Out Like a Lamb

"It's a lovely day today
So whatever you've got to do
You've got a lovely day to do it in, that's true"
*Irving Berlin

It's the last day in March and it is clear and sunny and promising to warm up to sixty degrees. Come on, April! We're ready for spring!

Laundry day today. The Boogie and I are hanging out at 52. The first load is in the washer, and there are toys strewn all over the living room already. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am so thankful for my inlaws letting me do our laundry here! They save us so much money every month. Plus it's fun to come over and spend a whole day with them, not to mention MIL cooks for us and she is a GOOD COOK.

Yesterday I left the computer off until mid-afternoon and I got so much accomplished. I even took a walk. The Boogie was so whiny all day. Ugh. The walk helped with that, as did the sucker she got from the bank. By the time we got back home she was all sticky and threw a kicking fit on the floor when I took the sucker away. Thankfully it was time for a nap. "Nooooo," she wept, covering her eyes with sticky fingers, "No nap! I tan't!" But she could. And did. God knew what He was doing when He instilled children with the need for mid-day sleep. I am firmly convinced that He did it for parents' sanity.

The Boogie now calls me honey all the time. She doesn't call me Mama at all, ever. It's, "Honey, whey ah you?" from her crib and "Honey! Honey! Wait fo' me!" as she runs after me and " 'ank you, honey," when I give her something. Just now I told her, "Say 'I love you, Mama,' " and she said, "I luh you, honey." Little booger. But it's cute to hear her say it!

Thunder and Lightning and Hail, Oh My!

Crazy weather today. This morning it was chilly, damp, and foggy. This afternoon the clouds cleared up and the sun came out and it warmed up beautifully. I opened all the windows and aired out the apartment. When we left for church I went around and closed them most of the way because I didn't want it to get too cool while we were gone. Good thing I did because we had a cold front sweep through, bringing with it lightning and hail and torrential rain! I believe there were even tornado warnings up in PA. Of course tonight is the night that FIL drove up that direction with the visiting missionary to visit another church.

This afternoon I asked the Boogie, "Are you ready for your nap?"
"No," she replied, "no nap. I tan't!"

"I tan't" is her newest phrase. It goes perfectly with the word no.

What A Week!

This has been an amazing week.

• We had an incredible missions conference with awesome preaching.
• As a result of fervent prayer by family, friends, and church folks, my Papaw got saved.
• The Boogie peed in her potty!

I realize that last one is not of the caliber of the first two, but we were pretty tickled. It quite possibly was a fluke that won't repeat itself anytime soon. That's okay with me.

Yesterday was my Saturday to work. My Man made samosa. It didn't look like the picture but it tasted pretty good. He got the oil too hot and our apartment reeks of burnt oil. Thankfully today is nice so we can open the windows and air it all out! He and the Boogie went to church for the international dinner (which is what the samosa was for) and some preaching. I got there in the middle of the preaching and My wonderful Man saved me a plate of food. I was in time for dessert! After dessert SIL3 took the Boogie to 52 while My Man and I cleaned the church. It was a very busy day and I was pretty tired by the end of it.

This past week there has been a lot of work going on in the downstairs apartment. All the old carpet and flooring was torn up, and the kitchen cabinets were pulled out. I guess it's going to be the same as the R family's apartment when it's finished, which means new carpet in the living room, bedrooms, and down the hallway, and brand-new cabinets in the kitchen. Since I realized they were doing all of that I've been contemplating the pros and cons of seeing if we could move into that apartment ourselves!

Pros

• Brand-new carpet.
• A carpeted hallway that muffles running toddler feet and can be vacuumed.
• Lots of nice, new kitchen cabinets and way more counter space.
• No more stairs to climb.
• No more stressing out about whether we are bothering downstairs neighbors when we walk around, especially in the early morning.

