Vamanos!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
This probably isn't going to be nearly as funny to anyone who didn't witness it - which, I guess, is everyone but me... but I'm going to share anyway. :) It cracked me up all the way to daycare this morning.

We were ready to head out the door today when I realized that I was naked - and by that I mean that I forgot to put any jewelry on. So I scooted back into the house to grab a bracelet, which lives in a little drawer in a little stand in the bathroom. I was kind of kneeling / squatting in the bathroom with my back to the door trying unsuccessfully to get the bracelet fastened when I hear the flip flop of tiny sandals approaching me. Then there's a chubby little hand on my shoulder, and I turn to look at Jos and she leans in real close-like with her little head cocked to one side and says in the sweetest little condescending voice, "Betty's house, Mommy" then turns and walks back thru the kitchen and out the door.

Roughly translated - "Get your butt in gear and your act together, Mommy! I've got my raincoat on and am ready to go!"

A real person

Thursday, April 19, 2007
Eve turned 9 months old a couple of days ago. I was looking at her this morning while she was sitting on the floor playing, and I can't even believe she's not so much of a baby anymore... but is turning into a little... girl. Imagine that! You think this wouldn't surprise me since I've been through it once before... but it happens so darn fast.

She's starting to pull herself up on furniture and still doesn't really crawl - but manages to get herself around using a combo of rolling, scooting and pulling techniques. If there's a toy in her sights that she wants, she's going to find a way to get it. She's using those 8 teeth and has started to eat some "real" food in addition to her baby food, like mashed up pieces of fruit, mashed potatoes, fruit puffs and little chunks of bread. Josie's having a hard time dealing with the mess that Eve makes when she's eating... so that will be an adjustment we'll have to work on, because it's only going to get worse once she's feeding herself exclusively. "Oh, no, Evie... Mess!!" :) Eve isn't entirely convinced that sleeping through the night is for her, even thought I've sat down and had some very serious talks with her. Some nights she does great, and then some... not so much. One thing that I'd forgotten from when Josie was this age was the pure joy and happiness to see you that is all over her face when we go in to pick her up from her crib in the morning. Eve is so excited to see us, she can hardly contain herself. Sure makes the morning a little easier. :) She's babbling away all the time, and "dadadadada" is her favorite phrase right now. She's our vocal, determined, funny, chubby, happy little girl!

Moving Forward

Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Finally... Mom and Erwin just found out that he will be able to be part of a study group at the Mayo Clinic and treatments will begin next week, continuing through late May. It's been a lot of waiting, so what a relief to finally know something. Please send some positive vibes their way!

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On another note - the blog world is a crazy world. It's so fun to have more and more sites to check up on and to feel part of the lives of friends and family that you may not get to see or talk to as often as you'd like. But one of the dangers is getting caught up in checking out the links on everyone's blogs, then checking out their links, and adding to the list of sites that you'd like to keep up on! Well, I stumbled on this Nitty.Gritty. site a while ago - and have been hooked ever since. Jody is truly inspirational. Whenever I'm feeling bogged down and sorry for myself, I go check out her site. It never fails that she says something that exactly rings true to something I've been feeling or thinking about. (Meg... I hope you're astounded by a couple of her comments today, as I was - especially in light of our recent convo!) She's been through a lot, and has come out with an amazing, positive attitude. Be sure to read the link to the story about her tragedy and loss of daughter, Teagan, located on the left-hand side of the page. And for my scrapbooking friends and family - she's really into that, too. The reason I'm passing on her site today is because of a link to a Washington Post story she provided in one of her latest posts. The article about our perceptions of beauty is really cool and has made me stop and think a lot today, and I just wanted to share. I hope you enjoy her blog, and the article, too.

A Poo of Many Colors

Monday, April 16, 2007
We came home from work one night last week to discover that Brewster had decided, for some unknown reason, to eat some of Josie's crayons. He's never shown any interest in them before, but whatever. I've stopped trying to figure that dog out. So after 15 minutes of Josie walking around the house saying, in a very dramatic tone, "OH NO, BREWSTER!" we finally convinced her that everything was going to be okay. (Even though, technically, it wasn't - because we came home on Saturday to discover that his affinity for aforementioned crayons didn't go away. I had thrown the bits and pieces of crayons in the bathroom garbage, and he discovered them and tore the garbage apart. And he's never gone after the bathroom garbage before. *sigh*)

Anyway - maybe he was just trying to make Pat's job of picking up doggie-do a little more thrilling, because there was some very colorful poo in the yard over the weekend. I'll bet you're all wishing you had such exciting lives, huh??

