The Kidlet Chronicles

The end of stuffie sprawl

I don't know if I've mentioned it before (ahem), but the kidlet has a LOT of stuffies; little ones, big ones, and ones in between.  And since her bedroom is only about 75sf, it's been a challenge finding a place for them.

First, they were in her toybox (my old toybox) but once we bought her the bookshelf for her room, the toybox had to go because there wasn't enough room for both.

From there, they were moved to her closet on some Ikea cloth hanging shelves.  I managed to fit them all, but she could only grab them from the bottom two shelves and even on those ones, she couldn't see the ones jammed in the back.

Then they moved to an entire shelf on her bookshelf.  Pull one off, they all come tumbling down.  Next!

I relocated them to the foot-wide space at the foot of her bed - not neat or tidy, but they were semi-sorta tucked away there but again, she couldn't see the ones that were buried on the bottom.

I bought a matching rectangular basket set from Costco and managed to squish most of the little & medium stuffies into those.  One fit at the foot of her bed, the other beside her bookshelf.  Not ideal, but at least they were contained and accessible.

Now in my current nesting phase, or whatever you want to call this urge to organize, tidy, paint and buy, I decided to search online for some kind of stuffie storage.  There wasn't much.  I found The Zoo, which is kind of a neat idea but then again, not so much - it still looks messy to me.  Then there was the Toy Tree but eh, I didn't really think she would be able to nor bother with clipping all the animals on and off, plus it looked kinda tippy.  Then there were toy hammocks, over the door shoe holders, and storage bins, none of which piqued my interest.  Until The Animal Bag.  I mean, it's storage and it's functional!  What more could you want?

I was intrigued enough to google the price, then balked once I found it and continued on with my search for alternatives.  But I kept coming back to it.  I finally caved in and did a search for somewhere I could purchase it locally and lo and behold, found it on Chapters online.  So I whipped out my credit card, desperate enough to pay $100 to organize those dang stuffies, and ordered one.  That was Thursday.  It arrived today.  And hoo boy, it is AWESOME.

First, I was pleasantly surprised that I received it in pink considering the website only showed green available (bonus!).  And ALL of her stuffies fit, save for Oaf, who now has the task of sleeping on the edge of her bed to prevent her from falling off it - she must have fallen out of bed 4 times in the last week, and a giant smelly elephant my grandma gave her (she's moving and unloading all her old stuff so the kidlet has been the recipient of several old, smelly stuffies lately), and there is still room for more.  The zippered mesh windows are easy for her to open and close, the plush is ultra soft, and it's comfy to sit on (more comfy than a bean bag chair).  She loves it because she can see them all and take out whichever ones she wants, and she also loves to sit on it.  I love it because it keeps the stuffie sprawl in check!  I don't love the price, but what can ya do?  If it keeps the stuffies in one place, it is SO worth it.

Amazing, the things I get excited about nowadays...

Evil gas marketers

It was bedtime; the kidlet was having a meltdown because she did SOMETHING while she was in her room reading that she DID NOT want to tell me because she was SCARED I'd be MAD.

Sigh.  Have I ever gotten mad at her for telling me the truth about something she did?  No.  And yet she continues to behave as though I'm some wicked stepmother who will throw her in the basement without food or water for days.  I think it's less that she feels 'scared' and more that she just feels bad that she did something, well, bad, and doesn't know how to differentiate between the two.

At any rate, after about fifteen minutes of sobbing, I finally did kinda get a little mad that she wasn't telling me what she did so I put her straight to bed and said I didn't want to talk to her anymore until she told me what she did.  Finally, after several more minutes of crying, she told me (while snuffling) how she didn't want to read PJ Funnybunny Goes Camping anymore because there was a hole in one of the pages.

Oookay.  I went with her to her room and looked for the hole, not seeing it at first until she took the book from me and showed it to me.  It looked like she had tried to scratch out one of the characters and her finger had poked through.  The flap is still there so I can easily tape it, but she asked if I would buy her a new one.  Uh, no. 

