. She has started to read books to us (from the illustrations, not from the words... she's not a prodigy as far as we know) and it's absolutely awesome! She really seems to remember the story based on the pictures. I love it! She's also very polite right now. She says "Yes, Mom" or "Please, Mom" or "Thank you, Mommy" all the time now! I can't get over it! My favorite is, "Okay, Mommy!" It sounds so simple, but to hear it come out of her mouth in her tiny little voice just kills me!

I made quinoa tonight for the first time and I have to admit, it was pretty good. I like it because it cooks faster than rice and isn't as starchy. It's not quite as quick as couscous, but I just can't eat couscous all the time.

I still need to vacuum but that's not going to happen tonight. I ought to mop the floor but don't plan on doing that tonight either. I will probably put together a bag of toys for Sophie as well as gather some food for her.

Instead, I'm going to post pictures of the garden. B's pretty proud of it. I have no idea if we're doing anything right or wrong here. He was too hot to plant before I could really do some reading. I guess this will be a learning year. ;)

• I'm caught up with comments up until April. Sorry for the blast from the past. There are a few I would have responded to if I'd gotten to them earlier but the time lapse just made them seem inappropriate for some reason.


• My parents will be here on Saturday for a week. I will most likely be somewhat quiet then.


• .


• Not only did Sophie not cry at nap time today, she managed bedtime without tears as well! She also was able to fall asleep without me in the room both times!


• Wednesday morning (4/23/08) was another huge moment for Sophie. She managed to pee in her potty, and it wasn't just a few drops! She woke up with a dry diaper and as soon as I realized it was dry, I asked her if she wanted to use her potty. She said yes, so I grabbed the new potty books and we sat down to read. While I was reading, she managed to accomplish the task! Of course, we haven't had any other successful pees since then, but I'm unconcerned at this time since we're not working on potty learning hardcore or anything.


• Sophie likes chocolate pudding and managed to eat it today with a spoon without getting much on herself other than the mess she made on her face whenever she licked her lips (pudding was all over her tongue while she was licking).


• Parents of small children looking for good books. Check out Mo Willems. His books are full of awesome!


• Not only did our ladybugs survive the storm last night (not sure how many), but it appears as though some of them have already laid eggs and they seem to have survived as well! Our plants also seemed to have survived, even the tiny basil sprouts. We still have to plant the lantana and the other flowers I bought for the front yard.


• I need to make up a menu for this week and go grocery shopping. We have Dream Dinners Saturday morning, but I'll still need to pick up other food stuff for Mom and Dad.


• Update on the ball game this Saturday night: B is going to take my father and is going to ask his father and another friend to join them. We'll see what happens. Mom and I will stay home with Sophie. Yeah, it would be a good time and all, but I don't want to leave my parents alone the first night they're in town, nor do I want to leave Sophie with a sitter.


• Lots of cleaning and other fun things will be filling my day tomorrow.


• Ooh, almost forgot (and this is pretty huge). There are currently two possibilities of remote work in the pipeline. I'd have to choose one over the other, but it would be doing the same exact thing, which is exactly what I did for nearly the last four years I was working as well. I'm hoping at least one of these pans out. I'm hoping for the nine-to-five job over the super-insane-schedule job, but at this point, I'd honestly be happy with either.

That's about all I've got for now. I must go to bed. I'm not tired (frustratingly enough), but Sophie wakes up awfully early and I need to be ready for it.

This is a picture dump of the Kritter over the past two months. Yeah, I suck like that. All the images are 320x200 (or vice versa), so it shouldn't take TOO long to load, but for those of you on dial up, if you really want to see the pictures, click the cut link and walk away. There are 20 pictures behind the cut and one teaser out in front.

isyllt and Anna, if you want me to make this a private post, I will. Just let me know.

Other pictures previously mentioned will be uploaded at a later date. Videos will be uploaded at a later date. This is all I'm doing for now.

Edited to add: Click the pictures for high res images.