And in other potty-related news, Josie decided on Friday during a playdate at Lucy's house, that she needed to go pee-pee in the potty, all morning long. I swear, between the two of them, they must have gone about 15 times. And the trend continued all weekend at home, as well, though she wasn't quite as enthusiastic without her Potty Partner-in-Crime. :)

Funnies

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Here are a couple of stories that I haven't blogged about yet, but have been meaning to get down in writing.
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Picture it:
I was strolling to the car after work a couple of weeks ago. I had just walked the diagonal sidewalk through Mears Park and was about to cross the street at 5th and Wacouta when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a man, standing outside of an older model, small, red pickup parked at a meter. He appeared to be looking at some papers, trying to find an address or building. I didn't pay him any more attention, and started to cross when my light turned green. As I stepped into the street, I couldn't help but notice that the small red pickup appeared to be pulling away from the curb. I offhandedly thought that he must have gotten dropped off, and now his driver was leaving.

Except that there was no driver.

All of the sudden, the man started running along beside his pickup, trying to grab on to it and slow it down. He looked around frantically - and wasn't it just my luck, I was the only pedestrian around at that exact moment in time.

And even more lucky for me - we made eye contact.

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" he began, as he was able to get around the front of the vehicle and brace himself against it. The pickup was now at a stop diagonally across 5th street. "I left it in gear!Can you come hold my pickup while I get in??!"

I stopped in my tracks, with a dumbfounded look on my face. "Uh... why don't YOU hold your pickup - and I'LL put it in park??!" I replied, thinking that putting myself, or at least my foot and arm, INSIDE the truck long enough to put on the brake and put it in park, instead putting myself in FRONT of the truck, was the more desirable option.

"Okay... " he started to reply, "but you'll have to go over to the passenger side, the driver door doesn't open, and climb over, and..." as he's rambling, I take a moment to get a better look - and can see that the small pickup is chock. full. of. STUFF. And I mean FULL. And not so much stuff, as CRAP. Garbage, really - empty fast food containers, papers, cans... you name it, it was probably inside that vehicle.

Yikes. So now I'm thinking that putting myself in front of this moving vehicle may just be the better option. Actually I'm wondering how I can get myself out of the situation entirely, but I've already committed to it, and feel like I have to help the guy.

Keep in mind that all of this happened within seconds, really, but it was long enough for traffic to start building up behind him since he's blocking pretty much 2 of the lanes, and for more pedestrians to have ambled by and given some long stares at this interesting scene. Given long stares, but not offered to help, mind you.

So I did it. I braced myself at the front of the pickup wearing my red coat and heels, while he climbed over the mountain of crap in the cab to get himself behind the wheel and back it up to the curb once again. And as he said "Thanks!" out the window, and I dusted myself off and resumed my walk to the car - a guy who had planted himself on the corner to take in the scene yelled to me, "Girl, you ate you Wheaties today!" How's that for an act of kindness?? Or maybe an act of complete stupidity, you take your pick. :)

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We were in Chatfield over Easter weekend, and needed to run to the local grocery store, Skippy's, on Saturday to pick up a couple of ingredients for the green bean casserole I was requested to bring for Easter dinner on Sunday. Eve was with my sister, so Pat, Josie and I went to the store. Actually, we had gotten ourselves fancied up and were intending to go to church, until we realized that the service had been moved to 8:00 pm instead of 5:00 pm for the Easter vigil service. So we went to the grocery store instead. Talk about confusing for a 2 year old! I hope she doesn't now think that going to church involves produce and checkout lanes. Anyway, we get in the store, and they have the kid size carts, which of course, she desperately needed one of. So she's on a mission to push that cart around the store, while wearing her Easter dress and little white sweater and carrying her new pink purse. We try to find our items while making sure she doesn't maim any old people with her cart or topple any displays of Parmesan cheese. While we were wandering around the store, I spotted my friend Tricia's sister, who also recently had a baby boy. I walked over to chat with her about the new addition to her family, while Josie and Pat meandered off with her cart. We talked for a couple of minutes, and pretty soon I heard my family behind me. Rinnea started laughing as Josie approached with her cart, still in serious shopping mode. I looked in her cart, and there was a box of Ex-Lax, and a bottle of Mylanta alongside our cheese and french fried onions. Nice. Just the impression I want to make on my hometown. :)

And after we were finally able to distract Jo long enough to return the unwanted items back to the shelves, pay for the rest of our stuff and get back to the Coe residence, Josie walked up the sidewalk to the house and says "Church... shhh, quiet!"

