Today is the birthday of my dear sweet sassafrass, Calliope Jones. She is two. (I will take a picture tomorrow. Today I feel like poop.)
She is hilarious, adventurous, self-assured and whip-smart. Everything these days is "Mine!!," and no, she won't share. She loves mice and babies and blocks and puzzles and a million other things. I can't even think of something she doesn't like. Other than being told not to do something.

We had her party on Sunday. Family and close friends in the park. The weather was perfect, and she got some great presents. Elmo, Live; fancy Gap sweater-dress with co-ordinating tights; felt vine/flowers necklace; handmade owl purse, and a bunch of other good stuff.

In other news, I am addicted to Skee-Ball on my iPod Touch.

I laid down in my own bed as soon as the baby fell asleep. I thought I'd be asleep in a minute, but a few minutes of rest was good enough to get me through the rest of the evening.
Now I'm watching 'Flash Forward' on the TiVo.

The side of my tongue hurts. I had a canker sore a week ago, and I guess it rubbed against my teeth long enough that now I have a scrape/cut thing instead. It's bugging the crap out of me and I'm pretty sick of it.

Something else I'm sick of is having to be 'on' for 12-15 hours a day, every day. Calliope won't tolerate being home if I'm not here. She's fine at Nikki's house if we're there and I need to step out for a quick errand, or if Lee has her out doing stuff, but it'd be nice if I could leave her at home for even an hour and know that she wouldn't be crying and calling for me the whole time.
Thank god for Zoloft, because without it I would be in serious trouble.

Ugh...There was a spider on the remote just now. **shudder**
Yesterday a 1.5-inch grasshopper rode on my windshield for 4 blocks. I liked that a lot better than the spider.

Today is Party Day for Nikki's baby Henry. He'll be one y.o. on Tuesday.
It's also Lee's actual b-day today, so we're going to give him his presents at Henry's party.

Elliot is blossoming like crazy these days. Way more independent and easy-going. Part of it is Montessori, and part of it is I've finally stopped responding to the attention-getting tactics. And we're getting glimpses of a pretty dry sense of humor from his, which is awesome. I am so proud that he's my kid.

Halloween is coming! Hooray for Halloween! What will your costume be? What about your kids? Calliope will be either a bee (with a tutu of course) or a cat, depending on the weather. Elliot was going to be Chewbacca, but I think we've put a pin in that while we explore other options. Lee doesn't wear a costume ever. I'm going to be Leslie Hall of Gem Sweater fame. I still need a sweater and glasses. But I've got the gold spandex and a wig to work with.

Happy Birthday, Lee! I love you and I'm glad you were born.

Kehau, will you tell Chad 'Happy Birthday' for me? We miss you guys.

elliot's home "sick" today. i strongly suspect it's because lee got home last night after two days in Kansas City. he's confined to his room. he'll survive, since he's got a tv and playstation2 in there. any bets on how long until he asks if he can lay on the couch, or play the ps3 upstairs? (he hates to be alone.)

calliope's sleeping off a cold, nursing and snoring.
it's raining like crazy, and i'm glad because i want to stay in today.
i'm watching 'let the right one in.' it's a swedish vampire movie. and very unlike other vampire movies.
good times.

Elliot had a great first day of school. We're loving that he's back at Montessori. This whole co-op thing is so new to Lee and me. It'll take some adjusting on our parts. We are not outgoing people.

The boy had a dr. appt. after school. A follow-up to his e.r. visit 10 days ago, for the headache. And it was time for a general checkup anyway. He hadn't had one of those since Kindergarten, four years ago.
His doc agrees that his headaches are probably not migraines, but are probably mostly stress-related.
I also asked after his thyroid. He's got a roll of neck fat that he's had his entire life, and I thought it would have started lessening by this age. She (doc) felt his neck and said his thyroid gland felt "a little generous." We've got to drop by Children's to get a blood draw so they can test his levels.
Also, he's in 90th and 95th percentiles for height and weight, respectively. 4 1/2 feet tall and 97 pounds. I thought he was closer to 60th-75th for height. Anyway, big guy.

