it's been a fun couple of days... yesterday we met our playgroup friends at a park (lucky for us there are SO many parks around here - we always get a nice variety) and played all morning. stig got the afternoon off to hang out with his friend troy, who is visting for a few days. the weather is beautiful, so it was perfect for sitting out on the porch, relaxing and watching adella play with maggie, troy's friendly pup. adella loved her right away, though it took her a while to warm up to troy. we went out to dinner at the brew-n-view, our favorite place for dining with adella. the gameroom is so casual that we can let adella wander about and have fun instead of trying to convince her to stay seated. on the way out she spotted two more dogs - very exciting for her. one of them was a little poofy fluffy dog, and adella went right to it and gave a big hug and said, "fox!" it was a late night for her - she got to stay up until 9:00! but of course, she was up bright and early this morning, and is upstairs watching 'clifford' right now. not sure yet what we'll do today, but the weather is nice again, so definitely something outside. i'd better go see what little bug is up to...

a few pictures from this morning's trip to the park:

this afternoon i took adella to the lake to feed the ducks. oh wow. she loved it. a lot. she was very excited when i told her where we were going, and got right into the spirit of things. she kept lookout from the backseat for the first sign of water, and when we stopped at the store for bread, she picked out a huge loaf of no-nutritional-value-whatsoever white bread. perfect - exactly what i had in mind. at least that's what i remember grandpa buying when he took lauren and i to feed the ducks. once we got there, she dove right in (not literally, thank goodness). she has always been so brave around all types of animals. even i am a little jumpy around those giant geese, but not adella. she wanted to hand the bread right to the ducks and geese. we got to the lake right after a group of nursing home residents, and the ducks must have already eaten their fill because they weren't as eager for the bread as i thought they would be. but adella had a great time anyway. and it turns out she likes to eat cheap white bread too. after the bread was gone, she threw rocks into the lake until it was time to go. and she talked about the ducks the whole way home... "duck drinking water!" "duck feet in water!" "duck! aaaaare you?" "duck swimming in water!"

the weather has finally warmed up again, so the kids all played outside at the park during co-op today. i ran a few errands and enjoyed a cup of coffee before picking adella up. i pulled up just in time to see kim cleaning adella's hands after she decided to play with some dog poo on the sidewalk. great. i cringed every time i saw her take a bite of her peanut butter sandwich on the way home. things have been pretty quiet around here lately. i'm finally getting rid of the crud in my lungs and head, and starting to feel almost normal again. the nice weather has perked me up too, and maybe i'll take adella out for a walk this afternoon. we'd better enjoy the warm weather while we can - you never know if it might decide to snow on us again. adella's going through a very picky stage right now. everything has to be just so, otherwise she'll be very upset. i don't know if she's forgiven stig yet for trying to cut her hot dog into bites for her. she must have spent 5 minutes trying to reattach the end he cut off. and shame on me for trying to peel her banana! once she was satisfied with the way i stuck the peel back on, she felt okay about re-peeling it and finally eating it. i'm counting on this being just a phase and not the beginning signs of OCD. sorry for the quickie post, but i'll write more soon, i promise!

you guys probably already know what a dork i am, but at the risk of showing you real proof... this is what i've accomplished this afternoon since getting home from work: i've been having such anxiety lately about what to do with all of adella's toys. our house is pretty tiny, and she just keep accumulating so many things! the plastic toys and stuffed animals and wooden puzzle pieces were starting to overtake us, and likely would have been the end of at least one of us (i can't tell you how many times i've tripped over a 'little people' person) SO, i finally got in gear and cleaned out adella's closet, packed up the infant receiving blankets and hooded towels, threw out some things, and LOOK! i have room to store all of her toys!!! i am so proud of myself i just have to show it off: i should have taken a 'before' series, but you'll have to take my word for it. it was a cluttered plastic nightmare. now her room is nice and de-cluttered. i wonder how long it will stay that way.... don't worry, i don't have any crazy unrealistic hopes that it will stay spotless. just knowing there is a closet with space for the toys is enough for me.

most of you probably know that adella sleeps in our room - she has her own bed right next to ours. well lately she's been crawling into bed with us a few times a night, and each time we tell her to go sleep in her bed, and she crawls into her bed and back to sleep. sometime last night this happened again and i heard her say "orange bear" and get up to find her orange teddy bear. a few hours later i woke up and stig was looking around the bed, then got up and looked around the room. i knew he was looking for adella, so i got up too. the next thing i know, he's coming down the hall with her - she had fallen asleep in the livingroom looking for orange bear! i'm off to work - feeling better today! stig and adella are going to a birthday party this afternoon. there will be CAKE!

