May 27, 2008

• The Baby Ate My Contact Lense… and other fun life events

   

  Let me begin the post by saying I have the most splendid company anyone could ever have. Well, maybe you can’t call family company, so maybe I should say that I am spending my week with the most delightful  people I have ever known! My sisters Ervina and Claudia flew down on Sunday to spend the week with us, and we are just having a smashing time, to use Ervina’s pet word. We will complete the Sisterhood next week when we meet Jana on our week-long family vacation! Oh, these are just wonderful days!

  So here are a few pictures…

  
  At the lake on Memorial Day
  The beauties themselves

  

  
  
  Our supper of grilled chicken strips, potato wedges, and Olive Garden Salad
  
  
  
  I had forgotten to take anything along for Zoe to sit on or play with [and she couldn't sit on the grass because of Fire Ants], so Ben came up with the brilliant idea of sticking her in the picnic basket. It worked quite well.

  

  
  
  Out on our back patio

  

  

  
  
  Zoe’ is so excited to have her aunties here, she hardly eats or sleeps. She wants to play all day!

  

  And in other news… The onion fields have recently been reaped. Or whatever you say when they take the onions out of the ground. Oh, Ervina says its “harvested.” That sounds more learned. Not that these fields hold any personal meaning for me, but I thought they looked rather impressive.

  

  

  

  

   

  And last week I went over to Gloria’s house, who is 2 weeks away from having a baby, and gave her and her seven year old daughter pedicures. It was a lovely time… Gloria is a dear heart, and I have learned to love her dearly…
  
  Kaleigh’s toes…

  

  
  
  And the lovely ladies of the house…

  
  
  and little Mr. Evan, who just had a bad accident on a “train” the day before
  
  

   

  On Saturday I went to a, um, dare I call it a store? Technically an antique shop, but let’s just say it’s more like a scavenger hunt. It’s in a house, but inside the house there is only one pathway going through each room – all the rest of the house is filled with stuff. Oh, the night after I went there I had nightmares dreams of all the vintage dishes and articles. I had only my purse with me, Zoe’ was at home with her daddy, but even that one lone object was enough to send some of the “stuff” flying in my attempt to keep my balance through these little pathways. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING! It was unbelievable…

  Then I asked if I could see some of the furniture outside in the shed, and she told me there were actually threes sheds, and I could go and look around. So I did, and I should not have been surprised when I opened ALL THREE of the shed doors to find stuff piled right up to the door. I figured if she told me I could look through it she wouldn’t mind if I, er, rearranged some things, so I moved a few items just so they were low enough that I could climb on top of them and walk on the first layer of furniture around the sheds. Needless to say, that isn’t the best way to check out furniture. In between trying to keep my balance and trying not to be paranoid of Black Widow spiders that might have been lurking in the depths, I didn’t find much in there. And I wasn’t really dressed in a kung fu uniform –  what would have been needed to move everything.

  But I did spend a good bit of time there [what would you expect, I still only looked through 10% of her items] and came away with a few treasures.

  This is only part of the stack of dishes, most of which I need to return because they didn’t fit in the space above my cupboards like I was hoping…

  

  Some of the plates I ended up keeping… I liked the colors on the above picture, but don’t want a contemporary look, and after I brought them home I was afraid they would look so.

  

  And these vintage canisters… Are they not the coolest things ever?? I paid a meager $8 for them, something I was more than happy to do…

  

  And since the first one was painted red, it gave me the idea to complete the idea on the rest. I also put new drawer pull knobs on all of them.

  

  A little more vintage than my kitchen was before, but I am charmed.

  

  I also found a tiny little bucket, which, though it will have to be painted [any ideas on the color?], will be perfect for berry picking and such things. You just can’t pick berries in a plastic container and have them taste as scrumptious.

  

  And I’ve also been door-painting. I have a fetish for red doors. Or blue doors, or black doors, or almost any other color door. As long as it has a color. This time it was red. And I do think it cheers this grey house up a bit.

  before

  

  need I say “after”? but should I paint that little while side panel thing?? It looks rather… strange as it is.

  

  
  
  While I was painting the door, Zoe’ was so grouchy I brought this washtub inside the house and she splished and splashed ever so happily, I was able to paint and door and more!

  

   

  Ben has been finding rather strange creatures in our yard… This week he brought this rodent in. [Well, it's probably not in the rodent family, but I view it as such].

  

  And while I was adjusting the camera, the father even allowed the baby to touch this awful creature. I was mildly horrifed.

  

   

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  And perhaps I should clarify that title sentence with the story behind it. It all ended well, but let me just say that it did not begin well…

  It was one of those nights when Baby didn’t want to settle down for the night. Bedtime is usually 8pm with a 12-hour night – sleeping straight through. Absolutely wonderful for this mother. Feels like I am finally getting my  energy back again! But as I was saying, it was one of those nights. Baby was put down for the night probably 3 times, each time meeting with wails and shrieks of all kinds. This particular mother was fooled at first, thinking her baby must be deathly ill to be carrying on so. But after the first time or two, meeting Baby’s triumphant smile upon entering the bedroom to see what WAS the matter, I learned it was just “one of those nights.” For some reason, Baby wasn’t tired. Finally, around 10pm, I decided it is TIME for bed, whether she likes it or not.

  So, after she had been playing a while, we went off to her little room, settled ourselves in the creaky rocking chair, and began rocking. Baby did not take to this idea very well. She was still too wide awake for such sleepy time, and began moving about quite vigorously. Meanwhile, I continued rocking in the creaky rocking chair, hoping she would remember this is what normally makes her sleepy.

  I suddenly felt her little hands flail around, hitting my face in several different areas, trying to keep herself awake. Moments after the attack, I realized I couldn’t see correctly, and was horrifed to further realize my contact must have been popped out by my child. I quickly put her down on the floor, turned the light on, and with my one good eye searched frantically on both child and myself for the missing contact lense. No wondrous find was to be found.

  I was already having nightmares of wearing my coke-bottle glasses, so off I rushed to the bathroom to see if maybe it was still in my eye but just up inside where I couldn’t find it easily. After searching there as well, I decided I had better go back to the bedroom to see if I had missed it there.

  As I entered the room, my little child grinned up at me, ever so happy to be awake and have yet another reason to stay up. As she grinned, I saw a shiny object on her tongue. Yes, you read correctly, her tongue.  I entered the room faster than I had ever entered a room before, and didn’t even have time to pray I could rescue my contact lense before it went down the tube. I slipped my finger inside her tightly-closed gums [she hates when I stick my finger inside her mouth - I'm forever having to rescue things, but this was definitely the mostly costly rescue], and pulled out the $80 contact lense just seconds before she swallowed it.

  For those of you that wear contacts, you can sympathize greatly, I’m sure. For those of you that don’t, you probably don’t know that heart-sinking feeling of realizing your eyesight may be gone for the next few weeks.

  The babe was wide awake after that episode, so the sleeping ritual had to begin all over again… in another hour or so. Meanwhile, I packed Ben’s lunch and let the baby take her bottle on the floor…

  

  So that’s the “Baby Ate My Contact Lense” story…

   

  • 11:05 pm
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