Saturday, October 21, 2006
Deviated Pumpkin
Thank you to Leslie, from whom I stole the pumpkin at right. Pretty cool.
Watch me torment my daughter
Facing a long day at home with cold weather outside, I went out and got Emma her very own playdoh set. Here she's trying it out. So far all she does is pull it apart. I roll it into a ball (moon) and then she smashes it and picks it pieces. Then we repeat.



And then came the mean fingers...

Thursday, October 19, 2006
Time to play another round of...
The last twenty search engine terms that landed on my blog!

Exotic plants from NC Outer Banx That one landed on my OBX shot glass. That had to be damned disappointing.
Dell Hell I am now officially a member of the brotherhood of Dell Hell survivors.
Deviated Path When it's all capitalized like that I assume people were actually looking for me.
Dell Hell Another survivor seeking validation.
Emma Frost Halloween costume OK, now I've seen this Emma Frost chick. She's one hot mama so you'd have to be pretty confident in your hotness to pull off this costume.
http://deviatedpath.blogspot.com It's a pretty safe bet this one was searching for me too.
kitten, teething, lethargy I have no earthly idea. I remember when Emma was teething, and I even remember her being lethargic, but she was never a kitten.
http://deviatedpath.blogspot.com This works just as well if you type it into the address bar. I'm just sayin'...
team zissou baby onesie We don't have them here. But I'm so cool I actually know what Team Zissou is :)
circo pants I'm still hopelessly devoted. Emma's wearing a pair today.
deboning salmon I once referred to M doing it. It wasn't actually a teaching moment.
roladens I'm telling you, they are really cool. I wish we had them in the U.S.
Dell Hell Look! There are enough of us here now for a group hug!
deviated path Here.
fo shizzle onesie Har har, this search led to a post in January where I mentioned a few search engine terms that landed on my blog. PSYCH!
deviated path I assume people use this as a shortcut or used it to avoid having my blog address recorded on their address history.
How do I decorate my car for trunk or treat If you figure this out tell Noni and Popi cause they're bugging me for ideas about how to decorate their motorcycle.
blog "today's outfit" tights This implies that I'm not the only one to blog today's outfit. Or to have unoriginal post titles.
"broken mind" and "documentary" and hbo Word to the wise...you don't have to use Boolean search terms on Google.
the horizontal bump song I'm stumped here. Everyone who knows me knows I have no idea what you're referring to.
Easy chair
Emma's been trying out a lot of different positions on her malawi chair lately. Daddy took pictures of her this morning as she watched her Little Einsteins. I think some positions are easier than others.




Past Peak
We're definitely past peak now. Pretty soon I'll be photographing bare trees. For the next seven months.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006
I hate ladybugs, too
Here's why. They were introduced in this area years ago to knock down the aphid population. Of course the ladybugs then became a scourge themselves. We had an unseasonably warm day today and it brought them out in force. This lamp was on while we ate dinner and when we came back into the pool room afterward Emma looks up and says "what's that?" Imagine them all crawling around and you get the idea of how disgusting it is. M is vaccuuming them all up right now.

Like the new look?
This is what happens when you comb your hair with your cake fork. The tears are because she accidentally knocked her plate in the floor and had to watch in horror as the dogs ate her cake. I did replenish her with a slice off of my cake so she was able to recoup.


Icing hair with cake goatee. My Emma is ahead of the trends. Way ahead.

Paging Dr. Emma
We took Check-up Time Elmo out of the box today. Here she's taking his temperature:


Now she's checking his heartbeat. In his eyeballs.

Mine!
Yes, we've hit that stage. But do you know who Emma is most worked up about convincing that said item is hers? The dogs. They can't come anywhere near her when she has Cheerios or candy. She's on to them. Beaker would scam the Cheerios off of her if he could figure out a way. But she screams at them, "Nooooo! Mines!" Unfortuately she's also started hitting at them when they get too close. She does this mostly at supper. But honestly, I feel like if Beaker's head is close enough to Emma's meal to get whacked, he probably deserves it.
2 Year check-up
Emma had one today. No shots. They didn't even offer the flu shot. We might have been tested for lead but the PA said we might want to wait a little bit because they're getting a machine that will read the levels right there and it should be better and easier. So here are the stats:

Height: 34.5"
Weight: 28.25 lbs.

That puts her about 65th percentile for height and 68th for weight. Slightly above average for both.

