Aviatrix

This picture makes me so happy.  She looks like some kind of mini-Amelia Earhart in practice mode.  She continues to amaze and delight me every single day.

Which is a good thing, lately.  

The Hub's mom is very, very ill and likely won't be with us for much longer.  We've spent the last week and a half dealing with hospice, in-home nursing care, will drama, family issues and just coming to terms with what lies ahead.  It hasn't been the greatest of times for us, and I imagine it will get worse before it gets better.  Just thinking about it exhausts me, so I'm going to stop now.

To cheer him up, we went to see the Legends of the Guardians movie the other night, or what I described as an animated Star Wars for owls.  It was really good!  

The visual effects and animation were absolutely amazing, and it has hands-down, the best ending credit sequence I've ever seen.  I know it got some criticism for the story line. Fair enough, it's nothing new but that doesn't mean it's not compelling--it's the equivalent of reading a really good young adult novel.  

We were the first people in the theater at the Alamo, and David Attenborough's documentary "Life of Birds" was playing on the big screen.  The Hub was basically in heaven.  If we rented out the theater for ourselves, he said, that's what he would do with it!  I've also never known him to see any type of show about birds and not find some criticism of approach, technical detail, etc.  But this movie, he said, was flawless.  Apparently the Good Owls vs. Evil Owls were actually divided along taxonomic lines.  There must have been some good geeks involved in that!

Twink-a twink-a

Weekend nap time is always a bit of a crapshoot here at Chez Jones Effect.  Sometimes Miss E goes right down, no problem, and other days there is screaming, temper tantrums and standing in the crib flinging things.  One just never knows.

This morning we went for a stroller ride to walk Tucker, then she "helped" rearrange the deck furniture and then we went to the playground and grocery store.  Busy morning!  By the time naptime rolled around I figured it would be an easy one.  We read a story and I put her in her crib.

E:  "Mommy, I want my dress off."

Me:  "Ok, that's fine.  Lie down and I'll cover you with the blanket so you won't be cold."

E:  (lies down, gets tucked in) "Mommy, sing a song."

Me:  "Ok, what song?"

E:  "Twinkle twinkle!"

Me:  "Twinkle, twinkle little star..."

E:  "No, Mommy, I sing it!

Twink-a twink-a lidda stah....how I wonna...whatchoo are...up a ba ba worldsohiiii....twink-a twink-a...lidda stah...."

Me:  "Very good, kiddo.  Now it's time to go to sleep."

And she did.

Miss E

 I mean, seriously.  How cute is she?

Technically, it was a pretty crappy day.

For some reason I don't feel like it was a crappy day.  You know that beat-down feeling you get at the end of a rotten day, where you just wish you had rolled back over and never gotten out of bed.  I didn't actually realize it was crappy until someone asked about my day and I was recounting it.

It started off with Miss E (the toddler) waking up earlier than usual.  I went into her room and she had thrown up sometime in the night, so it was all over her crib and in her hair.  Poor little thing!  I felt terrible that I hadn't woken up or heard her at all.  But she seemed to feel fine (said she was hungry and asked for a waffle), so we got up, cleaned the crib, had a quick bath and it was off to school.

Meanwhile, Tucker (the standard poodle extraordinaire) had to be taken to the vet by The Hub.  [Backstory:  several weeks ago he developed a mass on his back, which had to be surgically removed and resulted in a 4-inch-long wound with stitches.] His wound had healed over--apparently poorly--because it burst open last night and began oozing and bleeding.  Gross, and it was clearly bothering him a lot.

Then mid-day at work I got a message from the daycare saying that Miss E was coughing and seemed lower-energy than usual.  This is saying something, so I scheduled an appointment, left work early and took her to the doctor.  She's fine--just a virus going around and over the counter medications are all we need.  However, in my haste to get over the HEB after the doctor's appointment and before any snack-time related meltdowns, I managed to get in a wreck.

OK, wreck may be too strong a word.  It was a fender-bender at best.  We were both going about 2 mph and Miss E didn't even realize what had happened.  BUT STILL.  Like I needed this.  The other driver was very nice, we exchanged info, and I decided that my general world karma was not at an all-time high so I scrapped the medicine errand and just focused on getting us home in one piece.

What a day.

But, like I said, for some reason I'm feeling...well, a little bit chipper, even.   Nonetheless, a stiff nightcap is on the menu for the evening.

OK, fine, internets. I have a blog now.

It's not self-indulgent if everyone has one, is it?

I've resisted The Blog for so long it almost seems odd to start one now.  But it seems that they've passed from shameless self-promotion to slightly self-indulgent to the ordinariness of ubiquity.

Though I love reading the blogs of others, I always felt it was somehow presumptuous of me to assume that people wanted to read about my life.  Then I figured, screw it, I want to keep a diary and what with it being the 21st century and all, this seems like the way.

So here we are.