Well I did it ...

I NaBloPoMo'd my way through November. It's a good way/day to end as we head into December. It's going to be a crazy few weeks at work followed by a nice two week vacation. Lucy is turning somewhat evil again and this time I think I might might FINALLY be understanding what is going on here ... aside from being a hormonal teenage girl in a three-year-old body i think that when her sinuses get stuffed up and she starts snoring that her behaviors get super super bad. I think she is not sleeping that well all night. If this is indeed the cause then we have an extremely long winter to not look forward to. This morning in an attempt to keep her occupied we made home made playdough I left her to mix the dough, made a cup of coffee, set it on the table and went to the kitchen to get some toast. When I returned she had dumped my coffee into the playdough bowl. I think that my face told her what a serious serious thing she had done ... ugggg. Lucy's behavior combined with my own sickness has made today long and painful. Painful. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Saturday

Saturday we had a day of creativity. We made bread again, got a new recipe from Katie on our adoption forum and it was much much better. Our first loaf (of the new recipe) had to be chucked because after the first rise I put it on the table to shape it and the table had been "glittered" so the entire loaf of dough was covered with pretty red glitter, not really edible. When Lucy went to nap I quick whipped up another batch and it was rising by the time she woke up. We invited Mel and Morgan over to bake cookies, they brought most of the ingredients since we were on our last bits of flour and butter. The cookie making went well until the rolling and cookie cutter portion at which point every one was done with festivities. The kids played with dough while Mel and I slapped a pan of stocking and bunny(I didn't totally sort the holidays) cookies together. The cookie recipe needs some tweaking (like following the recipe for one thing). It was a fun day though. I am however sick and taking it like a "man" (which means, of course, that I am being a big whiny wimp).

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Welcoming Christmas

Lucy got re-acquainted with our Christmas decorations today ...

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you all find many many things to be thankful for this year ...

Here is Lucy's thankful list:
1. for Christmas
2. bringing presents to someone
3. bringing scarfs
4. juice
5. medicine
6. Jack
7. Sammy
8. Rabbit
9. sprayer bottle
10. Jack is a funny boy

My list:

1. Lucy
2. grandma and grandpa
3. auntie Jen
4. edward
5. facebook
6. friends
7. coffee
8. diet coke
9. all that i have
10. for the fact that i have this kid who won't let me blog right now! gotta go

Thanksgiving Eve ...

Lucy and I have been to the Daytons um Marshall Fields um Macy's 8th floor animated holiday exhibit two nights in a row. Really it's a way to pass two hours between dinner and bed, walking to the bus stop, taking the bus downtown, going through the exhibit and getting home. With my bus pass it's a free evening of quite odd entertainment. Lucy mostly enjoys riding the bus and flirting with our fellow passengers (any of you familiar with the #5 might understand my slight anxiety about her overly friendly ways with the vast array of emotional stabilities in our fellow passengers). Ahhh well, tonight Lucy, Morgan and a baby were invited to Africa (several times) with Mr. Big Bag. Lucy kept saying "I love you momma" each time she was invited to Africa, I think she might have worried that her numerous transgressions (like saying she didn't like me and wasn't never ever going to be my friend) might make me willing to take him up on his invite ... (never Lucy, never ... you'll go there with your momma someday though).

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Dear Edward

I've been thinking about you all day. I wonder what new things I'll discover about you tonight. Must first blog and pick up house then it's time my vampire friend ...

Lucy loves her auntie Jen


Lucy has to look the part when you tubing Alicia Keys

Monday Day 24

It's day 24 of NaBloPoMo and I am feeling the burn. I can't get away with another montage and am struggling with words right now. Maybe instead of complaining about 3-year-olds and their quirky momma hating ways I will blog about me or my cat or something ...

I have been really having some "I want a dog" cravings lately. Three things keep me from hopping over to the humane society and fulfilling my dreams: 1. I have no money to pay for or care for a dog 2. I work one full-time job plus babysit a night or two a week so would neglect said dog and 3. my yard has just this summer recovered from Sassy dog

There are days when I just hate people. I really do. So the fact that I am a social worker whose office is one entire floor of an old building, shared with about 20 other people (no cubicles even) really sucks sometimes. It used to be easy for me to find the good, the vulnerable, the innocent, the hurting in people who on the surface seem really broken and sometimes criminal ... nowadays I can find it challenging.