We had the discussion that it's not nice to hurt our precious books and we shouldn't scratch/poke holes, etc etc etc.  I told her that we would fix it in the morning and that it was now time for bed (it was 8:20 by now - some half hour or so after the ordeal began).  Cue another conniption.

I laid down with her while she cried about how she wasn't tired (uh huh, sure) and tried to calm her down when I heard someone bound up the front steps and knock.  The kidlet's bedroom window is at the front of the house, just to the right of the porch.  Her window was open a bit, and she was screaming.  I assumed whoever was there would hear this screaming and move along.

No such luck.  More knocking.  I open the door to see a young woman with a binder in hand and Energy Company name tag around her neck. 

"Is this about energy?  I'm not interested," I say, the kidlet still sobbing from her room.

"I just need to speak with the person responsible for gas in your house," she said.

"That would be me."

"Oh, okay.  Well we just wanted to ask if you had noticed Terasen's guaranteed fixed rate on your last bill."

Kidlet is still crying and I can't concentrate on what she's said (I think it's a mother instinct thing - a crying child purposely prevents your brain from acknowledging anything else) but I know it's a line and I'm still not interested.  I've played this game before.

"I'm happy with Terasen and I'm not interested," I repeat.

She started to go on again.  I think there was a 'but' and some other stuff in there, and some shuffling of the papers in her binder, but I cut her off.

"Listen, I have a screaming kid in the other room.  I gotta go," I said, slowly closing the door.

She looked at me with that 'pfft, whatever beeyotch' look and turned to leave.

Um, excuse me?  I repressed the urge to boot her butt down the steps and returned to the kidlet.  I admit, my mostly zen-like countenance (ahem) was a wee bit ruffled, but I managed to get over it rather quickly because it SO wasn't worth getting upset over.

I supposed I could have just said that someone else was responsible for the gas and he wasn't here right now.  I wonder if that would have worked?

Anyhoo, now I'm going to enjoy the SILENCE and chill out for an hour before heading to bed.  I've got a full-day meeting tomorrow that I have to sorta be awake for.  Heh heh.

Whoa Nelly

I've been so busy this week that I found myself in that go go go groove and had to force myself to stay put today.  It sorta worked - I ended up cleaning the house, vacuuming, going through some of the stuff in the crawlspace and transferring it to the garage, doing a load of laundry, plus took the kidlet to the local wading pool for an hour and a half or so (where I got a nice sun rash on my chest that looks oh, so lovely and is oh, so itchy - yet I was wearing 50spf sunscreen - argh).  BUT I managed to refrain from going to the hardware store to buy wallpaper stripper to take off that icky border in our bedroom, new fans (we have those big standing ones that take up several feet, feet that we don't have to spare in our teensy home) nor did I go to the paint store to pick up some colours for perusal.  Go me!

I seriously have an ever-expanding list of things to do and as I cross one item off, another takes its place.  Maybe it's because Dean's away and I'm bored.  Maybe these are just things I've been putting off forever and I always get extra-motivated in the summer (unlike my urge to hibernate all winter long).  Maybe it's just that there's a lot of things that need doing and no one else is going to do them.

I did manage to find a matching duvet cover, bedskirt & shams at Sears online - so provided they look in real life like they do online, that will be taken care of.  I still need some sheets (wasn't about to pay $250 for the matching Sears set), maybe some Euro shams, then matching curtains, then paint... maybe a new bed... Don't ask my why I'm obsessing about the bedroom.  I think after ignoring my disdain for our bedroom for a year and a half, it's all kinda just bubbling over now.  Or maybe I'll be happy with new bedding and get preoccupied with something else before I get any further.  You never know.

(I didn't have ANY caffeine today, hence the blurgity blog speak. So ya know.)

So.... recap.... Thursday we went to see Corteo (Cirque du Soleil) and it was AWESOME.  Unbelievably awesome.  Words cannot describe it, so I won't even bother.  The visual, the sound, the music, the acrobatics - wow.

