Daffodil Lane

April 27, 2008

Happy

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March 31, 2007

Cherry Blossoms Ala Alexis

Alexis took a few really good pictures today with her camera when we were in DC. This was one of them

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February 7, 2007

Happy Birthday Uncle Jason!

"Happy birthday to you,
Happy bithday to you,
Everybody play,
It's Uncle Jason's Birthday day,
Happy birthday!
Blow out the candle!"

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January 22, 2007

Miss G Plays In The Snow

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January 21, 2007

And Now On To Something More Positive! Snow!!

We are getting our first snow of the season! It's not supposed to amount to much, maybe an inch, but as you can see Alexis is beyond thrilled! She wants to go outside barefoot and dance in the snow!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

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January 20, 2007

On Puppet Juice, An Extra Night Light And Couch Napping

Last night, while not perfect, was the best night of sleep we've gotten in a while! I had to go into Alexis' room a couple of times, but she stayed there, with her trusty bottle of puppet juice and didn't venture into our room until 6:30 this morning, puppet juice in tow. She told me that the puppet juice helped her, so hopefully tonight she'll sleep through!

I also added another LCD light night to her room to brighten it up a bit more. That seems to work nicely as well so I think we'll be keeping that little sucker around for a while! You don't question such things, you just go with the flow! That's the key to being a good parent.

As for napping, this couch thing seems to be golden! Left to her own devices Alexis rarely naps, although she still needs that nap desperately despite of what she may think. On the days she doesn't take the nap by the time 4:30 or 5:00 rolls around she's usually quite agitatible, not to mention usually quite screechy! But on the couch, since I'm sitting across the room at my desk with an eye on her she won't open her eyes because I told her she would have to go upstairs and nap in her room if she did. She lays there with her eyes closed and when she does that she falls asleep, because she's obviously tired! Like I told her...Sleep is a good thing!

So as I type this little missive she's across the room sound asleep on the couch. That works out nicely for two reasons. 1) As I mentioned above the child still needs naps! And 2) It allows me to catch up on email, shortly it will allow me to work on school projects and it allows me to keep an eye on her. It's a win, win situation!

So for now puppet juice, an extra night light and couch naps are good! But who knows what tomorrow will bring? ;o)

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January 19, 2007

Puppet Juice

Alexis came upstairs by herself after dinner and not too long afterward we could hear her crying about puppets. Jamison came upstairs with her and they were looking around to make sure all the puppets were gone or trying to get Alexis to show him what she was talking about when she mentions puppets.

While they were touring the top floor (Alexis insisted on searching for puppets in every room!) I decided that while the imaginary puppet potion hadn't done the trick, perhaps if Alexis had a physical prop it might be different. I knew I had some empty, never used spray bottles somewhere in the house so I went to the basement first, but had no luck finding them. Then it dawned on me that they were in the laundry room. I grabbed a spray bottle and took it to Alexis. I showed it to her and explained that the bottle held "puppet juice" and when you sprayed it on a puppet they didn't like it and they went away. Puppet juice is merely air, but to Alexis her eyes lit up and she flew upstairs to spray puppet juice on everything in her room, in my room, in her closet, in the bathroom, in the guest room, on her bed...You name it and she covered it with puppet juice!

Then we had a conversation something like this:

"Alexis if a puppet bothers you what do you do?"

"I spray it with puppet juice!"

"And then what do you do?"

"I go back to sleep!"

"That's right! The puppet juice gets rid of the puppets!"

"And I can do it all by myself!"

"That's my girl!"

Jamison gave her her bath and then I put on her pajamas and let her read me a story. (That's her new thing...She wants to read the book to you and she does a very good job of remembering not only the words of the stories, but using the intonations we use while reading to her!) After that we sat in the rocking chair to rock and sing a few songs. We also reiterated our conversation from above. I put her into bed, we hung her puppet juice bottle on her headboard and then I told her goodnight and reminded her again that she had her puppet juice if she needed to use it on any puppets that bothered her.

So far so good. She has woken up twice since we put her to bed around 7:30 pm and I've heard her take down her puppet juice, spray some air out of it and then hang it back on the headboard as she tells the puppets to go away without either of us having to get involved or her leaving her room! It seems to be working! I'm keeping my fingers crossed! ;o)

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Creative Napping

Alexis didn't want to nap in her room because of the puppets so I told her she could take a nap on the couch IF she would close her eyes and go to sleep.

So far, so good!

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On Puppets And Sleepless Nights

I'm tired.

I take that back...I'm EXHAUSTED!!! We all are!

Alexis has not been sleeping well for the past several weeks. She keeps having nightmares. Nightmares about puppets!

Do we have any puppets?

No.

Her one and only puppet has long since been relegated to the bottom of a bin in her closet when she started having puppet issues last year. Yet still every night we are having bad puppet dreams.

I'm telling you folks...Puppets are BAD!

Last night Alexis went to bed around 7:00 pm as usual. Around 8:45 pm the nightmares began. Every hour or so she'd cry and say there were "scary noises in my room" and "there's a puppet in my bed!" Jamison checked on her a few times. I checked on her a few times. She'd settle back down and go back to sleep, if she even really woke up to begin with, most of the time she was simply stirring in her sleep. That was until around 12 am.

