Guest Room, Mom's House and Poo Update!

The guest room is all ready for Linda and Scott to come and visit!! My sister and her husband will be here Sunday night and we are so excited!! Scott is staying for a week and my sister will be here for ten days!! I have no idea what we are going to do, but I am sure we'll have fun! :) Here are some pics of the guest room. (apparently, I need to clean my lens, sorry about the spots!)

Like my Texas star? :)
Initially I was kinda concerned with how I was going to decorate, since the wall color (and ceiling, since as I mentioned before they painted all the ceilings as well) is a dark terra-cotta color. And if I haven't had time to paint the rooms I spend most my time in, I really didn't have time to repaint the guest room! But I found a bedding set that matched the color perfectly, while bringing some blue into the room -- which I would have never done on my own. I was just going to go with a neutral tan comforter, which would have worked, but would have been kinda boring. I actually think this works, even though the pattern is a tad ugly! :) Chip says it is his favorite room in the house, which is good I guess, because if he pisses me off he can go sleep there! :) just kidding. (I can say stuff like that since Chip never reads this blog!)

In other house news, Lily and I drove by my parents "house" this morning (we drive by everyday, but it seems they were at a standstill for awhile) and they were pouring the concrete foundation!! Progress is being made!! You can also kinda see the house behind them -- that house seems to be going up quick -- I don't even think it was there in the last picture I posted!


Finally, I know you are all just on the edge of your seats wondering what is going on with Calli and her poop issues. The vet kept her overnight to feed her and see if she would go to the bathroom "the old fashioned way -- food in mouth, exiting the rear" I believe that is how he phrased it. I really liked this vet. He didn't tiptoe around the issue and try to sound all professional by using terms like BM, or feces. Nope, not this Dr., he used terms like "turd" and "logjam" to describe her condition and I appreciated that. Anyways, he cleaned her out and said to experiment with foods and see if she doesn't have an easier time going to the bathroom. Hopefully she'll be ok for awhile now that he got what he described as a "turd that looked like an old piece of wood" out. (I am having fun trying to gross you out! Ever since Lily was born, I find poo fascinating. Strange, I know.) So we'll be keeping a journal of foods fed and her reaction to them. Hopefully, we won't have to administer any enemas at home (but I got one ready to go just in case). If it is something that acts up ever few months or so, I'll probably pay the fee to let the vet do it!

Baby Talk

Here is some video of Lily "talking" to Calli while the cat was locked in the laundry room awaiting the trip to the vet. She babbles constantly and you can get a sense of that in this video. She is adding new words daily to her vocab -- it is crazy! Elmo is her new word. She loves Elmo! Like my mom said, it is surprising that Elmo wasn't one of her first words. She kinda says it at the end of the video, but it is not that great. As usual, she was not down with performing for the camera. You can hear her say "Mmmmmmm" when I ask her say Elmo. "Mmmmmm" means yes. She thought I was asking if she wanted to watch Elmo. If you ask her a question, "are you hungry"; "are you sleepy", "do you want to go outside", etc. . . you either get "No" or "Mmmmmmmm." It has been that way for awhile now. It also sounds like she is starting to say "Grandma." I showed her a picture of my parents and it sounded a lot like "Grandma and Bob". So, we'll just call my Dad, Bob, from now on (his name is actually Lyle -- his brother is Bob). And I swear this morning at breakfast she said "Cheerio" more than once while eating her Cheerios!! My baby genius! :)
(sorry Mom, I know you said the videos make you miss her more -- but you'll be here soon enough, so enjoy!)

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Sorry, this is kinda gross

** Warning if you are snacking at the computer while reading this blog -- you may want to skip this post. It deals with my cat's butt and poo. **

My poor kitty Calli has had some issues for the last few years with . . .um . . . bowel movements. We first noticed a problem when she would squat in the position as if she needed to poo, but nothing would happen. She would do this around us and not in her bathroom (yes, the cats had their own bathroom -- now we have a bigger house, and they are stuck in the laundry room. go figure.) as if to let us know something was wrong. We took her to 3 different vets, none of which could find anything wrong with her. They diagnosed constipation, hairballs or maybe even a foreign object trying to pass, but there was never anything they could do. So usually we just let her struggle and it would go away on its own, since there was no real use paying a vet to tell us nothing. I would also often find little turds around the house (affectionately known to us as nuggets, butt nuggets) and at first thought a cat was pissed and trying to telling us something. But then one day, Calli walked by and a nugget just fell out of her ass! And she was more surprised than me! It scared the crap outta her (pun totally intended), and she ran away from it with her hair standing straight up as if she was shocked and scared by the nugget falling out. I began to witness this more and more -- she would jump up onto furniture or a counter top and whoops, a nugget would pop out and she would run away all freaked out. It is the strangest thing! So it was hard to be mad at her when I found little nugs around the house because I knew she wasn't pooing out of spite or anything. I just have to always keep my eye out so if there is one laying around I find it before Lily does!

