"Let them eat poop"

Or was it cake?

Ugh. Just thinking about my morning yesterday makes me gag a little.

Guess what Sweet P learned just in time for my birthday?

Our sweet, scrumptious (nearly) 15 month old figured out how to take her diaper off. It was a cloth diaper with velcro tabs, so I don't think it was terribly difficult to figure out. And she sleeps sans clothing (No longer, I tell you, NO longer) since the dormer gets H-O-T, hot.

Yep. Took it off. And as I walked upstairs to get her out of bed, I knew. I knew immediately. The smell was terrible.

So I braced myself for the sight that was mere feet in front of me.

And there she was. Happy as a clam. With it on her hands, on her mouth (gag), and all over feet. Staring up at me as if to say, "Happy Birthday, mama."

A Series of Unfortunate Events with Good Endings

Meet my family.

Auntie Rosita hails from Seattle.

Auntie K goes is a senior at LSU.

Gammie lives in Dallas, TX and Nana (the Farmer's mama) lives in New Mexico.

All of these peeps were trying to get here for Sweet P's 1st birthday party. It was put on hold so that Auntie K could make it since we all know finals don't end until mid-May. So the party was set for May 15th with everyone getting here by May 14th. Ha.

Wednesday: Nana and Auntie Rosita were scheduled to get in around 11pm. Nana arrived at 11pm, Auntie Rosita got stuck in Chicago after her flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues after she left Washington 3 hours late. And even though she only spent 4 hours in her room, they put her up at the Crowne Plaza and gave her free Dunkin' Donuts (can't beat that).

Thursday: She was supposed to arrive at 7:45am in time to go with me to a workout class. At 8:45am, Auntie Rosita finally touched down in Des Moines.

Friday: Auntie K and Gammie's flight was leaving Dallas at 2pm and arriving at 4:20pm. We'd head for an early dinner after that. 2pm came and went and at 3:30pm, their flight was also cancelled. Grrrrr. There were 2 flights to DSM cancelled. One more flight was leaving at 7pm and all of the people from those two flights were desperate to get on that last flight out. Needless to say, Gammie and Auntie K were not on that flight. The closest they got was Kansas City. After searching high and low for a rental car under 160$ (uhhh, no thank you), Auntie Rosita and I packed up Sweet P and drove to KC. (Not in the plan for the weekend). Their baggage ended up in Des Moines on the last flight. So on our way into town at 1am (yep, 1 am), we swung by the airport and picked up the bags. We fell into bed at 2am.

Saturday: We slept in. JUST kidding. No sleeping in around here. I was up and at em at 6am, freaking out because I only had 5 eggs and needed 6. It all worked out (thank goodness for 24 hour grocers) and those cupcakes got made (and were pretty darn good). And out to the Farmer's Market we went. No rest for the weary. More on the Farmer's Market to come.

Despite the craziness (it runs in our family), everyone made it safe and sound in time for the birthday. And I'm sure they'll all get out on time. That always happens when you're hoping for just a little bit more time.

Progress

There are days that I want to just crawl back into bed as soon as I get out.

This was one of those days. Except it was about 6pm that I wanted to crawl back in.

And I'm going to be honest and tell you that my Sleep Challenge progress is, well, not really progress. BUT! I have excuses. Really, I do. Plus, it was only Saturday night and last night that I didn't abide by my rules.

Saturday: Last Monday my jump drive decided to wipe itself (translation, it wasn't doing what I wanted and froze the computer (which is weird because we have a Mac) and wouldn't close powerpoint so I did what any woman would do and shut it down...but took out the jump drive before it was done...whoops..but! it worked after that, until..). I got to class (I teach a speech class, remember?) and put in the jump drive. A little prompt came up that said "Disk unreadable." And it gave me 2 options, neither of which provided help.

That said, on Saturday night I found myself recreating powerpoints for the rest of the semester. Luckily, it's an 8-week course and I only have 3 weeks left. Otherwise, I might have cried. Which I have already done twice today.

Sunday: The Farmer had food poisoning so I stayed up with him until he felt comfortable enough to go to bed. Poor guy, it was a rough night for him.

