My favorite thing

Today I am so lucky. I got to enjoy my favorite thing. Peacefully rocking in my comfy chair, holding my sleeping girl. Sun shining through the window onto my dog sleeping on the floor. Not a sound in the room. A perfect afternoon.

I don't get to enjoy this very often. My little coyote isn't usually one for long snuggles. But today she decided she wasn't quite done with her nap, and fell back asleep on my lap. She slept there for another 30 minutes. And I actually had the sense to sit and enjoy it, rather than think about other things I needed to be doing. I am so lucky.

This was way better than the other night, when she decided to wake up many times, then simply would NOT go back to sleep after 4:00am. So I rocked her for a while, and every time I tried to put her back in her crib she freaked. We ended up on the couch, her happily zonked out, me with a crick in my neck, afraid to move. Not as lucky that time.

Today, very lucky.

Lost photo op

Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish I had taken a picture. We bought a potty seat for little M the other day, just so she can become familiar with it. We bought her the kind that fits on top of the regular toilet, though we might end up using the little potty chair type that sits on the floor. Keeping those options open. Anyway, I put it in her room so she can play with it until she's ready to actually use it. Maybe that's weird. But she did, indeed, decide to play with it, and I probably should have seen this coming, but was still surprised when she came out of her room crying because she had fit it over her head, but couldn't get it back off. A simple matter of turning it around, and no harm was done. But, oh, how I wish I had taken a picture first.

And later, after much protesting of "hoop! hoop! hoop!" (the girl loves basketball) I decided to make a basketball hoop out of some very thick cardboard left over from our new dryer (grrrr! to the old dryer!). I found out that very thick cardboard doesn't cut with my lousy cheap scissors. But the serrated Henckels knife works very well. I told little M not to tell Daddy I was using our good knives to make her hoop, because he would kick my *ss, and she promptly agreed with me by saying, "*ss". So I taught our bundle of joy her first swear word today. Do they make V chips for Mommy? Guess I'd better get serious about cleaning up my potty mouth. Though, it does go along with the theme for the day.

Another Tag

I've been tagged again.

Four jobs I've had in my life:
1. Stay-at-home-mom
2. Creative Director (a.k.a. Web Designer)
3. Student worker
4. Taco Slinger at Taco Bell (where I met my husband some *gasp* 18 years ago!)

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Twister
2. Shakespear in Love
3. Any of the Star Wars movies
4. Terms of Endearment

Four places I have lived: (only four?)
1. Martin City, Montana
2. Colburg, Oregon
3. Loveland, Colorado
4. College Station, Texas

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Survivor
2. House
3. Good Eats
4. The Biggest Loser (why?)

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Japan
2. Banff Natl. Park, Alberta, Canada
3. Teton Natl. Park, WY (a favorite hiking place!)
4. Jamaica

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. Pad See Eaw, specifically from Lanna Thai
2. Red or Green curry chicken
3. Vietnamese Springrolls
4. Wings, extra hot, extra wet, specifically from Wings N More (NO Substitute!). This is the only time I like to eat chicken on the bone.

Four websites I visit daily: (okay, not every day, but these are my most frequent stops)
1. Google
2. Coyote Notes (Does anyone even read my blog?)
3. ChemMom
4. um... drawing a blank here.

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Running
2. Hiking somewhere in the mountains
3. Hiking somewhere in the mountains
4. did I mention hiking somewhere in the mountains?

Four bloggers I'm tagging:
As I mentioned previously, I don't know many bloggers, so I'm sorry to say I'm a dead end.

I've leaped the childcare hurdle

Okay, so my husband and I are taking this parenting class. A friend of mine in Idaho (Hi, RoxAnne!) recently told me about it, and it just happened to show up at another friend's church here, so I signed us up. My husband wasn't too hard to drag along, and admits he's actually having fun. We've never taken a class together, and it's just a little weird, but mostly cool. So far I'm on board with most of what they've been teaching, and I'm catching a few good techniques that make sense and are actually working pretty well with little M.