The last few days, the nugs started to appear again (it isn't really a daily occurrence -- just periodically, like it is maybe a constipation issue), but this time she started dragging her ass around the house and leaving little poo trails for me to clean up! They were everywhere! It was gross (not that the nugs are pleasant, but this was way gross). So this morning Lily and I took her to the vet to get another opinion. The diagnosis . . . she has no anal tone. Like, the muscles in her anus don't work. She happened to have some feces in her butt that the doctor could see -- just sticking out. Any normal animal would have the natural instinct to push it out. But apparently not Calli. The vet was kinda at a loss for words since this isn't very common and there is no real treatment for it. He suggested we experiment with foods and see if that helps the problem any and give her enemas a few times a week!! Can you imagine? He then asked if the problem doesn't resolve itself or the food doesn't work, if I am willing to give her enemas or if I wanted to end it now??? Hello? That is my baby kitty!! I will at least try to deal with the issues for awhile. I am not going to put the poor thing down! I mean, she is almost 5 years old, somehow she managed to poop for most of her life. Maybe the ass dragging thing was just for a day or so. We at least have to see what happens! I love my cats. I remember when I was pregnant and people would ask about the baby and the cats, I would say 'I hope they all get along ok, because I would hate to have gone through 9 months of pregnancy, labor and delivery just to have to give the baby away'. :) Calli is still at the vet, he wanted to keep her for the afternoon to see if she would go to the bathroom. I hope she feels better soon. I can only imagine what Chip's face will look like when I tell him he has to give the cat an enema!! :) Lily and Calli earlier this week.
Lily and Calli last month.
Calli pretending to still be the baby of the house
November 2003 -- when she was a baby!
I've just always thought this was a funny picture of her. Can that really be comfy?

On the fun side of things -- the vet has a drive thru!!!!!! A drive thru vet!! How awesome is that?? Apparently, if you are dropping off or picking up your animal, you can just drive thru! You can also use it to pick up meds and food! Crazy! It was actually kinda a drive through morning. After we left the drive thru vet, we used the drive thru ATM at the bank, and picked up laundry at the drive through dry cleaners and then went to the market where unfortunately we actually had to get our lazy asses out of the car. BUT if I had only had a prescription to pick up I could have used the drive thru pharmacy at the market!! It is fun being lazy. :)

The drive thru vet!

Cleaning and Clouds

Not too much going on here today. Chip is home, which means I am putting the poor guy to work. Actually, I am doing the work -- he is babysitting Lily. But I suppose that can be pretty tough work! :) We have an extra bedroom in the house that we are setting aside for future child #2 (no, calm down -- not anytime soon). I was calling it the future baby's room, but that was freaking Chip out, so it is now known as the "jack-in-the-box" room since my Dad said it looked like a Jack In The Box restaurant -- it has 3 different colors of paint going on! I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but in that corner the pink wall and green wall meet with the blue ceiling! Sweet! For some reason, the last owners of this house were really big on painting the ceilings, usually the same color as the room. It can sometimes be a bit much. Someday we'll get around to painting this place. . . Anyway, when we moved in my Mom had the bright idea of using the room to keep all the random crap that we didn't know where to put when we unpacked. So it has been filled with odd pieces of furniture, exercise equipment, pictures frames, etc . . . Meanwhile, since my parents are visiting for a week once a month, I had the bright idea that they just buy a bed for themselves (so they don't have to sleep on the queen in the guest room or pay for a hotel) to keep in the empty room at our house and then they can move it down the street to their new house when it is finished. Since they were planning on buying a new bed here anyway. Ya following me so far? Well, she took my genius advise and got a bed which needs to be delivered this week since they will be back here a week from today. So now I have to find a place for all the random crap I stuck in that room and hoped to not have to deal with again for some time! woo.hoo. But it will be nice for them to have a nice king bed to stay on since they are here so often. Don't get me wrong, if you want to come visit. The queen in the guest room is also very nice! : ) My sister and her husband will be using it next week when they are here also! Yeah!