Cons

• No more heat in the winter rising from downstairs. Instead, our heating costs would probably increase since we'd be helping heat this apartment as well as our own.
• Can't ever leave windows open when it's nice out unless we are home and awake, for fear of someone climbing in.
• Living below this apartment with it's super-creaky floors (and the worst of them is in the Boogie's room, so if we moved downstairs she would be sleeping right below the noisiest room.) We truly make an effort to be quiet but the next tenants might not be so considerate, and we would have to live with that.
• The moving part: packing, hauling stuff downstairs, unpacking, changing our gas and electric, phone line and cable, changing our address again.
• We'd have to pay to have the carpets professionally cleaned in this apartment, and also to have it repainted.

Eh, when I weigh it out it's not worth it. I'll happily deal with the tiny kitchen and creaky floors. We've been here almost a year and it's worked out really well so far! But I'm sure I'll be irritated when they completely redo this apartment as soon as we move out. :)

Enough stalling. On to the nursery schedule ...

A Great Big Praise!

My Papaw put his trust in Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour last night. We have been praying for his salvation for years and years and years! I am SO THANKFUL that God answers prayer! This has been an amazing week with incredible preaching at our missions conference at church, and this news just tops it. I am very very very happy. :)

A Letter

Dear MomMomMom and PopPopPop,

Thank you for my new (to me) vacuum toy. It is so fun to play with! Did you know that it makes noise and has a light? I learned how to push a button to turn it on and off. The next time you come over from Delaware I will show you how it works. Or you can watch this video my Mama took this morning. I'm still a little scared of the hand vacuum but I'm sure I'll get over that soon.

Love,
The Boogie

Randominity

• It is Missions Conference week at church. So far the preaching has been great!
• All the church nursery mice have been sought out and destroyed ... or rather, their greed for peanut butter led to their demise. At least I hope that is the last of them.
  
• The Boogie sat in my bed this morning, cocked her head to the side and asked, "So, whata do 'aday?" which is interpreted as "So, whatcha wanna do today?" which is what I say to her in the mornings.
  
• It is laundry day today.
  
• Pops is flying to Kentucky today to spend a little more than a week with my grandparents. Please pray for my Papaw's salvation! His health is deteriorating and the window of opportunity is diminishing. He has always been uninterested in spiritual things but that has been changing some lately.
• My Man has an appointment this afternoon at the optometrist. Praise the Lord for vision insurance -- it will cover an exam AND a pair of glasses! I told him he has to choose one of the free pairs, even if they are ugly, ha ha. :)
• The Boogie's birthday is coming up. I can't believe my baby is going to be 2. I'm trying to decide what we want to do. We will celebrate with family and a few friends and will definitely do cake and ice cream. I will probably make the cake myself. Should we have pizza? Should we do sandwiches like H-man's party a couple of weeks ago? Whatever we do needs to be wallet-friendly. I am open to suggestions.
• My Man and I will celebrate our third anniversary at the same time as the Boogie's birthday (she was born on our first anniversary.) We are going to go away for a night or two but haven't decided exactly what we are going to do. We have a few ideas. I'm looking forward to it. It will be the first time we've really done something for our anniversary. The first one was spent in the hospital. The second one was overshadowed by the Boogie's first birthday.
• I CAN'T WAIT for my parents to come visit us. I am counting down the days! I'm so excited for the Boogie to have exclusive grandparent time with the grandparents she rarely gets to see. My Man has put in for his vacation time and had it approved so we are set for a wonderful ten days. :)
• I need to give myself a manicure. Maybe this afternoon. My nails are very clicky on the keyboard.
• There's nothing else coming to mind to write about, so ciao for now!
  

How To Slow Down Your Toddler

Buy her a pair of these boots:

The first thing she did this morning was find her daddy's glasses on the nightstand and twist them into a pretzel. :( This is probably somewhat of a blessing in disguise since he is sorely in need of an eye exam, new contact lenses, and new glasses; however, it was not the best start to his day. They had a little Daddy/Boogie date and checked out the local tractor supply store where cute Boogie-sized boots were on sale. While they were gone I scrubbed the bathroom but forgot to close the door when I was finished ... as soon as they got home the Boogie discovered the toilet brush still dripping into the toilet and had fun playing with it. EWWW! Thankfully we caught her right away and I don't think she tried to taste it. Blech. Nothing like a Clorox-flavored drink from the toilet brush.