At 4:30 this morning I wake up to "Mommy, help me!" She crawled into bed with us and either needed me to cuddle her (I was facing the opposite direction) or needed the covers. I think we managed to cuddle for about five minutes before she decided she needed to get up and get some milk. Needless to say, we've been up since then, and it's not been much fun. She keeps switching back and forth between sweet as pie and demon child. Thankfully, the demon side is kept to a minimum this morning.

In other news...

I actually managed to look up the seats for the game yesterday. They're pretty decent seats as far as I can tell. The price I mentioned yesterday was a group rates. The tickets themselves are worth about $200 or more, it would seem. For you baseball buffs out there, the tickets are in section 14, row 24. That is the day my parents are supposed to come into town, so I think what I'm going to do is send B and my father to the game and ask the neighbor and his son if they would like to go along.

B and I went to dinner last night without The Kritter. We went to Texas Land and Cattle. I ordered a mojito, but the waiter informed me the mojitos they served are not the best mojitos since they use a mix. I decided to go for a pina colada instead (lucky me, it was cheaper than the mojito) and I am so glad I did. It was really the best pina colada I've ever had. Dinner for me was a ribeye (medium rare, of course), a baked sweet potato (with some sort of killer sweet cinnamon butter), and a salad. I didn't finish the steak or the potato, so that might be lunch today. We split a dessert that was somewhat similar to a chess pie (that's what it makes me think of, but it's not the same) and a coffee as well. It was nice to have a night out without Sophie and she seemed to have a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, so it was good all around.

I'm behind on recent comments because I've been trying to take care of ancient comments first. I am trying to catch up. I'll get there eventually. I'm also going to try to find time to set up a couple of mood themes I found that I really like as well as play around with user icons and update my profile. Yeah, right.

If anyone has ideas of where I can find clip art or other images for Minnow Minnow Pea, or if there's anyone willing to be commissioned or who knows anyone who might want to be commissioned, please let me know. I should see if Katie at gronkfanclub would be interested. She was going to create some icons for me once upon a time but things got crazy for both of us...

It appears as though the terrible twos have descended upon us. For about the past three days or so (maybe less, but it seems like an eternity), Sophie has taken to throwing tantrums for no apparent reason, crying more than she has since she was an infant and adding the screaming back in as well.

On the flip side, she is so polite it hurts. She says "Yes, Mom" and "Thank you, Mom" when we're able to talk without the screaming and crying and it's positively adorable. Unfortunately, five minutes of screaming and five minutes of cute do not balance each other!

Did I mention the screams?

Sometimes, when she decides screaming is the only answer, it takes her quite a while to calm down. She will scream so loudly and for such a long time she can't hear anything I have to say, so the discovery period takes that much longer. This morning she crawled into bed with us to cuddle with Mommy (I love when she does this), decided she needed to get up for some reason, and then proceeded to scream absolute bloody murder after she'd gotten out of the bed. She refused to calm down. I still don't know what was wrong. I doubt very much if she even knows (or remembers) what was wrong. How very frustrating, for both of us.

However, while she might have only screamed for perhaps a total of fifteen minutes this morning (broken up over a period of time), we've already been awake for one and a half hours and it seems like the majority of my morning has been spent listening to screams. There's no balance at all.

*sigh*

I knew this was coming. I know we were able to hold off on the terrible twos for a bit longer than most. I know she has reached the stage of independence. She refuses help when getting into her booster chair (she climbs up and fastens it on her own). She starts to whine if she can't get the buckles fastened quickly. She then will scream if I even offer help. I don't know how long this will last or what triggers it, though. That's the worst part of it all.

Now that she's calm and being cute, I realize this morning's episode was because she wanted breakfast (far earlier than she would normally eat, too). During discovery, I was able to discern she was hungry and she wanted waffles (definitely not French toast) and grapes. She cleared that plate rather quickly, asked herself for more grapes, replied to herself with a "Sure!" and then smiled when I asked her if she wanted more grapes. I also asked if she would like another waffle or some French toast. She said no to both of those but responded with a nod and a repeat when I asked if she wanted regular toast. She has nearly finished the second plate of food.

