Dear Toddler

Thank you so much for helping me tonight with my tenure notebok.  This is an important document for Mommie, and it's due to be turned in tomorrow.  So when I got home tonight after not picking you up until almost 6, getting McD for dinner, and then pulling out the documents to continue working, you were so very helpful.

Getting caramel sauce from your Happy Meal apples on two of the pages will really help me keep them together.

Ripping out the middle page of a set of papers that really I wanted to keep stapled together, then writing all over it, will be incredibly endearing to my Division Chair and all the senior faculty in the department, I'm sure.

Laying a pile of wet baby wipes on top of a large stack of documents, making them damp and wrinkled had to be the best part of your "helping".

Thank you so much, baby!
Love, Mommie

--

Although I have to tell you all, having her next to me, writing and counting, as I was calculating percentages from my student evaluation numbers was the absolute highlight of my day.  The rest of the stuff is saved on a thumb drive and can be re-printed tomorrow.  The moment of her "working" next to me, repeating numbers and writing with "her" pen?  Made my whole day worthwhile.  And males the extra printing I have to do tomorrow worth it too.

The Great Car Cleanout

About a year ago, I tried to call attention to myself by posting a twitpic of some goldfish crackers spilled in my car, and tagging one of my blogging idols.  She had been talking about finding overripe bananas in her Loser Cruiser, and wanting to be liked by her, I thought she would find my pool of mushy goldfish crackers an offering of acceptance into her crowd.

Instead, she called me an amateur.  I was crushed.

(I am waaaaaay too lazy and busy to go back a year in twitter to link to the exchange.  You will have to take my word on it.  Or go back a year in twitter to find it yourself.)

So here we are, a year later.  My kid is a year older, I am a year busier.  (Wait, what?)  Anyway, so my car has been accumulating crap.  I managed to clean some of the crap out before adding more crap on a four-day spree we called a vacation.

Then my blogging idol?  Invented a messy car contest.  Okay, here we go.  I'm bound to get her attention now.  My car is a real trash bin right now.

So I decide to use the motivation to clean.  Also?  My dad would have to ride with us to the park and he wasn't going to sit on a case of water or ... how many times do you eat at McD, MommieV?

Here are some before shots:

This is a different angle from the previous photo.  Also, without the black work bag.  Because you know, I have to go to work sometimes.

I think the sleeve of that jacket sticks out the door when its closed.  I had someone honk at me on the interstate, and I think that's why.

Cheese.  Among other things.

Here are some after shots:

I didn't say it was totally clean, this was just after I'd worked on it for an hour.

In her reply tweet, DaMomma called me an amateur because the goldfish crackers weren't something that could rot.

Okay, Liz, are you ready?

There is stuff growing on my back seat:

And on the passenger floorboard:

This stuff is really fuzzy too.  I'm sure it can make penicillin or something.

Am I still an amateur now?

--

Miscellaneous

I have so many cute pics of my kid on my camera.  I was trying to get video of her singing the ABC song, and she got reeeeeally tired of it and knocked the camera out of my hand.  That jammed the lens.  My parents fixed it while we were on vacation (lucky for me I had a decent cell phone camera and a personal photographer Jellybean Mama).  I took some photos at the park this weekend (see previous post) and of cleaning out my car (see next post), and then downloaded them.  Tons of cuteness here.

Getting ready for vacation.  Or the Miss America pageant.  One of the two.

She loves the dress from Aunt Patti.  And mugging for the camera.

Yea, what did I say about the mugging?

I don't normally dress my kid in crazy clashing nightclothes.  It prevents good sleep.  Sometimes, tho, you grab what's handy and pray.

Some lucky local people are getting this particular invitation (not with the identifying information concealed, however, that would defeat the whole point.)  Guess what our theme is.  Go on, guess.

Walking to Grandpa's, Early Spring Edition. With Bonus Park Photos

Still Alive and Kicking

Yes, we are still alive.  The kid had a major sickness, then I had a major sickness, that included antibiotics for a sinus infection.  It's been loads of fun around here.  And since I made a little mini-vow not to do too much complaining on the blog about the weather and about sicknesses, well, there wasn't much else to write about.

Meanwhile, taking two master's-level online classes about various aspects of higher education has not been a picnic at all.  On top of that, I have become weeks behind on grading, and given that there are big time questions on student evaluations related to that, it could very well affect my tenure status after next year. 

In addition, there are some festering personal things that have become stumbling blocks.  I am perpetually worried about money.  I didn't realize just how expensive the expensive daycare was until I didn't have my overload class to help pay for it.  Rather than take the summer off to relax with my kid, I'm going to be teaching two online classes to try to bank money for the fall.  I'm struggling with some things related to relating to my mom and dad.  There are some boundary issues that were easier to deal with when I lived 100 miles away.  Now that I'm only 5 doors down from them, there are some glaring issues that I feel unequipped to deal with.  (Like, my dad canNOT leave my freaking mailbox alone.  Every time he walks past it - daily, with the dog - he has to check to get my mail for me.  I know he's just trying to help.  But dude, mail can be personal!)  The third issue I've been mulling is my weight and my skin issues.  I have gained about 20 pounds since weaning C in October and I have developed some kind of skin affliction.  Scheduling OB/GYN and dermatologist appointments has been on my mind and my to-do list for months.  I just keep changing the due date in Toodle-do.

