eager little mind

Daphne & I have a stomach bug. Argh. I got sick on Friday, and Daphne didn’t start to feel bad until Sunday. I hadn’t been that sick in years. And shouldn’t there be some kind of cosmic law that states parents of little kids should be immune from getting sick? Because no matter how much extra help you have, the kid always wants you. Poor Daphne wanted me to hold her and carry her on Sunday, when all I wanted to do was lay on the sofa and wish away my stomach cramps.

Luckily, I started to feel a little better today. Daphne has an added problem, a wicked diaper rash. I can’t tell if it’s just from all the extra messy diapers from the stomach bug or if it’s a yeast rash. I’m whipping out all the home remedies and prescription stuff to try and knock this out. Today she spent quite a bit of time diaper-less, which was tricky given her tummy problems. Tonight she had an oatmeal bath, followed by a quick spritz of witch hazel and a dab of milk of magnesia, a few minutes drying her bits off with the hair dryer on low, then an anti-fungal creme and some butt paste. And after jumping through all those hoops, she pooped 20 min. later. Argh!! I hope she feels better soon.

Back to the witch hazel, the smell always makes me want to puke. It’s weird. I guess it conjures up bad postpartum memories of those little Tucks pads they give you in the hospital. So I’ll just hold my breath whenever I use it on Daphne.

Any other ideas on how to treat the rash? I’m thinking about tracking down some Calmoseptine.

Flickr user Baby Hopes has a great photo tutorial for DIY BabyLegs. I really like the way BabyLegs look, but am way too cheap to spend $12 on baby leg warmers. Ack! I’m sure I could find some cheap, fun socks and make a few cute pairs for Daphne to wear under her skirts this winter. Projects like this make me wish I had a serger. (That’s all I need is another gadget to try and find a place for. We have too much stuff!!)

Daphne had a blast at the Children’s Museum yesterday. We spent our time in the Tot Spot area and then briefly went through the rest of the museum before having lunch. I was really impressed. If you are in the Houston area and have kids, you must put the Children’s Museum on your list of must-sees. Here’s just a few of our pictures:

Hey, that guy looks familiar

She loved all these balls

Lots of toys to play with

And lots of other kiddos to interact with, and little toddler boys to flirt with

Is it just me, or does Halloween seem even bigger this year than normal? Target has several aisles of just Halloween decor, including spooky advent calendars. Remember back in the 70’s/early 80’s when you just had paper bats, or those almost life sized paper skeletons held together by brads that you could put in your window, or a scary sound effects record? Now you can put your own horror movie set right in your front yard.

And I see more and more crafty and decor blogs featuring Halloween ideas and projects. One well known blogger even has an “invitation only” Halloween craft blog. For those of you looking for ideas, Martha Stewart has an 8 week (yes 8 weeks!!!) Halloween Workshop on her site. Lots of cute ideas, including these treat buckets:

If I did this, I would use Dum-Dum wrappers, since Dum-Dums are kind of a family joke.

These favors are cute:

And another simple project. So cute:

If you don’t have anything to do today, why not head to a museum? Today is Smithsonian Museum Day and museums across the US are participating and offering free admission. We are headed to the Children’s Museum here in Houston. Check back later for pictures.

Thank goodness the Dish Network people are coming out tomorrow to look at the satellite. We have some channels coming through, but mainly Spanish language soap opera and shopping networks. No local channels, no news, only 1 or 2 movie channels (including HBO Latino which doesn’t help). Even the program guide doesn’t work. Needless to say, the TV has been off for most of the last 2 weeks.

But sometimes I get bored and want to watch something. I’m embarrassed to admit that in the last week I’ve watched an episode of The Waltons (zzzzzzz…), Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (120 min I will never get back, but beggars can’t be choosers) and an episode of Fantasy Island with Peter Graves where he was hunting Bigfoot. He shot at Bigfoot, then almost falls off a cliff, Bigfoot saves him, then Peter Graves and Cyd Cherise decide never to reveal they found Bigfoot because the creature had such a kind heart. Total BS. Was Fantasy Island always such a cheesy show, I can’t remember? And The Wrath of Khan totally ruined me on watching anything else with Ricardo Montalban. I just keep picturing that fake plastic Khan chest underneath Mr. Roarke’s white suit and can’t help but laugh.

