Nothing starts your week off right....

...like a case of Roseola!  After a few days of having a fever at the end of last week, and then a day without, our Bebe woke up Monday morning with this lovely rash all over her torso. Luckily Daddy's schedule is flexible enough that we could get a doctor appointment same day. Turns out Roseola is nothing more than a fever followed by a rash. Treatment is rest, fluids, and fever-reducer if needed. The rash is the tail-end, so once you see it you're basically done. Neat, huh?

Go, Mo, No!

Funny title, right? Not if you're my 16-month old. These are just three of her favorite new words! She is repeating so much now, it's hard to believe. But these three words in particular have come to be very popular.

"Go" is what she calls yogurt. I think I've mentioned before that she has an obsession with Chobani yogurt. She would seriously eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks a day. It's not cheap either, so I don't allow that kind of Chobani indulgence. Sometimes I give it to her for some protein with oatmeal for breakfast and I'll also use it as my back-up if she doesn't like what we're having for dinner (I don't cook a separate kid meal) or if it's a particularly long stretch between her lunch and dinner. But she knows how to ask for it and will run up to our refrigerator, bang on the door with her hand and yell, "goooOOOOOoo!" If I open the refrigerator and she catches a glimpse of it in there, same thing. If we're shopping in the store and she sees it on the shelf - or even better if I'm putting it in our cart - she starts yelling, "gooooOOOOOooo!" And that's how she says it. She jumps up an octave in the middle of the word and then comes back down. Kind of hilarious... if you're me, anyway. She will also hold her arms out, palms up and ask, "go?" as in, "where did (something/someone) go?"

"Mo" as I think I've also mentioned is what she calls her nose. For the longest time she called all parts of the face "eyes" I guess because that was all she knew how to say. Eventually she started calling ears "eeeeee" and nose "mo." Best part is that she often says them the same way she says "go," nice and long with a jump in octave mid-word. I thought "mo" was particularly cute and ask her to find the nose on just about everything we look at that has a face. A few times I have heard her call it "no" instead of "mo" and I'm actually a little sad that she'll probably say it the right way soon. Why does she have to grow up??

"No" might just be her very favorite word right now. And she's not even terrible-two yet! She has learned to repeat "no" as a reprimand exactly the way we say it to her. At first she would say, "nononononono" and it was kind of cute. But now she says it with some authority and even points her finger! Part of me feels bad because I don't want other people to think she gets yelled at all the time. She is actually a really well behaved baby. But on the other hand, I like that she knows the word and knows what it means/how to use it. I don't want her to be a child that doesn't even look up when they hear the word because it never gets used around them. And I want her to know how to use it if she needs to (e.g. if she's playing and another kid does something that isn't nice, I'd rather her point and say "no" than hit, or just sit there and cry).

Some of her other new words lately-  Leo and Colt (her cousins), nice, beans, peas, baby, and night-night. She has also recently started making all those animal sounds we've been working on forever including- cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, horses, Sheppie (our dog) and believe it or not, goldfish (they say "blub blub blub" in case you were wondering).

Monday, again

I don't know how it keeps happening. But alas, here we are at Monday again. After tropical storm Lee finally cleared out on Friday, we enjoyed a mostly lovely weekend here in the mid-Atlantic. Cute husband and I took our little lovey and had dinner at our favorite pizza place on Friday night, followed by our favorite ice cream place which just happens to be in the same area. Imagine the luck! Saturday was a bit of a whirl-wind. I needed to do some cleaning in anticipation of a play date with our adorable nephew, Colt on Sunday afternoon. This his him...

However, we also needed to leave for a wedding by 2 p.m. and everyone needed showers, lunches, hair straightening, etc. It was a busy morning, but we left only 20 minutes late and after not one, not two, but three trips back into the house after initially walking out the door. My SIL, Jennie was trying hard not to make fun of me as I warned her never to expect to be on time once she has a child!

