AKA: A Sunday Evening Rambling Written By A Sleepy Mom
Jeez, where does the time go? How could it have been nearly two weeks since my last post? *Shakes her head in sheer amazement*
Lots of catching up to do!
Yesterday we had The Hubbs' birthday party at our place. His folks came up with JAK, who happened to be in from Ohio for the weekend (bonus!), and we headed over to Dusty's for a little bit of what I like to call Dunch (lunch + dinner = Dunch). My folks met us there and we annihilated two extra-large pies like they were nothing.
I love me a laid-back party. Besides the trip down the street for pizza, we basically just sat around and visited for a while. Sooo nice to have a small group like that...I actually felt like we got a chance to chat instead of flitting from relative to relative without ever having a proper conversation.
The Princess was a monster in the morning before everyone showed up, and I was afraid the whole day was going to be cloaked in screaming. Fortunately she got over herself by the time Nana and Grampy arrived with JAK, and there was actually a good amount of smiling going on for the rest of the afternoon.
Shortly after the cherry cheesecake (thanks, Nana...it was fabulous!), The Hubbs' crew had to take off. We hung with my folks for a little bit before they took off with The Princess so we could go to the movies.
What did we see? Robert Zemeckis’s new 3-D animated version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We both really enjoyed the film, and I'd recommend it for anyone looking to get in the holiday spirit. I'm happy to report that Zemeckis has done some fine-tuning on the animation of his human characters, and it's paid off. They no longer look unnatural or fake...there were actually moments that looked like they could have been live-action during this film. Jim Carrey and cast did a great job with the voices, and the heart of the story definitely shines through.
After the show we headed over to Culvers for a quick dinner, and then to Borders to walk around for a bit. While we were in Borders I found a DVD copy of Disney's earth documentary and we picked it up for a discounted price. Narrated by James Earl Jones, this documentary sports some gorgeous photography and top-notch story telling. Highly recommended.
By the time we finished watching our new documentary, I'd had all I could takes and I couldn't takes no more. We hit the hay and didn't get out of bed until 11:00 this morning. Ahhh...sleeping in. A luxury we all forget as young parents. Well, maybe not forget as much as miss out on. With The Princess at my folks' place, we were left to our own devices when it came to waking up this morning. Just goes to show we apparently needed to catch up on some rest!
So that was this weekend...let me tell you a little about our adventure last Saturday.
T had stayed the night on Friday so she wouldn't have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to get up here for an appointment early in the am. After her appointment, she and I were talking in the kitchen when The Hubbs walked in and asked if we could go see her place today.
In the city.
That's right. Mr. City-Phobe came to this proposition all by himself, with no help from either of us. I snapped to full attention and announced I'd be out of the shower in five minutes.
The Hubbs, The Princess and I followed T's car to the city and got out in one of the most adorable neighborhoods I've ever seen. She and her guy took us on a tour of the neighborhood, where we feasted on Roby's pizza at the Riverside Pub (I think that's what it was called anyway...note to self: blog on the day of the event so as to avoid hazy memories!). The Hubbs and I had our first taste of hummus, and are in lub.
The Princess went tinkle in the potty all day long...I only had to change her Pull-Up either once or twice during the whole trip. Go Kiddo!
There are all sorts of adorable little shops in Roscoe Village, and it's a very family-friendly place. If we were to move to the city (not a snowball's chance in hell), this is where we would choose. I'm just sorry it took us six months after she moved in to get our butts down there to see her place!
Work has been, well, work. It's not getting any better. Something's gotta give on that front, but I'm not sure what to do yet. For the moment I'm just hoping it gets better and doing the best I can.
The Princess's new thing is to grab your hand and lead you where she wants to go. Lately, it seems to be outside more often than not. Cute? Yes. But annoying after a while. She'll walk up, no matter what you're doing, grab your hand and yank. If you don't go with her, she'll hit the floor screaming.
Drama queen.
I recently heard from our case worker with Options and Advocacy, and The Princess's annual evaluation for Early Intervention will be on Friday, December 4. This is the yearly meeting where The Princess's therapist comes to the house with our case worker and a couple of other people to assess where she is and what we need to do.
There's potential for a lot of changes, seeing as how The Princess has recently been diagnosed as autistic. We'll see how the meeting goes, and take everything else one day at a time. Not much else we can plan for at this point!