The kidlet enjoyed it too - especially the clowning around parts - but she started to get restless about a half hour before it was over and cried about how she had poked herself in the eye and wanted to go home NOW.  Earlier, when the little woman was floating above us underneath some massive helium balloons, the kidlet jumped up and barked at her several times.  So I'm not sure which was more embarrassing.  Side note - she's no longer a kitty.  She's a puppy.  And she barks and pants a lot.

Friday was Dad's birthday, so I took the kidlet to a waterpark by their place while we waited for Dad to return from golf with my brother and Mom to return from work.  Then we all went for dinner, played some Wii, and left in time for the kidlet's bedtime.  Oh wait - and that morning, I did the Wii Fit for the first time in 16 days (it said it couldn't remember my name, the sassy thing).

Saturday I mowed the lawn at 9am, then filled up the kidlet's little pool and let her splash around in there for a while, then on a whim went to the gardening centre to buy two indoor plants (and soil and pots) - a dracaena and a peace lily.  Right now, they look beautiful and green, all potted nicely in their new colourful pots.  I'm wondering how long it will be before my black thumb inevitably tries to kill them.  I picked hardy plants on purpose.  

Saturday afternoon, we went to my brother's place to play more Rock Band, have dinner, watch a DVD, indulge in home-made sundaes then went home before the kidlet had a complete meltdown, as she had been miserable the entire time.  Fun!  I still think it's so cool he's only a five minute drive away - we're seeing more of each other now than we ever have!  Well, other than when we all lived under the same roof, that is.

So yeah, today we took it easy and puttered around home, aside from the jaunt to the pool.  The kidlet made a friend right away, as usual.  I find it so cute how she beelines for someone her age and just starts chatting them up, asking their name, etc. (I've always got a stupid grin on my face as I watch her socialize, probably because she was anti-social for so long).  Although in this case, the kidlet barked at the girl and told her several times she was a puppy and that she was doing the doggy paddle in preparation for her doggy paddle contest   The girl still wanted to be her friend and actually became a puppy herself for a while.  They had a great time and it's a good thing both us Moms were leaving at the same time because our kids would not leave if the other didn't.

Tomorrow, back to work.  Guess I'd better make the kidlet's lunch... A woman's work is truly never done, is it?

Daycare update

You know, you'd think after spending 10 hours in daycare, playing with other kids all day long, inside, outside, this toy, that game, that the kidlet would be dog-tired by the time I picked her up at 5:15pm.

I was hopeful.  Hopeful that she'd crash a little earlier at night, especially since I'VE been waking HER up at 6:30 the past couple mornings.  But no, she's going to bed at the same time she always does, if not a little later - 8:30 - 8:45ish.  I think last night was even later - I think it was almost 9pm.

WHAT IS WITH THAT?

She is enjoying it though, even though every day there has been some kind of issue.  Yesterday she tripped on the sidewalk in the backyard and scraped her knee.  Today she argued with another girl by screaming at her, so the ladies had to explain to her how to use her WORDS and not screaming.  I tell her that, too, and maybe after a million more times from all of us, it'll sink in.  One can hope.  I thought the exorcist phase would have ended by now but boy, can she throw a doozy tantrum.

So.  Day two down at work.  One more to go and I'm done for the week!  Thursday we go to Cirque du Soleil (I'm wondering how the kidlet is going to behave during the 2 hour-long show), Friday is Dad's birthday, Saturday... I think we're free so far.  Maybe I'll paint the master bedroom.

Speaking of which, I've been looking high and low (well, online anyways) for a decent duvet cover ensemble and I can't really find one.  I actually drove out to Linens N Things with the kidlet after dinner tonight (hoping that might help make her go to bed earlier too but NO NO NO) and found some nice sheets but no duvet covers that struck my fancy.  Well, I found one cover but it was an odd shade of brown that didn't match any sheets.  Argh.  Sears has one that I might be interested in - will have to check it out on my lunch break tomorrow because I've been obsessing over this for about a week now.  I want to paint our minty-green bedroom but I need to have the bedding in order to know what paint colour to use because it might be more difficult the other way around.  Then I need some lighting, some drapery.... I want our bedroom to be a sanctuary.  Right now, it's not so much.  Just very green.  And bare.  With sheets for curtains (there when we bought).  I've been meaning to do this for a year now, and now that I have Thursdays and Fridays off, I can actually do something about it.  But bedding!  I need bedding!