It's Spring! It's Spring! It's ...

... snowing.

Those paeans I mentioned before? I really wasn't thinking they would sound like this:

Public Service Announcement

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. Please prepare bells to be rung and paeans to be sung!

My back/neck feels much better today. I would imagine it will be mostly back to normal by the weekend.

A little while ago I noticed the Boogie walking around with her pants around her ankles. I chased after her to pull them back up, but she evaded me and ran right into her room and sat down on her potty. A bit later I realized that she had a " 'tinky diaper" and I think she did it while sitting there! Hmmm. Perhaps the child has a better grasp of a potty chair's purpose than one would think ...

I need oatmeal raisin cookies. I am going to make these Cape Cod Oatmeal Cookies (but without the nuts or the 1/2 cup of melted shortening. I only use 1/2 cup of melted butter.) They are the best ever!

Ouchie

Yesterday I had a "crick" in my neck. I get them from time to time. The Boogie and I headed to 52 to do many loads of laundry. In the late afternoon I started folding, and after a couple of loads I noticed that my neck/upper back was very sore. I thought I would rest my muscles by laying down on the floor ... but that made it hurt worse and then I couldn't get up! I had to call for My Man to come help me. I was reeeeally hurtin' all night last night. Boo-hoo, poor me. (I think it was folding laundry that did me in. That's a good reason not to do it anymore, right?) I was pretty sore when I woke up this morning so I called in to work and asked to get squeezed into the schedule, pretty please. I got all adjusted and am feeling much better tonight than I was last night, though I'm still plenty sore. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll notice a big difference. My back/neck has never hurt like that before. It wasn't fun AT ALL.

Today was perfectly lovely. In case you haven't looked at your calendar lately, spring begins the day after tomorrow! I'm very happy about that. We went over to 52 a couple of times today to play in the backyard. The Boogie loves to "fly" in the swing. Tonight My Man and BIL1 put up a slide and the Boogie, HJ, and EK went down it over and over and over. When I told the Boogie, "Just a couple more times and then it's time to go home," she stopped in her tracks, covered her eyes with both hands, and cried dramatically, "Noooooo! No home!" Thankfully the cousins walked home with us, averting the second meltdown of the day (the first one occurred when we came home for a nap this afternoon.) Also Mr. B came over tonight -- we haven't seen him in several weeks, and I wasn't sure if the Boogie would even remember him. Silly me. As soon as she saw him she wriggled out of the toy truck she was riding in and ran right over to him, calling his name.

I have wonderful news. My Man was up for a review which he had yesterday. His supervisors worked hard to get him a raise ... and they succeeded! Praise the Lord! This is especially welcome now because last week they informed the employees that in the middle of April all overtime will be cut. While the raise won't make up the difference between 15 hours of overtime and no hours of overtime, it will certainly help. God continues to be very good to us!

Conversations

I drop a lid on the kitchen floor.
The Boogie, handing it to me: "I dot it. He' ya go, Mama, honey."
Me: "Thank you, honey! Thank you for helping!"
The Boogie: "You we'come, honey."

When did I start having conversations with my almost-2-year-old? And could anyone more precious be calling me "honey"?

Correction

The Boogie does not say "Wha' dat?" She says, "Wha' dis?" Oops.

She slept all night last night, yay! Well, except for around 12:00 when she called for a "grink." I gave her a cup of water, told her to go to sleep and no crying, and didn't hear another peep!

Last week I bought a package of chicken legs and thighs at the grocery store. I usually wait for boneless skinless chicken breasts to go on sale, and stock up my freezer. But this was $0.49/lb so I thought, why not? I'll just put it all in the crockpot to cook all day and freeze the cooked chicken. Well, I'll tell you why not. I hate hate hate handling raw chicken. HATE IT. It literally gives me the creeps. If I only have to touch it for a couple of minutes, like while I cut up the boneless skinless stuff, I can handle it. But if I have to pull the skin off of it, and trim the fat off ... *shudder* ... I hate it. It grosses me out. So now I remember why I only buy boneless skinless chicken breast. I hope I remember it the next time I'm tempted by $0.49/lb. I know. I'm a wimp.

