Just Pics

I promised more pictures so here you go. I gave Demand a haircut that allowed her to have pigtails now. I didn't know it was possible but she's 100x cuter now.(when she's not whining).

Our Holy Week/ Easter

If you'll notice every picture of Demand is blurry, that's because every picture of her is an action shot.


Last Wednesday I woke up from a nap to find myself ill with a cold. It wasn't a bad cold really but it caused extreme exhaustion. I spent the next two mornings sleeping on the couch while periodically putting on another show for Demand to watch. Being sick made attending any Holy Week events impossible and I also had a tea party to prepare for.

Friday I woke up from my nap and much to my delight, Demand kept sleeping so I was able to get a lot of the work done for the party. Now that I think of it, it was probably a blessing that I was ill on Good Friday. First off, fasting wasn't a problem since I had no appetite, and since I was baking and frosting things all day it could have been a really rough day. I felt all better Saturday morning and Mr. Sloth and I did the usual routine of cleaning and preparing for a party. As usual I went to bed thinking I had nothing to do but woke up to realize I had plenty.

Wait, let me backtrack a bit. Holy Thursday Mr. Sloth was asked to have his feet washed at Mass. Mr. Sloth is very private about his feet, so that was interesting. I couldn't go to the Mass since it was Demands bedtime and I was ill. Next, we had quite the snowfall on Friday so even if I had been well my plans of walking to Church for Good Friday services were crushed because of blizzard like conditions (I don't usually get the car on Fridays).

So the tea party went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Especially Demand who had eight cousins adoring her all afternoon.

Easter Sunday.

Demand woke up to find an empty easter basket at the bottom of the stairs and a trail of Easter Eggs. She'd been playing "find the egg" all week so she was prepared. A the end of the trail of eggs she found a pile of new toys and snacks. She got a truck, a boat, a rolling pin, sidewalk chalk, her favorite snack, a bunny shaped slinky, and a mini-Curious George doll. The Easter Bunny LOVES the $1 section at Target, that's all I have to say.

Demand was exhausted all through Easter Mass which is fine since she wasn't crabby or loud. She went home to nap before heading to Grandmas for the big Egg hunt with all 13 cousins. With 3 inches of snow it was intersting. Demand and one of her cousins did the hunt inside instead of out in the snow. I have to say that it was rather boring and Demand was more entertaining finding empty eggs in our home than eggs full of candy at Grandma's. She'd find and egg,open and it and just sit there and eat it. Not every efficient. She had a downhill spiral pretty early, but with all the excitement of cousins, candy and goodies who can blame her.

Monday she still wasn't the same and didn't have much fun at the indoor park with her cousins. Tuesday she was back to having fun when six of them came over before leaving town.

Most of the snow melted yesterday and Demand and I got to spend some time out in the "warm" sun. It was nice, but were back to cold again.

Ok, that was long enough,I'll do a separate posts with pictures from yesterday.

Yikes, it's almost been a week since I've blogged! Oh, well I guess we didn't do anything too important.

The other day I decided to try something risky. Since we have a rather large bathroom Demand is usually gated off in one part of it while I shower. She has plenty of space to play which is great. Well that particular day I thought I would try letting her play with markers while I took a shower. I was of course prepared to clean up any mess that was made so I dressed her in play clothes gave her some very washable markers and a giant piece of paper (compliments of Obscure).

Sure enough a few minutes into the shower I hear a sound that wasn't quite right. It was Demand coloring on the linen closet door. She promptly handed over the marker knowing she had broken the rules. A few minutes later I heard another sound. Sure enough Demand had been coloring on the walls. This time she was a little more reluctant to hand over her marker since it was the last one, but she ended up dropping it and it rolled under the linen closet door. (Uh-oh!---her words)

So here are the pictures. I found out after my shower that she had colored on the floor too. So here are the pictures. And in case you were wondering, clean up only took about two minutes. Those markers are fantastic!!! One great thing is that she didn't put the markers in her mouth which might have been a first.






In other news I'm the worst potty-training mommy in the world. Demand keeps wanting to go but I'm slow at picking up her clues. The other day she followed me around for 10 minutes saying "Boppy" before I finally caught on that she wanted to go "Potty". (slaps forehead) Tonight I happened to catch her in a pose that lends itself to ....pottying and then she turned to me grabbed her diaper and said something similar to "poop". Thinking she had already done the deed I tried to change her diaper only to find out she was ABOUT to poop. So we went upstairs where she gladly used the potty. She was so happy when she was done,that she clapped her hands and jumped up (which isn't always recommended). So I'm going to have to try and be more aware of when she wants to go potty.

It's been a busy week and my house is paying for it. Since Mr. Sloth is out for the evening and Demand is finally asleep I should try and get caught up on housework and miscellaneous projects. The clock is ticking....gotta go!

Demand is Kickin Back

First off, I can't write about the Ebay saga, it just angers me too much.

Here are some pictures of Demand from yesterday. Three guesses as to what snack she was eating.











It was an Oreo if you didn't know.

Next, here are pictures of our lovely lady watching "Blue's Clues". These pictures best express her attitude today...laid back.






This one, she was just about to tell me that she's watching "Boo". Man she loves that dog. There was a stuffed version of him in the library yesterday and she was completely beside herself.

This one captures her newest phrase. "Cold Outside". She'll tell you a thousand times, "cold outside". I think she's ready for winter to be over as well.




This next picture was taken after I walked out of the bedroom and into the loft and found her just lounging on the couch listening to music. Just chillin.




Any other news is that she can properly identify every letter of the alphabet. What's most impressive is she doesn't sing the song. I mean she knows the tune and shouts out some of the letters, but when I say she knows the alphabet I mean we draw a letter and she tells us what it is. Only capital letters so far though, not lower case. Her favorites are "H", "B", "Y", and "M". She was having a hard time saying "N" but mastered that yesterday. That mini-magnadoole is quite the educational tool!

