Friday, June 27, 2008

Pretty in Pink, Pt. 2


I finally recovered from our recent painting marathon and finished painting the bookcase so we could move it out of the entryway (where we have to squeeze past it to get to the front door) and into Britt's room.

She requested a rainbow but Mikey didn't want me to get too gaudy with it, so I painted the front edges of the shelves to match her closet doors, and she was delighted with the results:

Britt's New Room

We moved it into her room last night and she rounded up all her books to put on the shelves. She was so excited about it that I'm beginning to feel glimmerings of hope that the books might actually stay there instead of being scattered all over the living room floor, but time will tell.

She also picked out which stuffed animals she wanted on the top shelf, but I'm fixin' to go yank the ugly red gorilla and the green teddy bear because they clash with my color scheme.

I'm going to paint a few flowers and butterflies or bees or something on the sides and tried to get started on that today but couldn't print out the template I want to use because the printer's out of ink. So I taped a sheet of paper to the computer screen and traced it. Then I dug the projector out of the garage and discovered that my template is too big for the projector window. Also, I can't get the damned picture to focus because the projector's electrical cord is too short.

So, no painting today. It'll have to wait until I can get to the getting place for some ink and an extension cord. Actually, it will have to wait until Tuesday when Britt's back in school; she's been very disappointed that all the painting happens when she's not here, because she wants to help.

(***shudder***)

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Potty Trained!


The summer session at Britt's preschool started last week and she wore panties all three days with no accidents.

She only wears Pull-Ups at night now and, quite honestly, she wakes up dry most days so we could probably do without them, but I'm not in a big hurry to get rid of them altogether. I'm too busy leaping about with joy because I don't have to clean up poop-smeared booty anymore.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Haircut


That whole first week after it was done, I could hardly look at her without wanting to cry. It's taken me this long to even be able to talk about it.

It was way past time to do something; combing the snarls and tangles out of her hair every day led to flailing, wailing and buckets of tears. And it was pretty hard on her, too.

I didn't cut her hair myself because I was afraid of screwing it up. So we went to a salon. Where it was butchered even worse than I could have managed. When we got home I was so wrecked that I needed to lay down with a cold rag on my head.

I'm finally getting used to it, a little. I trimmed up the bangs some and it needs a few more snips on the sides, but I can't get her to hold still long enough. We stocked up on barrettes and we've been experimenting to see what works best -- parted in the middle, parted on the side, bangs down, bangs pinned back, etc.

But you know what?

Britt's new haircut

She's still the cutest kid on the planet.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Just ducky, pt. 2


Britt was eager for our baby duckies to "patch" but, when it finally happened, she slept through the whole thing. Which was probably just as well, since there was a bit of trauma involved.

We checked on the mama duck Sunday night and saw a little baby peeking out from underneath her, so we went away and let them do their thing for a while. In the meantime, I looked online to see what to expect next, and learned that she would probably lead her babies to the pond early the next morning.

We went out to check again a couple of hours later and saw her standing on the other side of the sidewalk with her babies gathered around her:

Photobucket

I told Mikey that I didn't think she was supposed to take them to the pond until morning, just as he leaned over to peek into the abandoned nest.

Guess what he saw in the nest?

Go ahead, guess.

You'll never guess.

It was a damned possum! Mikey chunked a rock at it and it ran off, but there was also a lone baby duck still in the nest that didn't look at all right. Not knowing what else to do, we went back in the house to give the mama duck a chance to take care of things:

Photobucket

When we came back out a little later, all the ducks were gone, except for the one still in the nest, which was dead. So Mikey took off down the street toward the pond to see if they made it there safely. He did find them on their way to the pond, and we've been meaning to go over there all week to see how they're doing (it rained like a mofo later that night and got pretty chilly), but haven't managed to yet.

We think she left here with seven live ducklings. When I was making the dead one go away I found a couple of unhatched eggs in the nest; I broke them open and saw that they were unfertilized. Which was good, because I was afraid she'd been chased off her nest before she could get them all hatched.

Anyway, Britt was extremely disappointed that she had missed everything, and also because she had wanted to ask the mama duckie if she could keep one of her babies for a pet, an issue that I am very happy to have avoided.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

No turning back now


The mullet is no more.

Photobucket

Her poppa is going to shit.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

We have poop, people!


In the potty! Where it belongs!

It was one week ago today that Britt finally started dropping the kids off at the pool. She wears panties all day and Pull-Ups only at night and away from home. She has occasional wet "accinents" but I haven't had to clean up any poopy panties, for which I am profoundly grateful.

She doesn't want an audience, though, so she slips away quietly to do her business and then comes running to tell me, "I pooped! Come and see!" So I go and admire the, um, end product, wipe her bottom and flush. And we all go away happy.

I put all her panties in her brand-new chest of drawers so she can grab a fresh pair whenever she needs to, and that's working out pretty well -- except that she usually uses a leg hole for a waistband, resulting in some pretty comical wedgies.

Also, I put all her stained, ratty clothing in the other drawers so she can pick out her own play clothes for the day and dress herself, while all her nice outfits for school and public outings hang safely in the closet. Or that was the plan, anyway. She keeps yanking them off their hangers, thinking she's going to wear her pretty dresses out to play in the backyard. Also, she changes clothes at least three or four times a day. Because she can. Because they're there. So accessible. So irresistible.

Another item in her chest of drawers: I was putting laundry away and pushed a drawer shut and heard a "yowwwr!" Stupid cat. I had to keep opening and closing drawers (more "yowwwrs") before I finally found him and dragged him out. I'm not sure if Britt tucked him away in there or if he found his own way in, but nothing would surprise me at this point.