Still Sick.

Man, whatever cold Ingrid has just won't go away.  I thought she was getting better so we went last week to see our friends, and now they're sick.  Sorry, guys!  I didn't realize it was going to drag on this long!  Poor kid's nose is all red and raw from me trying to wipe it all the time. 

She was SO MUCH FUN today, if by fun you mean whiny and throwing temper tantrums.  All day long.  By the time Brendan came home I was exhuasted.  She just could not be happy with anything.  If she wanted a book and I tried to get it for her, she cried.  But then she'd ask for help.  But then when I'd help she'd throw herself down on the floor and scream.  I actually had to leave the room because I was laughing so hard at just how ridiculous she was being!  Such a drama queen!  My mom called today and said "Ha, paybacks are a bitch, aren't they?"  Whatever could she be talking about?  I'm sure I was never like that!

We have been keeping busy, though, even though we're at home and not feeling good.  Ingrid has been coloring and playing with her kitchen set, reading books and chasing the cats, and I have been posting lots of new items in my etsy shop.  I finished this quilt today, it turned out better than I'd expected.  I think the more I do the easier it gets, which is great since I have two more quilts cut out and fabric set aside for a couple more than that. 

Something that surprised me:  I actually enjoy not having the car!  Brendan is not driving his beat up old thing now that there is snow (and the battery is dead...) so we are sharing the Subaru.  He takes it to work most days, but if there's something I need it for, I take him to the bus station and then pick him up from work at 5pm.  It's been going really well, actually.  At first I couldn't imagine not having my car with me at all times but now I don't know what I ever needed it for all the time anyway. 

We had the car yesterday to run errands and I was realizing how much I hate having to drive everywhere with Ingrid, getting her in and out of the car and having to deal with her yelling for her dropped book or milk cup or whatever.  I love staying home and taking it easy.  We move slowly through our day, play and clean and bake and cook.  We saw a friend yesterday and she asked if I was feeling cooped up and I can honestly say no, I'm not.  Maybe it's because it's winter and I don't want to go out anywhere anyway, but I'm actually enjoying not having a car, not having the option of going anywhere.  It makes me focus on things to do around the house.  Like clean up crayon scribbles that appear on every wall, chair, dresser, and closet door.  Or doing the five loads of laundry that have piled up.  Or getting some sewing done.  It's nice.  It makes me happy. 

I will, however, enjoy it even more when Ingrid's nose stops snotting everywhere. 

Stupid Cats

Here's where I found Fletcher this morning:

And this afternoon when I had FINALLY gotten Ingrid to sleep, I was laying in bed when I hear a crash.  This is what I found:

Stupid cat!  He loves to eat my spider plants, no matter where I put them he finds a way to get into them.  So now I have to go clean up three potted plants worth of soil and all the little pieces of broken pots.  Luckily the vase we got on our honeymoon was not damaged.

On the bright side, Ingrid is cute.  And she is sleeping.  She's still sick, though, so I think we may have to go to the doctor soon to see what's up.  It's been two weeks and now she's coughing a deep chest rumble.  No good. 

Indoor Swimming and lots of Sewing

Brendan found an indoor pool that has open swim on the weekends, so we went today to check it out.  I am so glad we are finding this at the beginning of winter, because I have a feeling we will become regulars during our yuck-o cold snow season.  Which means I have to get a new bathing suit because my old one is not fitting right...

The pool has a cool ramp to walk down into the tot pool.  It's really shallow, so Ingrid could walk around in the water.  It took her awhile to get her sea legs, and she fell in a couple times, but she got right back up and kept going.  They have beach balls and water toys to play with so Ingrid was in heaven.  We were in for maybe a half hour and that was enough to completely wear her out!

And, finally, I have finished the felt book.  I think it looks so cute, much better than the one I made Ingrid.  Probably because I know a little better now what I'm doing, and I had to take my time and make it right if I want to charge money for it...So here it is:

Ready for your Close Up?

I found three cute pictures on my camera today, all super close ups of Ingrid.  Snot nose and all...

Working When I Can.

Here is what I have been up to lately:
A felt book for my etsy shop

A few new crowns, also for the shop.

And a new dress for the shop.  I love that bird fabric so much!

Ingrid is only napping 50% of the time now.  She is not ready for that, but feels she is.  When did your kids stop taking naps all the time?  I'm thinking this is just too soon!!

But we manage fine on days she doesn't nap, now that I know there will be some of those days.  Playing, coloring, walking the dog.  Speaking of coloring, I love that you can print color pages on NickJr!  Ingrid has been having fun coloring all the Gabba creatures.  Over and over and over again...

It's snowing today and the fireplace is on and I'm ready to curl up and watch a movie.  I rented Julie and Julia and I'm going to make Ingrid watch it with me this afternoon :)  We'll see how that goes!

Yum--Cookies

We made cookies yesterday.  They turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself.  And the best thing is, they are vegan, whole wheat, and full of real chocolate.  Here's the recipe-I think I put up a similar one sometime but it bears repeating since I think it is the perfect cookie recipe.

1/4 c. oil

1/2 c. brown sugar

1Tb flax seed meal with 3Tb water, mixed and let sit for two minutes

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c wheat flour (or spelt flour)

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
chocolate chips or crushed chocolate bar
cherry craisins

I had some crazy good fair trade chocolate that I crushed and added, it made it so smooshy and gooey and got everywhere but it tastes so good!  Even Brendan said the cookies were really good, and he's a hard one to please if it's not a normal recipe...

Ingrid liked them too.  But she likes everything.

Ingrid's First Trip to the ER

It's funny, ever since we moved here I've been thinking I should find out where the hospital is in case we ever needed to go.  I had a vague idea but couldn't tell you how to get there.  Thank god for mapquest, huh?