I went to bed at 11:30 or so and had just fallen asleep when around midnight Miss G woke up hysterical and came running into our room as fast as her little legs would carry her, doors flying and panic in full throttle. I put her into bed with us and we went to sleep until around 2:30 when Alexis had pushed me so close to the edge of the bed that I couldn't take it anymore. So I took her back to her room and she went back to sleep until another puppet incident around 4 am when she came flying back to our room, and in the process hit her hand on one of the door knobs when she went back to retreive her bear and needless to say that went over like a lead balloon! She stayed in our room until she and I woke up around 8:15 am as Jamison was getting out of the shower. So these dreams suck, either that or sock puppet is pulling a Toy Story and harassing her in her sleep. I lean toward the dreaming sucking part of the equation, but anything is possible! ;o)

Needless to say I got little sleep and when I was asleep having to be conscious of not being pushed off the bed by my little bed hog did not make for good sleep and has thus made me grumpy. And Alexis' mood isn't much better! Jamison didn't sleep much either so we're all just a big bunch of sleepy grumps! I've said it before and I'll say it again I don't do that all night stuff! When Alexis started sleeping through the night at around 4 months old on a consistent basis I rejoiced! But these past two weeks are reminding me all too much of the early days when we first brought her home when we woke up every four hours or so and did the nighttime thing. The nightime thing is not my cup of tea!

We've talked about puppets and how Mommy and Daddy will make sure she is ok. We've talked about how bear watches over her when she's in her room. I gave her a super duper (imaginary) puppet potion to spray on the puppets to make them go away, but still nothing! We even threw in God and Jesus for good measure and none of it works! She's too smart for that stuff. She's no fool!

But her fear is real and I'm not quite sure where it came from. When these incidents happen her heart rate is elevated and the whole situation is very real to her and because of that fact I can't just dismiss it outright and send her back to bed without calming her and assuring her that everything is ok. That would be mean. And if that means she pushes me to the edge of my bed for a little while so be it, but dear God I am sick of puppets!!

Is a good night's sleep too much to ask for?

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January 14, 2007

Alexis On Fingerwinkles and Being A Bad Girl

Taken in November the day we got my video camera.

Jamison, computer God that he is, figured out how to get it into editible form...Yeah Jamison! :o)

More to come.

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January 10, 2007

Combining Stories

Alexis LOVES The Wizard of Oz! For Christmas my Mom got her a The Wizard of Oz dress up set and she plays with it daily. She dresses up as Dorothy or the "Wicky Witch" and spends hours playing with her imaginary dog Toto!

Invariably when she dresses up as Dorothy she always puts on one silver shoe and one ruby slipper. I informed her the other day that she was mixing her stories and she asked me "Mommy what are you saying?" That's her way of saying "Tell me more!" So I explained to her that in the book Mr. Baum had written that Dorothy's shoes were silver and not ruby, but when they made the movie the movie gods that be decided that silver shoes wouldn't show up as nicely or as sparkly on film as the ruby slippers so the infamous red shoes were born! Which I might add I totally adore and have made trips into the Smithsonian just to see the shoes they have there on display! Ah the free time in the days of having no children! ;o)

Anyway, so she continues her mixing of stories, but who's to say she's wrong? I say she's just covering all the bases! And covering your bases is always a good thing. ;o)

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January 6, 2007

A Busy Warm Saturday

When I saw the forecast for today called for weather in the 70's I knew at some point today we'd have to go outside and do something in nature. We had decided last night to take Alexis to the library this morning, since she had never been before and she's majorly into books now. When we left the library we decided to take Alexis over to Lake Waterford to see the ducks and to check out the path around the lake to see if it was conducive for Alexis and I to use on a regular basis so I could get a little exercise (turns out it isn't really for just the two of us, but the three of us had fun!) We looked at the ducks and walked around a bit then headed home for lunch.

After lunch we promised Alexis that if she'd take a good nap we'd take her to the playground. She was ecstatic and went right to sleep. I woke her up around 2:30 (on the days Alexis actually naps she usually takes a 3-4 nap and I knew if we waited too long we'd loose the sun) and we got ready to head over to the playground. When we got to the playground it was completely packed! We took one look at all those people packed in together like sardines and knew it wasn't going to happen. Alexis thankfully is very laid back and changes path in midstream pretty easily, so when we asked her if she wanted to go see the ducks again instead she said "Sure!" and off we went.

Lake Waterford itself had a lot of people milling about, but it was no where near as crowded as that playground! We decided to walk further around the path than we had this morning and we walked to the top of the lake and back. It's a nice little walk, with lots of roots, so sort of difficult, but it's a nice work out for your legs. Alexis and I had a ball and well Jamison tolerated it and that's about as good as you're going to get with Jamison and nature! ;o) We spent a couple of hours walking around the lake and then headed home.

When we arrived back home I decided to take a picture of my daffodils in front of our house, which have sprouted:

They are a little confused! It's been warm lately and today we reached 74 degrees...In January! And while it was nice to have a warm day to explore with, it begs the question...If it's this warm in January how hot is it going to be in July?

Anyway, overall we had a very nice day. Sure we didn't really find a nice walking area for exercise close to home for Alexis and I, but we found a nice little adventure area for the three of us, not far off the beaten path. We'll conquer hiking soon enough, but for now we've got Lake Waterford!

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January 1, 2007

"Ice Cream" Alexis Style

While I was making Tomato Mozzarella Salad Alexis made "ice cream". That's yellow play dough, parsley, mozzarella, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Looks yummy doesn't it? ;o)

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Pirates and Mermaids...Arrrggghhh!!!

Alexis is fascinated with pirates and mermaids. When I saw the Mr. Potato head outfits I couldn't pass them up given how much she likes them too! It was a win, win deal! Santa did a good job! ;o)

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December 28, 2006

Tinker Toys Aren't Quite As Strong As They Used To Be

Alexis got many new toys from Santa and over the past few days she's slowly starting to play with all of her new toys. It takes a while when you get so much! :O) This morning she pulled out the Tinker Toy Set and I showed her how they worked.

She made a Tinker Toy Forrest:

And we made a Tinker Toy Truck together:

And her set came with some elements that the set my sister and I had as children did not have, but I must say the sticks themselves are not as strong as they used to be. I managed to break two of them in the first five minutes! After that I was very easy on them and they held up ok. Alexis was very gentle with them and didn't break any of them!

