Monthly Archive for June, 2007

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A name to call his own

Published on Friday, June 22, 2007 in Claire, From the offline blog, Kitties and Language. 0 Comments

For the longest time, Claire has been calling Merlin, Moh-Moh and Jasper, No-Moh-Moh. It was absolutely hilarious. She’s really good at mimicking words, so we were surprised when she kept calling poor Jasper the equivalent of “Not Merlin.”

We would work and work with her.

“Ok, Claire…say Jasper. Jaaaaaaaaaa sssssssssssss perrrrrrrrrr.”
She’d look like she was concentrating, furrow her brows and say, “No-Moh-Moh.”

“Close, but not quite. Try again. Jaaaaaaaaaaaa sssssssssssss perrrrrrrrrrrr.”
She’d smile and say, “Noooooooo-moh-moh.”

We’d repeat this over and over, to no avail.

Meanwhile, Jasper was sitting there all like, “Dude, whattaya want already.”

Well, I’m happy to report that Jasper finally has a name of his own! Claire has finally started calling Jasper, Dack-oh. Sometimes it sounds like, Jack-oh. Either one is very close to sounding like Jasper, so we’re quite pleased.

Oddly enough, Jasper will respond to either name. I have a feeling it was bothering us more than it was him.

Email exchange from today. This pretty much sums up my week and mental status.

Published on Thursday, June 21, 2007 in From the offline blog and It's a paycheck. 0 Comments

From: Me
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 5:37 PM MT
To: My Friend
Subject: Memo

Memo
To: B
From: The Pygmies

We just thought we’d let you know that your friend has been buried under 12 files…4 more have pummeled her since her last desperate and futile email to you. This has been added to the 5 that were already on her desk, and doesn’t count the 7 she turned in today. And, the day isn’t over yet! There could be more!

Her attempts to stop the onslaught of paperwork have failed.

You may never see her again.

HA HA! Our plan is working!

P.S. Neener, Neener! Pygmies RULE!

From: My Friend
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 7:34 AM CT
To: Me
Subject: RE: Memo

I’m sorry, B no longer works here. She has been replaced by a Zombie that bears a striking resemblance to her. We only noticed the change after her keyboard shorted out due to excessive drooling. I hope you locate her soon…

Early morning

Published on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 in Claire, From the offline blog and Parenting 101. 0 Comments

Momma! Momma!

I hear the muffled cries of Claire, and I’m frantically running around the house looking for her. She’ll suffocate if I don’t find her soon! Why can’t I find her!?

Momma! Momma!

I wake with a start. The clock says 5:55 a.m. This is much earlier than I need to be up. I can’t get the dream out of my head, so I go to check on her. I can’t see her crib clearly without wearing my glasses (especially since she has recently started sleeping with Monkey, Kitty, Bear, Puppy, and Baby), so I go to my office to get my glasses. (Because the Master Bathroom is under construction, I keep my glasses and rings on my desk.)

That’s when I see the fox! He’s right outside my window on the lawn. He looks a little different than the fox that normally visits our yard. I watch him for a few minutes, as he cleans himself, scratches behind his ear and then rolls around in the grass. He runs and jumps up on the woodpile and then proceeds to dig a hole under the fence.

The other fox will just jump right over. This one has a different style, I guess.

Oh, and Claire was fine. I know it was just a dream, but I feel so relieved. I’m such a mom.

A walk around the lake

Published on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 in Claire, From the offline blog, Lovey Dovey and Random Thoughts. 0 Comments

We live on a cul-de-sac that overlooks a very pretty lake. Years ago, when we were house hunting, we had no idea this lake even existed, even though it wasn’t too terribly far from where our apartment was. It’s tucked back in a subdivision, and you can’t see it from any major roadways. We decided to take a street we’d never taken before, and that’s when we saw the lake and then found a house for sale just up the street.

We love the lake.

Tonight, when the sun went down behind the mountain, it really started to cool off. We’d just gotten done with dinner, so we decided to take Claire to the lake. We’ve taken her to the lake before, but she’s always ridden in the stroller. This time, she insisted on walking, but we knew she wouldn’t be able to do the full mile-and-a-half around, so we brought the stroller along, too.

