August 27, 2007

It's hot.

It's ridiculously, insanely, tremendously uncomfortably hot.  Granted, we're only in the 90's and down to the low 60's at night, but it's harvest time, so I'm out in the garden a lot and it feels like I'm sweating all the time.

We don't normally run the A/C a lot of the time because it's a fairly old system and we don't want to overtax it.  I'll get around to having it replaced some day.  Lately, it's been getting quite a workout in the afternoons. 

We still haven't heard anything from up North.  We presume her dad is doing OK, but when she calls, no one picks up and when she leaves a message, no one calls back.  She has a tough time with that now and then, but overall, seems to do OK.

I get frustrated with how they treat her after she did so much for them, so really, she's taking it better than I am.

Cait is still a sweetie-boo, but she's a sweetie-boo who is a holy terror.  She's not bad, she's just busy.  Absolutely everything attracts her attention and she is not into anything that contains her in any way, so I pretty much follow her around all the time.  We converted one of the bedrooms into a kind of "safe room" that has all of her toys in it.  Her bed is still in Zoe's room, but the play room is where she spends a lot of her time.  I can use the laptop in there and the flow through from the window marries up with the ceiling fan quite nicely, so she plays and I work and time goes by.

I had the back yard fenced in last Spring and I'm really glad I did.  She can roam freely and play in the yard safely while I work in the garden.  Fortunately, none of the plants in the back are toxic. 

This has become particularly important since Little Missy has started walking.  I was kind of looking forward to the back and forth between Mom and Dad thing, but she, being the independent little moo that she is, was having nothing of it.  She went right from "cruising" around the furniture to walking across the room in a matter of days.  She figured out really quickly that it was much more convenient for her to walk than to crawl and she got the hang of it in nothing flat.  Now she power walks all over the place.  At first, she was doing that Frankenstein walk with her hands out in front of her, but now she can even walk and carry things.

She says a few words:  "Mama," "NO!" and "Want."  She calls both me and Zoe "Mama."  She says, "NO!" (not "no" but "NO!") frequently and at appropriate times.  "Want" is everything else.  She reaches for things and says, "Want!  Want!  Want!" and she will just keep saying it until she gets it.  Don't worry.  She doesn't get everything she wants.  I'm pretty good at redirecting her to other fun and interesting things, but she's pretty good with the memory retention, so it's something of a game.

Her birthday party was the second weekend of the month, but it was nothing big, just me, Zoe, Cait, Maxine and Kurt.  We had lots of steamed broccoli (which I hate) because it's one of her favorite foods.  Zoe wanted to make her a broccoli cake, but I told her "no way." 

She loved opening the presents and she got a bunch of them.  Stooping to an all time LOW, Kurt wrapped up The Head and gave it to my precious little girl.  She, the Super Freak that she is, squealed with delight and now she carries it around all over the place.  I tried to take it from her or get her to "trade" for one of her non-hideous gifts, but she whipped out the "NO!" on me and pulled it away from me every time and would then take off running across the room, shrieking and laughing.  Kurt just sat back grinning like a possum.  I told him that it didn't "count" at all since he did not give it to ME, but to another person and that he has officially now LOST the Giving Head game by trying to be too clever.  [I actually jumped up and started channeling Gene Wilder in the original Willie Wonka movie, "You get nothing! You lose! Good day sir!"]

(I honestly don't think it will stop here, I just have to wait until Cait has moved on to another favorite toy because all the money we spent on her gifts still, weeks later, pales in comparison to hauling that stupid head around.  She sleeps with it and wakes up and hits me in the head with it and puts it on the floor by her chair while she eats.  I don't get it.  Other kids have teddy bears and dolls.  She carries around a nappy old foam head.

Last Friday night, we'd been working out in the garden and I picked her up from there and took her in for dinner.  She ate and was fine and when it came time to put her to bed, she started screaming and having this major, sobbing fit.  Zoe was the one who realized that Cait must have left The Head outside, so I went out with a flashlight, scouring the back yard for the thing.  Finally, I found it and took it in and cleaned it off and brought it to her.  She'd been crying for almost a half hour by that point, not happy with anything else we gave her or any peek-a-boo games or anything.  She looked up at me with this hopeful look, wondering if Daddy was going to be the hero.  He was.  I popped it up over the end of her crib and she she started gasping and reaching for it and said "Mama" a bunch of times, then rolled over and went to sleep with it in her arms.

I'm just glad she hasn't shown any signs of chewing on it.  She just packs it around and cuddles it.  None of the pieces, miraculously, are loose and it's well intact and as clean as it can get, so I'm not going to think it to death. 

What a weird life.  Who would have imagine that The Head would end up like this?

I hope you are all doing well!