Hurley

Here are some pictures of Hurley, hopefully more satisfying than the photo of his tush. Please observe the completely adorable feetz in the second photo. (and i believe that's a bit of his bedding in my hair) :)




P.S. - This cute hedgehog pooped in my hand this afternoon. Ew.

here, there, and everywhere

Sorry my posts have been so spotty lately. I've been very preoccupied. Today I will give you a photo of Lila mopping (gotta start 'em early!) and the lyrics to a song that I've heard a million times, but it meant a lot to me when I heard it this morning.

After this, I'm off to play with a hedgehog. :)

when nothing satisfies
(by jennifer knapp and margaret becker)

when it rains or it shines on this pillow of mine
i will lift up my head to the sky
so i have chance to see
where my hope has come from
know there's nothing that i can't abide

when nothing satisfies you
when nothing satisfies you
when nothing satisfies you
hold my hand

send forth Your light Lord,
and send forth Your truth
let them guide me to Your holy place
then will i go to the altar of God
to my Joy, my Delight and my Strength

when nothing satisfies you
when nothing satisfies you
when nothing satisfies you
hold my hand

why are you so downcast o my soul?
why so disturbed within me?
put your hope in God
my Savior, my King
my Savior, my King

when nothing satisfies you
when nothing satisfies you
when nothing satisfies you
hold my hand

Hurley's Tush

So far, this is the best photo I have of Hurley. I was forgetting about that whole Nocturnal Thing when I said I'd get pictures of him during the day today. What you are seeing in this photo is his little pink tail and the backs of his hind feet. And yes, that is a little doodie by his tush. I didn't notice that before I took the picture. What can I say? He's a hedgehog, not a cat. :o)~

iii got a hedgehooog! [singsong]

I am now the very proud owner of an extremely cute hedgehog. I don't actually know if it's a boy or a girl, but, for the time being, I'm going to assume it's a boy and call it Hurley. I don't want to traumatize him with a camera flash on his first night in a new place, but I'll try to get some no-flash shots during the day tomorrow. His little snout is too cute to be believed!

Danger Baby

It's been an exciting week for Lila, so far. She's been having some kind of allergic reaction since yesterday morning that's got her all blotchy and red (see photo). The blotches will disappear in one place and reappear in another. This happened once last summer and we never figured out what she was reacting to (nothing in her environment or diet had changed). We just give her Benadryl and wait for it to work itself out.

Last night, while she was in the bath, I tried to put her eye out. There was a small plastic cup on the counter that she usually plays with in the tub. I picked it up, said, "Hey Lila! Look!", and threw it into the tub. Only my terrible aim kicked in and it hit her right at the edge of her eye. This, of course, scared her and hurt and she ended up with a red welt on her face (gone by this morning)! Good one, Mom.

This afternoon, at the end of her naptime, she attempted her first crib escape. She had been awake and talking for a while and I decided to make one last trip to the potty before I got her up. While I was "busy", she started crying. I figured she was finally tired of being in there alone and didn't worry about it. When I got in there, I discovered that she was crying because her leg was stuck in the rails!

Whew! Let's hope that tomorrow is less eventful...

Oh, she has also decided that she will only wear pajamas that have kitties on them. Seriously. She will scream if you try to put any others on her. And I had nothing to do with this! The most unfortunate part is that she only has three pair of kitty pajamas (out of about 8) and one of them is really too small.

Lila got her first haircut on Saturday. Here she is afterward, checking out a playhouse inside Toys R Us. (note: we were not even considering buying this $400 playhouse - it was just a fun diversion.)

You spin me right 'round Baby, right round...

Poor Dougie has been sick today. He woke up at 1 a.m. with fever and chills. He doesn't really have any other symptoms though. Just achiness and run down feeling. I can't remember the last time he took a sick day because he was actually sick! He usually has to stay home because I'm sick and need help with Lila.

On an unrelated note, Lila loves it when you hold her and spin. She'll say "Muh! Muh!" every time you stop. As of Sunday, she now knows how to say 'spin'. I was holding her and she said something that I didn't understand. When I asked her to say it again, she did and kind of jerked herself around to indicate spinning. It was very funny! She then insisted that I spin her until I couldn't take it anymore.

Doug took over next and this photo is a shot of them spinning together. She loves it! After Doug finally couldn't take any more spinning, she started requesting that we spin the kitties. I had never spun a cat before, so I decided to humor her. Cordy didn't care for it. Charlie was so freaked out by it that he went careening out of the room with a growl. I guess kitties don't like to spin.