Oh, oh! I almost forgot! My mom and dad are coming out to visit! I'm sooooo excited! They are coming at the end of May and staying a week and a half. Mom came out when the Boogie was born, but this will be Pops's first visit. We're really looking forward to it -- My Man will have some vacation time to take, and we'll do some trips to Philly and NYC and the shore. I can't wait!

Eeeek!

We've been finding evidence of mice in the church nursery. FIL put down traps yesterday and this morning there were two deceased rodents in them. Blech. My brave Man disposed of them for me. After church tonight we picked up all the toys and set traps again. Hopefully the two who met their demise last night were the only nocturnal nursery frolickers. *shudder*

Yesterday we went to a Cars-themed birthday party for H-man. There were lots of little chilluns there and they all did so well, even the birthday boy when they crowded around him while he opened his gifts! It was a fun party with great company, lots of good food, and a fabulous cake made by H-man's talented mom. The Boogie drank a cup full of green Hawaiian punch and was wired all evening. That's the last time she gets to drink that stuff ...

The other day the Boogie started asking, "Wha' dat?" She was looking at a book with her daddy and was pointing out things and asking rapid-fire, "Wha' dat? Wha' dat? Wha' dat?" Then she slowed it down, "Whaaaa' [pause] dat?" as she stabbed a finger at pictures.

For Christmas my Mamaw sent the Boogie this book, Baby Cakes. It's a sweet little going-to-bed book with a little rhyming story that starts out like this, "Baby cakes, baby cakes, I love you. Baby cakes, baby cakes, yes I do!" The Boogie loves it and I've read it so many times that I have it memorized. When she has a hard time settling down in her crib it helps for me to sing to her, and recently she's been asking for "Baby Takes," so I recite it to her, sometimes several times. Last night we had (yet another) battle of the wills when she woke up in the middle of the night and wanted out of her crib. I made sure she was okay and had everything necessary for sleep (burpie, binky, cup), quoted Baby Cakes twice and told her to lay down and go to sleep, and I left. She cried, of course. I don't mind the crying. I mean, I can handle listening to her cry. It doesn't really bother me. But when she started sobbing, "Mama? Maaaamaaa? Whey ah you, Mama?" well, it just broke my heart. Then she called out, still weeping, "Mama, baby takes? Baby takes? I luh you!" I knew she was okay and didn't need anything, but it was soooo hard not to go get her out of her crib and snuggle on the couch with her and tell her Baby Cakes over and over until she fell asleep. :( Sometimes it's hard to be the mama.

She was a happy girl today, and told Mrs. S in the nursery this morning that she had a " 'tinky diaper," and she did have one! Another step! And we all took nice, long naps this afternoon. Lest you forget, I love naps.

The sweetest thing she did today was after church tonight. I cut up a "got gog" (hot dog) for her and had her sit at her little table to eat it. I prayed with her and went into the kitchen. A minute later My Man hissed at me to come back, and there was the Boogie, sitting at her table with her head bowed and her hands folded and babbling something that ended with "got gog, a-men." Awww, my baby thanking the Lord for her food all by herself. It made me weepy!

Talking To Lela

The Boogie loves to talk on the phone with her Lela. She gets very excited. When the phone rings she says, "Oh! Yeeya!" She thinks that Lela can see her through the phone so she plays hide and seek with her.

Boogie Antics

Today the Boogie started asking, "Wha' dat?" Her little voice sounds so cute. I'll try to get a video of that but meanwhile here are a couple from a week or so ago.

Having a little chat:

Climbing into her crib:

The landing on her head thing concerned us for a bit but she has since learned to kind of launch herself sideways so it doesn't happen anymore. I am constantly finding her in her crib during the day. She only gets binkies at naptime and bedtime so she knew they were in her crib -- I've had to start putting them somewhere else during the day!