God bless that child. She's now sitting at the breakfast table singing songs to Chui Dawg. I have no idea what she's singing, but it's beyond cute. What a silly girl. Cuddles and silliness both are great scream erasers. Now that the silliness has started, I'll go wash her up and bring her to the sofa to sit and cuddle with me for a few minutes. I'll forget all about the screams and we'll have a pleasant morning. She might scream before nap time or she might not. I'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.

Anna is still here (they leave Monday morning) and the girls are having an absolute blast together. It makes me sad we don't live closer because Sophie's missing out on getting to know her cousins and the rest of the family.

One of the things that has just surprised me to no end is she looks so big compared to Maddy. I don't remember Sophie ever being as small as Maddy and that makes me sad. I know she was since I have photos and videos to prove it, but I swear those memories are completely lost without the digital images.

Tonight, the girls took a bath together. I might post a picture later but the camera is currently in the office charging and I don't care to get the card out of it right now. I hope to remember to get more pictures of Maddy tomorrow while the girls are playing. She's such a giggly little girl, so I'll try to catch a couple videos as well.

Heh, I don't want them to leave. :(

( TV meme to take my mind off of things...  )

• I have to say apparently many of the fans at Nationals Stadium are twelve because it's pretty rude and disrespectful of them to boo the president. I can't think of many things I like about GW but that doesn't mean I'm going to disrespect the man and boo him off the field. Didn't these people ever learn manners? I don't like Hillary, but that doesn't mean I'm going to boo her off a field (or anywhere, for that matter).
• Keith Olberman is a little too bitter and angry for me.
• .
• Wal*Mart is the devil.
• The Kritter gets cuter and cuter. Things she's been doing lately:
• We had the most disgusting poop experience we have had yet with her. This is total payback for not having to deal with nasty poops when she was little. I'll post details behind a cut, though, as this isn't very cute... at all.
• I woke up this morning shortly after 3:30 to Sophie nursing. She went to bed in the guest room and I honestly have no idea how she managed to crawl into bed with us. It's a little higher than the other bed and she has a difficult time getting into that bed without help. She then asked me to change her diaper (I obliged) and when I tried to put her back to bed in the guest room, she wanted to nurse again. I absolutely will not nurse in the middle of the night anymore (I'm SO tired of nursing, really), so I told her she could have a cup of milk instead. She actually wasn't too difficult to get to sleep after that. She asked me to rub her back and then she asked to cuddle.
• She has not only been signing words lately, but has been taking the time to tell us how to sign words (dessert: you take two "d's" and tap them!). Cracks me up.
• She says, "Mommy, you're beautiful" and "My favorite Mommy" and "Friends with Mommy." Makes my heart melt. She also tries to sign friend with me where she hooks her finger with mine. Too cute!
• She loves to make shapes with her Play-Doh. We have lots of fun rolling it out and using my cookie cutters.
• We say prayers together at night and she alternates lines with me instead of repeating me. The child remembers so much!
• Before prayers, we read books, and she's able to read along with us (thanks to her memory, I'm sure). She gets very involved in every book we read (always the same books), including 10 Little Ladybugs, Henry Builds a Cabin, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Knuffle Bunny, and The Perfect Purple Feather.
• She loves to play in the sand. She calls it snow. She says she's making snowballs. I'm not sure why she would do that since we've never played in the snow before. Crazy kid.
• Last week we had a picnic lunch and she talked about it for days. We only took the picnic basket to the front yard but she thought it was the best fun she'd ever had. To complete that day, we took her out to Chili's with us and she talked about going to the restaurant for days afterward as well. Sometimes she really amazes me with the things she remembers.
• I hope the chicken pox disappear soon. Sophie has two new spots and I have no idea how many I have. Mine have mostly been in my hair and on my back (haven't had a lot, but enough to drive me nuts). I don't normally go many places, but I hate being confined by something I can't control. I have things I want to do this week! JoAnn Fabric is having a sale on all of their sewing notions and I want to pick up a few things. I also want to get some material for a few outfits for Sophie.
• Bibs are coming along nicely. I have more to cut out, but they're getting better and better.
• I need to pick up my needles again soon and get the blanket for my niece finished. Gah.
• I also need to get my Craigslist stuff listed. B is tired of seeing it (as am I) and we could use the money.