Overall Tinker Toys are just as fun as I remember them to be, even if they are a little flimsy here and there! :o)

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Posted by: cjmr at December 28, 2006 4:22 PM

December 27, 2006

Christmas Eve Conversation

After months of asking Alexis what she wanted Santa to bring her and her not telling me anything, I just got things I knew she would enjoy. I got her arty things and learning toys that I knew she would have fun playing with.

Then on Christmas Eve when I was putting her to bed she dropped the following hint:

"Mommy, in the morning when we open our presents Santa is going to leave me a Pirate patch in my stocking. He's going to leave you a Mommy Pirate patch in your stocking too!" she told me very excitedly.

"He is?" I asked all while my mind started kicking into gear on how I was going to come up with Pirate patches on Christmas Eve!

"Yes! Santa loves me!" she told me very certain of that fact.

"Yes he does," I assured her. "We'll see what he brings you in the morning."

So I put her to bed and I got to work making "Alexis and Mommy" pirate patches. It's amazing what you can do with a sewing machine, a manila folder and some elastic. If you have access to her Flickr photos then hop on over and see a picture of her with her patch. She was thrilled!

Luckily she asked me for something I could do at the last minute on Christmas Eve. I should be thankful she didn't ask me for something that Mommy Santa couldn't make, like say a castle or an airplane or such! ;o)

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December 24, 2006

Firetruck Santa 2006

Every year the local fire department brings Santa around on a firetruck. This year he had his own sleigh being pulled by one of the firedepartment vehicles! Alexis LOVED it! And he looped back around and she got to see him again a second time! It's a very nice tradition!

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December 21, 2006

I Think I'll Take The Seasick Crocodile!

You have all the tender sweetness Of a seasick crocodile. Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you I'd take the seasick crockodile.

My well mannered, perfectly happy, though still somewhat snarfully girl from yesterday has turned into a monster today!! Oh my!

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Posted by: cjmr at December 21, 2006 12:59 PM

December 20, 2006

Gingerbread Houses 2006 Editions

Yesterday we cut out the components for gingerbread houses (or I did anyway) and baked them using this recipe I posted a while back. It's best to let the house peices sit out overnight and dry out a bit because it makes them sturdier. Today I put the houses together and decorated mine, while Alexis decorated hers. We had a lot of fun!

Miss G's House:

My House:

I used the template for my house from this site minus the chimney which I decided not to do. I came up with the template for Alexis' house on my own. The batch of gingerbread just did make the two houses and two gingerbread men. You need cut them a little thicker than gingerbread cookies so they are more sturdy.

To make icing/glue use this recipe:

3 tablespoons of meringue powder (Make sure it's labeled meringue powder. I thought powdered egg whites were the same thing, but it turns out after reading the labels of each that it isn't!)
3 3/4 cups of powdered sugar
4-8 tablespoons of cold water

Beat until well blended. The icing should be stiff, but not to stiff that you can't work with it! This is especially true if you are going to use a pastry bag, though we didn't and I usually don't. This makes about 2 cups of icing.

I was a bit short on meringue powder so I only had enough to make one batch of icing, so the yards don't have as much snow as I would like, but overall they turned out very nicely. I usually make two or three batches of icing so everything is nice and white.

Alexis basically copied my house, right down to the upside down Kit Kat (which I didn't notice until my icing was dry and it immediately made my OCD twitch!), but she added a few touches of her own. She's an artist my girl! ;o)

You can check out more Gingerbread House pictures here.

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December 19, 2006

As If We Didn't Have Enough Going On

Yesterday morning, very early, I have no clue the exact time, Alexis ventured into our room sneezing her head off and crawled into bed with us. I finally looked at the clock at 5:25 am, after what seemed like hours, but was likely more like 20-30 minutes and got up and gave her a dose of Dimetapp. Jamison, knowing how much of a morning person I am not, got up and took Alexis downstairs and I went back to sleep.

When Jamison woke me up so he could take a shower and go to work I immediately started thinking about all the things I needed to do during the day yesterday. I needed to go to Target to get dryer sheets (which they didn't have) and a few other things, I needed to do laundry (of which I only did one load), I needed to continue baking (I ended up only making the Snickers Fudge and it was a miracle that was done), I needed to clean house (Um, yeah that so didn't happen) and I needed to start planning out Christmas dinner and make a shopping list for the things I needed, but didn't have on hand. I ventured downstairs around 8:20 am or so and the first thing Alexis said to me was "Mama my throat hurts and I'm cold. I need to go see the doctor."

At first I thought "Sure, she just wants to go see Dr. West". She ADORES Dr. West! But after about 10 minutes I realized she was running a light grade fever and despite the Dimetapp she was still sneezing her head off. When she said she was cold that should have tipped me off immediately given this child is NEVER cold! It could be -30 F outside and she'd be hot! In fact we dropped the thermostat down majorly (down to 65 and it will go lower if the next bill is bad) because BGE has upped its rates so much and she comes up to me regularly and tells me "Mama I'm hot! Turn on the air conditioner!" The child is a heat sink! I kid you not!

Anyway, so I called the doctor's office and set up an appointment for her as soon as they could see her. Alexis was less than thrilled that she couldn't go immediately and I tried explaining to her that you have to make an appointment and go see the doctor when she has time, but in Alexis' mind you should call the doctor and she should immediately be able to go see her. If only it worked that way! She finally got the idea and she sat on the couch covered in a blanket not moving while I did a few things around the house.

I decided to go ahead and go to Target because I desperately needed dryer sheets and a few other things. So we set off and Alexis was less than thrilled to find out we weren't going to the doctor's office then. We went through the whole explanation of when we would go, why we had to wait and how many hours we had to wait until then on the way to Target. We ran in, got our things and stopped at the Starbuck's up front on the way out. We probably shouldn't have since we need to reserve cash, but I was stressed, it was warm outside (74 in December...What the eff is up with that?) and I wanted some ice tea. They were out of strawberries so Alexis had to settle for a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino with no whipped cream instead of her usual "Beggy Cream" with no whipped cream, but luckily she took it in stride, much to my surprise. I ordered a Venti unsweet Passion ice tea and we set off to the car.