I can easily get sucked into Tetris. It isn't good. Hand-held electronic yahtzee is another vice

Marshmellow fluff. Love it.

My cat is named Azazel. She was named after an evil character from a Denzel W. movie (I don't even remember the movie). I named her that in a lame attempt to shift fate as the cat I had before her was named Angel and well she didn't always live up to that name. I personally think Azazel is the sweetest cat ever, some others are afraid of her ... I think they are wrong wrong wrong.

I have never been to Mexico and I really think my agency should send me as a cultural learning opportunity since most of my clients are from there.

Although I am fairly fluent in Spanish and do most of my homevisiting in Spanish, and have been doing so for years AND my clients all have young kids and many many of them have infants that I enjoy coveting whenever possible I still find myself unable to say (in Spanish) "can I hold her/him?" ... after a couple weeks with me as their worker they usually just hand said infant over and I find that holding my hands out while saying "por favor" works pretty well.

I am scared of racoons. I am also quite unfond of spiders. OH and wild monkeys scare the *hit out of me and once blocked me on a bridge in Thailand, I did NOT like that. The words "monkey mountain" can elicit some cold sweats.

Somehow twice (by accident) Lucy and I ended up eating at a small town cafe (on the way to visit friends in Bemidji) that doubled as a gun shop. That scared me. Pancakes taste different in a gun shop.

Sunday

It's that time again ... the slide into work. At least it's only a three day week this time!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A day at the theater

This morning we used our free tickets and went to see The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe at the Minneapolis Children's Theater. Lucy had her hair done and she was very accomodating, she got to wear her pretty sparkly dress and her pretty coat. She did wonderfully walking to the theater and waiting for the show to start. Once we got over the initial confusion of the main character's name also being Lucy (especially when they kept calling for her, and MY Lucy was RIGHT HERE) things went well. She started getting ansy about 45 minutes into the production, which I thought was pretty impressive given that we had no snacks and she's only three. I gave her the option of leaving during the intermission and she pondered it and decided that home was a good idea. I am happy we went, and hope we have this opportunity again.

and we danced ...

all ya all around my age might remember this video. Lucy, auntie Jen and I took a road trip down my memory lane tonight thanks to you tube (which is so very different then U-Tube).

I am so glad it is Friday!!!!! Lucy and I took it easy tonight. We did some work with the sprayer. Lucy also loaded up her lunch bag with plenty of rubber gloves and tissues in case her teachers have an emergency at school (my child is a bit quirky). Other activities included mixing up some dough for pizza, rubbing the pizza pan with oil, dancing, and cutting with scissors.

Basically it was quite the party here at casa de momma and Lucy.

Now I am wondering if I'll make it up until 11 tonight or if 9pm will be late enough. hmmmm

anyone remember Friday Night Videos! I used to be so young.

some days bread other days sleep-play

Ahh there are days when I try things like baking bread with my daughter. Other days we do fun things like city hiking, looking for worms, cooking together, cleaning (her choice) the house, making music, painting etc.

Lest we not get fooled into thinking that on a daily basis I can rise and shine at or before 7, get myself and my kid up and presentable and out the door, work all day, get the kid and totally rock and roll until bedtime I present you with ....

THE DAYS I DON'T BLOG ABOUT

1. generally don't blog about the game where I lay on the couch fighting to stay conscious while half-*ssedly interacting with my bored child.

2. don't really blog about those days when I go for a drive in the hopes that she'll fall asleep

3. don't blog about driving 2 miles out of my way so I can use the drive through Caribou instead of the locally owned coffee shop down the road

4. avoid blogging about the daily morning struggle to get Lucy to use the potty before she pees in her pull - up (and it's just as much of a struggle to take the pull up off first)

5. avoid blogging about saying "*ucking *ell" those two mornings (one involved squirrels in a bag of garbage, and not the same incident with the knee injury, we have evil squirrels)

6. and I don't blog about all the pretend phone calls I make to grandpa when I threaten to tell him about what she's doing so that she'll shape up ... yeah, dems some good parenting skills.

Baking Bread

Tonight Lucy and I baked bread from scratch. We had fun in the process but Lucy gagged on the finished product. I guess she's used to a more chemically taste to her baked goods. Hopefully we can ease into the au-natural taste of homemade bread (although next time i'll remember the salt). I think it turned out pretty good, and will refine the recipe by replacing a cup of the whole wheat flour with white flour (see if lucy likes the texture better).