I think that's about all there is for now. I've forgotten things I wanted to mention, as usual.

( Poop - TMI )

Sophie loves to watch John and John from They Might Be Giants and loves to talk to them as if they were here (same with Steve and Joe from Blue's Clues, but not so much Rachel from Signing Time, even though she watches that show more than any other). She also loves to climb and slide. She's watching Here Come the ABC's and talking to John (and John) while she's going around and around on the slide in these three videos. The Kritter is out of control.

She's wearing just a shirt and a gDiaper in these videos because she kept getting caught up with her jeans on the slide somehow. She actually took a digger from the top of the slide because of it and wound up with a tiny bit of rug burn just under her left eye.

I think the second video is my favorite. The part where I'm laughing... yeah, I'd never seen her do that before. I crack up every time I see it now.

Sophie has the chicken pox.

At least she's been immunized (one shot, can't remember if it's a two shot deal or not) so it's a mild case, but B has never had chicken pox nor has he ever been immunized. I've had the chicken pox twice (both mild cases) and can get it again (and most likely will, I'm sure), but it should be a bad case if I do.

Ugh. Looks like I'll be canceling Dream Dinners again this Saturday.

Thankfully, she doesn't seem to be affected by it.

Blah.

• Job hunt equals much frustration and serious self-confidence destruction and minor depression.
• Next round of the Friending Frenzy to follow shortly. If anyone else wants in on the action, let me know. I have at least two more people interested.
• .
• Thank heavens for new Signing Time videos. Sophie is being terribly cute by searching the house for Hopkins (the frog) right now. I love that kid to pieces!
• I will eventually get around to responding to the recent post/poll about the crafts. I greatly appreciate all of your responses, even if it was to just vote in the poll. That helps me tremendously.
• Someone once asked how my username came about. I believe she said something like, "What exactly is a 'sm00bs'?" Well... here's the answer, because I know you're all dying to know. Back in the day, I used to have an AOL account (I mean, really back in the day). I had fun hanging around in the chat rooms there and came up with the screen name of Sm00chies. No idea why, but that's what it was (Smoochies was already taken). In the chat room I frequented, people often called me Sm00 or Sm00byDoo. Sm00byDoo stuck when I moved over to IRC (yes, I'm that sort of geek), so that was my original nick there. Of course, one of my dear friends always called me sm00bs and eventually I caved and just changed my nick permanently. I assumed he just called me sm00bs because it was a shorter version of Sm00byDoo. Apparently, while that was part of it, it wasn't the whole reason. Yes, it had something to do with boobs, even though he'd never seen mine (still hasn't). Silly boys. It's not a very exciting story, but there it is. I kept it because it was my name for years before I started LJ. I tried using ellemenno at one point, but just couldn't get into it.
• I will hopefully be posting about some of the recent campaigns for BzzAgent. I now have two cans of Oust, a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner, and coupons to Chili's for free burgers. I'm going to do a little poll to see what opinions other people have of these products soon.
• If any of you are looking for good music in podcast form, perfect length to burn on a CD for a car ride, check out starpush's monthly release of Soundtrack. This last Show, Class Is in Session, is excellent! I know some of you share my taste in music, and even B found this show entertaining. I highly recommend it!
• One of these days I'll get around to playing with icons. I think I need a little play time.
• It's time to get really serious about my sewing. I might even take a class or two. The more I think about it, the more I want to make the Etsy thing work.
• Eventually I'll get some pictures and videos posted of Sophie. I just have to get the videos uploaded and go through the pictures.
• Gah. Much stress weighing be down right now.