Here are some random pictures of clouds from yesterday! I love clouds! :)

At the park.
Taken looking out into the alley from the garage.
On the road at the one side of our neighborhood, over by where my parents will live. It is a pretty street, since it has a meadow and wildflower field.

OK, I gotta get back to work. . . .

Finger Foods

Lily is a notoriously picky eater. I usually dread meal time because it is a big game to her and I hate to lose. I know I should just surrender and if she is being difficult, then she doesn't eat. But if she doesn't eat she is over the top fussy and guess who has to deal with that mess? Me. So I usually do whatever it takes to get her to eat in order to avoid a meltdown in the near future. One of her biggest issues is texture. She doesn't like soft or slimy foods. So she still eats baby food (a rarity, I think, for her age), in order to get a nice variety from the food pyramid. She LOVES strained green beans, but refuses to snack on an actual green bean. It is so weird. If she would just get over her texture issues, it would open up a whole new world of foods -- scrambled eggs, fruit cocktails, cooked veggies, etc . . . As it is now she mostly only eats carbs -- cheerios, crackers, pizza, grilled cheese, quesadillas, etc. . . I was so excited in May when she actually ate and liked a chicken nugget; Another form of protein besides yogurt and the milk in her cereal! Because of course she won't drink milk. I recently tried chocolate milk, after reading that suggestion from other moms with the same problem, but she wouldn't have it. She won't even drink juice! (but she loves water!) One way, besides strained baby food, to ensure she gets some fruit is to feed her the dried apples or banana/strawberry mixture from Gerber. I love the dried fruit because that is all it is, fruit -- no added anything. Plus, it is not soft or slimy, so she'll eat it. Well, the other morning she was quietly enjoying her bananas and strawberries in her high chair, so imagine my surprise to walk over and find that she has moistened the berries and made a nice paste like goo and spread it all over her face! She was quite proud too because she posed like a ham for the camera! It was pretty funny, but kinda sucky at the same time since the fruit dried quickly and hardened on her face. It was kinda tough to get it all off. She spent most of the day with strawberry bits on her eyelid! Sill girl!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

This video is from this morning. Lily looked so cute walking around the house with her purse on her shoulder -- like a little woman! She loves that little purse that Macy gave her when we were in Tennessee (thanks Macy!) and often wears it on her shoulder around the house. I was trying to capture that, but of course as soon as the camera came out all bets were off. She hardly ever performs on demand. But I did get a little bit out of her. . . when I could tell that the purse thing wasn't gonna happen, I started quizzing her on body parts. To my surprise she actually participated for the camera. Not entirely, she got shy and tired quickly, but you can see some of her brilliance! :) She impresses me daily, she know her head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears, tummy, arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes and shoulders. Currently we are working on butt and knees (so we can all sing along to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!) Sometimes she enjoys pointing out all she knows and other times she gets annoyed and rather be doing other things than be quizzed by me! In the video you can also hear her new word, "Down" as in I want to sit down on the couch.

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I couldn't get it to upload to blogger -- so I am trying something new. Hope it works ok . . .

Done Car Shoes!

Yesterday we went to the "Red, White and Boom" 4th of July celebration. It was a lot like the festival we went to last weekend -- Bouncy toys, food, local bands, etc. This one also had a rock climbing wall, potato sack races, a petting zoo (tiny one), a small train and pony rides for kids! I can't wait for Lily to be just a little older. It was so nice and family friendly. While we were sitting waiting for the fireworks, I was looking around and noticed that there almost as many strollers out on the field as there were blankets and chairs! Lots of little kids! For entertainment they had Charlie Robinson playing (? Not sure who that is, but apparently he is getting big in the country music scene) and Josh Gracin from American Idol. Again, I don't know anything about Josh Gracin since I am not really an American Idol fan, but it was cool. Chip was having a moment on the field, kinda tripping out that he was in Texas on the 4th listing to country music and eating BBQ. It was all too perfect. :)