She behaved very well. The only trouble the doc had was when she wanted to look in Emma's mouth. Emma was eating pretzels and didn't take to kindly to someone probing in her mouth. She clammed up and couldnt' be pried open. The doc finally got a half second glance and said the tonsils looked large but not too much. So we'll pay attention to whether Emma starts snoring or not.

It was a good visit and Emma was pronounced just fine.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Putting Popi through the gate drill
First you have to "Seat! Seat!"


Then you have to watch her daredevil maneuvers as she walks across the edge of the cattleguard.


Watch! Watch!


This is a new one, actually running around on the other side of the cattle guard. Country living is a action-packed, I tell ya!

Monday, October 16, 2006
Back to Mary's
Mary called me last night. She asked me if I would bring Emma back. She said they sure were missing her. Then she said she was afraid Emma would get used to going somewhere else. I quizzed her on how she was doing and whether she really felt like she could handle Emma. I told her I was concerned that my child could hurt her and set back her progress. She said she really felt that she and her husband could handle Emma. I made her promise to tell me at the end of the first day whether she still thought it was a good idea.

So Emma went back this morning. We told Emma last night that she'd be going to Mary's instead of Grandma's. She sat there and you could tell she was considering what we were saying and thinking about it. When we got to Mary's she acted like she'd never been away. She went right to Mary and then to her lunchbox to begin unpacking her breakfast. Mary told me she was so afraid that Emma was going to cry when I brought her back. Nope.

At the end of the day Mary said Emma had played hard all day. She also said that Emma taken out her paci somewhere along the way and they'd lost track of it. Emma didn't seem to mind. Sigh. It will be so good to get back to routine. It's hard to convey what a strain it's been on me, and especially on M, to have our child care situation thrown into turmoil.

I'm sad that Emma won't be spending as much time with Grandma. But I've learned from this that she really doesn't mind having Emma around and that we really can call on her whenever we need her. Like this Wednesday when Mary has a doctor's appointment.
What a nice surprise!
My co-workers got me this for my birthday. It arrived today. I was completely surprised. Aren't they pretty and autumnal?

Sunday, October 15, 2006
Emma's second birthday cake, or Easy Squeeze, my ass!
This one I did all by myself. Scratch that, Noni bought the Elmo, Mr. Noodle, and Dorothy kit from Walmart. But I did the decorating. I don't think I embarrassed myself too badly. It tasted good; it's devils food with cream cheese icing.

I used Cake Mate Easy Squeeze decorating icing for the red accents. Let me tell you something, "easy squeeze" is a frickin' lie. My hand is still sore from trying to squeeze the icing out of that tube to get started. Once the stuff was flowing it wasn't much easier. The directions tell you to knead the packaging before using. Right. What the directions should say is find yourself a nice comfy seat on the couch for half an hour and sit your ass on the packaging. Maybe then it would be soft enough to use.

Think I'm kidding? Think I'm exaggerating? The stuff was so hard to squeeze out of the tube when I started that the packaging had a blowout. Thank God for duct tape.


Third and final 2nd birthday celebration!
This time we were able to get a decent picture of the birthday girl with her cake. For added entertainment she threw a massive hissy fit when I put her in her chair and put her bib on her. It was a showstopper, everyone gathered round to stand in awe. Finally we distracted her with cake. Hey, that always works on me!

For her birthday supper we had shrimp, pork tenderloin, Uncle Ben's wild rice, broccoli and M's special Red Lobster biscuits. It was deeeee-licious!

Noni and Popi stayed to enjoy the party with us. Grandma and Aunt T and Cousin R came. We always enjoy seeing them. Cousin R had requested orange-pineapple ice cream so Grandma brought along the ice cream freezer and we made some of that too. Yum!

Aunt T and Cousin R
Emma took full advantage of having a playmate to boss around. She'd say "R seat!" and she'd pat the floor beside her, beckoning R to come play with her house. And R would comply. Emma has a pretty compelling personality ;)


With her new Doodle Pro she'll sit next to you and demand that you draw the moon. Over and over and over. Every once in a while I'll throw in a kitty cat or a mouse for variety.

Buyers remorse
I bought this hat when Emma wasn't with me. I thought it looked really cute on the rack. On her I don't like it so much. It's too small for her head and clings to her too tight. She's got a fat head just like her mommy and daddy.

Pictures from yesterday
It looks like a beautiful day, but it was cold and blustery. We walked around the fall festival for a while, but it wasn't a day conducive to lingering over the displays.