Tonight is the first Parent's Meeting of the year at his school. I'm a little nervous! No reason, other than not knowing anyone there.

I'm addicted to Bloons!

Lee and Elliot got home shortly after I posted last night. I'll be taking him to his doctor on Monday to discuss these headaches and see what she thinks.

We have a busy morning ahead. Lee's over at Elliot's school for their "Cleaning Party," and I'll have E's friend Juliet here from 10:00 to noon. After that, no plans for the day, which is kind of how I like it.

Thank you all for your thoughts last night. They are much appreciated.

Elliot came down with a heinous headache, which led to a panic attack and vomitting. I took him to the Children's e.r. Lee came separately (we'd been at Nikki's house) with Calliope, so he's there with Elliot now while Calliope and I are home.
Anyway, the doctor diagnosed him with "probably migraines" and they have him hooked up to an i.v. He's conked out with Benadryl, so I don't know when they'll be home.
Good thoughts for my boy, please! xo

Elliot's started playing D&D with some friends. He's really into it. They're a little younger, so I think they probably will move on soon.
My future Drama Club kid, though, is trying to turn it into LARPing, with props and costumes, etc.
I'd better get him signed up for theatre classes soon!

I got a new car! We upgraded my adequate '07 Chevy HHR for really awesome '09 HHR. I'm not a huge fan of the color (dark grey), but it's not ugly or anything. AND! We splurged, and are going to get dual (individual) DVD players installed for the kids. Hello, road trips! Now, off to find a couple of bumper stickers to make it mjnb jlk,mmj
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Hi, Calliope.

Oh, the ants. We've got so many ants in our house. Not in the kitchen, thank god, and they're the cute teensy little black ones. Not carpenter or fire or anything. I put a trap out, and C's having a great time watching them find their new "house."

We've got a helping-a-friend sleepover, plus an entire day of one extra kid tomorrow, then for 9 hours again on Monday. She's Elliot's friend, and they'll mostly do fine. She includes Calliope when they play, so that helps.
We'll probably spend as much time as I can stand at the pool to make it go faster. Or at least wear them out.

i slept weird and my neck's been effed up all day from it. advil didn't help.
lee's out of town, but will be back tomorrow (instead of thursday, as was the original plan), so yay!
and elliot had friends over all day long, which helped tremendously. seriouly. they are friends who like to include calliope when they play, so i practically had the day off. not really, but it was pretty great.
baby's sleeping. time to tuck elliot in and watch some tivo...

So Calliope's got her ear tubes in now. She did fine. There was a whole lotta waiting around beforehand, but Lee carried her up and down the hall so she wouldn't be thinking about not being allowed to nurse.
She napped this afternoon and seems to be feeling good this evening. Right now she's watching Yo Gabba Gabba and standing naked (except for a sneaker on one foot) at her play kitchen looking at a book.

Elliot's at a friend's, and Lee's helping Nikki and Shaun pack and move. Oop, they're home just now.
I wanted to be the one to help with packing/moving tonight, but C was being clingy and extra nursey.

More later.

Calliope just had her 18 month checkup. 31 pounds still, for the last few months, and 34 1/4 inches. That's about an inch or so more than at 15 months.

She's on target for everything except speech. I'm hopeful that will be remedied tomorrow.

Oh, and her lead level from her 1-year check was an 8. The cutoff for normal is 9, so they poked her again today and will let me know if it went up.

stuck on sofa w/ sleeping bebe. send food, plz.

I felt better for a couple of days, but got cruddy again this weekend. Run-down with a scratchy throat. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be better because Lee's going to be working the election all day.