Ooh, I put up my Christmas lights on the house last weekend, too. We got new lights because I didn't love the ones I used last year - they were the smaller clear (white) lights like you normally see on trees. Cute, but not much personality. This year we got a few strands of ceramic multi-color C9 lights that make our place closely resemble a gingerbread house.
They look great, but I don't have pics yet. I'll try to post some in a couple of weeks when we're turning them on each evening...I've only lit them once so far to make sure they work, and we don't have the extension cords all set up yet.
Well, dear readers, that's about all I have for now. It's not even nine o'clock, and I'm ready to fall over and sleep until noon tomorrow. Too bad it's a work day!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
There Must Have Been An Angel On Her Shoulder
Trick or treat!!
Can I just say I love, love LOVE the fact that Halloween was on a Saturday this year? How nice to have my pop around for the festivities, and to be able to hang out for more than an hour or two after work.
This year we decided to continue the newly-discovered practice of Selective Trick-Or-Treating. Last year we found out whose places are worth it and this year we visited those first. A few more were added, seeing as how The Princess's ability to propel herself from house to house has improved...saving Mommy's achin' back.
Here's the skinny on the treats, and tricks, that went down in my old stompin' grounds this weekend:
Mid-afternoon, we headed from our house in The Tucky to my folks' place in unincorporated McHenry County...between a few smaller municipalities...a place that brings Mayberry to mind. Everyone pretty much knows everyone else, and they've all been there for eons.
After The Princess changed out of her Halloween outfit (cute little "Boo" t-shirt and brown pants from Nana and Grampy), it was time to see what this kid had in her.
First stop: Frank's house next door. Frank is a family friend, and I'm sad to say The Princess doesn't get to see him nearly enough. Somehow we manage to go to Grumma and Grumpa's when he's not around so we keep missing him. The Princess was a good sport, though, and took off at a full run toward Frank as soon as she saw him. He crouched down to receive a full-on kisseroonie smack on the lips from my sweet little girl. The kid does not disappoint.
By now, Grumpa and The Hubbs had caught up with us and we all headed inside. Did I mention the reason we hit Frank's first? He gives out Twinkies. And Hostess Cupcakes. One of each, actually, if you're me or my kiddo. :) We hung out for a while, The Princess playing Ricochet Rabbit in his living room, before heading back outside into the crunchy leaves...which, by the way, are a big hit with my little girl.
Out in Frank's driveway we watched The Princess crunch, crunch, crunch some leaves, and realized the pizza lady was just leaving Grumma and Grumpa's house.
Dinner time!
After we polished off the pizza (poor thing never had a chance!), we helped The Princess back into her costume and started pounding the pavement.
At Barb's, across the street, we walked up and hit the doorbell. The Princess stood there like, "What the heck are we all standin' around for??" And then Barb opened the door with her bowl of candy. She crouched down to get a good look at my little girl, who snatched a Kit Kat and ran for all she was worth. Rock on...my kid has been to exactly two houses, and she's got the hang of it!
The Princess dragged us across the street to G&G's other next-door neighbor, Anita. Anita always has great stuff...she invited us in after chucking a sizeable handful into The Princess's basket, and started passing out drinks: a cosmo each for The Hubbs and me, a beer for Grumpa, and a juice box for kiddo. Gotta love it!
Next stop: Aunt Rose's house. For those of you who don't know, I grew up four doors down from Robert Zemeckis's parents (he was already in Hollywood by the time I came around), affectionately known to all of the neighborhood kids as Aunt Rose and Uncle Al. Aunt Rose "the candy lady" used to pass out candy on Saturdays to any kids who would ring her doorbell. No matter that Halloween only comes once a year...at Aunt Rose's house you could get that same special treatment every week! But only once...believe me, we tried everything we could think of to skip over that rule, but she was a stickler. :)
Aunt Rose is getting on in years, so she's not up to answering the door for all of the trick-or-treaters anymore. Two young women were there to help her, and we were led into the living room. There Aunt Rose sat with her hair done beautifully and topped with a sparkly tiara. In her right hand was a magic wand with a star on top and pretty ribbons cascading down over the handle. A lot of things have changed over the years, but her smile can still light up a room.
The Princess was enamored with the jar of eyeballs that was set up on the piano bench...it lit up green and the eyeballs started moving around at the touch of a button. She must have hit that thing seventy-five times during the ten-minute visit to Aunt Rose. Which earned her a dollar, by the way. Apparently the candy lady has become the money lady.
A couple more houses down the road, and The Hubbs was frozen to the core. Losing all that weight sure changed his insulation system and his threshhold for chilly weather! Pop, The Princess and I dropped him off on our way to the last house.
Stacy and Dave's...another beer for Pop, and a Weimereiner for The Princess to play with. She actually did pet him a little, but lost interest pretty quickly. Stacy pointed out a couple of snowmobiles in the back of their (disgustingly clean) garage, and offered The Princess the chance to sit on one.
So now we have a picture of a piggy on a snowmobile. Priceless!
After Stacy and Dave's, we headed back to get out of the costume and back into the cute little outfit. We played for a little while in G&G's living room before heading back over to Anita's for the post-trick-or-treating party.
It was loud and crowded and lots of fun. The Princess met a bunch of new people and doggies and had a ball. Anita's a grandma with a little grandson about her age, so she has all kinds of great stuff that The Princess could play with.
As the night went on, Kiddo decided that the Sesame Street phone was her favorite. She wandered back and forth staring at it and hitting the buttons, watching the lights and listening to the sound effects. This kid was in a zone.
And then she took one too many steps. The stairs. She had walked up to them not thirty seconds earlier, looked up and carefully maneuvered herself in the other direction.
This time, though, her judgment was off. She planted her foot on thin air and went tumbling all the way down to the basement. I think it was fourteen steps, though I couldn't say for sure.
I've never moved so fast in my life.
I was at the bottom of the stairs scooping her up before she even started to cry. Which she did. With gusto. This kid was terrified.
So was I.
I hugged her and rocked her and gently squeezed her all over to see if anything hurt. After about 20 seconds or so, she was silently pushing away from me so I let her down. She stood fine, and walked briskly over to pick up the Sesame Street phone and start hitting buttons again.
She and I walked back up the stairs together and re-joined the party. Not long after that she began to get sleepy, so we took off for home.
When we got back to The Tucky I put The Princess to bed. Within seconds, she was asleep. I don't think I checked on her that many times during the first night after bringing her home from the hospital. I was so sure that she had been hurt, that something would pop up later, and I didn't want any chance of anything else happening on my watch. Bad enough I had let her fall down the stairs...now I was on high alert.
I don't think I slept a wink on Saturday night.
I checked again yesterday. Not a scrape, not a scratch, not a bruise. No marks at all. Not even so much as a bitten lip or tongue.
She's fine. I can hardly believe it, but she's totally fine. There must have been an angel on her shoulder.
Can I just say I love, love LOVE the fact that Halloween was on a Saturday this year? How nice to have my pop around for the festivities, and to be able to hang out for more than an hour or two after work.
This year we decided to continue the newly-discovered practice of Selective Trick-Or-Treating. Last year we found out whose places are worth it and this year we visited those first. A few more were added, seeing as how The Princess's ability to propel herself from house to house has improved...saving Mommy's achin' back.
Here's the skinny on the treats, and tricks, that went down in my old stompin' grounds this weekend:
Mid-afternoon, we headed from our house in The Tucky to my folks' place in unincorporated McHenry County...between a few smaller municipalities...a place that brings Mayberry to mind. Everyone pretty much knows everyone else, and they've all been there for eons.
After The Princess changed out of her Halloween outfit (cute little "Boo" t-shirt and brown pants from Nana and Grampy), it was time to see what this kid had in her.
First stop: Frank's house next door. Frank is a family friend, and I'm sad to say The Princess doesn't get to see him nearly enough. Somehow we manage to go to Grumma and Grumpa's when he's not around so we keep missing him. The Princess was a good sport, though, and took off at a full run toward Frank as soon as she saw him. He crouched down to receive a full-on kisseroonie smack on the lips from my sweet little girl. The kid does not disappoint.
By now, Grumpa and The Hubbs had caught up with us and we all headed inside. Did I mention the reason we hit Frank's first? He gives out Twinkies. And Hostess Cupcakes. One of each, actually, if you're me or my kiddo. :) We hung out for a while, The Princess playing Ricochet Rabbit in his living room, before heading back outside into the crunchy leaves...which, by the way, are a big hit with my little girl.
Out in Frank's driveway we watched The Princess crunch, crunch, crunch some leaves, and realized the pizza lady was just leaving Grumma and Grumpa's house.
Dinner time!
