Archives for November 2006

…at least not for a very long time.

– Go to the post office on a busy Friday with just me and a toddler who wants to wreck havoc. The worst was when she would lean back while I held her, straining my back and making my arm go numb.

– Eat Halloween candy even though I know high sugar foods make me sick right now. It was so tempting, and yet it made me feel so awful. Luckily, a few pickles made everything better. (I swear this pregnancy is all about the pickles.)

– Take a tired and cranky toddler to the grocery by myself.

– Sort and then throw away the metric ton of junk mail about all of the local candidates send us every damn day. And I’m not talking one or two negative ads in the mail – more like 5-10 pieces a day, half of them from the other party, even though neither of us are registered for that political party. Same goes for the recorded phone calls. Stop calling us already – our votes are already safe with the Board of Elections, waiting to be lovingly hand counted on Election Day.

– Attempt to call our old health insurance to question a bill I received from a procedure done in April and was now charged way too much for, only to be repeatedly told, “But you’re no longer insured with us now.” Yes, but in April I was. However, when you’re no longer insured by them, they can make up some “well, that was an exception to your 20% rule” and you’re stuck with the bill, no matter how many times you try to question them about it.

– Take the same tired and cranky toddler, who chose to skip her nap for the day, to an evening party at a friend’s house, where there is an old-style wood burning stove in the kitchen, with no gate around it. Let’s just say that the new theme of the party became “keep the child from burning herself” and everyone played.

Yeah, you can say we’ve had a busy week here. Thankfully, there have been some good moments to balance out the rough ones, too. Like Cordy’s newest favorite game:

Cordy: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: Yes, Cordy?
Cordy: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: Cordy?
Cordy: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: What?!?
Cordy: Hi! (laughs and runs away)

It’s cute, although it does have potential to be annoying very soon. But hopefully not for a few more weeks.

Last night I rushed out of work early in order to be home for trick or treating. Aaron planned to pass out candy, and I wanted to take Cordy door to door. However, everyone else in the city was apparently thinking the same thing, so getting home took a little effort due to massive traffic jams.

The weather also wasn’t very good – cold and rainy. But thankfully the rain stopped right before trick or treat began. As I walked in the door of our house, I was greeted with our little brown and white cow:

I’m very happy with the costume choice. Not only is it adorable on her, but she also didn’t mind wearing it.

I gave Cordy her pumpkin candy container, and we set off to try trick or treating. Last year I took her out in costume in her stroller, mostly to meet some neighbors and show off her cute Tinkerbell costume. This year, though, we were a little more serious. She walked the entire time, and she insisted on holding on to her pumpkin. “Itza pun-kin!” could be heard every 10 steps as we walked down the sidewalk.

The neighbors loved seeing her in costume. She was a little less sure of them, though. She didn’t quite understand why we were walking up to houses, standing at the door, but then not going in. And she didn’t understand why people kept wanting to put things in her pumpkin. Cordy would always look in her pumpkin afterwards as if to say, “What’s that doing in there?” Thankfully, she doesn’t know what candy looks like yet.

Manners weren’t very good, either. She would usually say hi to people, but saying “trick or treat” was impossible and “thank you” was tough. After someone got up in her face, she generally got nervous and responded with, “Bye!” and tried to pull me away.

Even though I told people not to give her much candy, since she’s not going to eat it anyway, they still heaped handfuls into her pumpkin. Which meant that after several houses, her pumpkin was much heavier than before. But she still insisted on carrying it.

We walked down our street and back up the other side, then hit a few more houses on the next street before she tired out. I brought her back to our house, and for the last hour of trick or treat she played in the living room and watched other kids come to the door. And, of course, when a boisterous group came up and loudly said, “Trick or treat,” Cordy finally responded with “Twik o Tweet!”

More pictures:

Showing Dora her loot.




Moo, moo, moO, MOO, Moo, moo, moooooo!




Wrestling with daddy before bed.