Her Royal Crankiness

Our little Sydney is teething -- big-time.

She is quite cranky, too. Last night she was up for more than 3 hours straight, because she was running a slight fever (101.1). One dose of Tylenol later, she was happy as a clam. We also went to Vitamin Cottage and got her some homeopathic gel to put on her gums. Last night we bought her 2 of those teether things -- the kind of gel-filled ones that you put in the freezer. Those have been a hit, for sure.

This weekend was kinda laid-back -- casual dinners out, lots of shopping, an hour at the park here or there -- the weather has been spectacular.

The window tinting guy is coming back tomorrow to finish most of hte rest of the house -- he was AWESOME.

I spent a good part of Thursday and Friday finishing up the Mother's Day gifts (yes, I know I'm late) so grandmas -- those will go out in the mail tomorrow (Monday). Hooray!

We're looking at going camping for a couple of days before it gets too hot.

If you're planning to come visit in August -- please let us know about when you're thinking.

We're heading to Maui in early August for about a week (yeah!) to hang out with Joe Vitale again (one of the teachers from the movie The Secret) -- yes I know it's only 2 weeks after we get back from spending a month in Australia, but so what? we're flexible :-)

Grammy is supposed to be in town around that time...then we are headed to Las Vegas for a long weeekend for a 1-day event in Andy's home business. And Nana is talking about coming to visit that month as well.

AS of now, looks like we will keep Sally in teh private Montessori school. She may switch teachers, however....

more to come

We're Tinted...and "The Tick"

We got up this morning, expecting a typical day in the Grant household. Except that the window tinting guy was expected at 9AM.

Then Sally says, "Daddy, I have a bump and it hurts."

Daddy takes a look and calls me from upstairs, a bit frantically -- "Honey, come here now. Sally has a tick."

"OK, calm down," I said. "There's no need to freak her out." You know how he gets.

But then when I took a look (it was at the base of her neck. buried in her hair), I nearly freaked out. And my scalp immediately started itching. Ewwwwww. If I can get andy's help, I'll post a photo tomorrow.

That was the biggest darn tick I've ever seen. And judging from the bump and the bright purple hematoma, he was chowing down on our little Sal-Sal.

We immediately did what any parent does these days -- one of us went online for advice while the other called the pediatrician.

Apparently it's no longer cool to do it the way our folks did it when we were kids. No match, no alcohol, no petroleum jelly. Just good ol' tweezers and steady pulling.

No thanks, we'll let doc take care of that. That's why I pay insurance, right?

and the doc did indeed take care of it -- like a pro. Sally got to see the squirming tick that had been latched onto her and she was completely nonplussed.

Clearly not understanding the word "tick," she declared it to be a spider.

Of course, she's not afraid of spiders, either -- probably because Charlotte's Web is her (current) favorite movie.

On the way to school (her class had a field trip to sing for hte 'old people' which I informed her was probably better said as "seniors" to which sally replied "yes, mom. They're senior teachers.") we talked about parasites and ticks.

I was satisfied that I had made my point, until Sally asked, "So the tick was my friend?"

Hmmm, back to the drawing board, Mom. The conversation then revolved around whether or not the tick had asked permission before drinking her blood. And how that wasn't very nice of the tick to take her blood without asking her if it was OK.

Finally, she said "that was a bad tick!"

"Yes it was sweetie. And now it's gone." And as I write this, I begin itching again....

PErhaps the most amusing part of teh escapade was when the PA student asked the doc if she wanted to keep (preserve) the tick, and the doc made a very girly face and said, "Ewww, no. Flush it please before it crawls away and bites someone else!"

See why we like this pediatrician?

Meanwhile....back at the homestead, Andy was supervising the tinting guys. What a charming duo -- Stacey (yes, a guy) and Dean. A delight to chat with, and utmost professionals (aka perfectionists).

The difference is extraordinary. There are no longer "hot spots" on our carpet from the sun beaming in through our skylights/high windows/sidelights. We've got privacy aroudn our front door now, without any hideous 4" wide wood blinds or shades.

