Baptised in Barf: Vomitfest 2009

My younger brother's heavy metal band, Daylight Dies, is on tour this week (check them out by clicking here!) so I have metal on my brain (but barf on my socks).

We have been very lucky-V has rarely been sick and yesterday was the FIRST TIME she ever truly threw up. I picked her up from school early and we spent the afternoon watching cartoons. She was acting fine-said her tummy didn't hurt-and we needed some diapers so I figured I'd try to squeeze in a quick trip to Target. I was feeling sorry for her so I got her a cookie at Target while I quickly loaded up with essentials (diapers, floor cleaner, rubber snake).

20 minutes after we got home she transformed from happy V:


To something resembling Iron Maiden's Eddie:


I was covered in chocolate scented, chunky carrot barf before I could say "what's wrong?"

She immediately felt better...so I caved in and gave her a snack. More barf. I broke out the Pedialyte. More barf. Plain noodles for supper. More barf.

This morning I waited a full hour with just water before giving her crackers. She was fine. We made pancakes. She seemed fine. She went to play with Daddy...guess what? More barf!

I finally decide to take a look at the "Bible of babies"; the American Academy of Pediatrics' Caring for Your Baby and Young Child and it clearly says no food for 2-3 hours after vomiting...then water...then Pedialyte and absolutely NO solid foods for 12-24 hours.

Guess I should have checked with them first. Maybe I'd be doing less laundry right now. Ugh.

The good news is that V seems to be suffering very little, except for the 20 seconds before barfing. Toddlerhood...what a wonderful world.

Winter Wonderland Part III

After the inaugural nap, I talked V into trying the snow one more time with the promise of making a snow family. She's very into having Daddy, Mama and baby groupings. (I think she gets this from my mother who also has a thing for family groupings and has been teased relentlessly for the last 10 years for purchasing a concrete owl family that included a Daddy, Mama and baby owl.)

Anyway, the snow was way to dry to make anything out of it besides a few crumbly snowballs. She did last longer than 2 minutes this go round which I'll chalk up as a success.

V attempts to make a snow ball

V thinks I'm taking her picture. Goofball.

We came inside, I made some hot chocolate (from scratch takes way too long for future reference) and we warmed up by the fire and with the glow of cartoons. Thank goodness T is finally home! I'm exhausted!

Inaugural Celebrations

We all have different ways of celebrating major life events, right? Since we are snowed in, V and I are celebrating the inauguration in our own creative style.

V put on her inaugural make up (that is green eyeshadow she's chosen to use as blush)

We baked some inaugural cupcakes

V painted an inaugural picture

I must confess that I was actually just trying to distract V so I could perhaps watch some of the momentous events of today. No dice. I think I caught 2 minutes of the whole thing.

So now...it's time to move on to the inaugural nap.

Winter Wonderland Part II

This is the actual sequence of events this snowy morning in Raleigh:

7:15 a.m. V wakes up. "Is it snowing yet?" "I wanna go in it!"
I proceed to bundle her up, 3 pairs of socks, 3 shirts, etc.

7:40 We head into the front yard because V has declared she wants to make a "snowflake angel"!

7:41 We head back inside, covered in snow. V continues to whine as we quickly rip off all those layers of clothes. She can't get away from the great outdoors and to the cartoons fast enough.

Happy Snowy Inauguration Day! Here's to a fresh start for our country!

Recipe for Cheap Entertainment

Our friends the Hoerdemanns came over for a snack-y afternoon with 2 of their kids Avery (age 9) and Everett (16 months). After a few glasses of wine we came up with a great recipe for cheap entertainment that I felt compelled to share!

Mix together:
2 toddlers
2 storage boxes

1 pair of discarded pink toddler tights

and 4 adults with slightly sick senses of humor

Mix gently with 2 bottles of red wine and lots of bean/artichoke/roasted red pepper dip. Results MAY resemble the following:

Repeat until too tired to drag children around anymore. Warning: Entertainment costs may increase if forced to pay for counseling in 12-15 years.

In case you were worried...here is proof that Virginia & Everett survived the evening.

I tried...that's all I can say

V was extra cute on Sunday (T can back me up on this). Hair looked good, nice outfit put together by big Mama Bruce for a change (T usually has morning duty which sometimes results in mismatched outfits). But would she sit still for a picture so I could show her off on our blog? NO WAY! Instead we get:











Sorry, I tried. You'll have to take my word for it. Maybe we should lay off the "cheese" for a while? Try VeganBruce instead? hahaha

V has an important announcement to make...

Thankyouverymuch!

Chocolate Cohorts

We had our friends Chris & Melinda and their 14-month old daughter Samantha over for snack supper last Saturday. Melinda, a Midwestern girl who is famous for her cheese dip & desserts, thought fondue would be a great idea.

We ALL (even T who rarely eats desserts-jerk!) indulged in the delicious chocolate-dipped pound cake, apples, oranges and bananas that Melinda brought. However, by the end of the evening (which, sadly, in our case was 6:30 p.m.-woohoo), it was clear that no one appreciated the experience more than Samantha and Virginia!

Some guys have all the luck

Tres was lucky enough to meet the velvet teddy bear himself, Reuben Studdard, at the papajohns.com bowl in Birmingham. As Swiper the Fox would say, "Awww, man!"

Backseat driver

Little V is developing quite a knack for giving me driving directions and, more specifically, warnings.

Incident 1: After telling V we were headed downtown, but not telling her we had to stop by her grandparent's house first, she screamed as I turned off Western Blvd "NO! Not that way, THAT way!!!"

Incident 2: Seeing a cable truck on the side of the road ahead of us, with a guy unloading a ladder, she yells "Watch out for that ladder Mama!'

Incident 3: Today, as we pull into a parking space at the grocery store, she made sure to let me know, "Don't hit that sign Mama!"

And many, many times while we are driving around town, out of nowhere, she says "WHEEEE" as if we were on a roller coaster ride. Think she is trying to tell me something? I've been accused of being a squirrelly driver before...but never by a 2 year old.

Pick a caption, any caption

Here's a fun game...check out the following pictures and make up your own clever captions.

Picture #1

Picture #2 (my personal favorite)

Picture #3

Fire away!

You might be a yuppie if...

...this is your supper. Organic crustless rainbow chard quiche with goat cheese.

Thanks Dora for occupying V long enough for me to cook this for supper!

Quotes of the Day

Passing by the building where I work downtown I point it out to Virginia...she says

"Mama works hard....Daddy works hard, too."

Tres comes home from work, asks V what she did today...her reply

"I throw up!" (having just choked on her dinner and thrown up a good portion of it)

As I'm trying to get her to go to sleep one night (at her Queenie's house)...

"Mama, I'm just not tired. I wanna go downstairs!"

And my personal favorite, as we are watching Dora in silence (squished together in a chair together) she says

"Mama, I love you!"

Maybe cleaning up the projectile vomit and squished snacks are worth it after all!

Proud Accomplishments

Here are a few AMAZING things Virginia is now capable of doing:

1) Fetching the remote when Mama and Daddy don't want to get up off the couch

2)Taking off her own pants/tights, whenever she deems appropriate

3) Naming every character in Dora the Explorer, Ruby & Max and My Little Ponies

4) Picking her nose.

She also survived her first full day of daycare today...with only a few moments of missing her parents. Too bad she started the nose picking before daycare, otherwise I could have blamed them for it.