We got to the vestibule area in between the doors and my cup of tea fell out of my hand and shattered all over the floor. I bent down and started picking up ice and picking up the pieces of the plastic Starbuck's cup and not one person acknowledged me, nor offered to help that walked by. I would have offered to help pick up the ice if I had come across the same situation, but I'm just saying. I cleaned up the area as best as I could and located a trash can and deposited my shattered cup in it while Alexis told me, "Uh oh Mama! You need more tea!" Sadly I don't think they would replace my tea because I had butter fingers. My shoe was soaked and I was NOT a happy camper!

So we made our way home and went to Alexis' appointment at 1:30 pm to find out she has the beginnings of a "nasty cold" that is going around. We had so not been lucky in that department this year! I won't even begin to go into my theory about the fact that it hasn't gotten cold enough to kill off germs this year right now, we'll just leave it at that! She told me to make sure we had Dimetapp and Motrin on hand and keep her dosed. It might last a few weeks. Yikes!

Luckily last night Alexis actually slept through the night and didn't wake up this morning until almost 8 am! But her cold is worse today and she is VERY grumpy! She still has a mild fever and is snarfully. She is also very draggy. She just sits still and that is not very Alexis like. I got some juice into her today (I'm a firm believer in the natural healing powers of things like apples and oranges and other natural foods) and tried to get her to eat some chicken soup I made, but she's not a soup eater. We'll see how the next few days go, but I'm hoping she'll rebound quickly!

Today she refused to take a nap. Draggy and all she just would NOT go to sleep! She kept whining so I tried laying down with her, but that did no good all. All it did was make me doze in and out and made ME feel worse! I'm not sick, but I'm not a napper, I never have been. I always feel like dirt when I wake up from a nap! And she napped not at all. She just played on the bed next to me.

This evening Jamison has a meeting in Silver Springs so Alexis and I ate dinner early and I brought her upstairs and put her in the shower. I gave her some more medicine and then we brushed her teeth and put on her pajamas. She's currently sitting next to me on the bed watching Beauty and the Beast eating a banana. When that ends we'll brush her teeth again and I'll put her to bed.

Despite the fact she isn't feeling well, and we had a meltdown here and there, I got a lot done to today. I made two batches of turkey broth from the left over turkey I froze from Thanksgiving to use for Christmas cooking. I got a load of laundry done (Make that two loads of laundry), though I still have a mountain to finish! I got a batch of gingerbread made for gingerbread houses. I made chicken soup and it was a miracle I got that much done! I'm hoping she'll be feeling much better tomorrow and I can get the rest of the laundry done and finish up some things in the kitchen.

Oh and to add insult to injury my back is wonky again! My lower disc keeps slipping in and out. It happens usually when I am standing up and sometimes it just stops me in my tracks. Usually it slips back in, but those few moments when it's out are horrible! It's worse than anything I've ever felt in my entire life and I gave birth to a child! Yikes!!

Anyway, I need about 10 more hours in a day...I wish there were a time fairy! Oh and when she comes to visit if she could bring the money fairy with her, that would be great!;o)

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December 9, 2006

She So Doesn't Get It From Me

I'm listening to Jamison read Alexis bedtime stories and sing to her through the baby monitor and I know a lot of people think Alexis gets her Drama Queen gene from me, but let me tell you...It's all Jamison! ;o)

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Posted by: London Southern Belle at December 10, 2006 1:58 PM

Conversations With Alexis

I was watching as Alexis stood peeling a Clementine, (she likes to do it herself) and she just looked so cute.

"Alexis you look so cute!"

"Mama I AM cute!"

Well the kid knows her stuff what can I say?

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December 7, 2006

I'm Mean

Alexis didn't get to see Jamison this morning because he had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to Herndon, VA. And she most likely won't get to see him much this afternoon/evening either because he has to drive all the way back over here and it took him 2 1/2 hours this morning with the traffic and he has a DCC meeting tonight so he won't be here for her nighttime routine.

In the mornings, on most days, Jamison and Alexis get up and come downstairs and I stay in bed until it's time for Jamison to take a shower and go to work. Jamison is a morning person and I am so NOT!! This morning when Alexis woke up and ventured into our room at 6:45 am I let her watch a couple of Christmas shows I had TiVoed for her and I dozed in and out. She seemed calm about Jamison not being here and we had discussed it last night so I thought we had bitten the bullet so to speak.

Until about 10:00 am.

Alexis was doing something (I can't remember what now, but it was something she shouldn't have been doing and she knew better and most likely had to do with the Christmas tree) and I told her to stop and she whined:

"Daddy! Daddy! Where are you? Mommy is being mean to me!"

And from that point on anytime she gets corrected or I tell her no she repeats, "Daddy! Daddy! Where are you? Mommy is being mean to me!"

So I'm mean...Is that supposed to make me feel bad or something? ;oP

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December 6, 2006

Apparently Imaginary Birds Can Get Lost And Other Musings From the Very Long, Horrible, Terrible, No Good Day!

Today has been one of those days.

This morning Alexis and I went to run errands. First we went to the post office to buy snowflake stamps for the Christmas cards. Alexis did pretty well on this stop, though she did get a little antsy after we had stood in line for 20 minutes, but hey I was getting antsy at that point too!

From there we set off to the grocery store. Again she did fine. She rode along in the cart doing her thing and you can't ask for more than that. I'll take that any day!