We got there around 7pm, walked around some and then got something to eat. I was smarter this time and brought a picnic blanket for the grass. So we set up camp and ate while listening to Josh Gracin. I knew Lily wouldn't be as good as she was last week, that was too perfect. And of course, I was right. She didn't want to eat, so she was a little fussy and for some reason she wasn't really having fun watching all the kids dance and play around us. She just kept taking stuff in and out of my bag, but at least it entertained her for awhile. Finally around 9:30 the fireworks started. Lily sat and enjoyed them for the first few minutes, but then she was completely over it and ready to go. She kept yelling "Done!" "Car!" "Shoes!" and trying to climb back in her stroller and put her shoes back on! It was the funnies thing! Even Chip, who normally doesn't understand her baby talk, heard her loud and clear! "Done, Car, Shoes" over and over! I tried to distract her with the fireworks, but she was so ready to go home. It still amazes me how much smarter she gets every single day -- She knows we put our shoes on before we go bye bye and we had to get to the car to get home! It was so cute, I didn't even mind having to get up in the middle of the firework show. We walked out slowly and stopped a few times so I could enjoy the rest of the fireworks. They put on an amazing show! It was really good!

Here are some 18 month pics we took in the backyard yesterday. Since she wore her 4th of July dress last weekend, and I couldn't really justify buying another outfit for the 4th, she wore this cute red shirt and jean skirt I bought her over a year ago at H&M. (If you ever go to buy baby clothes at H&M, be careful because their sizes are European and way different -- this is a 9-12 month outfit, but weight 23-27 lbs!! I didn't realize that last May when I bought her clothes for last summer -- so now she can finally wear them this summer!)




At the Red White and Boom festival!
Guess where I got my dinner from?? :)

Fried Green Tomatoes!! They were really yummy!
Fried Cheesecake -- actually pretty good. Kinda light and not at all greasy.


Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July

Here are some pictures from last 4th of July -- It is amazing how much Lily has changed in a year! Last year we celebrated in Merced, which is always so fun to get together with everyone. We were bummed we couldn't make it out this year. Tonight we are going to another local carnival/ firework show! Should be fun! She is officially 18 months old today!! I'm sure I'll post pics tomorrow of her 18 month photo shoot and us celebrating the 4th. Hope you all have a great 4th of July!

Pics from her 6th month photo shoot in our hotel room in Merced
Partying at the Browns house.
Watching the fireworks!

Fun with Daddy Day

Chip took all day yesterday off work! So instead of making him work around the house, we decided to get out some and have a little fun. We started the day off by checking out the outlets near by. I'd already been to most the malls, and thought it may be fun to see what the outlets were like. I was on a mission to find Lily new summer sandals since she is almost out grown the ones she has been wearing lately and Chip wanted to find some nice khaki shorts to wear to work. The outlets are like any other outlet center -- all outdoors and spread out across a large parking lot. So it is kinda annoying if the stores you want to go to are across the way from each other; which of course they always are. There are tons of good stores though -- for Lily they have Gymboree, Gap Kids, Stride Rite, Carters, Osh Kosh B'Gosh, The Children's Place, Tommy Hilfiger Kids, Ralph Lauren Kids, Natuica Kids and a KB Toy Outlet. For Chip they have Nike, Adidas, Puma, Pac Sun, Callaway (although he can get golf stuff at better prices now through the course), Gap, etc . . . For me they have Coach, Banana Republic, J Crew, BCBG, Michael Kors, Guess, Kenneth Cole, etc. Of course I couldn't find sandals I liked for Lily and I didn't get anything for myself since I didn't really need anything. And as always, Chip was the big winner for the day. It never fails, when ever we all go shopping Chip is usually the only one who buys anything. He got like 5 pairs of shorts, but he totally needed them. And it is good for me because now I don't have to do his laundry as often! :)

(A little side note regarding our experience at the outlets. . . People keep asking about the weather here and I often feel that they don't believe me when I say it is not that bad. I would not lie, if I was miserable I would tell you. I have no allegiance to Texas yet. Yesterday it was 97 degrees. We were at the outdoor outlets from 11:30 to 1:30 in the afternoon -- Pretty much the heat of the day. I walked the whole thing. In fact, at one point when the last stores we needed to go to were clear across the way and Chip wanted to drive, I had him drive over while Lily and I walked it since it was easier to just walk then load Lily and the stroller in the car just to unload 4 minutes later. If it had been hot and miserable, I would have totally said screw it, we're going home and I'll hit up the nice indoor air conditioned mall tomorrow. I can't explain it, I know that 97 degrees is hot! It is almost like they have a different temperature gage here! Chip thinks it is because there is always a slight breeze that cools things down. I don't know what it is, but it is nice! )

After the outlets we came home, Lily took and nap and Chip and I relaxed and caught up on some TV. There were tons of things we could have been doing around the house, but it was nice to just relax.

