Earmarked for scones

In case I get interrupted and forget what I need to write about:

Trip to New London
‘New’ bed
Word-splosion

My brain is fried/drained/blurged. I feel so non-thought, probably because it is 10pm and I should be doing mindless things rather than trying to get thoughts into an entry. Stupid need to entry. Blah.

So… Sunday we went to New London to see Lisa. It was quite a lovely day, but I hate having to travel 90 minutes to get there. And we leave at Ashley’s bedtime (so grandpa Matt can see Ashley too, he got home at 5:30 so leaving at 8 is what happens) so I’m exhausted, she’s fussy, Jake’s grumpy and it is a whole bunch of suck. But I shall write about the good parts, yes?

Ashley showed off her awesome letter recognition skills. Using a magazine, I asked Ash to point out letters that I could find in big type. She could point to all the letters when I asked for LIVE and GLUTEN, and she knows B. I need to dismantle her alphabet cubes so they can be a mat, or loose, and see just which letters she knows. She knows the letters because of a tv show called Super Why, and because she is smart.

We went to the pool in the apartment complex. I got no pictures, but Ashley was ADORABLE in her bathers (that JUST fit), especially when combined with her hat. I sat on the step in the shallow end, so Ash had the water up to her chest, and she splashed and had a fabulous time. She didn’t care when she got water in her face, she didn’t care that the water was pretty cold… it was just a great time. I walked her out about 10 steps and then we walked back to Daddy and Grandma, and she just had a blast.

At 5:30, Grandpa Matt came home, and Kristen and Matt (aunty and uncle) showed up at the same time, so that was lovely. Ash was ‘protected’ because she was in her high chair, so she had time to get accustomed to the sudden doubling of people without everyone trying to hug her or whatever. After a few minutes of freedom Ashley even hugged and kissed Kristen, which made her quite happy.

I got all the baby clothes space-bagged (one of them must have a slight defect because it has already let in air. The other 2 are fine…) and oh, so many cute clothes! Makes me want another little girl so I can use all those clothes again.

The drive home… kinda sucked. My car’s cd player is a fussy little bitch, sometimes it refuses to play cds so you just have to keep trying and trying until eventually it does not read ERR and spit the cd out (sunday night it would shoot the cds out! usually they get halfway out and sit, but they were falling all on the floor, by my feet while I’m trying to drive… so stupid). So Ash woke up about halfway home, crying and fussing and I know she really wants mummy hugs and boob but all I can give her is my voice. I made the mistake of telling her we’ll play some Michael Jackson, because the cd player would not take a cd. So I’m trying to drive at 65 mph and sing to a crying baby because that is the only thing keeping her semi-calm, and Jake gets pissed at the car (and possibly a bit at me for repeatedly insisting we need a cd playing!) and pushes the centre console back fast so all the candy and hairbrush and everything in there goes flying into the backseat (SO GLAD Ash is rear-facing, she would have gotten hit by all that) and my non-thinking reaction was to smack him in the belly. Bad Sezzie. I need a new car. NEED. On the drive up we had to have the windows down (which really hurt my ears) because the air conditioner doesn’t work. So many little things don’t work, like I have buttons to open all the windows but only mine works, and one of the windows in the back doesn’t open at all. I have to transfer money from Australia and go find a nice cheap car that fits what I want. I did a quick internet search this afternoon and I should be able to afford what I want. So glad I didn’t buy HoJu back in the day, this way I have car-purchasing money sitting, waiting for me to buy a car. Woo!

I’ve had to leave this entry multiple times already to tend to Ashley, but the great thing is, it is so easy to get back now! Our bed had a metal frame that the box spring/mattress was resting on, and it was slightly bent out of shape and so every time we would so much as move in bed, it would make a terrible loud noise! This morning I cleaned out under the bed, got Jake to go through the books and stuff that had been stored under there (for the last 7 years…) and this evening I removed the frame. The bed is about a foot lower, but it is mostly quiet and that is amazing! Once Ashley is asleep, I just get up and walk away, rather than move slightly, bed creaks, stay still and hope she doesn’t wake, repeat 3-4 times, and then I’m finally off the bed and have to walk carefully to the door because the floor makes the bed creak as well. AMAZING! Ashley should be able to climb up on the bed by herself now too, and getting down will be no issue (although she could do it easily before, if she held my hand). I wonder what tomorrow morning will be like. Normally after she’s been up with Jake for half hour, she’ll come to my side of the bed, pull the covers down and demand UP. I may wake up to a child climbing on me. As long as I don’t get kicked in the face, all is good.

In the last 2 days, Ash has had 4 new words (auntie, cup, party, chew), as well as 4 words that I think I heard (nine, eight, seven, six), and at least 2 ‘words’ that are sounds that I know what they mean but I am tough when it comes to adding something to her known-words list (oops, din[drink]). Oh, and she has 10 little My Little Pony board books that all look pretty similar. She can pick out, and (sort of) name 3 of them. That’s where the word party came from, the book is titled Birthday Party. The word is not mentioned anywhere in the actual book, so she doesn’t hear it very often… She explodes my mind.

Dinner tonight was amazing, and so simple. Baked chicken and stuffed tomato. The store-next-door has local tomatoes that are so fresh and ripe at the moment, so we had one of those each (AMAZING. One of my favourite things that happens when prepping dinner is when tomato and cheese are needed, because I can slice some cheese and wipe it on the tomato to get it all juicy and YUM it is awesome. Making stuffed tomatoes means I end up with a bowl of tomato juice, and I cut many slices of cheese to make tiny cubes of cheese so I stuff myself during the making of this meal. I ran out of cheese today… oops), and I baked 2lb of chicken breast that I sprinkle some chicken grill seasoning on top of before it goes in the oven. That stuff is heaven. I made so much chicken because I shred it up and throw it on my salads. Ashley doesn’t like chicken, and a cheesy stuffed tomato would be ridiculously too messy to eat by hand, so she had steamed veg with a tiny sprinkle of the grill seasoning to make it different. So yummy.

I think it is bed time.