That’s my Nerdlet!

Yes, she really is doing her best to imitate the car engine. She stops when I’m at stop lights and starts up as soon as the light turns green and the car moves. She also imitates the vacuum cleaner and the garbage disposal. Funny, they all sound about the same. 😉

I love this kid!

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When she gets it…

Olivia Moonpie got this jumper as an early Christmas present. Ok, technically, it was an early present for Mama because Miss Moonpie wasn’t content to just be held. Oh no, she had to be held in a standing position. All. The. Time. My arms couldn’t take it. This was going to save me.

One problem. When we bought it, her feet didn’t come anywhere near the floor. I found a plastic bin that was tall enough, covered it with one of those no-slip pads you put under throw rugs and used that for her to stand on. Ok, great. But she just sort of sat there with a look that said, “Um, I’m not really sure about this.” Gradually, she discovered the toys and that was about it.

Late last week, I realized the plastic bin was too tall now. Her Chunkiness, at 14lbs, 14 oz, is just a couple of inches from having her feet on the floor now. So, a couple of Daddy’s bigger computer books are all we need. And, apparently with that extra weight we’ve discovered the unadulterated joy of bouncing.

I know videos of other people’s kids are like videos of other people’s vacations. But, she’s just so damn happy. And obsessed. She’ll bounce like that until she can barely hold her head up. Then, she passes out for a good long nap. It’s a win-win in my book. Thanks Momom and Papa! It took a little longer than we thought, but this investment is really paying off.

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Mad programming skillz

Ok, so not really. I’ve taught myself xhtml and css and now Shannon is helping me learn to write javascript. That’s brave on both our parts!

We spent a couple of hours Sunday night working on something, then I spent most of today attempting to re-do it by myself and add to it. I’m actually stupidly proud of it, even though it’s a little buggy. I can’t find the bug myself and Shannon was at work all day so he couldn’t help. But, it does work.

Now, wordpress isn’t going to let me embed it here, so you’ll have to scurry on over to my other website to play with your iFlower.

The instructions are…click on it a couple of times. Introduce yourself. Just watch it. It might get lonely. Leave and come back to see if it missed you. 🙂 Have fun! If it seems weird or it doesn’t wave at you, reload it twice. It WILL work on the third try. If it doesn’t remember you, could you let me know what browser you are using?

iFlower

I’ll probably add to this over the next couple of weeks. Feel free to check on it every once in awhile.

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Vocabulary expansion

I have found my new favorite curse phrase.

Here.

I’m just waiting for an excuse to use it. We’ll be going out later, so I’m sure someone on the road will give me a chance.

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This may be a cry for help

It is most definitely the perfect visual summation of my personality. I promise not to torture you with endless videos of dancing toys. Personally, I think I showed remarkable restraint since I only bought seven more. I could have bought close to 30 but Shannon felt spending $60 on wind-up toys might be excessive. Plus, there’s the whole question of how to get that many wound up at once.

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Can’t keep a good woman down

Bootstraps.  When you get knocked down, you pull yourself up by your bootstraps.  You pick up the pieces and move on, leaving the trash behind.

I promised embarassing pictures of me as a kid.  Here are embarassing pictures.

In the tenth grade, I got invited to the senior prom.  Love the puffy sleeves and the matching tuxedo. And yes, I’m wearing gloves.  Classy! He drove a 1964 Mustang.  Gorgeous car.

Here is the entire series of school photos.  I’m not sure what happened to all of my junior high yearbooks, so I just have the one. The rest are from high school.

More photos after the bump!

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Embarassing childhood photos

So, I’m a couple of days behind, having just found out about this today and it started on Saturday.  So, here are a few more photos to get me caught up.

I’m the one in the middle, with the jeans pegged so tightly it’s amazing my feet didn’t go permanently numb from lack of circulation. Surprisingly enough, the red suspenders AREN’T the embarassing part. This was taken at my father’s 50th birthday party and all of the guests wore suspenders as an homage to his own particular sartorial elegance.

No, I’m not posting this one because I lost a bet. I’m not sure what is more embarassing…the fake nose, the pose, the terry cloth vest (which I wore all the time), or the lovely wide legged khakis…which might be courderoy, I can’t tell. This picture was taken in my grandmother’s driveway after the four+ hour drive to get there, which explains the antics. When we went in the house, my father was wearing the fake nose and glasses. The only thing my grandmother said was, “Jim, I didn’t know you’d started wearing glasses!” Now that I really think about it, this may have been the last year before I started wearing glasses.

Ok, this one isn’t THAT embarassing because you can’t see that with the cute brown jumper, I’m wearing sneakers, and knowing me and the way sneakers always looked when I was growing up, they were probably a little on the ratty side. And the person sitting next to me? Andy Griffith.

Ok, and one more to cover tomorrow. This is from my senior year of high school. If I remember correctly this was from February 1989, our school’s silver anniversary dance. My makeup looks like it was done by the same person who did the “Addicted to Love” girls, doesn’t it? I picked that dress out all by myself, had it altered, and paid for it with the money I earned at my very first job (I sold photography equipment).

That should hold you. I’ve got some more good ones, but you’re going to have to wait!

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Time for some fun

This week is probably not going to be a good one.  Any day now, Zoë’s doctor is going to call me with the official results of her autopsy and I’m dreading it.  I have a decent idea of what to expect, but that doesn’t make it any easier.  I’m trying very hard not to focus on it, but it’s like having a huge storm cloud looming over my picnic table.  I KNOW it’s coming and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

So, by way of distraction, I’ve decided to participate in the challenge Ashley has posted at Clever blog name here. She’s dared us to post embarassing photos of ourselves as children. I have more ammo than you can imagine. Mine go waaay beyond bad haircuts and ugly ’70s fashions.

Here’s one to get us started. Not terribly embarassing, but that hairdo is just an indication of what the years ahead would hold for me.

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