Busy busy busy

It's been a cu-razy few days of go go go and more go.

After our girl's night out on Saturday, we headed out Sunday morning for a day trip to the Island, catching the 11am ferry there and the 6pm back - so essentially we were gone from 9:30 until almost 8:30pm.  And you think the kidlet would have crashed as soon as we got home?  Nope.  Still took a half hour or so.

Monday I took the day off, so the kidlet and I went to the beach with my sister-in-law ('D') for a few hours (I think we manage to make it to the beach about once a year).  Soon after we got ourselves settled on one of the sandbars, we noticed that the tide was coming in rather quickly and had to hoist everything back up and head up onto the rocky bank.  Due to my lack of beach-going, all I had was a blanket and the kidlet's swimming gear.  D had chairs, umbrellas, bamboo mats - the whole works (granted, they DO live in a beach community so she should probably have all that stuff).  Thank goodness she did because it was that much more relaxing to sit back and watch the kidlet play with the little boy she befriended about twenty minutes after getting there.

We lazed around (out of the sun, of course!) for nearly 3 hours before heading to the strip to get some gelato for the kidlet, then back to D's house for dinner, then home in time for the kidlet's bath and bed.

Tuesday was Canada Day and we headed out for a picnic with my parents at park close to their place.  A waterpark/playground is always fun for the kidlet and when we first got there, it wasn't too busy.  The kidlet took FOREVER before she finally stuck a toe in some spray, then she found one small-ish fountain that didn't get too high and proceeded to make it her friend and protect it from all the other kids.  It was pretty funny watching her guide them to other sprayers when they approached hers.  There was one altercation with a few older boys (older by a couple years maybe) where they wouldn't leave and she got all huffy about it (hands on the hip, telling them to go away that it was 'her' fountain).  Then one of the little boys gave her the bird (gasp).  He was about to stomp on her foot when I growled out 'hey!'.  His eyes widened and he took a step back (he'd better have - why I oughtta...).  The kidlet came running to me crying and I explained to her that she had to share the fountain with all the kids, but she wasn't going for it.  Luckily the boys took off and she had her fountain to herself again.

There was a little miniature train at this park so my Dad thought it a good idea for the kidlet and I to ride on it.  Him and Mom passed and I soon found out why:  the thing is CRAMPED.  I had to slouch down, hunch over, stick my legs straight out, and still, the bench was at such a weird angle that the whole short ride was extremely uncomfortable.  Still, the kidlet loved it so what can ya do.

Then, we just hung out in the playground until we were all exhausted.  Well, the adults all were.  The kidlet is the freakin' Energizer Bunny.

Yesterday was the kidlet's first day in full-day daycare (um, that's a lotta 'days').  I dropped her off at 7:15 (the house is just a block away), went to work, and picked her up at 5:15.  I did break down and call about 1pm to see how everything was going, and apparently she had had a temper tantrum when asked not to pick the daycare lady's flowers.  It lasted about twenty minutes (always 20 minutes) and she was fine for the rest of the day.  She's eager to go back, so that's a good sign.  The two women who run it are super nice and really good with the kids - the older woman has been doing it for 30 years or something crazy like that.  She's well-known in the neighbourhood.  There are 3 or 4 kids from her preschool class that go there so she didn't have to start from scratch with the friend-making.  But geez, 10 hours seems like such a crazy long time for her to be there and I start to feel a little guilty when I think about it.  She was the first one there and one of the last to leave (but still a half hour or so within the timeframe of when they're open).  Still, we'll see how it goes.

So for Mondays through Wednesdays, she'll be going there and I'll be doing all my hours during those days and having Thursdays and Fridays off.  Er, at least, that's the plan.  I ended up working a couple hours from home today but I'm hoping not to make that a habit.