The wedding was 2 hours away in a small town in Virginia. The bride was my cousin's daughter. I remember when she was born, and remember when she was just a munchkin begging me to carry her around. Ugh, makes me feel so old! It was a cute little wedding done in fall colors. The bride and groom were obviously giddy in love, so that was just adorable to watch.

Ahh, those were the days..... kidding, of course! I'm still giddy over my groom :)  We got to talk and catch up with some people I haven't seen since my own childhood which was very fun also. Our Bebe made the most of the dance floor and could not get enough of the lights from the disco ball spinning on the floor. She was stopping other people to point and jabber at them about it. Cracked me up. 

We called it a night around 10:00 and embarked on the journey back home. After all that dancing we expected Bebe to conk out in the car. She surprised us though and chattered the whole way home except the last ten minutes!

Our play date on Sunday ended up getting cancelled because poor little Colt was sick :(  So instead we settled in with some food and watched the Ravens game. And what a game it was! Needless to say, we were some happy fans at the end of that one. Then we did our usual evening and dinner at my mom's house. 

And I can't cover our weekend without mentioning Sunday's anniversary of the September 11th attacks. There really aren't words to accurately capture all of the thoughts and feelings I have about this anniversary. I think to say that we'll never forget and are praying for the families of the victims is an understatement. Rather I think it's important to say that ten years later we're still here. They didn't bring us down. We've dusted ourselves off, cleared the wreckage, and built ourselves and our country back up. We're still happy and strong. We still practice our many religions including Christianity and Islam and Wicca, and they can't stop us. What happened ten years ago was devastating and the heroes, victims and families deserve every prayer, honor, bit of commemoration and reverence that can be put forth. So we'll continue to remember, and we'll go on living our lives as a freedom-loving nation.

Emily vs. the Universe

Remember old Scott Pilgrim? Well he faced nothing compared to what I put up with yesterday. That's not actually true, but yesterday I felt like it was. 

It was a fairly normal day. Babies were napping and I was upstairs doing my Monday chores (even though it was Tuesday, Monday was a holiday.. yes even for chores) which are my bathroom and bedroom. As I'm happily wiping down the shower, I get a call from my dad. He needs me to call and straighten something out with his cable company. For those who don't know, my dad is older and has suffered a stroke. He lives independently, but my siblings and I manage his bills and things for him. I've been trying to figure this issue out for a couple of weeks, so I got on the phone on hold with the cable company once more. I decided to continue cleaning the bathroom while on hold - knowing it could be a while. I'm working with only one glove since I took the other off to use the phone. Of course, as I go to squirt cleaner into the toilet, instead of coming out of the spout, it fills the lid and starts leaking out to the side. I try unsuccessfully to close and reopen the top hoping the cleaner will come out the spout and the same thing keeps happening. Finally I take the whole top off and pour the cleaner into the toilet with no spout using about half of the bottle and toss the bottle into the trash can. This would not be possible without getting toilet cleaner on my un-gloved hand, so I start frantically rinsing my hand in the sink. While rinsing, I remember that we're out of soap, like in the whole house except the kitchen sink. Fabulous. I take the lid off our soap dispenser and pour as much as possible onto my hand and begin to scrub like crazy.  Mind you, I'm on the phone, on hold.

Finally a voice comes on the phone - I've already pressed 8 buttons to navigate a menu and entered the account number and ten digit phone number. The recorded voice tells me that they are experiencing difficulties and I should call back later. And it hangs up on me! After calling another number, navigating another menu, entering the account and phone numbers again, I reach a human (I think) and the issue is finally resolved. OH, but not before my nephew wakes up from his nap thus ending the time I had to get chores done.

Downstairs I go to eat some lunch while my bathroom remains half-cleaned. One look in the fridge reminds me that I did not go grocery shopping over our fun Labor Day weekend and we have pretty much nothing to eat for lunch. I spot a bagged salad on the top shelf dated 3 days ago. It hasn't been opened yet so I take my chances. I also have one piece of a personal sized pizza (so, the size of my palm) left-over from lunch the day before with my brother and SIL. I start in on the salad. It's completely wilted and likely to give me indigestion for the rest of the month. Done with that. The pizza was "spinoccoli" and had one giant floret of broccoli that was cooked barely beyond raw and some brown spinach. I picked those things off leaving and absolutely pathetic mangled piece of dough with a few hunks of tomato on it. Yum. That was my lunch.

