Picky, Picky

So my daughter is very much like her mother. Very picky when it comes to eating new things. She likes most things, once she has tried them. But put some new object on her plate and she clamps that mouth shut tight.

For example, she LOVES pureed peas. She'll eat them with gusto. But put a mashed pea on her plate? Heaven forbid. She is a master at picking around the foreign objects to grasp at the more familiar fare.

What's the frustrating part? Glad you asked.

Interestingly enough, this picky-ness only seems to apply to food because Claire is a pro at finding the smallest pieces of debris on our floor. And where do these foreign objects go? Yep. Right in the mouth.

I have threatened to scatter veggies all over my floors. Maybe that way she'll actually try them and add them to her "will eat" list.

Sigh.

Popple

Do you remember Popples? That wonderful toy from the 80s? Well, I think I have my own live version.


How can that be a comfortable way to sleep?

If at first you don't succeed . . .

On the 24th of this month, my sweet little baby will be 11 months old. I am dreading this day. Why you ask? Well it isn't because my baby is growing up so fast (which she is) but rather because it means I am going to have to take that darned-ole Cat in the Hat picture.

For my long-time readers, you know that I take a picture of Claire with a Cat in the Hat doll each month so I can document her growth in this first year. I still think it's a great idea and she has had some pretty cute ones in the past. However, I am finding it increasingly difficult to procure a decent one now that she is so . . . . er . . . . wiggly? Yeah, that's the word.

In months past I would sit her down and place the Cat beside her. She would sit there so still and happy with a drooly grin. I had time to take many, many shots until I had just the perfect one.

Now? I am lucky if I can get her face in the shot. Here are some out takes from our attempts at 10 months.



Lovely, huh? So I finally did the only thing a mother could do . . . . I took her picture when she didn't know it was happening!



Awwwww . . . sweet pea.

I've Been Promoted

I received some mail today and according to the address label, I've been promoted.

"McNeil Elementary" is where I worked over 3 years ago, before we moved to another city 300 miles south of said school.

It wouldn't be weird to me if it had been addressed to "4th Grade Teacher" considering that is the title I held for 3 years at the school. It would be obvious to me that some company just needed to update their records. But where in the world did they get the title "Director of Finance"?

I know you can't tell because of the lovely black bars, but it was sent to my CURRENT address. Not forwarded from my old address.

I'd heard that the leadership in the school was lacking, but to promote a former employee to Director of Finance? Who knew I had such an impact?

Rant

"I don't know"---Three words that have always irritated me a bit.

Mrs. Aims: "Why didn't you ask me for a replacement worksheet when you realized that you had lost it 4 days ago?"

Spacey 4th Grader: "I don't know."

Yeah, kids over use it quite a bit. Even parents use it sometimes.

Mrs. Aims: "What things have you tried at home to keep Junior's behavior in check?"

Clueless Parent: "I don't know."

But I think I heard the definitive one the other day. It came from my child's pediatrician when I took her in to see why she had been running a temperature of over 104 for 3 days straight. After doing all the routine tests and everything checked out normal, we were left with, "I don't know."

Please know that our pediatrician is WONDERFUL. This is not a slam on him in any way. You go in expecting to hear that her throat is a mess, or her ears are badly infected. Perhaps the flu? All of which are not pleasant, but you at least have some course of action from there. But what do you do with, "I don't know"?

So we moved to the next level of tests. Urine and blood samples. Now for an adult, a urine sample is no biggie. Granted, it's not fun to try to balance while peeing in a small cup, but it's certainly not traumatizing. But for a 10 month old? Taking a urine sample means Mommy and Daddy holding a screaming child down on the table while they insert a catheter. Shudder.

Then? To take the blood I was expecting the simple (but not fun) poke of the heel that she had to have in her early months. But no. We got to experience the full fledged rubber-band-around-the-arm, needle-jabbed-into-elbow-pit, drain-several-viles-of-blood event. Again . . . shudder.

We are still waiting on final results, but the preliminary ones suggest a urinary tract infection. But we still "don't know" for sure and won't for several more days. So until then, she is on antibiotics to clear up what might be a UTI. Good news is that they seem to be working because we had our first temperature free day today--which is why I had time to blog!

And those antibiotics by the way? Yeah, they cost $130. Liquid gold I am pouring down my baby's throat 4 CCs at a time.

As If I Needed Another Reason

So I really don't like wallpaper. I know there are some nice patterns now-a-days, but I still don't like it. I guess I just got wallpaper overload from the 80's and now that is all I can think of anytime I see it. When we were considering purchasing the house we currently own, one of the very few "cons" on my do-we-buy-this-house-list was that there was quite a bit of wallpaper.

And apparently? Wallpaper attracts silverfish. Shudder.

So began my renovation projects.

I first decided to tackle our breakfast nook. Mainly because it had the least amount of wallpaper. I figured I could "teach" myself how to strip wallpaper with the least amount of stress and then be fully prepared to hit the bigger areas later. So in about a week's time, we made this transformation:


Now? I am finally tackling the guest bathroom. This room has, in my opinion, the most hideous wallpaper selection imaginable. Take a look:


This is state-of-the-art, FOIL paper. The house was built in 2005, but somehow they managed to find paper that was made in the 1960s.

Tearing this paper off the walls may prove to be very therapeutic. The only problem I have is that there is no texture behind this wallpaper. NONE. When you pull off the paper, you have bare sheet rock. So, to limit how much texturing I have to do myself, I am thinking about paneling some of the walls with wainscoting. Ahhhh . . . . beautiful wainscoting.

This could take awhile to complete. Especially when you consider that I have a child who only naps in 45 minutes spurts. I'll keep you updated as the construction continues. Any handy tips are welcome!