Tonight, I am going to hit the "publish" button. I SWEAR.
I have written so many posts in the past few weeks that sit unfinished in my drafts folder. SO MANY. All the while things keep happening and I keep not writing about them. Every time I sit down it's easier to read things other people write instead of bothering to write my own.
Claire is walking. It started last Saturday with onesie-twosie steps, progressed to three-four steps at a time on Tuesday and today (Thursday) it's 15 or 20 in a row. She's even mastered the art of CHANGING DIRECTION. Seeing my daughter freaking WALK across the kitchen blows my mind like nothing else.
I remember one day, a long time ago, when I could put her on a blanket, leave the room and she'd be in the exact same place I left her. No more, my friends. NO MORE. As Manda told me, it's GAME OVER now.
Enter the Tot Lok. We have not childproofed, uh, anything at all really. There are poisons in the cabinets under the sink. There are sharp Cuisinart blades in another one. And all kinds of baby-killing chemicals in the bathroom cabinets. It hasn't occurred to Claire yet that cabinets open and fun things might be hiding inside, so we haven't been too worried. (Obviously, I know that she could decide to scamper in there at any moment, so we've been pretty watchful.)
Sure, I could just move the baby-killing things to another location but we are severely space-challenged in this badly designed home with NO CLOSETS. There is quite literally no place to put unwanted, baby killing items. Everything must stay where it already lives. Even if it IS a baby-killing item, we still have to clean bath tubs and toilets and wash dishes around here.
I bought some magnetic door closer thingys called Tot Loks because my friend Becky told me they were great and they had the most Amazon reviews that seemed credible. If the past week is any indication of Claire's capacity to learn new things I think we need to get these suckers on the door STAT. All the reviews at Amazon also said they were a total pain in the ass to install so this is totally going to be a job for Chris. Everyone wish him luck, Amazon says he'll need it.
So, next up is Blurb. Have you all used the new Blurb? It is kind of amazing. It's basically a super simple desktop publishing program a la Quark for all you 90's yearbook folks. You can change text and image box sizes and it's all fancy and high-end with their magazine-style layouts. I'd ordered a small book last year to check out the quality and it was nice. I looked at a LOT of these sites like mypublisher, books from shutterfly, etc and this was the only one that was acceptable to me. Everything else was kind of cheap-o or had marginal print quality.
Actually, it was beyond acceptable, it was really nice. And people, I AM DISCRIMINATING. My day-job is to meticulously analyze print quality and color replication and Blurb? Their books were great. I didn't have to have PhotoShop or InDesign (or, even know how to USE those programs) to get it done nicely. LOVE. I am totally out of the business of paper scrapbooking and I am all digital now. No more 4 x 6 prints. No more doodads and glue and paper scraps. No more...anything messy at all really. HOORAY!
I put together an entire album for 2008 in three evenings. THREE EVENINGS. DONE! This is the internet at work folks, in all its glory and awesomeness. I am so glad that I was not born in pioneer days. I would have made a terrible pioneer lady what with all the dirt and camping and no Mac Books. *Shudder. CAMPING.*
We have decided that Jake is getting old. I know, huge surprise for a dog that's 13, right? Well, over the past year he has just been more underfoot and in the way and generally far more annoying. At first we chalked it up to Baby. We're not looking out for him as much anymore, we're all a little more stressed, he's a little more needy these days, Claire always has food to toss at him so WHY NOT hang out as close as possible?
But over the past few months it's gotten really bad. Like, I'll go across the kitchen, put something away and as I turn around Jake is RIGHT THERE and his response time to move back out of the way is delayed by about 5 seconds, so I trip on him. And then I feel bad because I just stepped on the dog and we don't ever take him for a walk any more because he gets tangled in the stroller and LAWSY MERCY we are bad dog parents I love you Jake here's a treat good boy now go away I have to put the baby to bed and your tags jingle so you have to leave the room.
I keep thinking about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I watched last night, and how the baby dying at the end really disturbs me. Seriously, I have not been able to stop thinking about it all day. I just...really don't like it when babies die in the movies. Even if they are 80-year old reverse aging Brad Pitt babies. It was just sad.
The girl who baby sat for Claire two weeks ago got in a car accident last week. She was driving along, minding her own business when a 16-year-old girl on a bicycle came out of freaking NOWHERE into the road and, well, the babysitter hit her. The girl rolled up over the hood and cracked her windshield. Babysitter was totally freaked out, did the 911 thing...turns out the girl has a broken leg but is otherwise OK. The cops cited the girl for whatever amounts to jaywalking with a bike and getting hit by a car because you are STUPID. Babysitter is not at fault whatsoever.
So, it's clearly not her fault, right? But she still has to pay the deductible to get her windshield replaced even though she didn't do anything wrong. And she's worried that the parents are going to sue her (for what, I have no clue, but you know, everyone wants to sue you so it's a legit concern). Stuff like this really pisses me off. I mean, it's so not Babysitter's fault that this stupid girl didn't look both ways before she crossed the road and now she's having to deal with all this crap when really? The girl and her parents should be all, "Babysitter, we are SO GLAD everyone is ok. Accidents happen. Let us pay for your windshield and maybe give you some money for your trouble. We are sorry our daughter was stupid." I just really get annoyed when people are stupid, don't own up to it and try to blame someone else.
Sounds like that time someone rear-ended us ON PURPOSE and then Chris got slapped, RIGHT? ARGH.
The end. I mean, PUBLISH.