100 degree heat

Not only do I procrastinate in life, I also manage to do so in my online life.  And so here is a post, a month after the last one, that really isn't going to tell you anything new.

The searing heat is upon us once more.  If there's one thing I detest about living in South Carolina, it's the fact that I can't go outside during the day.  I think I should start a siesta movement here.  Really, how do we get anything done?  It's nice to be in an air conditioned office most of the day but I don't really like living like a vampire.  You know, avoiding daylight as much as possible, trying not to make those tan lines worse than they already are.  It's not half as fun as being able to step outside and BREATHE.  Breathing is quite difficult when it's 100 degrees F out there and 100% humidity.

My sinus pressure headaches have been getting worse lately.  I managed to look up on the internet (oh trusty fountain of all knowledge) that Charleston, SC has the widest range of pressure fluctuations on the continental US.  What?  Of all the places, how'd I end up here?!

Anyway, I don't want you to think that all I do is whine whine, moan moan.  I really do love my life.  And despite living in hot-as-Hades-Charleston, I love my job, my family, my friends and the pace of life over here.  I even have hobbies!  I just rediscovered the library as I went to get some large-print books for my mother-in-law.  I actually had a $4.40 fine and had to apologise to the librarian for owing them money for 5 years! 

I'm hoping that going to the library and borrowing 'proper' books will deter me from reading on my droid.  I can't seem to read any decent books on the droid as I have an addiction to reading free romance novels, mainly because those are usually the only free books you can get on the kindle app.  And when I say romance, what I really mean is smut.  I think I know every single storyline of those books.  Here you go:  Boy meets girl.  Boy and girl like each other.  Girl was mistreated in the past by some other boy (bf, father, father figure, etc.) therefore girl doesn't believe she deserves boy.  Boy is a hero - witty, smart, funny, rich, the best thing since sliced bread.  He even gets away with being slightly violent and mean because, you know, he's hot and it's for her own good, stupid ninny girl who doesn't see he's her soulmate.  Girl takes a leap of faith and declares her love for boy.  Boy says, 'I love you too' which often sounds a lot like, 'For frick's sake, about damn time you stupid woman'.  The book usually ends with boy and girl happily ever after.

So reading is one of things I like to do.  I'd love to claim I'm an arts and craft, scrapbooking artiste.  Now, I'm finally acknowledging that I merely collect craft supplies.  Hoards and hoards of them.  And I love to buy things to organise these supplies.  Whether I'll actually use these supplies...well, that's another blog, don't you think?

Update

I think that the lack of posts means that I've run out of creative juice as far as this blog in concerned, but I didn't want to leave you in the lurch for too long.

We are doing well and I am approaching my 32nd birthday this week.  We are busy, as usual, working and playing hard.

Lydia is growing and changing all the time.  She's grown an inch or 2, put on a couple of pounds so she's doing well.  She is officially doing well according to MUSC, with a psych eval in her future to be sure she's ready for school when it's time!  She also had her last speech therapy appointment last month.  I  must say her speech has advanced by leaps and bounds since then.  She's quite the chatterbox and is picking up new words all the time.  Just this week she was correcting my pronunciation of banana.  Nice!  I'm dying inside, but I keep reminding myself that miracles happen - such as her learning to speak and doing it quite well.

We participated in the March for Babies again at the end of last month.  It was a reminder of how precious life is and how this time last year, Lydia was in the hospital with a crazy enlarged lymph node!

Potty training is going on right now.  I think that our laziness might be contributing to her not being potty trained yet, so we've really got to start paying attention more!  Lyd goes through phases where she loves to sit on the toilet, then she doesn't want anything to do with it.

Fairy wings are quite the rage these days too.  She spent this weekend running around with fairy wings on and calling herself a butterfly!  And, of course, she does this with her favourite toys of the hour - yellow bunny, purple bunny, peep, baby ray and aeroplane.  She did take the black tip reef shark to bed tonight which made Gary incredibly happy!

And what a beautiful morning it was this morning.  Lydia woke up early so we brought her to our bed to lie down for a bit.  I promise you she almost had an entire conversation with me, stringing 4-5 word sentences together.  She can now say things like, "No Mummy, Don't touch the feet!"  Or, "Where'd baby ray go?"  She's working on those pronouns right now.  She often will say, "Hold you" instead of "Hold me" and things like that.  But she does say, "I get down" or "I do it" and things like that.

Alright folks, that's all I've got!

New Videos

They're up :) 

Let's Go Abanas!