I'm still debating about putting her in the daycare at the office - spots usually come up for September in August.  It would be about $90 cheaper once preschool starts (because I'll be paying for preschool AND daycare on this end where there, I'd be paying the one fee for full-day preschool).  It's convenient being in the same building I work in.  It's a really good facility with a great outside play area.  They do field trips (they totally don't in her current preschool).  But the cons are 1 - I'd have to schlepp the kidlet with me on Skytrain there and back during rush hour (25 minutes each way), 2 - she wouldn't be making any neighbourhood friends and 3 - she's thriving at her current preschool.  It's only for a year but I keep waffling.  If I don't get her in the Kindercare program at her elementary school for Fall 2009 (I should as I signed up a year ago for it), it would be nice to already have the spot in the family daycare here where they will take her to and from school (as they will when her preschool starts up again). 

Ah, decisions, decisions.  Guess I'll just wait and see if any part-time spaces come up first, then I get 24 hours to decide.  Eep.

Night out

It was a cooker today.  A cooker.  As in hot.  Yes, that's two days in a row.  Amazing.  And it's supposed to continue (knock on wood).

But hot outside means it's COOKING hot inside the house here.  Right now?  30 degrees.  The poor babysitter looked like she was melting when I got home tonight.

Yesterday, I cleaned out, vacuumed and Armor-All'd the truck.  Today the kidlet and I washed the outside.  Luckily we did it first thing this morning as it was already hot by then but got much hotter later on.  The kidlet washed it by placing her hands in the soapy water and painting the suds all over the car.  I had to constantly rinse off her sections so the soap wouldn't dry in the sun, but she was having fun and when she has fun, I have fun, so it was all good.

So we were done washing the car about, oh, 11:00 maybe?  So I locked up the garage, we had lunch, we ran out for errands (and a trip to Mexx where I begged them to end their '50% off everything' sale because I have spent way too much money there lately (and more today)), shared a $5 ice cream cone (I kid you not but it was SO GOOD - strawberry ice cream mixed with Skor crumbles), then came home, got ready and headed out for dinner and a movie (Sex and the City - what else?) with the ladies in lieu of Heather's 40th birthday last Monday.  And, the mother's that we are, we called it a night right after the movie and I was home by 10:30.  Woo hoo!  We're such party animals!

I walked into our STEAMING HOT house to the smell of rancid garbage (choke choke) and the poor, red-faced babysitter who had turned off the portable air-con so she wouldn't have to turn her movie up too loudly.  She said that the kidlet wanted a peanut butter and jam sandwich for dinner instead of the pasta I suggested, so that was fine - as long as she ate something.  Then she mentioned that the kidlet had been saying that we lost Harley.  I frowned, then assumed he was probably downstairs where it was nice and cool. 

After she left, I headed down but no Harley.  Then I remembered that he liked to explore the garage whenever I had it opened (the back yard is completely fenced so I let the cats out every once in a while - they're both too fat and old to jump over it), so I grabbed my keys and went out to look.

As soon as I unlocked the door, there he was.  Oops.  Almost 12 hours in the garage, poor thing.  Funny thing - I hadn't even noticed he was missing (though I would have when it was ready to put them down for the night) but the kidlet did.  Perceptive.

And now, my fingers are starting to melt so I must head to bed.  Hopefully the fan in the bedroom will do more than just blow hot air.

I'm melting!  I'm melting!

Photos

Kinda tired tonight even though I didn't really do much today.  Well, after putting in my work hours, I did go out to get gas, got the kidlet's bangs cut and went for groceries so I guess that accounts for something.  Funny how sometimes the littlest errands can wear you right out.  Or is it just me?

So here are some pics from the weekend and yesterday when I took the kidlet to the spray park.  Good thing too, as it was overcast yet again today.  Guess I just have to take advantage of the sun whenever it happens to show itself.

One more thing - I can't see the monitor worth squat out of my right eye and it's starting to kinda bug me.  It's only been 3.5 weeks since the surgery but back then, my right eye was the good one and my left eye was lagging.  Now with my left eye, I can see the monitor pretty clearly, with only a wee bit of haze.  My right?  Forgeddaboutit.  Words a-blurry (but still better than I could see pre-surgery and without contacts).  Crossing fingers that it will clear up and soon.  Oh, I can still drive and all, but the haziness starts to make you cross-eyed after a while and that's not a look I'm particularly fond of.