bear with me, folks. i'm sick again. seems like i just got over something like this, but again i've got cough/congestion and fever. it's the fever that makes it so bad - general achiness and fatigue has kept me on the couch for the past two days and nights. luckily stig is staying home, and though we'll be sorry when payday arrives, it's nice to have him here to help out. hopefully i can make it to work tomorrow. we'll see. in the meantime, it's tylenol and soup and the lion king. i'm trying to convince stig to go rent adella something new, because i'm starting to recite the lion king in my sleep. so, another long day ahead....

what a busy few days it has been... i've been meaning to post some pictures and catch everyone up to what's going on, but it has just been so crazy around here! yesterday was a busy day, even before the day started. i knew it might be crazy, but i had it planned out, so at least i was expecting the craziness. this was our agenda: 1. babysitting co-op was at our house from 9-12. five kiddos, two mamas. 2. i agreed to babysit for a friend who's sitter cancelled at the last minute from 12:30-4. a little girl, maggie, who is a few months younger than adella. 3. at 7:00 i finally get a break and go to see 'memoirs or a geisha' at the $2 theater with some friends and NO KIDS! this is how it really happened: co-op went great. the kids played and shared and we had no major meltdowns from anyone. at 12:30, just as everyone was leaving, maggie arrived and adella started really getting cranky. i managed to tuck her in for her nap just before she exploded. she slept a good hour, and then woke up and played with maggie for the afternoon. they got along great, and by the end of the afternoon, they were hugging and chasing each other through the house, each one carrying a babydoll. somewhere around 2:00, i started to feel really tired and achy. i thought it was due to the long day (with an early morning start) and the achiness due to the worrying about, what else - money, that i can't seem to turn off the past few days. so i drank a cup of tea and tried to take it easy, but as the afternoon went on i felt worse and worse, and all i wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep. of course this was the last thing i could do, especially with maggie here too. she was a joy to babysit, but by the time her parents got here at 4:45, i was SO ready for a break. and needless to say, i had to sit out my much anticipated girls night out at the movies. instead, i turned on the lion king and crawled onto the couch, just as the phone rang - stig needed me to come pick him up from work. aahhhh....ok. so, adella and i pull on our slippers and go to the car, pick stig up, and come home. lucky for me, i am blessed with a wonderful husband. as soon as we got home, he took over and i took a nice hot bath. when i got out, dinner was ready (veggie hot dogs...but i'm not complaining), and after dinner i finally got to curl up on the couch and get some rest. i drifted in and out of sleep and in and out of fever, and woke up this morning feeling...mmm...better, but still not great. functional at least. today it is SNOWING!! i cannot believe it. maybe later we will go to the library and get some new books and videos. i'm sure adella is sick and tired of staying in, but what can i do? the weather sucks, and i feel yucky. so - on to the pictures! a few from co-op yesterday: and my two favorite people: they're clean, i promise

today we are having a strange yucky weather day. a mix of rain/sleet/SNOW! is keeping us indoors. adella took an early nap today, during knitting group this time, so we're looking at a long afternoon indoors. but after a hectic weekend, it will be nice to stay in and take it easy. what exactly does this mean? the lion king and knitting. stay tuned...

happy st. patty's day!

"breakfast, mommy!" adella's stuffy nose/cough is much better today. in fact, it's almost non-existant. strange, but i'm not complaining. i still hesitate to let her play too closely with the other kids, just in case. so we decided to take a hike. the parkway has just re-opened recently, so we took a short drive and found a nice easy trail. the weather was beautiful and we had a fun time wandering around in the woods: anybody home? adella has a cute new habit of walking up to trees and saying, "hi tree!" in honor of st. patrick (and because adella is really into squishing things [food] lately) i decided to make some green play-doh for adella today. squishy fun! p.s. in case anyone was wondering or worrying, i talked to fyffe about ada's spots. she said she thinks they are going away already, so they can't be chicken pox. and just as i was getting myself ready to get the darn things done and over with... i was actually a little disappointed to hear that it's not chicken pox.

this morning came bright and early with adella coughing in my face again. i heard her wake up several times during the night, stuffy and coughing. by 6:30 i couldn't go back to sleep anyway, so i got up and went to the store for some decongestant/cough. once there, i realized it was not as easy as just running in to pick some medicine up. there are so many choices. after 25 minutes of undecisiveness, i finally picked some decongestant and cough medicine. once i got home i second guessed myself again, and now i wish i had gotten the decongestant/cough with anti-histamine to dry up her runny nose. why does it have to be so confusing? she seems to feel fine, and her dry cough has been better since i gave her the medicine. but i think we'd better lay low for a while since she is probably spraying germies with every cough. no community center playtime for us today. i think i will go back later and get the benadryl. it will be good to have on hand in case she does get the chicken pox, or poison ivy or anything itchy. (still no confirmation on ada's bumps. i'm going to call fyffe later and see what's up.) so she's in for an early nap now, and i'm going to catch up on some reading while the house is quiet. i'm also close to finishing a little knitted apron top for adella, so hopefully i will get it done and can convince adella to model it long enough to get a few pictures. if i can motivate myself and adella, we may take a walk or something. the fresh air will do us some good i think.