So today turned out to be a good day--no nap but she did get quiet for about an hour, reading books in bed with her glow worm.  We played outside with the dog, colored a lot, I got to sew some things, we got new squeaky shoes in the mail (more on those in another post...)  Then I went to go make dinner and it all went downhill pretty quickly!

I was making a horrible boxed meal because we haven't gotten groceries yet this week and Brendan had the car today.  So I had to open a can, the cat came up meowing pathetically so I gave her the lid to lick.  As I've done a thousand times.  Ingrid came into the room and I didn't really pay attention to what she was doing until she started whimpering.  Not crying, just a little whine.  Since she hadn't had a nap I, being the sensitive mom I am, told her to quit whining and go color.  Then I looked down and saw all the blood.

She had grabbed the lid of the can and sliced the top of her finger.  I tried to rinse it off and get a band aid, but man did that thing bleed!  As I said, Brendan had the car today, so I called him to see how close to home he was and he was still 20 minutes away.  I hate living here, have I mentioned??  We seem to be 20 minutes away from anything and everything...So Brendan came home, I showed him the finger, it was still bleeding profusely, so we took her to the ER.

Amazingly, she fell asleep in the car and slept on my shoulder all while we checked in.  And once she woke up she was really good, let the nurses look at her finger, they put on a VHS tape that had previews for things coming out "this 1992 holiday season," and then the doctor came in and said she could do stitches or just use some sort of steri-strip thing that holds the wound together.  Ingrid barely made a noise, she was so good!  And I was completely proud of myself for handling things well in an emergency.  Well, maybe it wasn't an emergency but it was a LOT of blood and when it's coming from your child, it seems a lot worse than it is.  And now we know where the hospital is--a 20 minute drive away!

My Sicky

The past couple days have been low key.  Ingrid's got a cold and so we've stayed home, except for going out to get fresh air in the afternoon.

Thus, lots of block towers have been built and knocked down.

Lots of time has been spent in some form of undress.  And on tables, and coloring, and reading books.

Lots of Kleenexes have been used, trying to mop up someone's face...

Lots of time has been spent cuddling with Mama.

And, lots of time has been spent cuddling with Gramma, too!

A Buncha Nothin'

That is exactly how I would describe the past few days--a buncha nothin'.  We have hung out mostly at home, watching it snow outside.  Ingrid has colored, climbed things, played with her kitchen stuff, watched copious amounts of Charlie and Lola, and gotten snot everywhere.  I have gotten some sewing done, cleaned the house a few times, done some laundry, watched copious amounts of Charlie and Lola, and cleaned up a bunch of snot.  Neither of us has slept much. 

Even the cat seems lazier than usual...

Yesterday we managed to make it out to Kmart to get laundry soap, that was our big outing.  We also took Cody to the dog park and made mini snowmen, which Cody kept trampling over.  I would love to get out again today, but last night Ingrid was up literally all night long.  She took some cat naps here and there to gear up for hour long sessions of crying...We are both exhausted and now she's in her bed yelling for mama, mama, mama.  Sigh, it's going to be a long day...

Up next in our doing not so much--baking cookies and making cinnamon cherry walnut bread.  And watching TV (I'm not even going to feel guilty about this, as Ingrid is snotting everywhere and I'm barely able to see straight for being so tired...) and possibly going outside to let Cody run.  And cleaning up more snot.

The Neverending Weekend.

I am thoroughly enjoying having a four day weekend!  So much has gone on and we still have one more day!  Our Christmas was so much fun, I was all excited just to see Ingrid's face when she woke up and saw her presents under the tree.  She was very into opening presents, but she really wanted to play with everything right away.  We had to remind her there were more to open and she'd have plenty of time to play.  She got her tricycle, which she LOVES, and a baby stroller, and a talking Lola doll, some books, a toy toaster and microwave, a bag of blocks, and a little boat that you wind up in the tub.  I had found tons of stuff shoved up in my closet that I'd gotten way early and then forgotten about until I cleaned my closet three days ago, so she got more than we'd planned on getting her...

After play time and bath time, we headed out to my brother's house.  It was a rainy drive, but Ingrid slept and watched a dvd and we made it in good time.  I have a huge family, three siblings with their spouses and they each have two or three kids.  So the house was filled and Ingrid was a bit intimidated at first.  Then she found the kid's play room in the basement and we didn't see her all afternoon!  I had to chase her down to see if she wanted something to eat.  After a lot of begging by my four year old nephew, it was time to open gifts.  And not a moment too soon--Ingrid got really overwhelmed and tired and wouldn't sit in the same room as the whole family.  She begged for her blankie and wanted to go sit with only me, she was so tired, poor girl.  We quickly opened gifts and then she started saying bye bye to everyone, a good clue that she's had enough...

The ride home took forever, but alas, we made it in one piece.  We all passed out right away, at 9pm!  Long day.  Good thing Christmas is only once a year, it's exhausting.

So today we got to play with all our new toys!!  Ingrid got finger paints and a big roll of paper so we laid out a vinyl tablecloth on the floor and went to town.  I think Ingrid still needs a couple more months of maturity before we try this again, though, as her fingers went from paint to mouth a few times...That kid eats anything.  She didn't seem to into it, I had to keep showing her how to smush the paint around and she just kept giving me this look like "why?" 

Then later we were hanging out and I looked over to see this:

My little acrobat.

And now it's time to rest away the evening and gear up for another day of playing (and picking up) blocks, listening to talking Lola say the same six phrases over and over, and hoping Ingrid doesn't decide to climb any higher than the tricycle.