Something I’m Enjoying Right Now
Wendy’s Frosty

Something I’m Resenting Right Now
Calories in said Wendy’s Frosty

Something I’m Realizing Right Now
The cat’s claws need trimming.  As I think about it, they have needed trimming for some time now.  I have vague recollections of the dog yelping and dragging the cat around by his paw, due to a claw lodged firmly in his lip.  And we did come home a couple of times over the past several days to find the cat hanging from his scratching post, stuck in limbo half-way up the cat-tree.  But now…now the true realization that the cat must have his claws trimmed today has really hit me.  Because now…NOW these very long, sharp needle-like claws are digging themselves into my leg.  With the utmost of affection, of course.  But if I were to get up and walk away right now, the cat would come with me whether he meant to or not.

Something That’s Worrying Me Right Now
Button is growing out of her car seat.  This concerns me greatly because the next size of car seat does not physically fit inside our 2-door coupe.  Actually, the current car seat only sort of fits - the passenger seat must be moved forward as far as it can go…fortunately I’m relatively short but I’m the only person who can fit in the passenger seat when the car seat is installed.

So…in the near future if we plan to take our daughter anywhere, we will have to purchase a new car…which means a car payment.  We don’t currently have a car payment and are having a hard time figuring out exactly how the logistics of that are going to work.

Some Advice I Can Give Right Now
You know how sometimes you’re walking around the house and get a little piece of dirt or something stuck to the bottom of your foot…and then you just wipe it off on the back of your leg or the top of your other foot?

Make sure you check first to be sure it’s not a random shard of GLASS.  Because ouch.

Seagull Manager apologized for giving out my cell phone number inappropriately. 

Of course, he qualified it with “I really wanted him to get a hold of you.”

To which I replied, “Um…that’s what my work number is for.”

Anyway, it was nice to get an apology.  I didn’t even get that when he walked in on me while I was using my breast pump.  Twice. 

But I’m not bitter.

Button is sick today.  She gets so pitiful when she’s sick.  She doesn’t fuss as much as she mopes.  And sighs.  And clings.  And sort of pokes at her toys.

The good news is that she sleeps alot when she’s sick.  I think she’s inherrited my ability to sleep away a sickness (a good thing).

One would think that if you spent $80 on a software program - a software program that is specifically designed to create slideshows and then burn them to DVD - that you would have the ability to burn said slideshow to a DVD. 

One would THINK that pressing the “Burn to DVD” button would result in something OTHER than the complete meltdown and freezing of your DVD burner.

One would be wrong.

My daughter has a massaging lounge chair.  I’m not kidding, it actually has little massage nodes that go up and down her back while it vibrates and plays soothing music.

I don’t have a massaging lounge chair.  I have a rocking chair that squeaks when it rocks.  I have a lawn chair that capsizes when I breath on it, which I can’t use anyway because it’s approximately 450° outside.  And I have something that vibrates, but it’s not quite the same.

My dog went to the spa today.  They bathed him, groomed him, manicured his nails and dressed him up for a night on the town in a sharp blue bandana.  Then they shined his teeth up and spritzed him with “Timmy Holedigger Dog Cologne.”* He’s totally ready for the red carpet.

I went to work today.  I sat hunched over a computer for eight hours without a lunch break.  I worked on a tedious project that required reviewing the same 5 minutes of material OVER. And OVER. And OVER.  My makeup has faded off, my shoulders are cramped and my head hurts.

And I just got another call on my cell phone, thanks to a CERTAIN BOSS WHO THINKS IT’S APPROPRIATE TO GIVE OUT EMPLOYEES’ PERSONAL PHONE NUMBERS TO RANDOM CUSTOMERS.

Sigh.  If there are any masseuses out there who want to join my pity party, admission is free.

Fortunately, thanks to J, that particular person will probably never call my cell phone again.  Heh.

*Get it?  Like Tommy Hilfiger?  Ha.  I don’t even want to know how long they sat around thinking THAT one up.  

