Saturday, October 08, 2005
Fall Festival
Noni and Popi are here for birthday weekend. The cakes look terrific and I'll take a picture tomorrow when they're out of the boxes. We spent the afternoon running around town for the Fall Festival. It's not exactly peak for the leaves yet. I'm predicting mid-week next week will be it. We visited the various booths, the library used book sale, the SPCA's sweater sale and had lunch at one of our three local restaurants. We hit the farmer's market and bought a butt-load of cookies. Yummy! They're for dessert tonight. Supper will be filet mignon, mashed potatoes, vidalia onion, breadsticks and homemade cookies. Any of you who can get here by 6:30 are welcome ;)
Finally
She gets to wear the shirt I bought for her during the summer. I've been looking forward to seeing her in it:
Pot People
On the mommy board I mentioned that one picture I'd take in my town was of the pot people. Actually we have one pot person and one pot dog. Here ya go:

Library Visit
Thursday we went to the library. Here she is playing on the floor with her favorite toy, the Little People school bus:



They had a horse collection in the display case. When she saw it she kept saying "woof" which is her word for our doggies. It was cute. Here she's checking them out up close:
Friday, October 07, 2005
Silliest picture
I think this is it. It's from about six months ago. It's funny to me anyway...

Thursday, October 06, 2005
Last night I dreamed...
...that I had a serious talk with Tom Cruise about how to treat a pregnant woman respectfully. No kidding.
One more day...
Today was so stressful I have a headache. What I really hate is that the situation is made more difficult by the fact that my hands continue to work independently of my brain. If someone hands me something I can do three more things and then realize I used to be holding something. I'll even put down important things without realizing it, like a $400 digital camera. There are pitfalls to multitasking.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Heavy Heart
Tonight my heart is heavy. Two friends from my mommy board are dealing with very different and very heartbreaking situations tonight, and for the days to come. Both have been on my mind a lot.

It's funny about this "cyber-friend" thing. Many people are dismissive of the idea; mostly those that don't have any. But my online friends are real people. We've all invested a lot of time in communicating and getting to know each other. The initial thin veil of anonymity allowed us to be more intimate than we might have been with people we knew personally or IRL (In Real Life) as we call it. We know things about each other that our husbands don't even know. And we choose each other. Sometimes we reach a comfort level where we share more; a photo, a name or an address, or maybe we'll even meet for real. At any time any person could bow out completely; just not log on anymore. It does happen sometimes.

The thing that is so wonderful about my BIO friends is that we choose each other based on our minds, our thoughts, our attitudes and our expressions. It has nothing to do with money, or "who you know" or where you come from. We enjoy entertaining each other and we value the things we learn from each other. We share each others triumphs and trials, knowing that these things are real, even if we're not there to see them.

So when one (or more) of us is hurting, we know it is real because we feel it. We suddenly wish the screen between us was gone and we could give real hugs, real pats on the back and provide real support. Unfortunately geography prevents this. So we're left with an aching heart and some hope of further word. We wait until the the trial and the pain is past and the healing is underway.

You're in my thoughts and prayers girls.
Daddy's Home!
I was filming her and heard Daddy coming in. When I told her the reaction was better than I could have expected:

Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Unexpected visit
I got a call at work today from Noni. Dad's cousin is in from Seattle and they were all going to come over and see us after work. Woo hoo! I visited with the cousin and his family when I was in Seattle and had a great time. I told him all about the Civil War battlefield nearby because he's a big genealogy and Civil War buff. My ancestors fought for the Blue and the Grey. Different families, different sides.

Anyway...I took Emma home and gave her supper and dressed her in something cute. The outfit fit last time she wore it but this time it was capri length. Oh well, capris are in style. We headed back to town. I thought there was a paci in the car, but later found out that this was not so. Too bad. Tonight was the night she decided that quiet cooperation while eating out was optional and she was opting not. She did a lot of screaming. Joy! And me without my plug for the yell-hole.

Later Noni pulled me aside and told me to be sure I didn't leave the house without the paci again. She even threatened to carry one in her purse as a back-up. Of course she said it all with love ;) Uh, by then I was considering having one stashed in every single place I visit on the East Coast. What could that cost? It couldn't be that bad.

In the end, I wish I had had more time to concentrate on visiting these people we see maybe once every five or ten years. Unfortunately I can imagine many more such frustrating visits in my foreseeable future.
Monday, October 03, 2005
We're seeing this a lot lately...
Emma holding her hand out to us. Sometimes with something in it, sometimes without. If she's holding something we take it and say "thank you." Then we give it back to her. If her hand is empty I'm not sure what it means, other than she's trying to communicate with us. Any thoughts?

So tired
Major project going on at work this week. I'm not supposed to be involved but I keep getting drawn in. It's very stressful. I can't wait until the weekend. Calgon, take me away!
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Definitely a walker
Emma now prefers walking. She does it most of the time now. She's really getting her legs under her. The only thing that makes me wince on a regular basis is when she's almost at her destination and she lunges. ugh. So far no major disasters, but eventually she's going to overestimate the ability of the destination to support her.
Redskins 3-0
Woo hoo! It was an ugly game but the results are what count. Oh yeah, and Tech kicked WV's ass yesterday 34-17. Aaaaaah, sweet victory.
We're hosting a giant hornet's nest
M. discovered it at the end of our house today, it's a whopper, at least a foot in diameter. He's waiting for it to get dark so he can hose it with bug killer. At the other end of our house there are two smaller ones. We were both shocked by the discovery because we haven't even noticed hornets around.
Kung Fu Emma
I love this picture. I want to trim her out and put her in a crime fighting photo. It looks like I'll have to figure out how to do that now. This is how I develop most of my computer skills...I wanna do that, then I learn how to do it. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.