Later on, Chip went outside to get the mail, and the weeds that I started to pull last week (but never quite finished) must have really bothered Chip because he got my pink garden gloves and went out front to pull weeds! It was kinda funny watching him in his bright pink gloves :) so of course I grabbed my camera: That is kinda a big crazy weed!

Lily is doing her part to help daddy.
After the impromptu gardening session, we went to the park. We were the only ones there last night. It didn't quite hit me until right now as I am typing, we were probably the only ones there since it was Wednesday evening and I am betting most of the families were at church! But it was nice having the playground to ourselves. I've been trying to get Lily to sit in the little toddler swing, but she won't even try it. I know she'd like it, but she is too stubborn. So Chip swung with her a little and then we played on the slide. I wasn't sliding too well in my skirt! :) But Lily and Chip had fun. We tried to get her to go down by herself (with us holding her) but she seemed to like it better when we went with her. Fine by me, sliding is fun! :)

Walking home from the park. The end of a good day off for Chip!

Do You Come Here Often?

I have a new hobby, trolling the park for chicks. So far, so good -- I was there last night for an hour and got one phone number. Having Lily is my ace in the hole, she is a major chick magnet!

I figured it was about time I got out and tried to meet some people in my neighborhood; both Lily and I need some friends to hang out with from time to time. I e-mailed the local Moms Club, which has meetings and playdates, and I am still waiting to hear back from them. I am kinda afraid their schedule won't mesh well with ours. Usually those kinda groups meet at like 9am so their kids can be home for their nap at noon. But Lily doesn't usually wake up till 9:30 and doesn't nap till 2, so we are a little off the normal schedule.

But a few nights ago on our way home from errands, I noticed a lot of families and moms with kids playing in the park around the corner. So last night Lily and I stopped by to see what was up. There was soccer practice going on for kindergarten aged girls and all those moms were huddled together. I am not the most outgoing when it comes to approaching new people, so they kinda intimidated me. But there was another Mom with 3 kids by herself, so I actually went up to her and introduced myself! (very un-like me, I mean I can't remember the last time I tried to make new friends . . . usually at work or school and those friendships just developed. Now I have to go and work at it -- it is kinda strange) She lives across from the park, has 3 kids ages 6,4, and 2. We talked for nearly an hour (dished on this seasons Bachelorette, and gave brief versions of our life stories). Lily had fun playing outside and watching all the older kids run around. It was a nice evening. I am totally going to try to go back tonight. Hopefully we'll be making more new friends! It would be nice to have a friend for Lily to play with a few times a week! Here are some pics of Lily at the park:

Mini-Chip

Sorry no blog yesterday. I got busy during my blogging time (aka, Lily's nap time) doing some work for the golf course. And it is becoming impossible to even check my e-mail while Lily is awake, so blogging is definitely not gonna happen. She has to sit on my lap now while I am at the computer and has most recently discovered it is both fun and annoying to me to try to hit all the keys on the keyboard! She is definitely going through the stage where she is all about testing her boundaries. I deal with a few mini temper tantrums everyday. She normally gets over it pretty quickly, and they usually are worse when she is hungry or tired (why nap time is so vital to me). She has a lot more area to play here which means a lot more things to get into and a lot more restrictions. She is a smart girl and knows what is off limits, but she still likes to test me. She will wait until I am paying attention before she grabs for the phone (or whatever it is she is not supposed to play with) and then has a fit when I take it away. It gets kinda frustrating, because I know she knows she is not supposed to have it. Anyway, that is why I try to stay away from the computer when she is around, it is easier than having to tear her away and deal with a potential meltdown.
She has a new favorite word now (thank goodness because "NO" had been her favorite word for awhile and I was over that). It is "Down". It is actually not so much a word as it is a command, as in "Sit DOWN." She says it pretty forcefully, usually as she hits the couch or wherever she wants me to sit. She'll also say it when she wants up on the couch with me, or in her highchair. It is kinda funny, because I was trying to teach her "up" when she wanted up but instead she says "down" since she wants to sit down. I guess that works too.

Here are some pics from yesterday -- she is wearing Chip's shirt from when he was a toddler. His mom had given me some of his old clothes when Lily was born. This is my favorite. I think she looks so cute. (I'm not sure why Chip had a pink shirt -- maybe it faded over the years!)