Mother's Day was decent. Elliot gave me a potted begonia on Friday that he grew at school, and a note he wrote that thanks me for reading him bedtime stories and making great milkshakes. :) Lee gave me a box of chocolates.
I called my own mom to see if we could get together, but she hadn't slept well the night before and wasn't feeling up to it. So we met up with Lee's mom and dad at and indoor play place. If my mom's not too wiped out after work today, we'll get together then. Maybe just us grown-up ladies, maybe all of us.

Calliope's getting her tubes in 2 days. I'm excited!

i'm coming down with the crud. feh.
nikki and her family are all sick, too. strep for oliver, thrush for the baby, and general yuck for nikki and shaun. and they're moving house this weekend. good times!

calliope's eating string cheese and watching blues clues.
lee went to the store to get me tomato soup. sweetie.

praise be to lee in the highest. he took the baby to pick elliot up from school, and is taking them to chuckecheese'swhereakidcanbeakid so i can take a nap.
calliope's been driving me to the brink with her nonstop busy-ness. she points to things all day long and asks, " 'Dis??" and if i don't pay attention fast enough, she "eh! eh! EH!"s at me until i tell her what she wants to know.
which is to say, she's extremely curious and is not yet talking much. she's getting tubes in her ears a week from today, to clear up the persistent fluid she's been carrying since newborn days. and i'm veryveryvery hopeful that the tubes will improve her speech.

okay. i'm going to lay down and read and fall asleep. amen.

I miss LJing.
I thought I'd attempt to jump back in here, prompted by those of you who miss the old days of LJ when we were all posting all the time. Count me in.

Here's what was going on for me on -or around- this date in previous LJing years:

7 may '02 - Elliot (almost 2) was highly entertained by our exclamations of "ew!" and "yuck!"

7 may '03 -
~tooth ache
~tax refund=car repairs. $1440 total!
~3 new pieces of art. woohoo!
~nikki and i are growing closer every time we get together.
~i ate almost a whole bag of pirate's booty today.

5 may '04 - Self-absorbed Q&A meme.

6 may '05 - Movie meme.

6 may '06 - Did yardwork with my mom and was a Kindergarten "Mommy Helper" superstar.

8 may '07 - Accompanied Elliot's class on a field trip to a farm. Was pregnant and exhausted.


May last year was when I dropped off the face of LJ. Only 2 posts in the whole month! Shameful.

Lee's parents got into Omaha on Thursday. They live here now! Isn't that cool? They're getting settled in at their new place, about five minutes from our house. Thank god we all like each other.

Hey, it's my birthday! Lee bought me a bracelet that goes with earrings and a necklace he got me for another b-day and anniversary. It's beautiful and I feel like a rich lady when I wear it.
He also got me a happy face cake. Cute!


Yesterday I had The Sickness. A stomach bug that's been working it's way through my family and friends for the last couple of weeks. Today I'm better, just a little wobbly.


We're going to Georgia for Spring Break all next week. Yay for warm weather!

1. What is your name? Stephanie
2. A four letter word: Stop
3. A boy’s name : Sam
4. A girl’s name : Sam
5. An occupation : Snake Charmer
6. A color : Salmon Pink
7. Something you wear : Socks
8. A type of food : Spinach
9. Something found in the bathroom : Soap
10. A place : Sweden
11. A reason for being late : Slept too late
12. Something you shout : Shut Up!
13. A movie title : Serenity
14. Something you drink : Swill
15. A musical group : Stillwater
16. A street name : State
17. A type of car : Suzuki
18. A celebrity's name : Sarah Silverman
19. A song title : Sleepwalker
20. A verb : Snore

As soon as I post this, she's gonna wake up, but Calliope's been napping for 2 HOURS, HOLEY COW! and I am loving the crap out of that.

Lee left again, dammit, for a work thing in M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i. Back Thursday morning. I'm feeling better about it this week though, than last week, either because I made it through last week with him being gone, plus a few days of both Calliope and Lee being sick and so no breaks for me OR because I had plenty of caffeine this morning.

Either way, it's nice to feel optimistic. Maybe I'll even remember to put the garbage out tonight. I forgot last week.