The Saga Continued

Yesterday only went downhill after my morning Ebay saga. I shouldn't say that, I made great strides in dealing with my stress and anger. To add to the mix, Demand was extremely whiny and refusing to use her regular vocabulary. Luckily we had a playdate to break up the day and we did have a car.

My day started with me trying to get up at 5:30am which I was more than willing to do. I had the right amount of sleep and everything, the problem was that Demand woke up at 5am and then 5:30am and then nursed until 7:15am. (Very unlike her these days.) Since she woke up so late I didn't have time to get us both dressed and ready and feed her breakfast before trying to make 8am Mass. I think a lot of my frustration stemmed from wanting to get up early and not being able to and then the anti-Christ of online auctions added to my frustration.

I tried oh so hard to be patient with Demand. I really did. I didn't always succeed, but I tried hard. She ended up taking a late (and short nap) and I needed to head to the store to pick up groceries for dinner. So when she would normally be eating we were shopping. Then I got to the checkout only to remember I had left my wallet at home...near my computer...because of Ebay. Honestly, yesterday was one of those days when you swear you're going to end up on the evening news for one aweful reason or another. So I put my screaming toddler in the car (She was screaming because we had to leave the Play dough in the store because I couldn't pay for it.) I called Mr. Sloth, who beat us home, to be ready to head back to the store and pick up the groceries. I think I actually handled that pretty well.

The last time I forgot my wallet before getting groceries, my mom called and told me my grandfather had died while I was in the parking lot before going in. That experience almost didn't end well either.

Mr. Sloth made dinner. (For the second time in two weeks I tried making Mr. Sloth a nice meal only to make him cook it.) I played with Demand and her new playdough. After dinner we all played until Demand asked for a bath. I bathed and put Demand asleep and Mr. Sloth cleaned the kitchen.

All was well.

Then of course I went out for a drink with Obscure. And today I WAS able to get up at 5:30am. I was on the exercise bike for 14 minutes and 33 seconds before Demand woke up crying. And we made it to Mass. Granted Demand was rowdy and it was Tridentine and I forgot to grab a missal so I had no clue what was going on, but I have a hunch how it turned out.

Best of all I didn't end up on the evening news.

My First and Last Ebay Purchase

Last May my dear brother got me a gift certificate to Ebay. I had never bought anything from Ebay before, but I had sold a few things. After taking a few weeks to decide what I wanted and winning a bid I tried to redeem my gift certificate only to find out that the Ebay account I have isn't the same email address as where the gift certificate was so I couldn't use the gift certificate for that winning auction, but I was able to have the winning auction canceled which was nice.

About a month ago I got a reminder from Ebay to redeem my gift certificate. I saved the email and after another few weeks decided to try again. I lost the bid. (Crappples!) So then I bid on something else and won. I go to pay only to find that I have completely lost my redemption code. (Grrrrr!!!) I used Ebay live help only to find that I had to contact PayPal.

So today I called PayPal and pretty much just confused them, but finally realized that I had two PayPal accounts and found my redemption code. Great......I thought.

I was halfway through checkout when they ask for credit card info to keep on file. So I trekked downstairs to get my wallet and pound out the numbers. Then I get a message that that credit card is attached to my other PayPal account and can't be used!!!!

Honestly!!!

So I dropped the credit card on the other account and attached it to this account but because I didn't enter my address yet I'm waiting on an email to verify.

Nutcracker!!! This may be my first and last Ebay purchase. A gift certificate attatched to an email is a ridiculous idea and most difficult.

All I want is my $5 Cross Cookie Cutter!!!!!! Even then I'll have $20 left to spend on the gift certificate. Ahhhhhh!!!!

As for my brother, I'm grateful for the gift, I just wish I could use it. I'm sure I brought this on myself.

Survival Technique

I survived!! I know you're shocked. So many times on the news you hear how yet another toddler overcame their caregiver. The caregiver didn't stand a shot. Whew, glad that wasn't me.

Yesterday I made the noble decision to accept my fate and create a plan of action. What could I do to survive the day with no car, no playdate and a demanding toddler?? I decided to make the morning "Messy Morning". We put on clothes we didn't care much about and did messy things. I put a booster seat on the dining room chair for the first time, which was exciting in and of it self. Then I made playdough and Demand play at the table for about 20 minutes with a rolling pin, cookie cutters etc. Then I made some glue out of flour and water and let her glue scraps of construction paper together. Then we had lunch. I made a meal she couldn't refuse. Soup!! The girl loves soup. So I killed two bird with one stone and made broccoli/carrot/cauliflower and cheese soup. It's really easy to make. I boil a bag of frozen mixed veggies in chicken stock. Once they are tender I use a submersion hand blender to purify them. Then I stir in a cheese sauce made of cheese and milk. Yummy, yummy!! So Demand ate veggies, and good veggies and didn't even know it! How fantastic!!

Anyway, after lunch it we most definately bath time. Demand was so excited to take a bath mid-day. Once the water was ready I took her diaper off and popped her in the tub only to find that she had pooped. So I had to take her out of the tub, drain it, clean it and refill it. Demand was not please. In fact she was cold and not pleased. We made it though. After her bath was nap time. She woke up at 2:15pm so we had made it that far. It was crunch time. I let her watch "George" (Curious George) so I could clean the dining room table and kitchen floor. The rest of the afternoon was filled with the usual playtime activities. About a half an hour before Mr. Sloth got home Demand started her breakdown. Of course it was while I was trying to make dinner (Spicy tomato soup with spicy grilled cheese). Finally I put her in the high chair and gave her more soup. Soup cures all.

So that's how I survived Friday.