After we polished off the pizza (poor thing never had a chance!), we helped The Princess back into her costume and started pounding the pavement.
At Barb's, across the street, we walked up and hit the doorbell. The Princess stood there like, "What the heck are we all standin' around for??" And then Barb opened the door with her bowl of candy. She crouched down to get a good look at my little girl, who snatched a Kit Kat and ran for all she was worth. Rock on...my kid has been to exactly two houses, and she's got the hang of it!
The Princess dragged us across the street to G&G's other next-door neighbor, Anita. Anita always has great stuff...she invited us in after chucking a sizeable handful into The Princess's basket, and started passing out drinks: a cosmo each for The Hubbs and me, a beer for Grumpa, and a juice box for kiddo. Gotta love it!
Next stop: Aunt Rose's house. For those of you who don't know, I grew up four doors down from Robert Zemeckis's parents (he was already in Hollywood by the time I came around), affectionately known to all of the neighborhood kids as Aunt Rose and Uncle Al. Aunt Rose "the candy lady" used to pass out candy on Saturdays to any kids who would ring her doorbell. No matter that Halloween only comes once a year...at Aunt Rose's house you could get that same special treatment every week! But only once...believe me, we tried everything we could think of to skip over that rule, but she was a stickler. :)
Aunt Rose is getting on in years, so she's not up to answering the door for all of the trick-or-treaters anymore. Two young women were there to help her, and we were led into the living room. There Aunt Rose sat with her hair done beautifully and topped with a sparkly tiara. In her right hand was a magic wand with a star on top and pretty ribbons cascading down over the handle. A lot of things have changed over the years, but her smile can still light up a room.
The Princess was enamored with the jar of eyeballs that was set up on the piano bench...it lit up green and the eyeballs started moving around at the touch of a button. She must have hit that thing seventy-five times during the ten-minute visit to Aunt Rose. Which earned her a dollar, by the way. Apparently the candy lady has become the money lady.
A couple more houses down the road, and The Hubbs was frozen to the core. Losing all that weight sure changed his insulation system and his threshhold for chilly weather! Pop, The Princess and I dropped him off on our way to the last house.
Stacy and Dave's...another beer for Pop, and a Weimereiner for The Princess to play with. She actually did pet him a little, but lost interest pretty quickly. Stacy pointed out a couple of snowmobiles in the back of their (disgustingly clean) garage, and offered The Princess the chance to sit on one.
So now we have a picture of a piggy on a snowmobile. Priceless!
After Stacy and Dave's, we headed back to get out of the costume and back into the cute little outfit. We played for a little while in G&G's living room before heading back over to Anita's for the post-trick-or-treating party.
It was loud and crowded and lots of fun. The Princess met a bunch of new people and doggies and had a ball. Anita's a grandma with a little grandson about her age, so she has all kinds of great stuff that The Princess could play with.
As the night went on, Kiddo decided that the Sesame Street phone was her favorite. She wandered back and forth staring at it and hitting the buttons, watching the lights and listening to the sound effects. This kid was in a zone.
And then she took one too many steps. The stairs. She had walked up to them not thirty seconds earlier, looked up and carefully maneuvered herself in the other direction.
This time, though, her judgment was off. She planted her foot on thin air and went tumbling all the way down to the basement. I think it was fourteen steps, though I couldn't say for sure.
I've never moved so fast in my life.
I was at the bottom of the stairs scooping her up before she even started to cry. Which she did. With gusto. This kid was terrified.
So was I.
I hugged her and rocked her and gently squeezed her all over to see if anything hurt. After about 20 seconds or so, she was silently pushing away from me so I let her down. She stood fine, and walked briskly over to pick up the Sesame Street phone and start hitting buttons again.
She and I walked back up the stairs together and re-joined the party. Not long after that she began to get sleepy, so we took off for home.
When we got back to The Tucky I put The Princess to bed. Within seconds, she was asleep. I don't think I checked on her that many times during the first night after bringing her home from the hospital. I was so sure that she had been hurt, that something would pop up later, and I didn't want any chance of anything else happening on my watch. Bad enough I had let her fall down the stairs...now I was on high alert.
I don't think I slept a wink on Saturday night.
I checked again yesterday. Not a scrape, not a scratch, not a bruise. No marks at all. Not even so much as a bitten lip or tongue.
She's fine. I can hardly believe it, but she's totally fine. There must have been an angel on her shoulder.
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