Carry on.

Because I like uawildcatgrl and her writing rocks, PLEASE go vote for her here in therealljidol. When voting for her, you'll actually need to vote for wildcatwrites. Also, vote for her teammate, lilmissmagic71. The links to their entries are listed next to their names in the poll. You don't have to be a member of the community to vote.

If you haven't seen it yet, the big Friending Frenzy post (dubbed as such by uawildcatgrl) is located here. Check it out, have some fun, and make a few friends! :) By the way, this entry is a friends-only entry because I didn't want others to worry about putting stuff out there about themselves if they normally keep a locked journal. For those of you who aren't part of LJ yet but are interested, sign up, jump in, and splash around a bit; the water's great! ;)

Sophie and I had a play date the other day and we met up with isyllt and her little girl, Lillie. I have a few pictures of the kids that I want to get up eventually.

B recently posted about the fence and the bike here. Nothing terribly exciting to anyone other than us, most likely. It doesn't appear as though the pictures are working properly, though. Something is amiss.

Sophie and I went to MOPS today. I was doing daycare with one of my neighbors (extra cash always helps) and Sophie had fun playing with the kids. I love watching her with other kids! She was running around at the end when the older kids were playing tag. She was just running back and forth like a crazed child.

I think I might let Sophie audition for Signing Time. If she gets in, it will cost us more than she'll make as far as money is concerned, but I think it could be a great experience for her. I could handle a non-work related trip to Salt Lake and I think she'd get a kick out the whole thing. I'm not sure if it would mean she gets to meet Rachel again or not, but it's worth a shot. I just have to take a video of her now.

I think that's about all... for now, at least.

This is an extremely heavy video post. There are eight more videos behind the cut. Sophie was having a blast playing in her room while I was trying to tidy it last night. I was having a blast watching her being crazy. Yeah, some of these might get old after a while, but remember, whenever I post video, it's mostly so my family gets a chance to see her.

In all of these videos, whatever she's wearing she has chosen to wear on her own. Well, she just asked for a dress and agreed the one I picked was fine, but other than that... Yeah.

The videos actually get shorter near the end. I didn't really mean to be taking three or four minute videos. I just lose track of time when I'm watching her be silly like that.

I'm sitting here with Sophie in the living room, now that lunch is over. We can hear the kids screaming and playing outside. It sounds like they're having a wonderful time, too. I'm rater surprised Sophie hasn't heard them, but she's wrapped up in her Quiet Loud book by Leslie Patricelli. She's doing an excellent job reading it, too. She's very quiet on the quiet parts and very loud on the loud parts.

Heh, of course I typed that too soon. She now hears the kids and is repeatedly announcing it. Poor kid. I'd let her go outside, but...

It's snowing.

That's right, snowing. It was 70° F here yesterday and today it is snowing. Big, wet, sticky flakes are falling from the sky. The roofs are all covered in white. The snow is sticking in some places on the ground, but melting in others (our garden area is covered in snow, but the area around the garden is green). What's funny about this particular snow storm is it's our first real snow of the winter, and most likely it's our last. It snowed a few flakes on Thanksgiving, but nothing of any real importance. I think that's the only other snow we've seen this season.

I've heard we're supposed to get somewhere between one and three inches of this stuff. I have a feeling if we actually get that much, it won't be gone tomorrow. It might, but I don't think it's supposed to be that warm tomorrow.

It's not just floating from the sky, either. It's actually a bit blustery out there. If it weren't so windy and if she actually had snow pants or a snowsuit, I might consider letting her play outside. She'll just have to enjoy the flakes from inside this time around. Perhaps next year she'll get to play in the snow.

For now, however, we're going to cuddle together under blankets on the sofa while reading books together and every now and then watching the snow as it falls from the sky. It's not even falling in big flakes now; it's falling in clumps. Yes, everything really is bigger in Texas.

