Clairedevil

Clairedevil. That's the newly adopted word for daredevil. She's going to kill me. She's also going to end up in the emergency room before she's 2.

My childhood friend, Jodi, and I took our girls to Centennial Park today for a play date. After buttering Claire up in sunscreen and plopping her in her stroller, we headed toward one of the awesome playgrounds on the south side of the park. It was a great space...lots of slides, a rock climbing wall, stepping stones, the works. I watched as my daughter's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I knew I was in for it.

She immediately wants to climb up the steps and walk across a path made of horizontal rails. Of course there was about a foot of space between each one, but girlfriend didn't care. I held on to her and she hopped across. God bless Jodi...she ran after her through the equipment while I stood watch on the ground ready to catch her if (ha, when) she fell.

Jodi and Ava (who will turn 2 on my birthday :-), June 7) were sitting nicely on a blanket under a tree blowing bubbles. I tried repeatedly to lure Claire back to the blanket with promises of saltines (her new obsession). She simply grabbed the cracker and headed back to the field of dreams.

Then there was the last straw. She climbed up the steps and walked over to a slide she'd been down before. I quickly ran to the bottom of that slide and ordered her, as always, to SIT ON THE BUM! Then she pulled a fast one on me...she ran PAST that side and over to the OTHER slide. I didn't take pics today (I'm so not good at that...I need Jessica along so she can be my personal photographer). But I did an image search and found a comparable slide. This is pretty much the slide my 23 pound, 32 inch, 18-month-old slid down on completely by herself as I watched in horror.




As she ran back over to me, I grabbed her and immediately strapped her into her stroller and told Jodi we had to get the heck away from the playground NOW. We headed over to the pavilion so the girls could play in shade. My daughter, of course, immediately starts jumping off of all the ledges of the pavilion. Jodi looks at me and laughs. Sigh.

After we got back home, we were about an hour late for our nap, and Claire outright refused to go down for me. Grrrrrr. By 7:30, she was a fuss pot. I took her out on our balcony so she could play w/her toys as I sat and enjoyed the weather. I have to leave the screen door open enough so she can wander in and out as she pleases (otherwise, she has a hissy fit...I can see you shaking your head, mom, I know). Well, Miss Ma'am goes into the apartment and re-emerges five minutes later wearing a sweater, a bib, and my clean underwear slung over her neck. And that, my friends, is The Claire.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Silly Girl

I spend a lot of time correcting Claire while having to turn my head away so she doesn't see me laugh. The child is such a character. Now when she climbs up on something she shouldn't (like every other minute), she looks at me, smiles and says, "Hi!" Yeah, hi yourself, wild child.

You know those letters you buy for the bathtub that stick on the wall? Well, tonight *someone* got the letter "I" stuck up the faucet. Mommy had to perform faucet surgery and after five minutes and many sighs, retrieved the poor "I" with her eyebrow tweezers.

And we are definite Elmo's World addicts here at Willow Bend Drive. We were watching the Elmo's World about water for the second time, and for the second time when small children were demonstrating how they swim in water, Claire laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. Not sure what about little kids in a pool strikes her as funny, but it is hilarious watching her just laugh and laugh at that.

She's an absolute trip, and I'm just along for the ride :-)

babyness

1. congratulations, laura, greg, and victoria on the arrival of baby boy ramsey!!! and congrats to i believe jess, who called the date right!!!

2. i post a LOT about Claire's food, I know. But i gotta tell ya, i had been buying the "health is wealth" brand organic chicken nuggets because they carry them at my Giant. however, in venturing to safeway (i usually steer clear because they're often pricey), i found Ian's brand, and their organic chicken nuggets are SO GOOD. Yes, I eat her leftovers. I justify the price because Claire eats about 1 1/2 nuggets at one sitting (I make two and mommy eats what she doesn't), so the box lasts us quite a long time. LOVE THEM! They're breaded w/panko..mmmmmmmmmmm



3. bought the car seat sun cover i had e-mailed a few friends about....researched for the best price and found it at bed bath & beyond (online though...couldn't find it in store). will let you know if it's worth it!



4. we survived a respiratory virus this week, and probably against doctor's wishes, i cut the breathing treatments short. i'm usually very pro-modern medicine, but the albuterol made claire hyper to the point of almost being violent, and because this was a virus and not asthma, i felt confident the mucus would break up on its own (i also run the humidifier in her room to help that along). so no more breathing treatments. she is hardly coughing, no fever since monday, and is sleeping and eating well.

5. one more product accolade...finally found a shampoo that works wonders on claire's hair (btw, she currently resembles little orphan annie).



Aveeno Nourish + Moisturize Shampoo



her hair dries so much softer and the curls are much more defined and silky. plus, her hair smells so good :-)

6. Like Elmo? We sure do. But to my amusement (and only someone who watches elmo's world will know who this is), Claire LOOOOOOOVES Mr. Noodle (especially Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle..may the great Michael Jeter rest in peace). Too funny. She gets so excited when she knows he's coming on.



And that's all for this edition of Baby Stuff!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all of the wonderful moms I know.

This is motherhood...




Love my goofy gal!

One-Minute Update

I'm dropping in while my proofreading project is printing out...

Very quickly...I've been officially unemployed for a little over two weeks (it seems like yesterday). In that time, I have picked up a LOT of proofreading from my freelance contact. It is all coming from one large medical book about infectious diseases (not great to be proofing while the whole swine flu thing is going on...i think i've been through five bottles of Purell since the start of this project).

In between reading a bazillion chapters of this, I have been on two interviews. The first interview I don't think was great, and I don't think I was in love with the job. I am absolutely living the "beggars can't be choosers" life; however, I can't see accepting a position on Rockville only for it to be miserable. The woman even said they work after hours often, something I can no longer do because of my little Fuzz.

The second interview was yesterday, and I'm really, REALLY hoping I get this job. It is in Catonsville, so I wouldn't have to move, and I have a lot of experience in what the position is all about. More details to come, but keep your fingers crossed!

I also got two calls about jobs. One job, again in Rockville (Rockville is where it's at, that is for sure), I would definitely be interested in, and I'm still in the process of submitting editing samples, etc. to the hiring manager. The other call was for a job in DC (is there ANYTHING in Baltimore?), and that ended up being a very entry level position that did not have a high enough salary for me to consider.

So I'm glad there's a bit of hope here. I can't say I still don't mourn the loss of my old job and all that came with it. I frankly wish I could just drop all of this crap and go back. But things are going OK for the current situation I'm in. Claire still goes to daycare while I proofread all day. I did not want to interrupt her routine, plus I can't even pee by myself when she's home let alone proofread. I also didn't want to lose her spot at the daycare because I certainly am hoping to be back to work soon.

And that is my one-minute update!