Hedgie Birthday to Me!

Okay, I'm back. Just like I promised. :) To clarify, I did not give Hurley a full-on tub bath. What I did was get a bowl of warm water and an old toothbrush and gave him a Dip 'N' Brush bath. He seemed okay with it until I started trying to clean his diry little feet. That he did not appreciate. Afterward, to make sure he stayed warm, I held him for a long time, all wrapped up in a towel.

It's been a bit of a big day for Hurley, actually. He had a follow-up appointment with the Hedgehog Doctor this morning. He did wonderfully (only tried to curl up in a ball once) and they said he's looking good and gaining weight. While we were at the vet's office, the little Silly bit me! It was not an aggressive bite - I think he liked the way my lotion smelled/tasted - but it still broke the skin!

Doug is taking the day off work for my birthday tomorrow, partly because I will be gone for the rest of the weekend. The Gateway Women's Retreat is tomorrow evening through Sunday morning and I'm so excited! I'm heading out tomorrow afternoon with two of my good friends. Doug, Lila and I will have our family fun and celebrate my birthday before that. I do love birthdays...

Not ignoring you on purpose. Crazy times. It's all good. Tomorrow is my birthday!

Here's a photo of Lila, playing with rocks at the playground.

Will post more in a little while. Am currently typing one-handed because I'm also holding a hedgehog who just got his first bath and is a little freaked out. :)

Lila Stats

Number One way to tell that Lila needs to go to bed: She is in the living room, wearing nothing but a diaper, holding a pancake up in the air with one hand, running around in circles, and making high-pitched hooting noises.

Number of times Lila has been soaking wet today: 2
Number of baths she's had: 1
Number of times she ran through a fountain in 70 degree weather until she was dripping from top to bottom: 1
Number of other mothers who walked by and gave me "What kind of mother are you?" looks: 5
Number of children who watched enviously as Lila ran gleefully around in her soggy shoes: 5
Number of extra outfits I had with me: 0
Number of times I stripped Lila down in public and wrapped her in a blanket: 1
Amount of fun she had: too much to measure!

I'm not sure what to talk about today. The fact that my poor child is teething and has been chewing on her hands for two days? My upcoming jury duty? Poor Cordy who is spending the night at the vet so she can have her teeth cleaned tomorrow?

Oops! Looks like I won't be talking about any of those things because dinner is ready!

Movie Review

I saw another movie last night, but this time it was not one of my late-night movie fests. I went out with a few friends for dinner and then we saw Reign Over Me. It was really good! I went into it skeptical because I was afraid it was going to be cheesy, but was the only movie playing right now that we were all somewhat interested in.

The plot: A man (Adam Sandler) who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate (Don Cheadle). Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief. (Source: IMDB)

I'm so glad that we saw it! It's a long movie - two hours, plus a few minutes - but the story was so compelling that I didn't mind. I was aware of the time, but wanted it to keep going. Adam Sandler did a great job with his character, as did the rest of the cast. It was hard to watch, but it had some funny moments and it gave me a glimpse into what it must be like to have been one of those who lost a loved one (or their entire family) that day.

I recommend seeing it as soon as you can. I know I said that last week about Meet the Robinsons too. So you can take the kids to see Meet the Robinsons and then go without them to see Reign Over Me. If you don't have kids, then celebrate that fact by watching both of them in one day! Just make sure you see Meet the Robinsons first.

Pol-len keeps falling on my head...

Have you ever noticed how the phone will not ring all day long, until you sit down to dinner, or to watch a movie, or get in the shower... and then the floodgates are opened?

This morning, the phone rang once while we were all home and available. [Okay, technically it rang twice, but Lila hung up on them the first time when she attempted to answer the phone herself, so the call-back doesn't count.] Then Doug and Lila left to go to Ikea while I stayed home to dye my hair. It was tough, letting them go to Ikea without me, but my roots were an inch and a half long and I'm going to be on stage tomorrow, so it needed to be dealt with.

