eager little mind

With all the kerfuffle this morning, I almost forgot my monthly Daphne update. Daph’s 20 months old today. Woo hoo!! And you know what that means. It’s time for me to start obsessing over the details of her 2nd birthday. But, you’ll hear more about that later.

Biggest things this month? TEETH!! She has 5 new ones that have broken the gum line and are on their way in. I thought she was going to have those sad little 8 teeth forever. She’s still adding more words to her vocabulary every day. And even though I haven’t weighed or measured her recently, I think she’s due for a growth spurt soon. She’s been sleeping more and eating everything in the house. Last week, she ate 3 pieces of pizza. Where on earth does she put it? Then she’ll have days where she only wants yogurt and a handful of Cheerios.

Here she is on Sunday, eating her ice cream bar that she got from the ice cream man-

I’m looking forward to taking her to the Houston Zoo before it gets to be too warm (which means in the next few weeks!). I think she’ll get a kick out of it.

We love you, little girl!

Can you guess what this is?

Well, it’s the engine in my mom’s minivan. Why does it look so bad? It was submerged in flood waters earlier this morning. Yeah, it’s been a wild day in Houston, TX.

After receiving as much as 11″ of rain last night, parts of Houston were underwater. But in our limited experience, low lying areas (underpasses, feeder roads, around the bayous) seem to flood frequently when we’ve had a hard rain. Just another weird thing about living here. It doesn’t take two weeks of solid rain to get flooding.

So my mom heads out to Hobby airport for a business trip this morning bright and early, sees some flooding on the off ramp from the tollway, decides to take another turn off, then gets stuck. The van tips forward and water starts to rush in. Unfortunately, she’s had a problem with the windows and they won’t go down. And she can’t get the van door open, due to the water pressure. She calls 911 and heads to the back of the van, since the water in the front was chest-level. Tries to break the windows, no luck. She is finally rescued, only able to take her cell phone and flash drive and is left at the emergency staging station at a Shell. Poor mom didn’t even get her shoes, which had slipped off and were floating around in the car. And the really horrible thing? We were just joking about mom’s car going into water after watching the Myth Busters episode where they try to escape a flooded car. I mean, just last weekend. She really needed one of those window breaking hammer things, because her CHI (flat-iron) and whatever else she could find in her suitcase, didn’t do the job. She even got interviewed by our local ABC station. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the footage yet (or fortunately for mom, since she is mortified that her hair was all crazy), but we did hear the reporter relaying mom’s rescue story to the news anchors.

Then my husband heads out to pick her up. In our “liability insurance only” car. Awesome. Of course, if he took my car he would never get there, since it sits so low to the ground. And it took him 3 hours to reach her, since the city was shut down with flooding and morning commuters (those commuters that didn’t have their work close, even the schools were shut down today). At one point flood waters started to rush into the street and he had to hop the car onto the median to keep the engine from stalling. But the most important thing- everyone is safe and sound.

Newscasters were saying it was the worst flooding they’ve seen since Tropical Storm Allison. How crazy is that? And I thought it would be a boring week. So, just a PSA- if you are ever in Houston and it starts to really rain hard, do not drive into water, expect the underpasses to be flooded, and carry a little hammer thing in case you need to break out of a window

And another YouTube video that had me rolling today- Eddie Izzard and the Death Star Canteen:

And if you want the Lego version.
If you’ve never seen one of his specials, do yourself a favor and rent one. He’s hilarious.

A few weeks ago, I introduced Daphne to Sesame Street, since Noggin booted Jack’s Big Music Show off their daytime rotation (Boo on you Noggin. Toot and Puddle? Seriously?) She loves Sesame Street and especially Elmo.

Here’s a pretty cute video with Ricky Gervais and Elmo. “Get off Elmo!” Bwahahaha.

My husband got a bike this week. A shiny red Schwinn cruiser. It’s cute. Not as cute as my fabulous bike, but definitely more retro cool than the mountain-type bikes he’s owned in the past. We are looking forward to riding together, and with Daphne, as soon as we get a bike trailer and toddler helmet.

We have considered riding along the bike trail that runs through the bayou near our neighborhood. I have a few reservations, though. Ok, so I know there are probably alligators and snakes in the bayou. I’m not concerned about those. But, I’m a little concerned about the feral hog packs that supposedly run through those areas. Of course, as I mentioned this to my husband he laughed at me. Pfft. Seriously. What if I’m biking along and come across feral hogs? I would hope they would want nothing to do with me and run away, but my luck I’d get the sick, rabid hog who wants to eat me. And I’ve seen the movies where serial killers target hookers and runaways then feed them to pigs to dispose of the bodies. I had no idea pigs could eat people. I think I need a feral hog attack plan. Hey, we have a zombie attack plan, so really a feral hog attack plan isn’t that silly.

I told my husband last night that all I wanted for Mother’s Day was some time to myself. I think that’s one of the mistakes I’ve made as a mom- not allowing other people to step in and care for Daphne, feeling like she’s 100% my responsibility. As much as I enjoy being with her, it is draining sometimes.

Chris suggested getting out with my mom for awhile. And as nice as that would be, I really just want time alone. As I told him last night, “I don’t want to talk to anyone, have to consider anyone else’s opinions or desires, and I don’t want anyone (mainly little toddlers named Daphne) touching or hanging on me.” I need to be hermit girl on the mountain for at least 8 hours to recharge my batteries. It’s been THAT kind of week.