So, think of me tonight while you are watching The Office, or any of the other new shows airing. I need to spend some time on Hulu to see what I can watch online. Has anyone been watching Fringe? Is it worth seeing? Anything else I’m missing?

Would you like to know a sure-fire way to get more comment spam on your blog? Just mention freeze dried fruit. A while back I casually mentioned the Gerber freeze dried fruit snacks for toddlers and now I’m guaranteed to get at least 5 spam comments a day from various survivalist sites. Fun stuff. Sites where people talk about how they just ate a can of 20 year old peaches, and how often they should rotate their stash of food. Who knew?

So I’m sure today’s post will generate even more comments. Tired of paying $3 for 1 oz of Gerber bananas and strawberries, I set out to find freeze dried fruit in bulk. Daphne really enjoys them, and so do I. I have really weird texture issues with fruit. Like apples, love the flavor, love them cooked, but absolutely hate them raw. Something about the watery, mealy, crunchy texture just grosses me out. So I’m thinking freeze dried is a good way to get a little more fruit into our diets.

I decided on Honeyville freeze dried strawberries and bananas. Actually I didn’t realize this until I received my order, but the banana chips were listed as dehydrated, not freeze dried, and they aren’t the same texture as the Gerber bananas. They are definitely more crunchy, but still good. I plan on trying more of their products. But not the powdered butter or their “flavored like meat” textured vegetable protein (available in beef, chicken or ham). That just sounds horrible.

Edited- not 10 seconds after I hit Publish, I got my first survivalist spam on this post. Told ya!

Daphne had a rough day yesterday, mainly because she is cutting four top teeth all at once. I suppose that’s one of the downsides to not having any teeth until she was 11 months or so. She has some catching up to do. I mean, some babies her age have molars already. Molars!

We spent most of the day in her room, playing on the floor and reading. My iPod was laying on the guest bed so I hooked the headphones up, turned the volume down low and put the headphones on her ears. She immediately took one hand, held one side of the headphones closer to her ear and then started to dance. I think she was listening to INXS. She then snatched the iPod from my hand and started to browse my music library. I had to wrestle it away from her. And the headphones.

Which reminds me I really need to load some of her music on my iPod so we can listen to it in the car. Daphne & I have really been enjoying some Elizabeth Mitchell cds, You Are My Little Bird and the cd she did with Lisa Loeb, Catch the Moon. Of the two, You Are My Little Bird is better. We have also been enjoying a few cds from Putumayo Kids, the New Orleans Playground and Latin Playground. I don’t know what it is, but there is something about New Orleans jazz that Daphne really enjoys. She also really likes my Preservation Hall Jazz Band cds. And I’m always on the lookout for more great kids music, so if you have any suggestions (preferably stuff that won’t make my ears bleed) please comment.

Today I managed to watch two movies, which is frankly unbelievable that I was able to get so much free time without having to hit pause and chase after Daphne. Anyway, I really enjoyed both shows, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day & the new Sense and Sensibility. After being so disappointed with the new Jane Austen movies on PBS I didn’t make it a priority to watch the new S&S when it aired earlier this year, even though I knew it was done by Andrew Davies (who did the ‘95 P&P). I loved it. I’m totally going to buy the DVD. I think it is right up there with the A&E/BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, as well as the ‘95 version of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds (who was also charming in Miss Pettigrew). I love movies with happy endings.

And back to Miss Pettigrew, I loved Amy Adams and Lee Pace. Cute, cute, cute. And I really like Lee Pace in the show Pushing Daisies, too. (If you haven’t seen it, please tune in. Because if I like it, it’s guaranteed to get critical acclaim and crap ratings and be cancelled. It’s an adorable show… think Amelie meets Tim Burton. Charming, eye candy but kind of dark, if that makes any sense.) Did you know he was born in Chickasha, OK? That surprised me. After seeing him in Miss Pettigrew I checked IMDb to see if he was British.

So, if you are in the mood for a chick flick, I highly recommend these two.

Ok, technically we are almost at 13 months, but between out of town guests, birthdays, roseola and hurricanes, we haven’t had a chance to take any 1 year photos. This is one of my shots: