Back in Action

Whoa, I am so sorry, I haven't written in over a month. In my defense, it's been a horrible month:
- almost 40% of my team at work has quit
- we've had water in our basement, a busted garage-door opener, and the washing machine keeps getting unbalanced and jogging across the floor
- my company's been bought out
- I've stopped nursing and my hormones are whacked!
- one of my dearest and most tolerant friends called me on the carpet for not making her a priority
- my softball teams were in gynormous slumps
- I had a birthday

I spent a couple weeks building up to almost a week of crying on and off. Joel was, of course, an angel as always. Go Bonser.

Things are looking up, though -- it's a three-day weekend, and we've been looking at some newer houses in which, when we have people over, they don't all have to stand up crammed elbow-to-eyeball in the kitchen, and it's fun to have dreams! Plus Lucy is keeping us in stitches. She lays on her stomach and "spins" by walking her hands around in a circle -- can't seem to get those hips up into the air, though! She "toodles" now, too -- walking around, holding tightly to our hands. Yelling all the way. She also feeds herself Cheerios -- (and woe to the parents whose muddled brains can't decipher that the "oat-based puff ring cereal" described in BabyTalk magazine actually means "Cheerios or any generic substitute" -- Corporate America is SUCH a thorn in my side!).

Cheerio time is one of the best times of the day. Lu watches as Joel or I spread a very moderate handful of O's on her highchair tray. Then she carefully selects the most worthy O and works it into her mouth, where she has finallly learned to let go of the O so it can actually be eaten. (For weeks she'd just touch it to her lip and look at us triumphantly -- "I'm doing it!! I'm eating!!" No, honey, no, you're not.) When she's full, then one O goes in her mouth, and one goes to Hobo, constantly lurking on the floor beneath. He's delighted.

This morning, she gave us another little hint of fun-to-come. So, it's bottle time -- I fill 'er up and put the bottle right on her tray so she can two-fist it right into her mouth. Buuuut... her little jammy sleeves are covering her hands. And she can't get a grip on the bottle. But would she let me roll up her sleeves? No, way, Jose!! You could just see her stubborn little one-track mind working: "This is MY bottle, I feed MYSELF, I am HUNGRY and I am going to get it in my mouth RIGHT NOW SO STAND BACK." Hoo-ee, you should have heard the hollering. Finally had to firmly grab her flailing little arm to wrestle her sleeve up. Of course it was fine, then -- she jammed it into her mouth, sucked it down in about 5 minutes, and went on with her happy morning.

And Joel and I stared, and watched visions in our heads of future t-ball games, dance recitals, skinned knees, bruised shins, and tears. Lots and lots of big ol' crocodile tears.