Sophie is sitting next to me, just chilling. All of a sudden, I get a hug out of nowhere and she announces, "Hugs are fun!" A few minutes go by where she's still just chilling next to me and then she announces, "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

Seriously, the child is out of control. This is from Yo Gabba Gabba this morning, I'm pretty sure of it. The songs are stuck in my head, but I'm not sure if it's because of what she said or because that's the episode we watched today.

She's now asking for TMBG's Here Come the ABC's. The kid has good taste.

• When something is difficult, Sophie says, "So heavy." I'm not exactly sure how this works, but that's the way it is. When trying to put macaroni and cheese on her fork, when the noodles won't stay on her fork they're "so heavy." When she's trying to put the bracelet back on her baby doll, it's "so heavy" to fasten (it's a simple Velcro type closure but she always turns it backwards). I don't know why, but I find this all highly amusing. There's a face and a sound that go along with this that just makes it that much better. B thinks it might be because we say, "so heavy!" when picking her up.
• Sophie has named her baby doll "Sophie Kritter," which, of course, comes out sounding like "Sowie Tidder." Love it.
• .
• Miss Thang went up the little slide and then down again all by herself with no help from me after a few times of sliding together. She also managed to walk up a rather large plank so she could go down the big slide (all on her own). The only bad part about hanging out at the neighbors' house is Sophie loving their play fort just a bit too much. She hates leaving!
• Sophie also played in the little play house last night and closed all the windows so she could throw them open and yell "peek-a-boo" (which still sounds like "piddaboo").
• I had the back door open during dinner and Sophie kept announcing she could hear the kids playing ("Hear tids!"). She was so excited to go play with them she had a difficult time finishing dinner.
• Lately, while reading our books, she has taken to eating the food off the page of the book (pretends to pinch at the picture with her fingers and put it to her mouth saying, "Mmmm, dood!"). She has also started tickling people and animals right on the page of the books ("tiddo tiddo tiddo" with her little fingers going wild over the picture). Seriously, when the heck did she get to be so funny??
• Sophie likes to wear hats. She has a variety of hats she wears from time to time. Her favorites are the pompom hat, one of my straw hats, and Papaw's train cap.

There's probably more, but that's all I can remember for now.

In other somewhat slightly related news, I think my camera is coming down with some fatal disease. If you watch the videos (and bless you if you do, they're long and just of the Kritter playing with a ball, so exciting!), you'll here a clicking sound that simply shouldn't be there. I'm not sure what the deal is. It's also fighting to focus. I'm not sure if someone jacked with a setting or what, but that still shouldn't cause the clicking. :(

• Sophie is currently sleeping in her own bed. B moved her into it about an hour ago. She hasn't stirred.
• I've applied for yet another job but haven't heard anything from them yet. So freaking tired of job hunting, seriously. It's such a drag and my confidence is shot to hell. What a whip.
• .
• My mother called to inform us that she's planning to take the entire family on a vacation next spring for her anniversary. She suggested the Dominican Republic or the Bahamas or Mexico, but then said it's possible we might only be doing Bear Lake (fine by me, I love Bear Lake). B said if we do that, he wants to go across the bridge (meaning the Mackinac, of course). At that point, I told him we should lobby for a week on the island instead of Bear Lake. I've never been to Mackinac Island before and I honestly think that would make for an excellent vacation. I'm not so sure anyone else would be up for that.
• I've been working on sewing bibs, and while the first one wasn't perfect, it certainly wasn't bad. I'll have pictures up in the craft blog shortly. There are four more bibs ready to be top stitched and have a snap added, and I'm very pleased with how they're looking so far. Let's just hope my finishing techniques improve a bit.
• On top of the impetigo, Sophie now has some sort of little red bumps that have developed sometime within the past few days. She has a few on her back and one on her leg. They're not large nor are they intense red. They almost look like little flea bites, just a hair bigger.
• She's started saying "Where's Sophie Kritter" now whenever she has her head covered (when we cover her head with a towel or are getting her dressed, or when she covers her face with a book or her hands, etc.). It's one of the cutest things she does. I love it.
• Phone Scoop - Looking for a new phone or a new carrier? This site is actually very cool in that it lets people search and compare, reading other reviews and even contribute their own reviews. I wish I'd known about this when we got our last phones.
• StumbleUpon - Yes, it's another social bookmarking site, but this one is supposed to work a bit like Tivo and learn your preferences. I haven't signed up yet, but I probably will soon.