Movie Review

I don't think I ever mentioned here my latest Late Night Movie Adventure. Boy, this habit of mine is really hit or miss! This past time was a definite miss. I saw The Astronaut Farmer and it was just... my apologies to anyone who has seen this movie and actually liked it but, I found it to be... stupid.

It was not remotely believable, even in a "suspend your disbelief" kind of way. It was just dumb. And it's supposed to be an inspiring, always-follow-your-dreams story, but I couldn't even appreciate that part of it. This man's pursuit of his dream is so selfish and destructive to his family that there was nothing admirable about it!

The only positive thing I can say for the movie is that it was, I suppose, well acted. That's not enough to redeem it though. My advice: Don't even rent The Astronaut Farmer (unless you have a coupon).

By the way, the above photo is of Lila reading 'The Hobbit'. What can I say? She's a genius.

Lila's Latest Stats

Weight: 22 lbs 3 oz (20th %ile)

Height: 30.5 in. (15th %ile)

Head Circumference: 47 cm. (70th %ile

Here kitty kitty kitty...

I really really really want a kitten. A stripey orange one, to be precise. I even had a dream this weekend that I'd found a kitten in a parking lot and brought it home with me. I tried to convince Doug that it was a prophetic dream, but he's not buying it.

True, the rational part of my brain knows that it's not a good idea. The two cats we have are already convinced that we don't love them anymore because we won't get rid of Lila and re-devote our lives to their care. And I have a hard enough time keeping Lila from being rough with these guys - I shudder to think what she could do to a kitten.

I suppose it is better to wait, but they're so cuuute!

Maybe a puppy would be better. They can handle the rough treatment from Lila and they too are really cute! Unfortunately, they also grow up to be dogs, which neither of us want.

Hamster? The kitties might eat it. Guinea pig? Might bite Lila. Pot-bellied pig? Hmm... that's one to look into!

Look out!

The following things have happened in the past week:

1. Our oven died the aforementioned fiery death.

2. Our garbage disposal choked on a steak and died.

3. My keyboard began exhibiting signs of schizophrenia.

4. Our alarm clock decided it was really only interested in displaying the passing seconds.

Clearly some sort of goblin has gotten inside our house and begun to wreak havoc on our electronic devices. Either that or I've been stressed out at the signs of summer's rapid approach and my electro-magnetic field is frying things that I get close to.

Hey, it could happen! Let's not forget the three or four hard drives I went through when I first started work at HRW, the door locking mechanism in the parking garage that malfunctioned and rained down metal on me, or the garage door that broke and trapped my car in the garage a couple of years ago.

Talking to Myself and Posessed Keyboards

Here's what I've been having to tell myself a lot over the past 24 hours:

"You are not God. Also, it is not your job to make decisions for other people."

We have some friends who are going through a very tumultuous and emotional time and have some very big decisions to make. I want so badly to see things work out for the best. But I must remember that my idea of "the best" is not always the same as God's idea of it. But I can trust that, whatever decisions are made, God works all things together for the good of those who love him.

That doesn't mean that everything that happens is going to be good, but that God can use it for good in a person's life. I've seen this in my own life. Depression is not good, but God has used it to mold me into the person I am. He has given me a great faith and closeness with Him that I might not otherwise have had.

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On a much different note, my keyboard seems to be posessed. It keeps doing things like ignoring the letters that I am pressing and spontaneously turning on CAPS LOCK. I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating it is to try and type while this is going on!

Veruca Salt

In case you are wondering, Lila has said 'no' approximately 117 times today.

While she has recovered from her ear infections and returned to her normal personality (Thank you, God!), she is still throwing the occasional Freak-Out. Yesterday morning, when I went to pick her up from day care (after BSF), she was having a snack at the kiddie-sized picnic table with all the other toddlers. She had already finished off what was given to her and was eyeing the food of those around her.

When I told her it was time to go home, she started crying and saying [can you guess what she said? go on! guess!] 'no!' and 'dinner', which is her word for every time that you eat. I told her that she could have more food in the car, but that was not good enough. After a lot of crying and flailing, I determined that she wanted to have the rest of her snack at that little table, thankyouverymuch!

That one is not as amusing as some of the other things she's freaked out about, but you get the idea.