When we left the grocery store it was time for lunch and I in no way was in the mood for junky fast food so I decided we'd go to Panera instead. Surprisingly as healthy as Alexis eats there isn't much a choice for her there. She doesn't like their peanut butter and to be honest I don't think she's ever fully forgiven them for taking her favorite tomato mozzarella salad off of their menu, but I digress.

We went in and ordered. I got a sandwich and some soup and I thought we'd try the peanut butter for Alexis again. Lately she's been eating things she wouldn't before so I thought it was worth a shot. We ordered and then of course you have to wait for a few minutes until your order is complete, but Panera usually is on the ball and moves along quite quickly and today was no different on that front.

While we were waiting Alexis was walking up and down the hallway to the bathroom area talking to Gogogain. I had ordered the food to go so two minutes later when everything was ready to go I told Alexis it was time to go back to the car and go home.

"Come on Alexis. Let's go home."

At this point Alexis stopped in her tracks, blinked and then she started pointing to the back door and screaming at the top of her lungs as if I had beaten her within an inch of her life, "No Mama! We have to get Gogogain!"

"Alexis, NOW!" I was utterly mortified. Kids can make you feel like a complete idiot in two seconds flat and it always, ALWAYS happens in a room full of people staring at you both!! You can place a bet on that fact any day of the week and win. That's just the way it goes.

I took her by the hand and led her out of the restaurant as fast as we could go and the whole time she was sobbing, "Mommy, no! We have to get Gogogain!"

"Gogogain will come with us. Move, NOW!!"

When we got to the door 20 seconds later (which felt more like 5 hours later with the sobbing and hysterics!) a kind lady held the door open for us and she commented on Alexis' coat while smiling knowingly at Alexis' actions, "That's such a beautiful coat."

"Too bad her attitude doesn't match her coat!" I told her apologetically.

"What happened?" she asked sympathetically.

"Apparently her imaginary friend isn't following us," I told her.

"Ah," she told me in the been there, done that sort of way.

So I got Alexis into the car all while she was still screaming "No! Gogogain! I want Gogogain!"

Once we were in the car I took a deep breath and we had a conversation.

"I'm very disappointed in the way you acted in Panera Alexis!"

"But Mommy, Gogogain..."

At this point I tried to remember how real Gogogain is to her, without totally just blowing my lid, which I felt like doing, "Gogogain is a bird Alexis. Gogogain can fly and he will follow you wherever you go. If he gets lost he'll fly home, because that's where he knows you will come back to."

"But Mama..."

"Don't 'but Mama' me Alexis! You do not ever scream at me like that! People were trying to eat their lunch in peace and you were screaming like a little banshee and making them not enjoy their meal. That is not a good thing. You were rude to me and you were rude to them! There is absolutely no reason for you to be bad like that and you know better! Do you understand me?"

"But Mama..."

"Alexis!!"

"Yes, Mama. I understand."

About half way home (it takes about 8 minutes to get home from Panera) she asked me "Why are you so quiet?"

"I'm still upset with you Alexis. It's hard for Mommy to just turn her emotions on and off."

"OK, Mommy."

When we pulled in to the driveway I told her, "I am going to get you out of your car seat and you are to go straight to the porch and not stop. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Mama."

So I got her out and she actually went straight to the porch. I unloaded the groceries, grabbed the stamps and our lunch and we came into the house.

When I opened the front door Alexis' face lit up and she said, "Mama look! Gogogain is on the dining room table just like you said. He came home!"

Dear God!

Oh and she didn't eat the peanut butter either. Nor the yogurt that came with it, she had "white cheese" (organic mozzarella) and strawberries instead.

Then of course she didn't take a nap and that is NEVER a good thing. I broke my no nap, no TV rule because she was clinging to me and whining and I couldn't take it anymore! She's watching Noggin and I got dinner in the oven and am now writing this missive.

I need a drink!

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Posted by: katherine at December 6, 2006 11:06 PM

December 1, 2006

Alexis' Gingerbread Men

Alexis did these herself. Aren't they cute? :o)

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November 28, 2006

Telling On Daddy

Jamison was getting Alexis out of the bathtub and she was procrastinating and lying on the bottom of the bathtub refusing to get up. After telling her a couple of times that she needed to stand up and get out of the tub he had to get firm with her.

"Get out of the tub NOW Alexis!"

*Blink, blink* "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

"I told you nicely and you wouldn't listen so I had to use the Daddy voice and I don't like to use the Daddy voice!"

"Mommy, I need you right now! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

So I walk into the bathroom and Alexis tells me still crying, "Mommy, Daddy's been a bad boy!"

Someone was bad, but it wasn't him! Jamison and I exchanged a look and both started laughing. She is just too funny sometimes! ;o)

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Posted by: Meaghan at December 6, 2006 8:52 AM

Alexis The Morning After

Alexis is MUCH better! The fever is all but gone! She's still snarfully, but she slept through the night and hasn't had to have any medicine since last night! She'll get a dose of Dimetapp before she goes down for her nap, but luckily we didn't have to bring out the albuterol! Onward and upward!

Posted by Dianne at 9:40 AM

November 27, 2006

Alexis Update Evening Edition

Although still grumpy (or she was before she went to bed anyway) Alexis is much better than last night. We didn't have to give her a dose of albuterol after all and I'm very thankful for that because that junk is some nasty stuff! Anyone that has asthma or knows someone that does has probably heard of albuterol and its side effects. Alexis does not have asthma, but some doctors prescribe it for respiratory issues that go along with colds and such.

Anyway, she made it to bed with only a dose of Motrin and Dimetapp and her breathing is calm and unnoisy this evening. That is a good thing! Her fever is still around the 100 degree mark, but it hasn't gone higher, which is a good thing too. Hopefully in the morning she'll feel much better, the fever will have broken and her whininess and meltdowns will cease. She's currently sleeping in her own bed so hopefully she'll be able to remain there the rest of the night and I get my bed back! :o)

Fingers crossed!