the past few days have been beautiful and sunny looking, but step outside and you'll be blown away by a strong and very chilly wind. so we've stayed mostly indoors, and i am starting to get cabin fever. i'm sure adella is too. so today i broke out the big guns: water colors. i bought them a couple weeks ago, and for various reasons never got around to setting adella up with them. but today we needed something to do, and so water colors it was. adella had a blast. she loves dipping the brush in the water and then picking out colors. "water, color, paper!" she said over and over. she did really great and didn't make nearly the mess i had feared. here's a few pictures of the little artist: after art time, she had a little snack while i fixed dinner. i heard adella saying, "face! face!" which i took to mean that she wanted me to wipe her face. but no - i turned around and she held up this: clever, isn't she? on to another topic - i finished my skirt! i am very happy with the way it turned out. it fits wonderfully, and is so comfortable. nice and wide around the bottom so i don't have to take tiny baby steps when i walk. i was a little disappointed with the cotton fabric selection at hancocks. i needed 60" wide cotton, and could not find any that i liked, so i ended up going with polyester, which as a rule i don't like. but i wanted to make a skirt and the fabric was cute, for polyester. and it's not too shiny and old-ladyish. is it? i'll have to get a better picture of it outside, when the wind dies down a bit. night-night folks. stig is returning home with a movie, since LOST is a re-run AGAIN! i hope he picks something good. lately all he gets are heist movies. i like a good bank robbery flick now and then, but enough is enough.

itchy

so i think adella may have been exposed to chicken pox. one of the other kids at co-op yesterday has just broken out in some spots... i read that the incubation period is 7-14 days, so i guess we'll just have to wait and see. the upside is that if she does have it, we'll only have to deal with this once, and i won't have to give her the vaccine when she starts school. plus, if all of her friends have it at the same time, we won't have to keep ourselves isolated. still, the thought of chicken pox makes me itch. guess i'll stock up on oatmeal for the bath. on the other hand, i may be totally jumping to conclusions and this is nothing. we played at the mall today, and as usual adella kept running out to see the height measuring bear that stands right outside the play area. after 5 or 6 times, i broke down and bribed her with the promise of ice cream on the way home. it worked. and we got to practice taking turns eating the ice cream, so it was actually a learning tool, not a bribe. whatever you call it, adella loved it: little bug is passed out on the couch for her nap today. she didn't even make it to the bedroom. guess i'll stay downstairs and work on my skirt. while i'm down here, i'll do a little obsessive searching on the internet for chicken pox info.

knitting report

just a few finished projects: i realized that the super soft yarn i was using to make the herringbone scarf was not going to be long enough to finish, so i started over and made this: it's plain and simple garter stitch, but i cast on for the entire length instead of width. i'm liking the way it turned out - kind of military-girly (as suggested by my friend amy) also, my new favorite quick and easy project - dishcloths! using sugar n' cream cotton yarn, which has become my favorite yarn right now. i just stocked up on lots and lots of yarn to make adella a few summery things, plus some extra skeins to make more dishcloths! the two completed dishcloths have been confiscated by adella, and are now being used as blankets for her animal friends. i also finished weaving in the ends of the sweater, and i ripped out the neckband. it fits fine now, with the unfinished neck, but i have to think of a new way to finish it without making it any smaller. i am happy with the sweater again, now that the weather is warming up, of course. and sweater is happy to come out of confinement.

