Random Thoughts

1. I have to say we are some awesome parents. Our kid won't talk to people that she doesn't know and she won't take food from them either. Her Great Grandpa tried to give her zucchini bread this afternoon and she ran away, directly to her Daddy. She then said, "Daddy, it would be lovely if I could partake in a small morsel of that wonderful looking zucchini bread that you are holding." She took his bread and gobbled it up. Mind you, the fact that she loves to dance on tables and is always pulling her shirt up to flash everybody might also speak volumes for our awesome parenting skills.

2. Alexis touched a fish today. If that fish didn't already have it's life flashing in front of its eyes after getting caught on a hook then being grabbed by Daddy, it certainly did after Alexis groped it with her wiggly, chubby, little fingers. She tried poking it in the eye, jabbing it in the mouth, and attempted to go digging for buried treasure in its gills. Daddy threw the traumatized fish back in the pond. You should be able to spot it if you visit Grandpa's house; it'll be the one that is on the phone with its shrink trying to get help for post-traumatic stress disorder.

3. I opted to forgo a nightly bedtime battle while we are in Indy and have been laying in bed with Alexis until she falls asleep then moving her to the Cage o' Fun. It's kind of like laying with that fish out of water, only she's the thirty pound variety of floppy. When she's working on falling asleep she tries to make sure that she does as much flopping as she can while positioned on top of my head. But just like the fish, eventually the flopping comes to an end. In her case, it's good news.

4. Plastic slides cause a bit of static.

The Cage o' Fun is Fun for All

I don't know why, but Alexis has it in her head that Grandma's Pack 'n Play is a really great place to hang out. It's like a trampoline, fort, and gymnastics mat all rolled up into one tidy little box.

Now, we have a Pack 'n Play at home. I think Alexis has spent maybe ten hours total in it during her entire life. And most of those hours were when I was using it as a changing table. The waste of space is still set up in our bedroom at the foot of the bed. Since Alexis refuses to sit in it, it's been converted into a closet. It holds my dry clean only clothes and some pillows. I guess maybe we should just put it into storage already.

At Grandma's house, however, the Cage o' Fun (that is what I'm calling it) is a must-have attraction. Alexis is climbing in it herself and then just hanging out. For hours. The entire time her Great Grandparents were over visiting, she was hanging out in the Cage 'o Fun. All afternoon, she hung out in the Cage o' Fun. But the bestest time ever was early this morning.

Every weekend, Alexis wakes up around 6:00 am. I grab her and take her back to bed with me. She loves me, so she pretends to sleep with me for about half an hour. Then she's up and wants everybody else up. But this morning, she sat up, looked around and then shimmied her way over to the Cage o' Fun. She crawled right into that sucker and stayed there for an hour. It was the most beautiful hour ever. Just thinking about it brings tears to my hours. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh sleep . . .

Anyway, I'm working on concocting a plan to steal the Cage o' Fun. That thing needs to try its luck at our house. I can't even imagine how pleasant Daddy and I would be if we were able to get another hour of sleep every weekend. We might have to leave a dog here in order to fit it into the car . . . Hmm, I think I know just who we should leave behind . . .

So Much Love, So Little Time

I have never gotten as many Alexis hugs as I've gotten today. Somebody flipped Alexis' control panel to shy mode, and she wants nothing to do with anyone except me and Daddy. If anyone enters her personal space, she runs for cover bringing with her all the love that we can handle. Since she's not screaming and crying, but more playing the shy game, it's kind of cute.

Butterscotch pudding (when contained) is also cute. In a going straight to the bathtub sort of way, that is.