Bright spot of the day... (you knew there had to be one) I get word that my nephew is being picked up early, like in 10 minutes. I don't care how you slice it, taking care of one baby instead of two is a help on the best of days. I get him sent off and my husband calls. "Meet me *here* STAT!" I race around, make myself presentable, grab a few things for the baby and run out the door at the last possible second. I arrive missing exactly I needed to bring. Rats. But, of course.

Later that night we're sitting at the table eating dinner and the baby is just not cooperating. She won't eat anything and keeps yelling for something in my husband's direction. We're hiding things, telling her to eat what's on her tray, ignoring her behavior. Finally I assume she doesn't want to eat and put her down. She fusses and walks over to the kitchen island... just on the other side of my husband... atop of which is her cup of milk. Mommy fail. We hand her the cup. She promptly sucks down all of her milk and happily goes on to eat her dinner. Ugh. I felt absolutely rotten for that one.

SO... Emily vs. Scott Pilgrim?  Bring it.

Labor Day Weekend

First let me say that I can't believe Labor Day weekend has come and gone. I feel like it was just the very beginning of warm weather! Vacation is gone, Labor day is gone, summer is... no. I'm not ready to say it yet.

We had a really fun Labor Day weekend none-the-less. Friday the hubs and I both got off work early so we decided to make it a date night! We threw on some "going out" clothes (for me that means not a tank top and sweat shorts) and went to a local place on a nearby lake. We both loved our food, and afterwards, since we were real nerds and went to dinner at like 5:30 we took our Bebe and walked around the lake area. It's hard to describe the area and what it is, but basically there are a handful of restaurants all together along this lake and so there's this nice big sidewalk with benches, and a pavilion, and a little further along there's a big fountain and a hill where they show movies outside on a big screen. Anyway we let Bebe toddle around for about an hour or so. There was a group of people not far from us who were having a dance lesson of sorts and so there was music which our Bebe loved. She also loved watching the ducks swim around in the lake. Anyway, it was a great time. I only regret not bringing my camera, but I had no idea we would spend so much time just hanging out. I figured we were just having dinner!

Saturday we got up and went to the Maryland State Fair. It's one of those traditional things. You've been there before, it's pretty much the same each time, but if you don't go at all you kind of miss it. We thought Bebe would love it too since she's interested in animals now and what sounds they make. Turns out we were right :]  We saw cows, piggies, baby chicks, goats and sheep! We were only there for about 2 hours total, but we got to pet a brand new baby chick and baby piggy. We also got to pet a baby cow that belongs to my cousin who is a dairy farmer. He has been showing his prize-winning cows all over the country for many years.

After the fair and nap time time, my hubby went out for guys' night and I hung at home with our little love. A pretty fantastic day, if you ask me.

Sunday we celebrated my little brother's birthday. He turned 27! I'm pretty sure I'm not even 27, so don't ask me how he is. We got together at my mom's as usual and did a big cookout with steamed crabs and all the summer cookout staples. I made black-bottom cupcakes and my mom made him his favorite, apple pie from scratch. My sister also brought a peach pie from a local farm. What can I say, we know how to do dessert.

There was no shortage of gag gifts since that's kind of what my siblings and I do. My gift to him included both a pair of thong underwear and a very (very) large pair of granny-panties that have been gifted between us for years now. Ha! I'll save the explanation, it's probably only funny to us anyway.

That brings us to Monday. Somehow without my realizing, tropical storm Lee made its way from the Gulf of Mexico to our neck of the woods.

I heard the local meteorologist say something like, "not a dry day in sight!" I looked at my husband and simply asked, "why??" He tells me the storm from the Gulf is here. When the heck has that ever happened? Strange. So it was a rainy labor day Monday... and every day since. We met up with my brother and SIL for lunch and some shopping. Then we pretty much relaxed at home the rest of the day. I love a good relaxing end to a holiday weekend.