i know, it's been a while. we've been busy the past few days, but for some reason i can't think of any clever or funny, or even interesting things to blog about. adella's napping now, after a morning of fun at babysitting co-op. during my three hours of freedom i went to (where else?) the yarn store, and stocked up on yarn for a few projects i have planned. then i went to the fabric store and bought some nice soft fabric for a skirt i've been wanting to make since last spring. i brought it home and got to work, and almost finished it before it was time to pick adella up. all i've got left is the hemline, and then i'm done! i'll post pictures when i've finished. there is a lot of leftover fabric, and i'm thinking of making a matching skirt for adella. how cheesy is that? very, i know. but i can't resist. trust me - it will be cute. this weekend at work was crazy busy. at least six of my patients had the flu and/or respiratory nasty bug, and one of them died on sunday morning. plus the ususal short-staffing problems. needless to say, it was not the best weekend at work. stig had a fun weekend though. he had a gig at harrah's casino in cherokee, and got to see willie nelson play while he was there! saturday night he went to a party . and not just any party - there were fire dancers! he took some pretty neat pictures of the swirly fire action, which i will post later. the blogger picture uplading is acting funny now. adella has been her usual sweet wonderful self. she has really been talkng so much lately. i wish i had a tape recorder to tape all of the cute funny things she says. she's back to calling me 'mom' again, but only first thing in the mornings. she'll wake me up saying, "mom. mom - c'mon mom! 'tup (get up) 'tup!" she loves to play a hide-and-seek sort of game, where she will hide and sing, "mommy! aaaare you?" or to her toys, "duckie! aaaare you?" sometimes she'll hide and i'll say, "adella - where are you?" and she'll say, "gone!" or like last night, as she was laying on the floor, "floor!" so cute. so i'll get around to taking some new pictures soon and put them up for you to see. that's all for now - i think we are going to a movie later. 'chicken little' is showing at the $2 theater, so i thought it would be fun to take adella this afternoon. plus, they have pizza and popcorn, so we can't go wrong.

so far today, we have: gone to the library - i have been really itching for a good book for the past few days, so i found one, and adella picked out a couple of videos while we were there. played with henry - amy called and asked if she could drop henry off for an hour or so while she went to the bead store (not easy with a toddler in tow) so of course i said yes, and henry came to play with adella. they played outside mostly, since today is the most perfect weather day ever. they also played on the back porch, which has basically become adellatown. she's got it all - car, kitchen, store, dishes and food, shopping basket, vacuum cleaner, tables, chairs, wagon, doll stroller - what more could she want? had lunch - veggie hot dogs and bananas, and then rice (always a bad idea right after i mop the floor) watched thomas - you know, the train. one of the new videos we got today. and now, naptime... here are some cute pictures of adella and henry: *i don't think the basketball left henry's hands the entire time he was here! ~~~~~~~~~~ adella's latest impossibly cute activity: this morning i was taking the recycling out and sorting it into the paper/plastic bins, and adella was watching (oh yeah - her new saying is , "doing? mommy?" over and over and over....) and 'helping'. i closed the lids and she got very upset because she wanted to get into the paper bin. i told her it was trash and not to play with, but she was very insistent and kept saying, "elephant, elephant!" i had no clue what she was talking about, so i opened the bin and asked her to show me what she wanted. she took out an empty paper towel roll and put it to her nose and said, "elephant!" a genius, she is... i take this as a sure sign that she's got the crafty genes from me.

adella's latest impossibly cute activity: tonight's dinnertime conversation: adella: (pointing at stig, then me) daddy! mommy! adella: (poiting at stig then me) daddy! mommy! me: (pointing at adella) what is your name? adella: name. name! me: you are adella! adella: i love you , mommy! i love you mommy! (sounds like iywuv you, mommy) stig: what about me? do you love me? adella: i love me! i love me! stig: do you love daddy? adella: i love mommy! * don't worry - she eventually did say she loved stig (of course)

adella is upstairs watching the lion king, for the gazillionth time, so i've got a few minutes to post a few pictures... we went to the community center today, only to find out that they were closed! we decided to stay anyway and play on the playground, which looks like it was built in 1960 and never updated. the kids all had fun anyway, and they did have a super long slide that was built into the hill (see picture). despite the fact that there was no toddler time today, we had a pretty good turnout. adella spent the majority of the time rolling down the hill over and over. remember doing that when you were little? such fun! but this hill wasn't the nice soft grassy hill i would have picked. in fact, this hill was basically dust and rocks and dirt. but that didn't stop adella. she bore a strong resemblence to charlie brown's pig pen (except without the blankie) by the time we left. but who am i to spoil such fun? here she is, rolling in the dirt, headed straight towards me, of course. (if she started rolling another way she would stop and reposition herself to roll right into me.) we got home and adella fell asleep while i piddled around in the kitchen. i should have taken a nap becasue i am tiiiirred, but i missed my chance. i'll have to settle for some reheated coffee with a little cocoa mixed in (my treat!). next on the agenda: head outside to wrestle with the soaker hoses i bought for the garden. they won't be good and lay down - they just stay standing in a big black coil across the garden. adella is starting to understand (i think) about the flowers and plants and why we shoudn't step on them and dig them up with shovels. she helped me plant a bunch of bulbs last fall, so it will be fun for her to watch them grow and bloom, assuming they make it that far. *pictures!* can you spot the 'D'? this game is called 'daddy back'. adella named it, and basically it consists of adella climbing on stig's back and walking, jumping, climbing, etc. sometimes stig crawls around, sometimes he just lays there. either way, it is great fun. adella's self-portrait

today's pictures

adella and mama rock star peacock! adella by the big red barn farmer adella takes the tractor for a spin