We head off down the hill, and her little feet are going a mile a minute. She was so good about holding my hand and having a great time going top speed. I carried her across the street to get to the sidewalk by the lake and put her down.

And, we were off! Momma was holding Claire’s hand. Claire was running as fast as she could, and Daddy was pushing the stroller.

A ton of people were there this evening, and a lot of them were walking dogs. Claire loves dogs, and all the dogs she met tonight were very friendly. We quickly walked by the ones that were questionable.

She had a great time looking at the water and watching the geese and the ducks. There is a really cool playground on the other side of the lake, but we opted to visit another time.

As expected, her little legs started to give out, so we put her in the stroller. She didn’t even balk at being strapped in. I think we’d run the energy right out of her! She’d made it almost a quarter of the way around, and that’s like the equivalent of three miles to a toddler!

The sunset was gorgeous behind the mountains, and it reminded us of why we moved here. We could have lived anywhere, and we chose to live here. I looked at Daddy pushing Claire in the stroller, and I saw my two favorite people in the whole world.

What a great night.

Father’s Day Weekend Update

Published on Monday, June 18, 2007 in Claire, Father's Day, From the offline blog, Home Improvement and Home Improvement - Master Bath. 0 Comments

We had a good weekend! As predicted, I could barely pull my hubby away from the bathroom project…but you know what I realized? He’s not really happy unless he’s covered in dirt, goop and/or bleeding…so it was the perfect way for him to spend “his” day! (He cut his thumb, but we got the bleeding to stop, and I don’t think we’ll have to amputate.)

We got a lot done! He got all the cement-board installed on the floor in front of the sink, and then he got all of the seams and screw holes in the entire bathroom mudded on Sunday! Because it was so hot and dry, the dry-time was incredibly short, so he had to work fast! (Side note: Our attic fan is really working! It wasn’t too hot in the house yesterday, even though it was in the 90s!) Luckily, we don’t have to deal with the humidity!

Luckily (Unfortunately?) I got to help him, because a lot of the work corresponded with Claire’s naptimes. It actually went really well on Sunday. Saturday was a different story, and he had to cut a couple pieces twice. You would have thought the world had ended and that the whole entire project was RUINED. He’s so dramatic. He ate lunch and I helped him look at the mistakes that were made, and we found a way to adjust and make it work. He’s such a drama queen sometimes, and it’s always exacerbated when he’s hungry.

Saturday night, we grilled with some of our friends. Their son is going to be 4-months old at the end of the month, but he still seems so tiny! He is such a cutie. Claire was REALLY GOOD with him. She kept patting him gently on the head and saying, “Ohhhh, baby.” And, she’d ask to give him a hug, and he loved it. He’s at the stage where he’s really starting to smile and laugh and “talk.” He told her all kinds of stories.

Last night, after finishing up this stage of the bathroom, we all went out to eat. Daddy had requested Thai food, so we went to one restaurant, only to see that it’s closed for remodeling! So, we went to another, and we had a great time. We discovered that Claire LOVES brown rice, and she ate her entire body weight in it! We also had them do up an order of Yakatori (just grilled chicken) for her without the sauce, and she thought that was okay, but we couldn’t tear her away from the brown rice. The restaurant was very accommodating, and we had a great time. She, of course, wanted to try the sushi, and I’m just not ready to go there with her.

After we got home, we placed a video call to Granny and Grandpa on the webcam, and they had a great time playing peek-a-boo and talking with Claire. Last time we did that, she was very confused and kept looking for them in the rest of the house. This time, she seemed to understand that they weren’t really here.

Five things to remember when filling out a job application

Published on Thursday, June 14, 2007 in From the offline blog and It's a paycheck. 0 Comments

I work with hundreds of job applications every month. It never ceases to amaze me what some people consider to be acceptable for a job application. Granted, a lot of them are very good. The ones that aren’t defy explanation. I realize I am a perfectionist…but still!

The following tips are things to remember when applying for a job and filling out the job application. I’ve seen these issues numerous times. For real. I can’t make this stuff up! Here are the top five, in random order:

1. Correctly spell the name of the position you’re seeking. Really, it could set you apart from the other candidates.

2. Correctly spell your own name. How did you get out of Kindergarten without knowing this one?

2b. If you can’t spell your own name correctly, at least be consistent. Pick one version and go with that. No one will be the wiser.