Our views are even more spectacular -- it's liek the difference between no sunnies and polarized lenses.

the best part?

Our house was at least 5 degrees cooler today.

Hooray!!!!!

We actually had him add 2 additional rooms while he was here and before he left, Andy got a quote for all remaining windows in the house.

Gotta love teh good people at 3M.

Happy Mother's Day

Well, we made all our phone calls yesterday, but I didn't take the time to post...

It was a fabulous day, actually. When I woke up, I had lots of presents to open, including a purple Lilac scented Yankee Candle (Sally picked that out), a Zen rock garden for my desk, a battery-powered exfoliating skin thing (which looks very cool -- my dear cracked heels are itching to try it out, as soon as I find hte appropriate batteries...around here somewhere...) a book that was recommended to me recently (The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss) and a gadget-thingy so that I can play music anywhere in the house through our built-in speakers by controlling it through my laptop and the wireless internet (don't ask me to explain. All I know is I told Andy that I wanted to be able to play music anywhere in teh house without a 30-minute lesson on how to work all the remotes that go wtih our A/V equipment. So this is a VAST improvement!)

I suppose we've been in a spending mood -- we got a new GPS thingy for the car, which is great fun. We changed hte accent from US English to Australian, in preparation for our upcoming trip. We also got a Philips portable DVD player that is quite handy as well, and will be useful on the trip.

AND we found a nanny -- did I tell you our Australia nanny backed out? But we are now bringing our friend Penny from church -- she is a retired schoolteacher and is thrilled to be going.

We had lunch at a darling Indian place and last night we went to the Castle Cafe. Most of hte evening was spent editing video for my new online TV show, which begins in a few days.

Exciting stuff!!!

Mother's Day Celebration Begins

Today we kicked off Mother's Day and I was milking it (no pun intended) for all I could.

I got 1 of my presents already -- an "iCush" Have you seen these? At first, I thought it was kind of cheesy but then I tried it out, and oh my goodness, it is WONDERFUL

it's a pad shaped like a backrest/seat that you put on a chair. In addition to adjustable massage via remote, there is a place to plug in your iPod. There are adjustable speakers at the head and you can also choose to have a massage "in tune" with the music. It's super-cushy and I love it.

Since I moved my high-powered foot massager into my office, I am toatlly set up now -- music, meditation, massage, the works. Good thing, since I seem to spend at least a few hours a day in here!

Andy was craving seafood so he wanted to go to Red Lobster. I admit, I was reluctant -- no one who grew up in New Orleans eats at Red Lobster!

But I had no idea that a lot of their stuff was flown in fresh. So we went a little crazy adn satisfied our seafood cravings earlier tonight. It was very nice, but we didn't get home with kthe kids until after 10PM (!) so we all came home and crashed

Wonder what I'll get tomorrow.....

MILESTONE: Sydney's First Word!

It's a banner day in the Grant household (well, at least for Mama)

Sydney said "Mama" today !!!! Numerous times!

Daddy was not too happy. He figured at least one of our children would have "dada" be their first word

But of course, Mommy was THRILLED

hooray!!!

Sydney's Rice Cereal

This weekend's trip to Breckenridge was kind of a bust. See the posts in my success blog. Andy skiied for about an hour, took Sally sledding for about an hour, and we spent 2 hours in a cute children's museum. Other than that, it was kind of a crappy weekend. Nasty weather, poor accomodations, and a couple of work matters that required attention.

When we got home last night, I pumped and we decided to put some rice cereal in a bottle with the breastmilk. She likes it just fine, so today I cleaned up Sally's old high chair so we can start spoon feeding her cereal (hooray!) Sydney's first cereal!!

We bought Sally some tablets to put into her bath to make it change color -- she LOVES these. Also she loves a busy bug counting toy I got her from my neighbor who sells Discovery Toys.

That is about it for now...