Anyway, they left and I got all prepped and put the dye on my hair. And then the phone rang. I couldn't answer it without staining a phone, so I just let it go. Then there was a knock at the door. I thought about ignoring that too, but not answering felt too much like lying, so I grabbed a robe and went to see who it was. Thankfully, it was just a neighbor who wanted to use our stapler.

After I got out of the shower and was trying to watch an episode of Buffy and eat lunch (both very important activities, you understand), there was another knock at the door. This time it was the Jehovah's Witnesses with a magazine for me. (It would have made for a much better story if they had been the ones to show up while I had a purple head, but alas...)

Then the phone rang again. And again. The last time it was Doug, so I picked it up. While I was talking to him, there was another knock at the door. For crying out loud! This time it was a guy who appeared to have either a drug habit or a nervous disorder and wanted to sell me some children's books. Or some magazines. Or maybe just to mow my lawn. The best thing about him was that he hit Doug up in the driveway after he got home with a completely different story than he gave me!

Finally, Doug and Lila came home and peace returned to the house. The phone has only rung one time since they got back and no one has come to the door. Go figure.

Hedgehog Grooming

Hurley before having his feet washed and his claws trimmed.


Hurley after having his feet washed and his claws trimmed.

I don't think he enjoyed it.

This adorable little creature also found his way into my pantleg this evening and climbed up to just below my knee before I could do anything about it. I ended up having to lay in the floor and very carefully remove my jeans to get him out. The boy is obsessed with getting inside my clothes! He climbs into my shirt at every given opportunity, but that's not as bad. There are multiple ways into and out of my shirt and most of them don't involve pain.

Feeling Better

I was contemplating something today as I sweated away at the gym; walking for miles on the elliptical trainer, and yet going nowhere. I think that women, generally speaking, would be infinitely more content with their bodies, whatever the shape or number on the scale, if only they didn't jiggle.

For example, I have, through no great effort of my own, a blessedly flat stomach for someone with a young child and a slowing metabolism. However, I wouldn't dream of showing it off because, aside from the modesty issue, it wobbles. As a wise lady I once met said, "It's so cute on babies! Why isn't it cute on me?"

And furthermore, is it completely terrible that I love the song Baby Got Back?

Quickie

I feel that my posts have been lacking in style lately. Unfortunately, I am sick sicky sick today, so I won't be making up for it in this post. Instead, I offer you photos of what I did with Lila yesterday afternoon to keep us occupied - dress up! I needed something that would entertain her without requiring much effort on my part. It worked. And now I must go to bed becuase I feel YUCKY!

Nummy Goop

We're passing some sort of yuckiness around between us this week. Doug has been mildly sick for the past few days and I woke up with it this morning. It's not bad enough for me to ask Doug to stay home from work to help me... just bad enough that I don't feel like moving or opening my eyes. Oh well. Hopefully Lila won't get sick! There were, however, two things that happened this afternoon to make my day complete.

The first was Easy Reader. Last week, I bought 'The Best of The Best of The Electric Company' on DVD. I didn't really expect Lila to like it yet, but I wanted to get it for my own amusement. She does like it, however, so we watched half an episode over the weekend and the other half while we waited for Doug to get home from work today. The crowning moment was watching the Easy Reader skit. Share my joy by going here: The Electric Company.

The other thing was what Lila said during dinner. We had Cheesy Cauliflower Soup, which was quite yummy. Lila usually refuses to taste anything we are eating for dinner, but this time she asked for a bite of my soup and then liked it so much that she wanted her own bowl. We set her up in her chair with a bowl of soup and I asked, "Is that yummy soup?" Her reply was, "Nummy goop!"

Movie Review

I did my monthly Late Night Movie run on Friday. After last month's lame-o movie, I was a little concerned about what I was getting myself into this time. But I went and I got a ticket to the latest show, no matter what it was, as always. This time it was 'Meet the Robinsons' - a computer-animated Disney flick. I had seen the previews for it and I wasn't too excited, especially since it is a Disney movie and I haven't liked most of the things they've put out in the past few years.