3. Correctly spell the name of your city. And, I’m not talking about the confusion caused by abbreviations or the product of poor penmanship. I’m talking about the real, full name.

4. Know your two-digit state abbreviations, and pick the correct one for your state! MI is not the same as MS, and they aren’t even next to each other on a map!

5. Correctly spell the name of your degree. If you can’t, maybe you should practice. It’s probably not your fault. I’d bet Spelling wasn’t even offered as a major at your college.

Public Service Announcement

Published on Thursday, June 14, 2007 in Claire and From the offline blog. 0 Comments

Do not eat from the bendy plastic cutting boards we have under the sink unless you wash them first.

Claire loves to open that tiny door, and we didn’t bother putting a kiddie-latch on it. She doesn’t mess with any of the other cutting boards in there except the bendy plastic ones. For some reason, she pulls those out and takes them over to the rug in front of the glass sliding door to the deck. Then, she stands on them. You know, because it’s so much easier to see from up there.

She’s such a good girl, that she puts them right back where she got them.

Nighty-Night, …everybody.

Published on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 in Claire, From the offline blog and Language. 0 Comments

Claire still really misses Granny (Daey) and Grandpa. She’s at least stopped crying about it, but she asks for them every day.

It’s kinda funny, she still tells them ‘nighty-night’ when she goes down for her nap or at night. We have to make sure everyone is included. It goes something like this:

Nighty-Night, Monkey!
Nighty-Night, Bear!
Nighty-Night, Baby!
Nighty-Night, Kitty!
Nighty-Night, Puppy!
Nighty-Night, Moh-Moh! (for Merlin)
Nighty-Night, No-Moh-Moh! (for Jasper)
Nighty-Night, Daey!
Nighty-Night, PaPa!
Nighty-Night, Daddy!
Nighty-Night, Momma!

Nighty-Night, Claire…

I would throw in one for John Boy, but she wouldn’t get the reference.

S V Alt 2

Published on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 in From the offline blog and Kitties. 0 Comments

What does that mean? S, V, Alt, 2. Is it a secret code? Is it a password to something? Is this a strange command to use on the computer? Nope, those are the four little black squares I found on the floor of the kitchen! The laptop is curiously missing those same keys!

Okay, for the record, there is no video surveillance to confirm which kitty did this, but my money is on Jasper. Merlin is not skilled enough to even pretend to use the laptop, and he would have knocked much more off the table in his dismount.

But what happened to the keys?? Was Jasper checking out the laptop and got startled? Was there a spider on the keyboard? Was he trying to find some kitty-porn sites? (Ha. Horrible pun intended.)

Luckily, I found all the missing keys, and we were able to get them put back on without incident. I’m so glad they didn’t get batted under the fridge with the rest of their cat-toys.

Now, I just have to be sure to shut the laptop when I leave the room. If we’re lucky, Jasper hasn’t figured out how to open it and log on. It’s a good thing we picked a tricky password.

It’s Vegas, baby…

Published on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 in Claire, From the offline blog and Parenting 101. 0 Comments

On our changing table is a Stain Stick that would not be an appropriate baby toy. But, with my supervision, if it’s going to keep Claire from contorting into a naked pretzel and falling off the changing table while I’m trying to change her diaper, it’s perfect!

I always put a little drama into it when I hand it to her. “Here’s the Stain Stick. You have to be verrrrrrrrrry caaaaaaaaaaaareful with it.”

Works like a charm.

Of course, when Daddy was changing her diaper, he called to me, “Why does she keep asking for a ‘Stick’?? What is she talking about?” I had to let him in our little secret. I explained that as soon as she figured out how to get it open, we’d have to move on to another “off-limits” item. So far, so good.

We agreed this didn’t seem like the wisest of parenting choices, but we determined that it really couldn’t hurt her, and it added a tiny bit to our sanity. We decided that the changing table is like Las Vegas…what happens there, stays there.

Then, the other day, one of my closest friends asked me how I make Claire stay still on the changing table when I’m changing her diaper.

“Oh,” I admitted, “I let her play with dangerous things she’s not allowed to touch anywhere else.”

To which my friend replied, “Oh, good! I’m not the only one!”