So…I didn’t write a 7-month newsletter.  It’s certainly not because nothing momentous happened.  It’s just that I didn’t manage to find the time.  And here I am, already late for the 8-month newsletter.  Tsk, tsk. 

I do apologize, since I know you were all counting down the days and eagerly awaiting the appearance of said newsletters.  WEREN’T YOU.  YES.  YOU WERE.  Ahem…

Anyway, the past two months have changed our lives forever as parents.  Button is growing and developing in so many ways, we’re afraid to blink for fear we will miss the part where she sprouts wings and flies away.

 

As of about two weeks ago, she started crawling.  She figured it out one day and hasn’t stopped since.  Actually, it’s kind of an odd looking crawl, because she’s mortally afraid that if her left knee touches the ground a land mine will go off.  So she more or less does a 3-legged hobble around.  It seems to work for her though, as she is quite mobile.  More mobile than, say, we’re comfortable with.  Let’s just say that I’ve embarked on a new exercise plan…it’s call “Chasing Button and removing things from her little fingers.”  I do approximately 10,000 reps per day.

She pulls herself up on everything that she can get to, including tables, chairs, toys, the fireplace, my leg, and the dog.  She has also become quite good at cruising around said items to get closer to whatever else she wants to be hanging on to.  She habitually locks me in the shower in the mornings by pulling herself up and leaning on the shower door.   I can’t open the door without knocking her backward and she seems to derive great joy out of my predicament.  Or maybe it’s the charades I go through in the attempt to get her to move that she finds so entertaining.

They say that babies go through a period of interrupted sleep patterns (i.e. no sleep for parents) when they are learning to crawl, or walk, or when they are teething.  Button is currently in the process of all three of those events.  The day after she started crawling, she also began cutting one of two teeth that are now quite visible in her mouth.  Our nights haven’t been the same since, and we currently finding ourselves crawling into bed while it’s still light outside out of sheer exhaustion.  Only to be awakened an hour later by She Who Formerly Slept Through the Night.

She holds her bottle now.  Well, sort of.  She does hold it, but spends more time twisting it around and popping the nipple out of her mouth so that milk shoots all in her hair, than actually drinking from it.  Baby steps.

We went swimming with her this month for the first time.  As long as it’s not too cold, she seems to equate the pool with a giant bath tub, and can’t get enough of it.  She adores baths and starts bouncing up and down when she hears the bath water.  Sometimes we forget how mobile she is and look down with surprise to find that she has made it accross the room and is now standing by the tub looking in with great enthusiam, in about 2.3 seconds.

She says “Mama” now.  And she says it a lot.  Unfortunately, she seems to think it’s some kind of curse word, as she only uses the term when she’s exceedingly displeased.  J has been trying unsuccessfully to get a “Dada” out of her. 

The letter “D” is just not in the picture right now.  “Baba,” however, is a favorite, and comprises most of her vocabulary for the time being.  She recognizes certain words, like “Puppy,” and looks around for the dog when she hears it.

 

She absolutely adores books, and enjoys being read to for long periods of time.  Unfortunately, “Go, horse, go; Go fast, go slow,” isn’t exactly thrilling best-seller material, so it can get a bit tedious after a while. 

Her other favorite toy is Baby Tad, who is the biggest wimp around.  She loves to push him over, trample and body slam him - to which he responds, “I LOVE YOU,” “Let’s snuggle,” and other passive phrases.  It’s a co-dependent relationship in the making.  We’re just glad she’s the dominant partner.

She’s a very affectionate child.  She gives great hugs and huge, sloppy, open-mouthed kisses.  It’s very cute.  I often think about how cute it is afterward, as I wash all the drool out of my hair.

So…crawling, pulling up, cruising, teething, talking and attempts at walking - much of which occurred within about a week’s time.  It seems that every time we sneeze, she’s picked up a new skill, or a new way to most effectively get into things we would rather she stayed away from.

We’re expecting her to finish her doctoral dissertation in about a month.  After that, she has plans to be the first woman president.  Watch out, Hillary.