Today, I'm getting back on schedule...especially after the day we had. It didn't start off spectacular for various reasons. The biggest reason? Snow, snow and more snow. But I packed Sweet P in the car and we went to the gym anyway since I had to teach this morning. And then we made a trip to Wal-Mart (which is reason enough to have a mental breakdown) and when we got home I was famished so I put Sweet P in the PackNPlay while I made a quick lunch. When I scooped her up to sit her at the table while I ate, I realized there was poop. Everywhere. On every toy she was playing with, on the PackNPlay, all over her. The lucky Farmer chose that moment to walk in the door and saved the day by helping me get Sweet P into the bathtub and clean. It was a doozy.

Later while Sweet P and The Farmer napped, I tried to figure out what was wrong with our faucet. It's been making weird pressure noises. It wasn't until Sweet P and The Farmer walked into the kitchen that the head shot off the sprayer and shot water up my nose, soaked my front and sprayed the ceiling and cabinets behind me. I was done after that. So I cried.

But I'm better now and going to snuggle with The Farmer. And go to bed early. And be thankful I have this in my life:

Crash Boom Bash

Poor Sweet P was the victim of her first real injury this weekend. Thankfully, I was a heck of a lot more freaked out about it than she was.

I had just gotten home from the library where I was studying for a certification test I have in February and was sitting in one of our dining room chairs. Sweet P was standing next to me holding on the chair. I had just moved her out of her Sassy Seat to stand there while I looked through a baby cook book. For a moment, I thought "I should probably move her because this probably isn't the best place for her to be standing." But that moment passed and about 2 minutes after that Sweet P lost her balance, fell and smacked her little chin into the chair I was sitting in. I promptly yelled an obscenity, picked up my now screaming munchkin and held her head to my shoulder trying to soothe her.

It was only when she picked up her head and I looked at her face that I saw the blood. Lots of it. In my baby's mouth. Hysteria cascaded over me (and thank our dear sweet Lord the Farmer was home) as I tried to figure out where the blood was coming from. With kid injuries, you really have to push past that point of hysteria so you can figure out what to do next! It's hard to do that!

We finally saw that it was her tongue. Her adorable little teeth had bitten into the underside of her tongue. And all I have to say is thank you Lord that she doesn't have her top front teeth, yet. I'm afraid she may have bitten right through in that case. It bled for about 20 minutes (luckily she had calmed down after 2 minutes and was happily sucking on a piece of ice in a mesh bag) and once it stopped I figured I could go about business as usual.

Wrong-o.

I started feeding her acorn squash and suddenly there was blood all over again. It took a lot longer to stop that time. We gave her a bath and then I put her in an old t-shirt of mine, wrapped her in a towel and laid down with her. We both fell asleep for about an hour after which the bleeding had stopped. I figured I could go about business as usual.

Wrong-o. Again.

About 2 minutes into chewing on a toy, it started bleeding again and I finally realized that we were just going to have to hang out in an old t-shirt and play with our hands (we also watched a DVD from Nana Nancy called "God Made Me") until the next morning.

The next morning, I went about business as usual. Sweet P is fine, except for the little bruise on her chin. She's a pretty tough cookie.

Not Too Sharp(ie)

Hey Y'all!

We have been driving all over the southwest the past few days and are finally settled back in Dallas with Gammie and the aunties (and Uncle Will). But not before a few eventful days in New Mexico including 2 Christmases with Nana and then Papa Ray Ray, a sweet visit with Auntie M and family, lunch with friends and the Sharpie incident.

Tuesday morning we went to Papa Ray Ray's office to say goodbye and Sweet P was in oral fixation mode. Papa Ray Ray tried to give her a few things before settling on a basketball signed by a State Champion basketball team from 10 years ago. A few seconds into her playing with the ball, Papa Ray Ray said:

"Whoops, look what she did to the ball." We all looked to see the smeared name on the ball.

Daddy: "Look at her face."

Chaos followed.

Sweet P had Sharpie all over her face (and tongue) and jacket. Freaking out a little (okay, kind of a lot), I cleaned her up the best I could with a paper towel and some soap. She was furious after that and wouldn't stop crying. I can't imagine Sharpie tastes very good. But not to worry, Auntie Rosita googled to see if there was anything serious to worry about and found that there wasn't.

So at the end of the day Sweet P was fine. That Championship team signed basketball, however, has seen better days.