No, I haven't been sleeping this whole time

How does the time fly by so fast?  Has a whole week gone by already?  It kinda freaks me out how quickly the weeks, months, years are flying by.  I don't remember them going by so fast when I was younger.  Please tell me it doesn't continue to speed up - like I blink and suddenly I'm 80...

I did manage to finally kick the insomnia thing - the night I last posted, in fact.  What a sweet, sweet sleep that was.  Adios insomnia - until we meet again.

As Dean's away, his sister invited the kidlet and I over to stay in her guesthouse for the weekend.  It was a fabulous, relaxing visit where we were both spoiled silly.  We got there Friday afternoon, just in time for my niece's Grade 9 year-end pool party.  There were about 30 kids, a few parents and lots of food.  I tried to alternate between veggies and the yummy desserts (Timbits! date squares! cookies! chocolate covered strawberries!) as though they would somehow cancel each other out (what, they don't?).  The kidlet begged to go into the pool but at first, nobody was in it and I didn't want to be the only ones in for everyone to watch.  I managed to hold her off for a couple hours and she was pretty good about it, but at one point, I saw her sitting in a lounge chair, sadly watching the mass of 14-year-olds in the pool, and I had to give in.  I took her into the guesthouse to get changed and tried not to compare my lumpy 38-year-old body with the young, slim, bikini-clad bodies splashing around in the pool.

I got into the pool with the kidlet as quickly as possible and tried to stay clear from the splashing boys (I didn't do such a great job as I still ended up soaked).  The kidlet would not let go of me, so my sil offered a floatie chair and in the kidlet went and was happy as a clam for me to paddle her around in that.  Me, not so much.  My abs were hurting.  Yes, even after 10 days of Wii-Fitting, swimming knocked me out.  Bah, I despise swimming.  The things we do for our kids. 

The next morning, we woke and took a couple of their dogs (they have 3) to the dog park where we saw dozens of different breeds racing about and the kidlet felt it necessary to pet as many as possible.  We got back to the house and my sil gave me an awesomely awesome pedicure.  The kidlet didn't want her feet anywhere near the foot bath thingie, so she missed out.  That afternoon, we went to a tea party at the beach for my sil's birthday (belated but it was the only time all her friends could get together).  The kidlet had a teensy bit of tea then ran amok (though remained relatively behaved) for the next hour or so that we were there.

I finally got the kidlet to admit she was tired about 9pm and took her into the suite to go to sleep, whereupon she cried for a half hour about how tired she was before conking right out.  I went back to the house and helped make a Wife Saver for brunch the following day, then headed back to crash myself.

After breakfast that morning, we packed up and skipped over to my parent's place, where we Wii'd for an hour or so until we were all pooped, then the kidlet and I finally came home around 3 and just chilled out for the afternoon.  Mom came over later later to spend the night so she wouldn't have to get up early to look after the kidlet on Monday (no more preschool) and we watched Jumper, then I read in bed for way too long.  And woke up at 5:30 thinking it was way too early to get up.  It took me a few minutes to realize that it WAS too early to be awake - the alarm was set for 6:30.  So I blissfully fell back asleep for another hour.  Aaahhhh.

Yesterday I worked.  Today I worked in the morning, then exercised, had lunch, then mowed the lawn (with our crappy push mower - ow), cleaned the kitchen, brought out all the patio furniture, cleaned up some of the garage, made dinner, and now I'm here writing before getting the kidlet off to bed.  I don't know why I'm surprised at how tired I am.

Argh, so very very tired

Last Friday night, I awoke at 4am and was, annoyingly, wide awake.  I tossed, turned, tried to relax via meditation but there wasn't any point.  I thought moving to the couch would help, so I grabbed my pillow, curled up on the couch, and proceeded to watch the sun slowly come up through the slits in the blinds.  I think I had just fallen asleep when Dean came into the living room at 5:30am (his wake up time for work) and woke me up to ask me what I was doing there.  I managed to catch another hour later in the morning while the kidlet watched a movie, but it wasn't a real sleep as I was still conscious of her talking, playing and crawling all over me.