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Posted by: gorillabuns at November 27, 2006 11:35 PM

Alexis Update

It turns out Miss G has an ear infection. She also has slightly inflamed air passages from all the congestion so they gave her an antibiotic for the ear and some liquid albuterol to take if she starts sounding wheezy again tonight. She has some of her spunk back, but she still melts into hysteria at the slightest provocation. I have a feeling the air mattress will be coming up from the basement this evening. We'll see how things go.

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Posted by: cjmr at November 27, 2006 5:02 PM

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Posted by: Monica at November 27, 2006 8:26 PM

The Revolving "Ick"

Since the middle of October Alexis, Jamison and I have all had the revolving "Ick". One of us comes down with cold type symptoms, then another one gets it, then another, never actually fully recovering from the last visit from the "Ick" as I like to call it, before it revisits up again. Last week Jamison was back in the "Ick" column and I could tell Alexis wasn't far behind and the doctor says it's just a cold, nothing to be done, etc. etc. etc.

Last Wednesday morning Alexis woke up whiney. That's never a good sign and as the week wore on she continued to grow even more whiney. Usually when we have company, in this case Jamison's family was here for Thanksgiving, she'll chill out and just enjoy the attention she gets from everyone doting on her, but when she continued to whine I knew that the "Ick" was coming back to her, it was only a matter of time before it came back full force. And as it happens that "magic" day was Saturday and to add insult to injury I woke up feeling the effects of the "Ick" as well. Happy times folks let me tell you, happy times! It started with sneezing, then progressed into a runny nose and then was followed by a cough and yesterday I had trouble sitting upright, though I managed to do it all day.

Last night after putting Alexis to bed it became readily apparent that she was going to have to sleep with me so I could keep an eye on her. Her fever went up, though not high, but still troubling, and she was wheezy. So we gave her some "purple medicine" (Dimetapp) and some "pink medicine" (Children's Motrin) and she moved into my room and Jamison moved to the guest room. If I had been thinking clearly I would have had Jamison bring up Alexis' air mattress and let her sleep on that, but I didn't have that bright idea until this morning. Oh well.

Alexis slept fitfully through the night and early this morning when Jamison ventured back in to our room he found me on the edge of the mattress, with Alexis cuddled up to my back. Sadly we slept that way much of the night! But fortunately I feel much better this morning, other than being tired from sleeping on roughly 12 inches of mattress all night long and dealing with my fitful sleeper!

Alexis is still droopy. She's currently lying on the couch, covered up, watching Noggin. Alexis is not a sit still kind of kid, so that in and of itself speaks volumes. Her temperature is hovering in the 100 degree range. I called and made an appointment for her to see her pediatrician and will take her in at 2:20 this afternoon. Hopefully she'll take a nap between now and then. We'll see how the day goes.

And now I'm off to clean up the kitchen. It's horrendous! And note to my dear husband....Next time I'm sick, YOU clean up the kitchen! ;oP

I'll update later as to what the doctor says.

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November 25, 2006

No I Do Not Curl My Child's Hair!

I'm always astounded by the number of people who ask me if I curl Alexis' hair. The answer is plain and simple...NO!! Alexis, like me, has naturally curly hair. She got it honestly and I do not curl her hair. I can't imagine getting a 3 year old to sit still long enough to have her hair curled or how you would begin to go about doing that even if you wanted to. I for one don't have that much free time to even attempt such a crazy feat.

So here you go world, the answer is no! So stop asking me stupid questions!

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Posted by: cjmr at November 25, 2006 8:42 PM

Posted by: Dianne at November 25, 2006 9:07 PM

November 20, 2006

Two Identical Cookies

Two identical chocolate chip pecan cookies bought from the Whole Foods bakery. I have one and give the other to Alexis. I walk to the refrigerator to pour a glass of milk and she's eating my cookie, that I had already taken a bite out of and hers is laying untouched on the kitchen counter. So why does she need my cookie? Did I mention they were IDENTICAL?? The mind reels!

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November 19, 2006

Riding with Alexis

I was taking Alexis to BJ's in my car this morning, since Dianne was out shopping with a friend and we needed some real bread. My car radio was tuned to NPR from my commute so I immediately turned it off, the world is a bad place, so the less she knows about its current problems the better from my point of a view. Alexis pipes up "play some music daddy". In Dianne's Highlander we have a 5 disk changer and number 3 is just Alexis songs on random spin. My car predates the need for such luxuries. So she's just got my music disk, mentally I go through the CD's content, only 1 song I would worry about her hearing, so I'll watch out for it. I was listening along and "Victory" by Yolanda Adams came on the CD player.

Alexis: looking up from the back seat and said in that utterly amazed and awestruck voice only children can manage, "What kind of music is that daddy???"

Jamison's brain: What is she talking about?
Jamison's filter: This is not the song I was set to filter on.
Jamison's brain: What song is on?
Jamison's ears: "Victory"
Jamison's brain: Hey, I like that song!
Jamison's brain: What did Alexis ask?
Jamison's ears: What kind of music is that?

Jamison: "That's Gospel Music, Alexis".

Alexis: "Ospel Music, why ospel music daddy?"

Jamison's brain: Hmmm....how do you explain that one?
Jamison cynical side: Well you could tell the truth that before the rise of the Evangelical movement that Gospel music used to be the most uplifting and happy music on earth...
Jamison good parent side: Definitely wouldn't make Dianne happy, her people may have sucked the soul out of Gospel music, but we are definitely going to have to do some spin on that information to keep things balanced.
Jamison's politico side: Let's just be light on the facts and she can discover them for herself later.

Jamison: "Well Gospel Music is music about articles of faith dear."

Alexis: "It's so good daddy."

Jamison: "Yes dear."

Somehow I think that Yolanda may have destroyed her future as a funeral dirge singing evangelical spiritual type girl. Which is fine by me, it's supposed to be freaking uplifting. Too many no talent fools have been allowed to destroy Gospel music especially in the South. If you can't carry a tune, it's not a joyful noise, it's just noise! End of discussion.

Posted by Jamison at 2:54 PM

November 18, 2006

Yeah It's Early And I'm A Stickler For Such Things, But There Is A Good Excuse In This Case

I usually put up my Christmas tree and decorate for Christmas on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but this year I put it up before Thanksgiving even though I don't think you should do such things. Alexis and I spent the afternoon (or rather a couple of hours) decorating the tree so we can use it as a backdrop for the Alexis Papa "Santa" picture.

Hop on over to Flickr to see some pictures of Miss G and "her" tree! ;o)

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"Writing" Stories

Alexis has started "writing" stories. This started one day last week when we were sitting in the waiting room of her pediatrician's office. She was sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting room and she she wrote this:

While she was "writing" she was telling a story something like this:

"Once upon a time 'der was a dog and he went 'roof roof'..."

Or

"Once upon a time 'der was a 'ciraffe' (giraffe) and he had a 'vewy' long neck..."

Or

"Once upon a time 'der was a baby bird and he and his Mommy ate cereal..."

Each new line begins with a new "Once upon a time..."

To Alexis this is writing. And to be honest it's pretty intuitive when you think about it given she is making rudimentary sentences in her own way. She sees them in books, she sees them on television, she sees them when Jamison and I are writing, why not make her own?

Not too long from now she'll actually be writing real sentences. She is already well on her way to writing her name. The "A" in "Alexis" being her most consistent letter. In no time at all she'll get the hang of writing. And then it will be amazing to see what kinds of actual stories she will write. When she tells you a story now it's already vivid. I can't wait to see it in actual print!

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November 9, 2006

She So Is Trying To Kill Me Before I Turn 35!

Alexis is so trying to kill me! She steadily keeps taking years and years off of my life on a regular basis. Today her infraction concerned opening the car door while we were driving down Route 100. No, you didn't read that wrong, SHE OPENED THE EFFING CAR DOOR WHILE WE WERE DRIVING DOWN ROUTE 100!! And I'm not talking about driving at a slow speed...I'm talking about clipping along between 55-60 mph!

At first I heard a warning bell dinging and I couldn't figure out what it was and then it dawned on me...SHE HAD OPENED THE CAR DOOR NEXT TO HER WHILE I WAS DRIVING DOWN 100! I pulled off to the side of the road and boy did she get the talking to of a lifetime! And then when we got home she got to sit in her timeout chair. Then when that was over we had another talk about how bad it was to open a car door unless Mommy or Daddy told her it was ok!

So now the childproof thing is engaged and she can't open the door even if she wanted to, but I have a feeling she was sufficiently horrified enough by my response to the whole thing that it isn't something she'd try again anytime soon anyway, but just in case I'm not going to take that chance.

Who would have thought that 3 1/2 year old would have the power to open a car door when you are driving down the road? I need a drink!

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Posted by: gorillabuns at November 9, 2006 3:08 PM

Posted by: Dianne at November 9, 2006 3:14 PM

Posted by: Qusan at November 9, 2006 3:32 PM

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Posted by: Dianne at November 11, 2006 9:34 PM

November 6, 2006

Gogogain

Last night when Alexis got out of the shower, before her meltdown, she asked me where her baby bird was. This threw me off a bit. She doesn't have a toy bird and I thought perhaps a bird had somehow gotten into the house without me realizing, given my parents had a birdie visitor last week and you just never know what is going to happen.

"Alexis what bird?"

"The baby bird is downstairs."

"Downstairs?"

"Yes Mama," she told me rolling her eyes. (Yeah you just THOUGHT they wait until they were teenagers to mock you! They do it at a very young age!)

"In the house?"

"Yes, Mama," she told me with another eye roll.

So I look downstairs and don't see anything, nor do I hear birdie chirping.

"What color is he?"

"No Mama, it's a 'she'! She's 'bwue' (blue)," she told me. "Here she comes!"

At this point I realized we had an imaginary bird on our hands. She reached out her hand and the bird "landed" on her palm.

"See Mama! She's so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"She's adorable Alexis," I told her slightly relieved that a stray bird wasn't flying around our home and I didn't have to wrangle it back to the great outdoors.

"I 'wuv' (love) her!"

"What is her name?" I asked, figuring she would just say "Baby Bird", but she shocked me with her answer.

"Her name is Gogogain," she told me proudly. (Pronounced Go Go Gain)

I have no clue where that name came from, most likely her vivid imagination, because I've never heard her use a word that's anywhere close to that one, but apparently Gogogain is her new favorite imaginary friend. She flies around from here to there and you'll hear her talking to Gogogain as she plays.

Alexis has the kind of imagination that makes me confident that our choice to home school her is the best one. She would immediately be labeled as hyperactive, because if I learned one thing in my years of teaching preschool from the other teachers around me, imagination is not looked upon fondly and is often labeled as a problem, rather than an asset and that is one of the reasons our education system on the whole is going down the tubes, but that's a rant for another time.

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Posted by: gorillabuns at November 6, 2006 3:26 PM

Posted by: Dianne at November 6, 2006 3:53 PM

My Little Cold Monkey

As I mentioned last night Alexis has had a bit of a revolving cold the past few weeks. Jamison took her to the pediatrician Thursday afternoon and she told him it's just your basic cold type situation that has been going around, nothing to be worried about, but that is like telling the sun not to shine. If you're a mother, you worry, I think that is hard coded into your DNA and nothing anyone says to you will change that fact.

Anyway, last night after Alexis got out of the shower her nose was running profusely and we got the situation that ended up with her falling asleep in the middle of the bathroom floor and then an hour later migrating to her own bed. Every night before I go to bed I go in and check on Alexis. I usually end up straightening her covers and just making sure she's ok. It's one of those Mom things that probably doesn't need to happen, but it makes me feel better in the long run. Chalk it up to motherly instincts and such.

Last night when I went in to check on her before I went to bed around 10:15, I discovered that she had a fever. She was hot all over and I knew that that meant she'd have to take some Motrin whether she wanted to or not. I brought her back into our room and checked her temperature and sure enough the reading came in around 101.1. First I tried bribing her, "Take this and we'll go sit in the rocking chair and sing." Apparently she wasn't in a singing mood so I tried another track, "Take this and you can lay down with Mommy and Daddy for a little while." Apparently that wasn't to her liking either.

At that point I knew she had to take the Motrin and I wasn't looking forward to a fight, it appeared we were going to have to do just that. I sent Jamison downstairs to get her a cup of ice water and to grab one of the doser syringes that they've given us at the drugstore in the past. I figured it would probably be a major battle, but it would be easier than trying to make her drink out of that little doser cup. Much to my surprise however I was finally able to convince her to take her medicine that way by bribing her with the opportunity to watch and episode of Blue Clues. I put a little bit of the medicine in her mouth at a time and she took it without fussing. You've got to do, what you've got to do!

This morning when she woke up she still have a bit of a fever (99.9) and she's still droopy. I gave her a choice between orange Motrin or purple Motrin and surprisingly she chose the orange, though she refused to drink it. I whipped out the handy, dandy doser syringe and she again took the medicine without a fuss. I don't know why she doesn't want to just drink the medicine. I thought perhaps she had a sore throat, but her throat looks fine, so I have no clue what is up with this one.

So overall she's not feeling well, but I've seen her much worse. She's watching Noggin at the moment laying on the couch with her cow and one of my throws. You know she's not feeling well when she's being still. We'll see how the day goes.

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November 5, 2006

Oh How I Jinx Myself

Earlier when I mentioned Alexis would be in bed by 6 and I would be happily writing away I clearly jinxed myself. Here we are at almost 6:30 and my darling little girl is lying in the middle of the bathroom floor refusing to take her "purple medicine" (Dimetapp) which her runny little nose desperately needs. She has lost her bed time story and she is rapidly sliding into no songs in the rocking chair and straight to bed instead, but she refuses to take her medicine.

Up until last week Alexis was a perfect medicine taker. You'd give it to her, she'd take it, it was done in less than 20 seconds, but for some reason last week she decided she didn't want to take it and she nearly gagged herself in protest. This evening she has continued down this same path. She cries until she can hardly breathe and flat out refuses to let any of the liquid pass her lips, her snotty little nose getting snottier with evey cry.

As I type this I glance into the bathroom to find her lying on her stomach in the middle of the bathroom floor. I am not 100% sure, but I think my little screamer has fallen asleep. Can you tell she doesn't feel well? For those of you that know Alexis well, you know that she's not a fall asleep anywhere but her bed kind of kid. Her revolving cold has been bothering her for a couple of weeks, but it's nice to see her inner drama queen hasn't been squashed.

I think it's going to be a long night...

Update: 6:42 pm: Yep, she's asleep in the middle of the bathroom floor. If you have a Flickr invite hop on over to see her in all her glory. :o)

Update: 7:15 pm: Alexis woke up 15 minutes ago crying and remembered she still hadn't taken her medicine and proceeded to cry some more. I sat down in the bathroom floor with her, but that didn't help. Finally I just gave up and put her in bed without medicine, which I'm sure will come back and bite me later. She's currently asleep, but still whimpering.

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Posted by: gorillabuns at November 5, 2006 10:57 PM

Posted by: Dianne at November 6, 2006 9:09 AM

November 2, 2006

FYI My Little Snot Blossom

Dear Alexis,

You just walked up to me and wiped your nose on my shoulder and THEN told me you needed a tissue. Um gross! I am not a human tissue! Mark that one down!

Love,
Mom

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November 1, 2006

Speaking Of Feet

Like I said yesterday we're back on our feet thank goodness! But speaking of feet it appears Alexis somehow got poison ivy on the top of hers! They look much better this morning, but I still haven't figured out where it came from. I suppose the backyard somewhere, but I haven't located it yet. I'll have to search it out tomorrow when Alexis is napping and I have time to deal with removing it from wherever it has entrenched itself. Today I am going to attempt to bring the blog back to life. If things get a little wonky you'll know why.

That's all for now.

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October 26, 2006

I Thought She'd At Least Be A Teenager Before She Locked Me Out Of The House

Yesterday afternoon I went outside to plant my aster and Alexis wanted to come too. She didn't however want to put on shoes, so I told her with no shoes on she could stay on the deck for the 2 minutes or so it would take me to put the plant in the ground, but she couldn't go any further because it was cold. So she told me she'd take her socks off and I told her with no socks on she couldn't come out side at all and would have to remain inside. She said no shoes, but she said she would stay on the deck, so we came outside.

I opened the shed to get my shovel and while I had my back turned on her she took her socks off, made her way down the stairs and was standing on the grass by the time I turned back around. I told her to go back inside immediately, because I told her not to take her socks off. She went back in the French door and slammed it, that in and of itself would have landed her in trouble, but then the fun came. I planted my aster, took a few pictures and then when I went to open the door it was locked. 3 freaking minutes and she had locked the door!

Sometimes when you close the deck doors they stick a little bit. I don't know if that's what happened and she couldn't open it, so she assumed it was locked and started turning the locks, or she decided to lock me out because she was mad about the sock and shoe incident, but she somehow managed to turn the lock and we're not talking just the normal doorknob lock, we're talking the deadbolt! And let me tell you, that deadlock is a witch to lock! And of course she couldn't get it unlocked, because well it's a witch to unlock too.

So there I stood with a door between me and Alexis trying to get her to unlock the door and her not understanding what I