2 Things @ Once

Green Eggs No Ham

The Monday after vacation is hard, even when you're three, but everything is better with green eggs for breakfast.

Sunday Smatterings

NaBloPoMo, Day 15

I just woke up from a two-hour nap. Napping on a weekend afternoon is something I never do unless I'm sick.

I'm sick.

Battling a head cold. Sleep is good. So is Thai hot and sour soup--I call it the "healing soup"--another dose of which I'll take for tonight's dinner. I'll also whip up a fresh batch of Srirracha ginger butter, my magic bullet cure all.

The head cold didn't stop me from attending and enjoying the opera last night, Verdi's rarely produced early work Ernani. Absolutely ridiculous story but the singing was great, the music pleasant, and the costumes gorgeous. And thankfully it was under three hours long.

Today I met friends for brunch at The Publican. I enjoyed my first meal at Publican this past summer when Mike came to town. (Hi Mike!) It was tasty then and didn't disappoint on the second go-around. This time I managed to snap a few pictures before we devoured the lot.

I had the red wine poached eggs with grilled sourdough and bearnaise, lamb pastrami, and a flavorful mix of greens. It was very good and boy, could you taste the red wine.

We ordered a side of their signature maple-cured bacon, thick, salty, fatty and absolutely yum! This is a place known for it's homemade sausages and meats as well as an amazing array of beer and wine. As tempting as it was to order up a breakfast beer, we decided instead to have our holiday dinner at Publican and before you can say "iPhone calendar," we'd set a date in December.

I drink more tea when I'm sick. Lately I've been into the Douglas Fir Tea from Juniper Ridge. It smells just like a forest of fir trees and tastes delicious.

Finally, all this week I've been enjoying a beautiful fall flower arrangement that JD and her family gave me to celebrate my 2 year anniversary nannying the wee one! Two years! The proverbial time flies and all that. It's an anniversary I'm very happy and proud to celebrate. I'm still so thankful for every day I get to spend with this amazing little person.

A Beautiful Fall Day in the Garden

NaBloPoMo, Day 11

It was brisk but beautiful at the Botanic Garden today. One of the many perks of my job is the ability to come to the garden on weekdays when the crowds are nil. Sometimes, especially when the weather is colder, it feels like JD and I almost have the place to ourselves.Gone are the days when I had to push the stroller down the gravel paths. Now wee JD's legs can carry her pretty far over the course of an hour or so--assuming you don't stop too often to pick up sticks and stones.

Following up on our successful outing to the Botanic Garden over the summer (to see the model railroads--a huge hit with the under-three crowd), JD and I were once again joined by Karen and her dad, Mack. Easily the sweetest moment of my entire week came when JD reached up on her own to take Mack's hand and they walked along together for the next ten minutes.

Spanning 70 years.

I Can Improvise, I Just Can't Remember

NaBloPoMo, Day 10

I have always been one to make up silly, stupid songs on the spot and now that I'm watching a nearly-three-year-old, that skill is finally coming in mighty handy. Yesterday, JD woke up from her nap uncharacteristically tearful. I suspect it had everything to do with the fact that when she went to sleep it was daylight and two hours later when she awoke, it was dark as night in her room.

She's recently been going through a phase with not one, not two, but three (security) blankets. I find that the surest way to snap JD out of a tearful mood is to distract her with a bouncy, silly song. Yesterday, with my arms full of little girl and three blankets, The Blanket Song was born. Within minutes she was laughing and singing along.

Knowing full well that The Blankets Song would be a Top 10 request in the coming days, I was struck with the brilliant idea that I now have the capability to "record" songs using my iPhone's Voice Memo feature, perfect for jogging the memory and saving me from racking my brain while an impatient toddler waits to be entertained. (Added bonus, of course, is recording JD singing along.) Sure enough, it came in handy today when I didn't even have to sing it for her--playback was enough to induce a big smile and a fit of giggles.

So, here for all of your enjoyment, I give you The Blanket Song.

Blanket Song

Someone Was Home Sick This Week

Considering JD and I were mostly housebound these last three days, contrary to the photo above, we didn't have a single moment of stir crazy. We were too busy constructing miniature rail lines, playing rhyming games, matching games, trick-or-treating for tiny pumpkins, and building a fort under the dining room table. I taught JD how to arrange the wooden matching tiles like dominoes in a row (or in the shape of, say, the letter "J") to knock them all down with the flick of her finger. For the next half hour, she was shouting out letters of the alphabet for me to set up so she could "flick it" all down. "K" was a challenge.

My favorite moment came after JD asked me to hand her down the crayons from their place on a high shelf. When I replied, "Sure, let me get them for you," she hopped up and down in excitement, clapping her hands while she shouted (totally unprompted) "We're doing some nice cooperation today!" I couldn't have been more surprised.

Milestone

Carl, the keeper of all data, informed me this morning that JD is 1,000 days old today! Huzzah!

She and I celebrated with iced sugar cookies from Al's Deli.

Stymied by the Traffic Cone Blinky Thing

Help me Internet!

You see the two orange sawhorse road construction thingies in the photo above?

What the hell are they called?

Stimulus money is apparently flowing through my town because there's a wealth of infrastructure and road repair going on right now and for weeks JD has been obsessed with the traffic cones and whatchamacallit barriers dotting our roads. We can't pass one by without her asking me twelve times, "what are the orange things called?"

For the first time, I can't for the life of me come up with an answer. I can't even fake it. The best we've been able to come up with is "traffic cone blinkie thing," which JD came up with. It's been bugging me for days.

Help me out here--what do you call them?

Another Reason to Hate Dora

Last week, on two separate occasions, as we were walking through the neighborhood, JD ran along beside me shouting "Help me, help me, help me!" Over and over. Where this came from and what it was about, I didn't know. Suddenly it occurred to me, "JD, is this from Dora (the G$! D*@!ed Explorer)?"

"Yep."

Thanks Dora. I figure it's only a matter of time before I'm picked up for kidnapping.

Is That What I Sound Like?

Last week, shortly after lunch, 2 1/2-year-old JD stopped in the middle of creating her Play-doh pizza to give me her full attention across the table when she said, "Okay, here's the deal. We have to get ready for a nap."

And she was right, we did.

After Waiting Two Years, What's Another Few Days Give or Take

Apparently Labor Day is celebrated in this country by buying an iPhone. Specifically the 32GB version in black because stock is low and they're completely sold out at my local store, so unless they restock tomorrow my plan to jet over after work and get me one is on hold.

More exasperating is the run-around I've already received in person and on the phone by the hard-sell, smarmy, one-step-above your stereotypical used care salesperson tactics and misleading info I'm getting from AT&T salespeople. Wow, what a turn off. If I didn't want the damn iPhone so much, I'd be on my way over to Verizon right now.

On another front, I survived the preschool orientation this evening, something I never would have imagined myself attending in a million years. As I figured, JD's going to love it. There's tons of fun stuff to do, the environment seems ideal, and the emphasis is on free and creative play. My only complaint, based on my one visit to the room would be its subterranean location, which would drive me bonkers but I suspect that's something that won't even register with JD, what with all the cool stuff to play with and the awesome playground down the block.

Today was a day of firsts: first step on the road to JD's schooling and my first official Time Out. After years of watching Super Nanny demonstrate "the naughty step" and Time Out, I got to put my first one into practice this afternoon. JD immediately turned around and processed this new information by putting "Finger Puppet Kitty" in a perpetual time out, sitting him on the canister of sky blue Play Dough for "just TWO MORE MINUTES!" Bad kitty.