Woes of a chronic overpacker.

As I get older, I get worse at packing.  I used to be a great packer -- always took just what I needed, never too much.   Heck, I went to Europe for a month in college and carried everything I needed on my back. 

Now, somehow, I can't pack for a long weekend away without FIVE pairs of shoes? 

*blink*

Seriously.  I've TRIED to make it less.  But there's really no way around it.  

The thing is, I'm not some fashion maven or clotheshorse.  I don't change clothes 2 or 3 times a day when we travel. 


How did this happen?  Why can't I just pack for a trip like a normal person, with one outfit per day? 

....And don't even get me started on wrinkles.

19 months! (Finally.)

Yes, her hair is this insane.

And yes, she still only has two teeth on the bottom.

Whiny-itis.

Heard of it?  It's running rampant -- and Ella has a bad case of it.

Symptoms include:

-waking up from nap and being generally disagreeable until bedtime
-swatting at and/or throwing things unnecessarily
-ridiculous fits that have no real purpose
-not using big-girl voice or words

Onset seems to have occurred a couple weeks ago, and she now seems to be in the throes of the infection.

A serious side effect of whiny-itis, which is not often mentioned, is the impact it has on the sanity of the caregivers.  It can take a serious toll on one's patience, and make you feel like jumping out the window due to the unending, relentless whining.

Starting tomorrow, a new treatment procedure will be implemented.  This involves telling the afflicted, "Mommy will not respond to whining, and when you are able to use your big-girl voice, I will help you," along with a follow-up regimen of ignoring the whines.  Expectations are that the treatment will not be received favorably, but hopefully, it will be quick-acting.

Slacker.

I forgot to do Ella's 19-month pictures.  Blah.  She's halfway to 20 months now, but I guess I should take some for posterity's sake.

I don't think I'd posted about it, but she can climb up on the sofa now.  For awhile, her tactic was to pull the pillows off the sofa to kind of make a little hillock, and she'd use that to climb up.  (How I found this out, if you're interested, was by leaving her in the living room one evening while I stepped into the kitchen for a minute or two.  I stuck my head around the corner to check on her, and there she was on the sofa, pleased as punch, grinning and me and waving "Heeeeeeey!")  I'm pretty certain she can get up there now without the assistance of Pillow Hill, although I've yet to see her actually do it.  Luckily for me, she's *really* good about turning around onto her tummy to slide down, so we've not had any spills yet (knock on wood).

She's also really good all of a sudden at using a spoon!  I hadn't really been pursuing it, since almost everything she eats is finger food-y, but a few weeks ago, I decided to give her a spoon with her yogurt at breakfast, and she went to it like a champ!   It was crazy.  She does great with foods that stick to the spoon -- yogurt, apple sauce, things like that.   I've introduced a fork to her as well, and while she's not quite as successful with that yet (I mean, it does have HOLES in it), she definitely gives it the ol' college try and knows what she's *supposed* to do with it.  She even used a big-person fork at the Mexican place today!  (I should mention here also that we went to lunch completely unprepared today in terms of baby gear -- no bib and no placemat.  It was just her, the plate, and the food. We were a little worried about how she'd do, but she was great!  No more of a mess than usual, which for her, isn't much at all.  No plates went flying or black bean hair treatments.  Jon and I were both very impressed.)

She's getting more words now, including cute names for a couple of her books ("Hop on Pop" is "Pat Pat" and "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?" is "Boom boom boom".)  She suddenly knows who Mickey Mouse is ("Mah-nah"), and blanket is "bah-et". 

Yesterday, I had my blog up on the laptop, and Ella spied the pictures of Alex.  She started saying "cat cat cat" and trying to pet the screen.  Oh man, my heart broke, but it was so sweet at the same time.  For a grumpy old cuss, he was always gentle with her.

SO not what I was expecting.

Lately, there's been another neighbor dog that comes around outside our fence (we have woods on two sides of us) and Cosmo and Lukin will bark at him, but will come right in when I call them. Well, last night, I thought the other dog was out there again, since I heard a ruckus, but I couldn't get the dogs to come in, even when tempting them with a treat. Pretty unusual, and I thought maybe one or both of them had gotten on the other side of the fence somehow. They were behind the shed, so I couldn't see what was going on.

I got a flashlight, put on my flip flops, and traipsed back out across the yard, expecting just to see the neighbor dog -- instead, they had a nasty, hissing, yellow-toothed opossum cornered just on the other side of the fence!! Lukin was UNDER the shed, and Cosmo was about halfway under the fence, trying his damnedest to get in a rabies-filled tussle.  

I finally managed to haul the dogs out of the way a bit, and the opossum ran off. I hope he learned his lesson and stays away from our yard.

*shudder*