Nothing earth-shattering. Just normal frazzled mommy stuff. For example- on Tuesday I attempted to take a bath. Normally, I lock Daphne in the bathroom with me so I can keep an eye on her. But on Tuesday, I decided to let her stay in front of the TV with a cup of Cheerios while I was in the bathroom adjacent to the living room (with the door open). Of course, that lasted about 3 seconds until Daphne was hanging over the edge of the tub, trying to splash in the water, wondering why she wasn’t in the bath. “Bath? Bath?” she would say, while trying to hop in, fully clothed. And while trying to get in, she spilled all the Cheerios into the bathwater, then shrieked in horror at the sight of her snack floating all around me in the tub. As I tried to scoop up the Cheerios and throw them into trash can, Daphne was trying to eat them out of the tub and my hands. I should have laughed at the situation. But, in that moment I was pissed. Not at Daphne. I was pissed because all I wanted was a quick bath. Not a two hour soak with bubbles, candles and a good book. My husband gets to take a shower every single day and is very rarely interrupted. It is a freaking miracle if I can get ready without 10 interruptions.

And you want to hear the really twisted part? As I consider my husband’s offer to take Daphne for the whole day tomorrow, I feel bad. I mean, I think Chris is not going to want to deal with Daphne’s fussy teething crap for an entire day. Chris will be stressed, Daphne will be stressed. The super mommy part of me wants to swoop in and keep the peace. (Argh! What’s wrong with me?!) And let’s face it, I’m too pooped to swoop.

And speaking of pooped, I’m off to take a nap while I can. Then figure out what I want to do with my “me” time.

September 2008 and today. My goodness, she’s getting big.

I love looking back at her pictures. It makes me realize how fast she is growing up.

And yes, that’s the same outfit. It still surprises me that Daphne can still wear 6-12 mo bottoms. But, I’m not complaining. That just means we can get more wear out of her clothes.

For the first time since the second trimester of my pregnancy, I got a full workout at the gym. We have a Wii Fit and an elliptical machine here at home, but for some reason I can’t get motivated to use them consistently. Oh wait, I do know the reason- the fact that neither Daphne nor I have been on a consistent schedule since she was born. Plus I’ve turned into a complete insomniac and usually take an afternoon nap with Daphne to make up for not sleeping at night. Or I’ll get on the elliptical and Daphne will need me for something, or I get distracted. But, if I make the effort to get all the way to the gym I will usually get at least 30-45 min of cardio in before going home.

I actually like going to the gym and only stopped going before I had Daph because of the 100+ degree heat, which in my pregnant state felt like 120 (the gym didn’t have great air conditioning). Oh, and just a quick “what not to do” for the pregnant ladies out there. When I got pregnant I was completely addicted to all those baby shows on TLC and Discovery Health. Especially the really scary Birth Day or Stories episodes. You know, the ones where the worst case scenario always happens and they occasionally show graphic c-sections. Because if I’m prepared for the worst case scenario then I have nothing to worry about, right? So, I’m on the treadmill with the little TV built into the top of the dash. Usually I watched either CNN or one of my baby shows. The particular episode playing that day was a pretty graphic c-section multiple birth and I turned to see the young single guy on the machine next to me looking at the screen with a “WHAT THE HELL!!!!” look on his face as the doctor was cutting through this chicks abdominal wall. Whoops!! Sorry dude. Moral of the story, be considerate when watching scary baby shows.

Anyway, Chris and I have been talking about working out for months and have even discussed doing the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run in January. I don’t think the run will happen. I’ve never done great with high impact stuff. No matter how much stretching I do, I always (always!!) have problems with shin splints. And Chris? Well, I swear he needs new knees. Too many old football injuries. So maybe we can commit to more gym time.

I’ve also been interested in the 30 Day Shred, after hearing about it from so many bloggers I follow. I’m not really a Jillian Michaels (Biggest Loser) fan. I prefer Bob. If I ever had a personal trainer I’d want someone like Bob Harper. Bob seems like someone who would give you a hug, in comparison to Jillian who scares me. It’s only an $8.99 commitment (If you buy it on Amazon) so maybe I’ll give it a try.

And for those of you who do work out consistently, how do you stay motivated? Do you have a set workout time or schedule, or is it just something you fit in? I guess I need to make it a priority.

These are Daphne’s favorite shoes. Turquoise “Crocs” from The Children’s Place. She wants to wear them every time she leaves the house. Today she cried when I tried to take them away and put on coordinating white/pink “Crocs.” Seriously? Does it start this early? I mean, I didn’t think she’d start to have an opinion about her clothing until at least 2 or 3. Ah, well. I can’t tell you how hard it is for me to let her out of the house without a coordinating outfit. But, I’m picking my battles.

Since my sister is pregnant, I’ve spent some time looking at baby stuff. There is so much more out there than there was just two short years ago. Figures. Even Target and Babies R Us carry cute modern crib bedding sets. So, if I had to do a new nursery, this is what I would choose. First up, Girls-

I fell in love with Amanda Peet’s nursery that was featured in Domino magazine.

I took one look at the Funny Girl movie poster and thought, “Brilliant!!” I love Funny Girl. Barbra Streisand was perfect and Omar Sharif was so dreamy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that movie. So, I’d balance the picture with other artwork that was meaningful to us, and various pink fabrics, pillows, etc. Eclectic and girly. Or if I wanted to stick with primary colors, an Amelie movie poster. I adore Amelie.

And for a boy? Well, boys are harder. I’m not a fan of “precious” for nurseries, so no teddy bears, animals or cute boats or planes. We had considered doing a space/robot theme if Daphne had been a boy, complete with Blik space invader wall decals. And I guess I’d stick with that. There are so many cute robots prints on Etsy, from sellers like John W Golden. This little guy is cute:

And this fabric from luckx4 is great-

And Keri Beyer’s Rocket Scientist fabric line is pretty cute too-

And since it would be a nursery, how about some cute spaceman and robot stuffies from Wee Wonderfuls?

Or a few other options for wall decals from Etsy seller, thoughtsthatstick

Too much cute stuff out there!