The marks on her face are (I think) remnants of "dog day" at preschool. They show up much better in photos. She would not let me wash them off.

It was a pretty laid back relaxing night and having no real plans, and the evening with mostly just the two of us made the night seem longer.

Tuesday

Last night Lucy was awake for almost two hours. I went into her room and she looked at me and said "momma, I am so sad" when I asked her why she said that "Jacob got squished by a car". She was sobbing. I tried to tell her it was just a bad dream and that baby Jacob was asleep at his house and she shook her head and said "no momma, he pushed down and picked up a stick and a car squished his whole whole body momma" and she continued sobbing. I calmed her down and repeated that he was fine and sleeping and that she had a bad dream. This went on for a long time. Finally sleep overtook her. This morning she fretted about it again and even a call to Jacob's mom did little to soothe her nerves. Good thing we had a playdate/dinner scheduled. When Jacob arrived at our place tonight she looked so happy, and for a long time was peaceful and sweet to him.

I hope that she has sweet dreams tonight. Poor baby.

Monday

Well the work week has officially started and today's a doozy. I am guessing 12 hours (nearly). Yeah yeah the last two hours is at Old Country Buffett, but I WILL be working, directing 7ish families and helping with their kids, paying the bill, counting people and assuring that everyone makes it on the bus home. It's an annual event for the Latino Family Night group that I started a couple years ago. I love that I do the group, I love that it's been effective and has brought together so many families but it's a lot of work especially at the end of the day when I just want to go home. It's really a lot of work navigating through Spanish and English, just ask my coworkers, many times I turn to them speaking Spanish and then turn to my clients speaking English before shaking out the cobwebs and turning it around so people can understand what I am saying. Whew.

Lucy is quite a trip these days. She is moving past some of the horrible awful no good terrible behaviors and into more obsessive compulsive behaviors. She's totally totally obsessesed with cleaning, and not the helpful picking up sort of cleaning, she wants a spray bottle and a washcloth. Lucy is happiest when I am cleaning with windex and she is cleaning with her sprayer (filled with water and dish soap). She can do this for a long long time. Lucy also has quite the attention span for cutting with scissors and taping things. I have waited for her to get into something, and now here we go, honestly I was expecting something more along the lines of Dora, Trains, dressing up, dolls but I'll take sprayers and scissors.

Sunday night ...

Well the weekend is over. OVER. Shucks. The good news is that this weekend was a really sweet mix of together time, apart time, getting stuff done and relaxing. This morning Lucy and I played a little dress up. I played Hannah Montana (thanks aunt jen and grandma) and Lucy played The Little Mermaid (which she has never watched).

you are my friends still .. you are just a friend

these were lucy's words to me just 30 seconds ago ...I was "reputting" her to sleep after a late night viewing of Sex and the City at a friends house. She normally sleeps through the transfer but tonight stayed awake for the whole ride home and wanted a glass of water. After her drink she gave me a kiss and murmured those sweet words. I love her!

I have 2 minutes until my NaBloPoMo deadline ... whew, almost missed one!

FRIDAY FRIDAY

I honestly have nothing to blog about tonight. So here are some photos from this time three years ago ... when Lucy was a new arrival to Minnesota ... and from Lucy and Bennett's first post-Ethiopia playdate. They are now in preschool together and we always tell the kids that they met each other before they met us.

one more day one more day

the work week is almost over!!!!!!! I babysat Morgan tonight and the kids both survived each other! I feel like it's been an incredibly long week. I am not sure why. The upcoming two-week holiday break is really starting to give me something to live for ... only about a month away.

Wednesday

Lucy's new room




she (Lucy) thinks I LOVE it when she comes home from arts preschool with her clothes saturated in paint. I've exclaimed on many occasions that she must be "doing so much fun work" because her clothes are so painted. I swear she rolls in it. Seriously though, I am glad that she has so many tactile opportunities because she thrives off of it.


Well we're officially more then halfway through the work week. I long for Saturday and Sunday. Lucy was a little unstable tonight. She had about three breakdowns, not exactly tantrums more like sadtrums. I wish I knew everything that was going on in her brain so I had some way of understanding these moodswings. It's a wild ride between some clients of mine and then coming home to Lucille tonight ... let's say I've been privvy to many many many minutes of uncontrollable sobbing. Tonight we did nothing to better our home. Lucy got her hair done, we had breakfast for dinner and just chilled together.