This one was really good though! It had a predictable, but fun story with loveable characters and a clear moral that I could agree with. The humor was great and did not involved farting or other such bodily functions. I give it a 10 and recommend seeing it as soon as you can. Take your kids. Take your neighbor. Take your dog!

Disclaimer: I realize that I just raved about this movie, but if you do go see it, please try to go in with no expectations. I don't want to be responsible for building the movie up in your head and then having it not live up to your expectations. I've had that happen to me too many times. Like with 'The Breakup,' for example. Everyone I talked to seemed to love it. I hated it.

The Bunny

We went to a Bunny Trail Bonanza Egg Hunt this morning with some friends and Lila had a blast. Much to my surprise, she was not afraid of this giant bunny. (I've always thought the Easter Bunny was kind of dumb - sorry! - so I didn't call him that, I just said it was a person dressed like a bunny. Honestly, I think that's got to be a less scary prospect than a giant bipedal rabbit whose face doesn't move anyway!) In fact, she wanted to stay in his lap after the picture and I had to explain that other kids wanted to sit in his lap too. :)

Stuff

I really don't have much of anything to talk about today. My daughter is still cute. So is my husband. So are my kitties. So is my hedgehog. I've been having an emotionally tumultuous time for the past few weeks, but I'm feeling alright at the moment. This evening we are doing the normal things and Doug is currently making up new lyrics to "Wheels on the Bus."

I'm still slowly working on my book, which means that I'm still conducting "interviews" with people. I'm losing momentum on that task and I'm not sure if it's just because the novelty has worn off or if I'm growing emotionally weary from all these discussions of depression. Either way, I have a few more scheduled and then I'll evaluate and decide whether to keep interviewing or start writing.

We are trying to decide where to go for a summer vacation. We might go to Santa Barbara because I have a friend who is getting married there on June 30th. However, Santa Barbara, like any place in California, is expensive! I think I'll look around at some other ideas to see if anything jumps out at us. Plus, we went to the beach last year and I'm excited for Lila to experience something new. And that is all.

Charlie's Bad Day

Poor Charlie is so mad at me right now that he won't even look at me. He already has a very difficult life, what with only being fed three times per day and not even getting to drink from the bathroom faucet on some days. And, as you can see from this photo, he suffers great injustice at the hands of Lila the Cruel. I mean, really! Charlie doesn't even look good in red!

Well, tonight's offense tops them all. He finally met Hurley, face to face, and Hurley was not remotely impressed by the cat whose head is larger than his entire body. He sniffed and went on with his exploring. Charlie was intrigued and wanted to give Hurley a little swat, but we wouldn't let him. I tried to explain that it was in the best interest of his little pink paw pads not to do such a thing, but he still thinks we were being mean.

Hurley then made it even worse by touching Charlie! What the--?!? He really didn't appreciate that. And then I let Hurley roam around the bathroom floor for a while. And THEN he wandered out into the hallway. Oh the horrors! And when he ducked behind the bathroom door, it was finally more than Charlie could take and he tried to give him The Paw again. Hehehe... I love animals!

Two Things that are Very Wrong

1. My hedgehog peed down my cleavage this evening.

Hurley has been quite the little cutie for the past couple of nights. He's licked my hand a couple of times, but I don't think that's really affection. However, he did let me scratch/rub his belly a bit last night. And this evening he crawled around my neck and shoulders and rooted around in my hair (which gave me goosebumps), then settled in and snuggled up against my neck. So sweet! But you know what's not sweet? Hurley Pee. It smells like greasy fried chicken.

2. My husband just told me that he'd rather have a back massage than sex.

Now, it's true that he spent most of Friday doing manual labor (including chopping down a tree in our backyard) and has been feeling it ever since then. "He's a lumberjack, and he's real sore!" It's also true that under normal circumstances this would not be his answer. Still, I think I should be offended.