Block Bag = Blag

Today I got all Sally Homemaker on Zara's new Mega Blocks. We stopped at Borders yesterday to see what they had with the going out of business sale. The kids books had been picked clean and we only got a couple of those, but in the toy area the Mega Blocks were also half off. We picked up a couple bags of blocks for Zara and since they were in some plastic ziploc close bags, that just wasn't going to do long term for storage. So today we picked up some cute courdoroy fabric and I whipped up a drawstring bag for them. Not too shabby and much better for wrangling them into one place.

Stupid Questions

Our book club book this month was "The Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination" by McKracken. The book is a memoir from a woman whose first child was stillborn and written shortly after the the birth of her second child. The book is sad, but not too sad and was both a good read and good discussion Thursday night.

We didn't get into this discussion Thursday, but one of the questions McKracken as a new mom had problems with was the "is this your first?" A VERY typical question and one that clearly is a lot more difficult to answer for her the most women, but it is stupid mom question number 1. I always thought that question sucked just because the follow-up to is usually smug advice about how they are expert parenters because they have three screaming brats in the booth behind them throwing things. But when you think of it in this context, it is just mean, even if it is unintentional.

Stupid mom question number two: are they sleeping through the night? No, and your kids didn't either so don't try to tell me otherwise.

Stupid mom question number tree: is he/she yours? Really, no, I borrowed this kid because I love grocery shopping and managing a fussy child. Of course, they are mine.

Hopefully you don't ask these questions, but just in case, don't ask me.

Potty Wars

We've been working on potty training for, well, months at this point. At first it was a game and Zara loved it for about a week and then it's been off and on since. Lately, we'd been on a real losing streak though with very few successes in the last month even though she would tell us potty and she'd sit there for a short time/long time/whatever time. After she gets upset, put her diaper back on and she goes in no time. We have stickers and m&ms as rewards, sing songs, read to her, or anything we could think of and nothing worked.

After perusing the internet for tips, we decided to try giving her privacy. umm... really, sometimes no matter how verbal a kid is they still just don't tell you what they want. Yesterday and today we've just been sticking her on the potty handing her a book and ignoring her and, bam, literally. Maybe there is hope after all.

Oh, and she is walking great again and running already. We've said good-bye to pegleg, she's healed.

Pegleg Princess

I feel like I need to post an up update on the wee one. The appointment at the ortho Monday went well, er, health-wise, not so much on the ears of everyone in the room at least. Zara's cast came off with much protest, crying, wailing, and twisting about. It's funny, when she was actually hurt she put up with everything without a whimper, but this time she started crying as soon as we walked in and no one had even touched her. Not sure if she remembered this as the place she was hurt in or what. I had to physically clamp her in my arms while the awesome tech deftly managed to hold on and, with a circular saw, take the cast off without nicking her. Furthermore, Zara then proceeded to do the same thing during the x-ray, the walks between rooms, and the sit-down to let the doc tell us everything was peachy keen.

...And then we left and everything was copacetic again for Z.

But having been trapped in cast for three weeks it is supposed to take just as long to fully heal the muscles and get everything loosened up. Zara is walking, just not well right now. She has a kind of stiff legged limp, but is at least getting around and shows improvement each day. Again, adults would have been in the cast twice as long and need physical therapy at this point to recover, so no real complaints. And for the very long awaited fun, she has gotten many baths and gotten to get in the pool twice now. She is a little fish and has enjoyed getting to be in the water again.

Toddler Ink

It's been awhile since I posted due to a couple very busy weeks at work doing dual duty with my regular work and writing a section for a proposal my firm is submitting. After about a week now of being able to relax, I'm finally getting back to the blog. Zara has done great cast and all for the last three weeks and we head in tomorrow to get it taken off. She has been getting some ink on the broken wheel from both home and school doodles. Hopefully, these are the only tattoos for Zara.


Today we also headed to the zoo for a visit to the animals since we can't go back to the Children's Museum until the cast comes off. Zara enjoyed the chimps the most again with her declared "I like." Also, Sunday morning right at opening is clearly a better time to visit the zoo than the last time we went. No one there, animals were all eating their breakfasts, and, even though it was hot, without the crowds it is a lot more pleasant.