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We were driving to my mom and Erwin's house for dinner on Sunday and approached an intersection. There were "rumble strips" on the road before the stop sign. After we drove over them, Josie looked up and said "Whoa, Mommmmy!" as if she thought that I had farted. This, of course, was followed by her customary sniff, and declaration that I was "stinky."

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After Easter dinner on Sunday and Josie's egg-hunt outside, we were just hanging out, visiting in the house. I think we may have been getting ready for the much needed Round 2 of meals, and Josie was walking from the kitchen towards the table where we all were sitting. As she was walking, my mom turned from the kitchen and was heading in the same direction, and bumped right into Josie. She didn't fall down or anything, it wasn't even that big of a bump, but Josie goes "WHOA," and gave her grandma (she won't say Grandma Sue... she only will say either Grandma, or Sue, which comes out without the 'S') the dirtiest look I've seen her give anyone. She was very traumatized, but none of us could stop laughing... especially Mean Grandma. :)

More cows

Monday, April 09, 2007
"More cows! More cows!" Imagine this phrase being uttered (ha! No pun was intended) about 798 times by an overly-tired, overly-sugared 2 year old between Newburg and Rochester. That's approximately 1 hour of trying to come up with different responses such as "yes, Josie, let's look for more cows," or "No, I don't see any more cows yet, do you?" I was ready to jab a pen into my eye.

There are a lot of cows to see between my mom's house and Rochester. And we had to look for all of them. And if we didn't see any, she'd make some up. Josie was so tired yesterday afternoon that she clung to the words "more cows" like a life vest in her attempt to stay awake on the ride home. And when we would go through a town or a dry spell in the cow sightings, she'd cry and kick and wail "mooooorrre cowwwwwwws!" She finally gave up the fight by the time we reached the north side of Rochester. Thank goodness. I don't think either Pat or I could take much more. She's as sweet as sweet can be, but the next 1 hour of silence was absolute bliss. :)

Peas in a pod

Wednesday, April 04, 2007
I was late for work today.

Why?

Because when Pat was grabbing a buy-one-get-one Caribou coffee coupon before we walked out the door, Josie desperately needed a coupon, too. So we had to find a coupon for her to tear out and take to daycare with her.

Lord help me.

Happy Girls = Happy Days

Tuesday, April 03, 2007
I suppose it's about time to throw you a bone. A little sumthin' sumthin'. A tidbit. A morsel.

Things are going smoothly. The ginormous lumps on Eve's head are finally making their disappearance. Thankfully, she didn't sprout horns, as I was fearing she might. She is sleeping (mostly) through the night. And in her crib. Albeit with a crazy system I devised so that she's slightly elevated. She is using a cup from time to time. She is on her hands and knees rocking, rocking, rocking, oh so close to lunging forward and crawling away. She has a mouthful of big, shiny teeth. All the better to chew on you with. She is snuggly. She is happy.

Josie is... just Josie. She lights up our home. Which is good - it's a little on the dark side. Not THE "Dark Side," like in Star Wars, just a bit drab since we face the north and don't get good sunlight. Anyway, Josie is talking. A lot. Kind of non-stop, actually. She's trying to learn her colors. And numbers. She helps dress and undress herself. She's not overly interested in the business of potty, unless it's on her terms. And that's okay with me. She's mesmerized by the carousel at Maplewood Mall. And we indulge her. I think she may be spoiled, but that's okay with me, too. At least she knows how to say "please," "thank you" and "excuse me." She gives lovely pucker kisses and big wrap-around-your-neck hugs. She helps us around the house. She is generous. Her enthusiasm for everything in life is contagious. I just may be a bit in love with my girls. If you couldn't tell.

Everything with me and Patrick is hunky dory, too. He passed his licensing exams for work. I'm wrapping up the assignment I'm currently on at the end of April. I think. I guess that door isn't officially closed, quite yet, I should find out soon. We're gearing up for a busy summer. Baseball games. Softball games. Family get-togethers. Weekend get-aways with friends. Busy, but fun. Even though the next few days are looking more like winter than spring, I've got spring fever. Bad. I'm even looking forward to a bit of yard work. Not the actual "yard" so much, but at least planting some veggies and flowers.

Goodness. It's time for work. Happy... Tuesday? Is it Tuesday - oh yes, indeed it is. Anyway - have a good one, whichever one it is. :)