We've had quite an eventful month.  Apologies for another late post.  It seems that this blog has almost run its course.  I've been thinking lately about blogging and what it's doing for me and for those who read it.  It started as a method to keep people in the loop about Lydia's beginning and it's been quite a cathartic process.  I also wonder what it does for Lydia's photos and life to be strewn all over the internet for any stranger to come across.  And the fact that one day she'll get older, and I should probably start being careful now rather than later.

I've got ideas to make the blog into a book - there's a lot of websites out there that can help me do that.  Either way, I'll be posting on here until a good closure point - maybe towards the end of the year.  I do have some ideas for a different blog in the future so maybe my internet spamming days aren't over just yet.

As I was saying, we've had an eventful month.  We had our volunteer appreciation picnic at work, we went to the air show, went to some civil war anniversary events and picked strawberries this past weekend.  It's been getting warm too so we've been going out more and more often.  It's nice to be out of the house and not stuck indoors all the time.  Lydia loves to be outside and being indoors is rather boring.  So we'd better take advantage of it before the heat of the summer kicks in!

Lydia had an appointment at MUSC today.  She is doing well and was meeting almost all of her milestones.  She had grown about 3/4 of an inch and is now weighing in at 23 1/2 lbs.  The doctors were happy with how she's been progressing.  She also had her last speech therapy appointment last week.  Just today she was talking about Adriana - I guess the lady at the hospital reminded Lydia of her! 

So Lydia is no longer receiving early intervention services from babynet, speech therapy or really anything!  She has a couple of different appointments to go in a few months and then before we know it, she'll be going to SCHOOL.  How time flies!! 

I Love French Ruled Paper

How about my first finished project in about a year and a half?  Yahooooo!  RIP Winnie the Pooh pencil case that I've had since I was about 15.  It's time for a change.  I'll have to make one of the smaller crayon holders for Minoo next.

Check out the videos up above - I'm uploading new ones as I type so they'll be up there soon for your viewing pleasure ;)

33

Time flies when you're sick!  Gary caught the lurgy from Lydia last week so he was also sick for his birthday yesterday.  Poor guy!  Luckily, I didn't catch this last round of sickness.  Thank goodness!  I just had to deal with my allergies, what with the pollen coating everything in sight and turning things green over here.  I can't imagine how hot the summer is going to be as it has already been in the mid-20s all of this first Spring week!

 Here is a funny Lydia-ism to keep you laughing.

Lydia waving her fork around at the dinner table.
Me:  Lydia, stop waving your fork around!
Lydia looks at her fork, waves at it and says:  Hi Fork!

Lydia's decided she's scared of bugs.  When she sees little bugs or flies, she starts shaking herself and saying, 'Scared!'  The other day, Gary had the mixer out and before he even plugged it in she was freaking out.  Apparently the mixer is the most frightening thing in the house right now. 

I had a dream the other night.  I dreamt that I was being attacked by lions.  I was walking to some sort of class, and there was an enclosure full of lions.  There were people surrounding it, linking arms, trying to keep the lions in.  You could say that there is some meaning to this dream.  Perhaps I'm trapped, my inner aggression being contained by others.  Or maybe my goal in life is to try to contain the scary things of life to protect others.  Yeah, that's not it.  Gary's bloody SNORING infiltrated my dreams, putting bloody LIONS in my path.  I woke up to my cell phone ringing at 3am (it was the phone system at work calling me - it randomly does that from time to time) and I was actually thankful that I was woken and saved from being attacked!  When I came back to bed, Gary was snoring very loudly and I thought, 'Hmmm, that sound is very familiar...'  LIONS!!

Okay, I'll try not to leave it so long next time. 

I'm thinking about sewing some cool things over the next week.  Maybe I'll have something to show you guys next time I post :)

Stronger, healthier babies

We're walking in the March for Babies to raise money for the March of Dimes again.  If you have the heart to donate, please go to www.marchforbabies.org/forlydia.  If you haven't ever donated, please consider doing so this year.  If you've donated before, please consider donating again.  It doesn't have to be a lot.  You can give me the change in your pocket, or give me your extra spending money for the month.  You can give me $2, $20 or $200.  Either way, it really isn't the thought that counts, but the action behind it.

If you don't want to or can't donate to this cause, please consider another.  Or volunteer your time and energy to something else you believe in.  I obviously can't force anyone to do anything.  What I can tell you is that I am passionate about being compassionate.  That my life's work and all that I strive for at work and at home is to be kind to myself, to my family and to others. 

I believe in the power of volunteerism and that groups of everyday people can achieve so much more together.  Whether you donate your money, give your time or advocate for something you believe in, do something.