The biggest thing about all of this is not the class material, but the fact that while we are in the class, little M is upstairs partaking of the complimentary childcare. Yes, that's right, folks! I actually take her there and leave! For two whole hours! Every Wednesday! Are you amazed? Are you astounded? She's 19 months old, and before this I have left her with someone other than her father exactly two times. And one of those was with the grandparents and Aunt Sally, which probably shouldn't count because they're family, but it was for like ALL DAY, and just about killed me. Well, and there was that one time I went running for about 20 minutes while the other grandmother was visiting. But little M was taking her nap, so that REALLY shouldn't count. Oh, and I left her with Chemmom while I went to an appointment or two, but we have playdates with her and her girls all the time, and she's totally capable and familiar and lives in the neighborhood. Okay, so I guess exactly two equals more like five. But still!

Regardless, I've finally jumped the hurdle. I am well on my way to seriously looking into a "Mommy's Day Out" program, where I will take my child and then actually leave the building! Absolutely incredible. This would be quite convenient in the near future, as I have just this week been solicited to do a web design project for my old boss/mentor at TAMU. After some slight hesitancy, I've accepted. Now all I need is time without distraction to do the work. Hence the hesitancy. Well, and a little self-doubt. I've been away for a while. But I'm over that, and looking forward to the project. It's actually a site I worked on when I was a student worker for Dr. Dan. Cool! And wow, does it need a redesign.

Anyway, so three cheers for me and my newfound ability to entrust my daughter to others for very short periods of time in very controlled situations. Yay, me!

Tag, I'm it!

Tag, I'm it! Apparently there's a game afoot in the world of blogs that I was unaware of. The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits I have" and people who get tagged then write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says you have been tagged (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

So, Chemmom tagged me, and I'm willing to play along, but it saddens me to admit that I don't know five other bloggers to tag. How sad is that? I know exactly two other admitted bloggers (you know who you are!) so how about we just assume anyone reading this has been tagged, and if you have a blog and feel like playing, go for it.

Anyway, five weird habits I have:

1. When I'm standing in one place to do a task (cooking, waiting at the post office, whatever), I tend to stand on the outside edge of my feet, usually with my big toes curled in. I have NO idea why I do this, and I'm usually completely unaware of it until I hear my husband chuckle. He thinks it's cute. Go figure.

2. I am addicted to reading, and if I'm in the middle of a good book I will utilize each and every spare moment possible to read, no matter how short. Even if I only get half a paragraph read. Even if I end up opening the book twenty times before getting through one page. Really.

3. I am compelled to have the last word. The first person to ever point this out to me was my friend, Jodi, back in grade school. I was all, "bye", and she was all, "bye", and I was all, "bye", and she was all, "bye", and I was all, "bye", and she was all, "OKAY. I got it. Bye. Do you have to have the last word ALWAYS? God, Gretchen!" She's frickin' hilarious. Hi, Jodi! I share this habit with Chemmom, though I hadn't noticed her doing it, and we do manage to end conversations with one another somehow, so one of us is hiding our compulsion well. I'm guessing it's her.

4. I fiddle with my eyelashes when I wear mascara. As a teenager I actually pulled them out, resulting in a very odd eyelashlessness (new word!) that finally convinced me to make a real effort not to fiddle. Now I can usually (mostly) refrain until evening, at which time I will notice the fiddling and (hopefully) go wash my face. As a kid I also bit my nails, pulled my eyebrows, and chewed on the ends of my hair. Gee, do you think I was stressed or something?

5. I must be allowed to choose which side of the bed I will sleep on, wherever we go, based on how the room "feels". I haven't figured out what magic criteria I use to make this decision, but there is always a definite right and wrong side for me. Sometimes the left, sometimes the right, sometimes near the door, sometimes away from the door. Lucky for me, my husband couldn't care less which side he gets.

That's five of my weird habits. I'm sure there are others, but we'll follow the rules and stick with five. You're welcome.