So between not really having the time to write, and feeling like if I'm going to write, it should be one of the things due twice weekly for my classes, or if I have time then I should grade, and feeling totally run down with various sicknesses and infections, and then having emotional stress limiting what I write about ...

So there you have it.  My litany of excuses.

The one bright spot?  My girl.  She's wonderful.  Even when she's sick she's wonderful.  She sings the entire ABC song now, in addition to being able to count 1-10.  They're starting on colors in her room at daycare, which is something she REALLY needs help with.  I am worried she may be colorblind, until I remind myself that she is Not Quite 2Yet.  Then I relax.  But that's what the expensive daycare has paid for, yo.  Teaching my kid numbers and letters and potty peer pressure.

The other mamas all wanted to move their girls up, so I went along with the crowd.  She has been visiting the other room twice last week.  She's okay with it, but she still talks about Ms. Danielle.  I think she was more attached to Ms. Danielle than I realized,  She's doing fine, and she has done well with all her transitions so far, and once all her friends are moved over to the new room I think she'll feel better.  But she knows there's a change afoot, and she's kindof been asking about it.  And her TOTALLY CHANGE-AVERSE mother has been trying to act like it's totally no big deal.

She babbles all the time, she LOVES to write (hello, mini-me!) so she begs for paper and pens or pencils.  She talks to herself while she writes, and she's just so dang adorable when she does it that I can't even get mad when one of her shirts gets ruined with ink when neither of us are paying enough attention to what she's doing.

This week is my Spring Break, but I'll be working.  My tenure notebook is due on Monday the 21st, and I have two papers and two discussion board posts to write for my classes.  In addition to grading, which is still my third priority, unfortunately.  Aaaaaand two posts for Our Mommyhood which are two days overdue at this point (I have drafts!).  My goal is to feel caught up by the end of the week, so I can concentrate on planning a certain 2nd birthday party, doing some spring cleaning, and making some doctor appointments for us both.

So we're here, just plugging away at the grind.  I'll try to be better about keeping in touch.  Even if it does mean some complaints :)

Beach Photos

I didn't take the laptop out of the trunk all weekend.  So no vlogging as Funky Mama Bird requested.  I did tweet most of the weekend. 

My camera died, so these are cell phone pics.  In full sun, not bad.  Less light than that - um, well, yea.

I am exhausted and finally got her to sleep.  Here are photos in no particular order, and commentary will come later.

This is the seminal photo from the weekend:

The rest are just as cute too.

Taking The Cloth

I got a couple of twitter questions about taking cloth.  I'd planned on posting about it in detail upon our return, but for now, here's some answers to those folks while I'm planning and packing.

This time I am only going Friday-Monday, so I won't need to do laundry.

My daughter is down to about 5-6 diapers per day, plus a nighttime diaper.  That means for the whole trip, I'll need about 24 diapers.  Factor into that (a) she will be swimming some, so will be wearing swim diapers too, and (b) the theme of the weekend might end up being "teach Wee One to use the potty" and we are also taking panties.  Given that I have about ten thousand diapers, it's not hard to pack a stash to take.  Okay, slight exaggeration.  But I can pack that 24 needed diapers in prefolds or I can pack it in pockets and still have plenty.

I am taking both.  I am on a prefold/cover kick whenever I can put those on her, so we are taking a bunch of prefolds and all our covers.  It's easy to pack those in a tote bag.  However, for the long car ride there and the long car ride home, and for naps/nighttime, I prefer the pockets.  I have diapers in the washer right now that just need a rinse/dry, and then those can be packed.

I am taking all our wetbags.  I will have two big wetbags at the hotel to keep diapers in, and I have three small ones that can be interchanged in the diaper bag for out-and-about.  I'll just accumulate 4 days of dirties in the two large wetbags, and wash as soon as we get home.

When we went on a road trip last June, I used cloth the entire time as well.  That was a bit longer trip, but still not a full week.  The first night we scouted out a laudromat to use, just in case.  That's what I would do for a longer trip.  Not necessarily because I would need more diapers, but because more than 4 days in a wetbag isn't a good idea.  (I still recommend an oxyclean hot wash upon the return to help keep the stinkies at bay.)

On that trip I did need to wash a poopy cover in the sink.  I take Thirsties detergent with me, so I can do any emergency washing in the sink.

Swim diapers will be the issue this time.  I only have two swim diapers.  Those I probably will have to rinse out in the sink and hang to dry and reuse if necessary.  I have packed two old, small pocket diapers, as I have heard those can be used well (that's really all the Bummi's swim diapers are anyway).  We will see how those work.  I also have a pack of disposable swim diapers in the trunk.  I don't want my kid to be the reason the pool has to be drained.  No sir, not me!

Hey, Jellybean Mama, aren't you excited about seeing cloth in action??!!

I'm trying to get used to referring to her by her real first name, but in my head she's still JM.