And with that, I'm off to bed... a childless (for now) bed that will allow me to snuggle under the covers with my husband without fear of one of us being kicked in the side.

• Blue's Clues is a new favorite here (well, for her... I've always loved it). Sophie goes absolutely nuts when Steve is on (she seems to like Joe as well, but doesn't get as excited).
• Speaking of Steve from Blue's Clues, the man has character. I have great respect for him.
• .
• The impetigo is clearing up. Come to find out it was staph infection but wasn't MRSA. Friday night we switched to Amox-Clav to fight the infection. She's on that until next Friday morning (1 tsp twice daily) along with the Bactroban still (three times daily applied to diaper area). I am so glad it's looking better.
• Sophie's had a bit of a fever this weekend, but nothing very high. It hasn't made a difference in her activity level at all.
• Found an excellent little site for book fans, or anyone just looking for a good book, really. Check out Goodreads for more information. If you are a member there, feel free to add me (same user name, of course).
• Rather blah today. Hopefully the sun remedies that in short order. Lots to do! Craigslist and eBay postings need to be done, bibs need to be sewn, knitting needs to happen, cleaning is a constant... It never ends.
• Please hold good thoughts and say a few prayers for me on the job hunt front. Meh. Depressing.

With that, I'm done. It's someone's nap time and she's being terribly cute about it.

Sophie was diagnosed with impetigo (bullous impetigo, actually). The doctor gave us a prescription for Clindamycin and Bactroban and asked us to come back on Thursday so she can take another look at Sophie and see how she's fairing. They had a culture sent off for a little more information.

She's napping now, and has been pretty much since we got home (about an hour and a half ago now). We had to stop at Walgreen's to have the prescriptions filled, so Sophie and I chilled out there for a little before heading home. The pharmacist informed me that the Clindamycin is some of the worst tasting medicine they have, and asked me if I'd like to have it flavored (cherry, grape, or lemon). I jumped on the lemon since the kid is a lemon freak and I have to admit, it smells pretty good. Sophie sucked it down in no time flat (even asked for more lemon medicine).

Ah, such fun times. My only real concern right now is the possibility of a phone call telling me it's caused by MRSA.

Sophie's had plenty of rashes before (usually food related or yeast), but this morning when I took her diaper off of her, I was shocked to find four rather large blisters, and by blisters I mean huge bubbles, one almost half an inch wide!

I called the nurse and we have an appointment at 11:00 AM and are to go around to the side entrance since it's currently an unidentified rash. I hated putting a diaper on her this morning since I'm sure it will pop at least one, if not all, of the blisters.

They really are huge. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, I know I gasped, and I set Sophie down on the floor to go grab the phone before I even put her clean diaper on her.

__

In other news, I have the SD card in the laptop and will be transferring pictures and videos later. I have a couple posts to make, but just haven't had time to get to them yet.

Okay, LiveJournal has now made posting video a serious pain in my butt. Way to go. Here are the videos from the painting session. The first one is from my phone, which is why it's so small.

This is really all I've got for now. Sophie has been having a blast with her crayons and chalks and even markers that I decided to let her try a little finger painting the other day. I took some yogurt (banana and vanilla - closest to white and no chunks) and divided it into three bowls and made red, yellow, and blue paints for her. I laid out some paper on the table (think I'll use freezer paper next time) and taped it down, and poured a little of each color out on the paper. I made sure she had on one of Daddy's old t-shirts (he hates shirts with pockets for some reason, but Sophie doesn't mind), pulled her hair back, put her up in the high chair, and let her go to town.