Saturday night we had a Father's Day dinner with my parents and my brother at a local restaurant.  We all came here to Wii, but I was BAGGED.  When they left around 9:30, I went right to bed.

That night, I woke up about 2am, tried to fall back asleep until 3am, got up and messed around on the computer until 4am, then headed back to bed where I think I managed to finally fall asleep only to be awoken by Dean's alarm at 5:30am.

Sunday we had Father's Day lunch at my sister-in-laws and I didn't feel too tired at all.  Might have been the three cups of coffee I had...

Sunday night, 2am again (after retiring at 10pm).  I tossed and turned, determined to sleep because I had to work the next day.  Nope.  Wasn't going to happen.  The kidlet woke up about 4am from a nightmare, then again at 5:30am and she was up for the day.

Monday, I was okay at work, actually.  A little tired, but not too bad, which was surprising.

Last night, Dean woke me up at 2am and we yapped until 3:30am, then he was up at 5am and of course, he just had to wake me up.  Granted, I had to drive him to the seaplane terminal but we didn't have to leave until 6:45 so I could have gotten at least another hour or so of shuteye.

Today was the first day that the fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks.  So tired I could barely see, yet I still had to work, then go for groceries this afternoon because we were out of everything.  I finally tried to crash on the couch around 4pm, only to have the kidlet demand that I watch her perform tricks over and over and over again.  I finally put on a show for her and she proceeded to watch it while lying on me, sitting on me, covering me with her blanket, taking it off, etc. for an hour and half, then beg for dinner.  So no nap for me.

Now, I am going to bed.  If I don't sleep through the night tonight, I'm going to have to get Mom to bring me some of her sleepy pills because I can NO LONGER FUNCTION.

Everybody was Kung Fu fightin'

Guess what I took the kidlet to see this afternoon?  No really, guess!  What?

During the previews, the kidlet was so excited she would not. shut. up. and her hand dove into the popcorn bag with abandon in between bouts of chugging water ($5 small popcorn and $3.19 for a freakin' 500ml bottle of water - crikey.  Add to that the $20 for admission and a trip to the movies really adds up nowadays).  I finally got her to quiet down once the theatre darkened further and the movie started.

As usual, about halfway through she started to fade and ended up cuddling in my lap, but she was still watching and laughing.  It was good - I enjoyed it.  It will be one for our now-extensive DVD collection.  I had read on imdb that there was an extra clip after the credits, so the kidlet and I sat with about five other people (everyone else cleared out asap) for a good chunk of time as credits after credits after credits splashed across the screen, then finally, FINALLY the clip started: a whole, 10 second, not so interesting clip.

Anyhoo, it was nice to get out.  The weather of late has been Crap with a capital 'C', so we haven't gotten out much (except the local Arts Festival at a nearby park on Saturday where it was so windy and cold, the kidlet and I froze our butts off, so hurriedly made a few crafts then high-tailed it out of there).  Apparently, we're to see some sun on the weekend but I'll believe it when I see it.

In other news, I finally got the Wii Fit, thanks to my awesomely awesome brother, who picked one up for me on Saturday.  I've been using it every day since for at least 30 minutes at a time.  Not only is it fun and there are lots of different activities to choose from, I'm actually SORE, so I know I'm getting a good workout out of it.  I do a little of each - 10-15 minutes of cardio, some weight training (hard even though it involves nothing but your own body weight), yoga stretches (I'm rockin' the yoga), and fun balancing exercises.  Dean even tried it out on Monday night and was sweating up a storm (and is still sore himself, I might add).  I can't wait to do it every day - can't say that about any other exercise program I've attempted.  I already feel tighter and leaner (er, at least I did pre-popcorn) and I sort of have a goal to lose 10lbs in the next 3 months, so we'll so how that goes.  My 20-year grad reunion is in August and we've booked a trip to Hawaii during Christmas break, so I've got some extra motivation to lose some of this unsightly jigglies!