Tuesday was a classic, "Emily vs. the Universe."  That's the next post, so stay tuned :]

You Thought Your Neighbors Were Bad

How would you like this fella greeting you in the morning?

One of the many, many reasons I'm married :)

Stuff and things

Say, did anyone catch the Os game last night?? We did! We actually went to the game. My husband's new company offered him four of the corporate tickets (it's a small company as my husband was employee #108 at the time of his hire). Delighted for these 11th row behind first base tickets, we invited a couple of friends and headed downtown. It was a gorgeous night for baseball, and just to be outside period. We settled into our seats and had some hot dogs, and in about an hour the Os were down 11-0 in the 4th inning. Ouch. We made the best of it though and had a fabulous time talking and laughing with our friends. We ended up staying until the very end of the game (somewhere around 9:30). It ended up being a 13-0 loss but, y'know, we stopped counting after 11-0.

Today has been very... usual. Sorry, nothing thrilling to report about that. I'm expecting one of my former co-workers, now a SAHM herself, to stop by for a visit this afternoon with her new baby. I'm really excited about that. She and I have a whole lot in common. We're the same age (just 2 months apart), both got married the same month and year (just one week apart, and that's in December which is not exactly a popular wedding month), and when we looked at one another's wedding photos discovered that we even wore the same wedding dress! We now each have one of the cutest baby girls you could find anywhere, so just add that to the list of our similarities :) She had a tough pregnancy though with multiple complications and we haven't really gotten to catch up on any of that - much less life with her new little lovey. So it's going to be a fun visit to say the least.

I also have my running group tonight. Have I told you about my running group?? I can't remember! Well I joined a running group. It's for women of all running ability levels. We're broken into smaller sub-groups based on our mile time which is nice so we can focus on where we are. It meets on Thursdays at a nearby high school and last week was our first meeting. We did our one-mile time trials last week and I was nervous of course because of performance anxiety (I did not want to be the one huffing and puffing ten minutes behind everyone else, not that I'm even in that bad of shape, but I always fear the worst!). I'm also used to running in my 72-degree basement with the treadmill fan blowing in my face. The thought of going out in the humidity and 10+ degree warmer temperatures and trying to run definitely gave me visions of being that girl they scraped up off the road and loaded into the back of an ambulance. And really, no one wants to be that girl. Turns out even though I felt like I did terribly and thought I was going to pass out at the end, I had a better mile time by over 2 minutes than I usually get on my treadmill. Don't ask me how... peer pressure?? I probably also don't push myself as much as I could on the treadmill. I set it to something comfortable and go. So anyway in this group you also have the option of a 5k or metric marathon (26.2k) goal. I am going for the 5k if that wasn't obvious by my fears of keeling over during a mile run. It's very relaxed and casual, and really just intended to encourage women to go out and be active. Of course meeting others who want to do the same thing is an added perk. I joined with one of my friends that I worked with many just a few years ago when we were in college. She ended up being the last person who qualified for the fast runners sub-group though. Lucky for me, I met a friend of hers and another friend of that girl's who are both in my group. So we'll see what tonight brings. I haven't touched my running shoes since last Thursday for various reasons (mostly time-related) so it could be a tough night. It also looks like storms are moving in and I really don't want to run in rain. They only cancel for thunder!

And I'll close with one last side note...

Could cicadas just disappear from the face of the planet, pleeeease? I am sick and tired of sitting on my deck listening to them buzz around in the trees behind our house and fearing every time I hear one that it's going to fly or land near me. GAH! I don't care if they're harmless, they are disgusting and huge and I'm tired of them ruining my ability to enjoy what few lovely warm days are left in this season. The same applies to stink bugs and stupid wasps. Leave us alone! Bugs are my freaking enemy, and I know that they know I hate them because they harass me. It's ridiculous. I will be screening in any future decks, porches or patios that I own and removing any trees that are within 30 yards of my house or said outdoor spaces.