We made colors together, we played in the paint, and she actually realized she could eat the paint towards the end. B was completely grossed out, but Sophie had a blast. After she was done with the paints, she wanted to draw on her chalkboard. She's still wearing the shirt covered in yogurt.

People keep asking for pictures, so I feel the need to comply. These are all from last weekend while the guys were out working on the fence. The weather was wonderful here, so Sophie wanted to be outside as well.

This entry is going to be even more all over the place than other random entries... I think. Watch, I'll get to the end and realize I didn't really have anything to post in the first place. That's always fun.

For those of you looking for a new home in the DFW area, this little site is one of the coolest MLS searches I've seen... ever. I wish there was a site like this that would search the entire country. I know there are other areas who use this company (Diverse Solutions), but they don't link together. That would be the ultimate.

Yesterday, Sophie sat and colored for about two hours. Two hours! Every now and then she'd give me a crayon and ask me to color. I drew a bunch of shapes for her and she tried to color them in! This is the reason I want a scanner. I want to be able to scan these things so I don't have ten thousand papers laying around, but also so I can show my family what she's doing now. It really was too cute. She was almost heartbroken when I took away the crayons so she could eat dinner.

Tonight we are having Thai chicken with peanut sauce. Of course, it's a Dream Dinners meal, but I'm still looking forward to it. B will probably hate it, unfortunately. I wonder if I have an onion in the pantry for fried rice....

Sunday's game was incredible. I seriously should have bet on it. I knew it was going to be close and had a feeling the Giants were going to win, but I was afraid it was just wishful thinking. Any team that gets light penalties for cheating and drug abuse and continues to win games regardless, and then has the audacity to actually trademark the phrase "19 and 0" needs to be taken down a notch or two. After watching how cocky some of the Pats were on the field, I was very pleased when Eli had a shining moment at the end and helped his team pull off a major victory. Sorry Pats fans, it's not your fault and this isn't against you.

I have to admit, the commercials just haven't been as good as they used to be, though. There were a few worth noting, I think Coke, Pepsi, E*Trade, and possibly a few others were pretty decent. I think Budweiser will have a tough time trying to beat the frog commercials, although I did like their commercial this year (hasn't that one been aired before?).

I have a couple memes to post (one from my mother, of all people), but I'll put them in a separate post... whenever I get around to doing them.

I need to go get the child out of bed now, since she has awakened from her nap and is currently giving herself "boops," I'm guessing on the nose.

( The rest of the post (pictures and videos) will be behind a cut, just to be nice.  )

Tagged by billzy:

The rules are easy, just post 10 things that recently made you happy! Then tag 10 people to post this meme in their journals. Because it is good. Everyone needs a little happiness once in a while.

1. Sophie saying, "I love you, Mommy!"
2. Sophie asking me to draw with her.
3. Sophie asking me to dance with her.
4. B thanking me for making dinner (he does this all the time and I love it!).
5. Flipping through a couple sewing books for ideas and actually getting excited about sewing.
6. Finishing all the boat panels in the Boats for Cameron blanket and moving on to cables.
7. Being able to knit a cable for the first time without too many issues.
8. Buying TMBG tickets for the March 4 HOB concert.
9. Hanging out with the neighbors for hamburgers and hot dogs.
10. Taking Sophie to the park and watching her light up while climbing and sliding and swinging.

Okay guys, don't hate me... but here goes:

aellwynde
fbl80
holding_on
isyllt
itsdavesblog
kikifitz
mariaslilgurl
michigangirl
missjewell
parlet

The trip to the park today was rescheduled for Sunday. While all of the fence panels were down today, the neighbor's yappy dog decided to sneak into our yard (thereby essentially escaping into the great wide open). I'm not sure what type of dog they have, but it's small, black, and very high energy. She runs a lot faster than Chui. Since the dog escaped and the neighbors weren't home, we decided to try and