Tiny Steps To The Potty

The Boogie was put in her crib for a nap. After about fifteen minutes she began calling, "Mama? Mama!" Naptime is usually a breeze. She goes right to sleep. If she is calling for me it means she needs something. I went in and closed the curtains by her crib (she loves to look out the window,) and she said, "uh-oh, burpie." Sure enough, her burpie was behind the curtains. I returned it to her, gave her a binky, and said, "okay, time to lay down and go to sleep." She patted her bottom and told me, " 'tinky diaper." And it was! I'm in NO HURRY to start potty training but am pleased that she's making baby steps in that direction.

She has started calling me "honey." She says, "Hello, honey," or "Hi, Mama honey." She asks me, "Ah you okay, Mama? Okay, honey?" while patting me or stroking my cheek. Yesterday she was sitting on our bed with My Man. She pointed to him and said, "Daddy," patted her chest and said her own name, then pointed down the hall where I was, though she couldn't see me, and said, "Mama honey." Oh, I just love it. It makes my heart melt into a little puddle every time she says it.

If we leave the room she runs after us shouting, "Wai' fo' me! Wai' fo' me! Wait! Wait!" while holding her arms straight out in front of her with her palms facing away from her, as if to say "Stop!" Yesterday she came into the room where I was, cocked her head to the side, and asked, "What ya doin'?" repeatedly. When she accomplishes something she jumps up and down exclaiming, "Yay, yippee, I did it, I did it!" She's getting better about asking nicely for help ("Hel', kee,") instead of screaming in frustration. When she burps or passes gas she giggles and says, "Scusie." She loves to swing in the baby swing in the backyard over at 52, except she thinks it's flying: "Fly. Fly, Mama." If she sees me with a mug she comes running over, "Oshee, Mama? Peesh? Oshee?" It must be inbred in her to love the taste of coffee. I remember begging my parents for it, too, when I was little. The other thing she begs for is ice cream: "Mo', mo' bite peesh, i'keem." "Please" originally sounded like "kee kee" which I think is why she still uses it in certain phrases. Now it's "peesh" and occasionally "plea," so we're getting there! I think the way she says things is so cute. I don't correct her. Time enough for that later. I'm just so impressed with all the words and phrases she is picking up every day.

Decisions, Decisions

I have the need to blog. There's an inside urge (but not like the kind you feel after that morning cup of coffee.) However, I also have the need of sleep. The Boogie, praise the Lord, has been sleeping all night lately. I did not want to blog about this earlier for fear of jinxing it. Now I'm on the tail end of another little cold. This one is the kind that comes accessorized with a cough. Normally I get up at 4 with My Man, and go back to bed when he leaves for work. Lately I get up at 4 with him, start coughing, and can't go back to sleep until close to the time the Boogie wakes up. I plead guilty to putting her in my bed and turning on Curious George so I can get a few more minutes of dozing. So I said all that to say this: I want to blog. I need to blog. I miss blogging. The time I would have spent writing witicisms and uploading adorable pictures today was instead spent cleaning up the coffee creamer that splattered all over the kitchen this morning when My Man shook the bottle, not realizing the lid wasn't on. (FYI that stuff is super sticky and splashes all over the place.) But I just need to go to bed tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.

Sing A Song

The Boogie sings all. the. time. She knows lots and lots of songs -- not the words necessarily, but the tunes. I've tried multiple times to get a video of her but she clams up when I pull out the camera. Last night we were driving home from the store and she started singing in her carseat, so I recorded her on my cell phone. I don't know how to record only audio, so these are videos in which you can see nothing since it was dark!

One More Thing

Reading back over my last several posts I can see how they seem to be full of complaints about the Boogie not sleeping. To be honest, some of them are complaints. Some of them are for myself, for when I have another kid who is almost two and having the same sleep issues. Since this is my journal I want to be able to look back and say, "Oh yeah -- see? The Boogie did the same thing. We survived." :)

I am so thankful for our Boogie. I know that there are so many children out there with real health issues. I know that I should not complain at all because in the first place, I have a Boogie. I was able to conceive and bear a child of my own, with an uncomplicated labor and delivery. Our Boogie is healthy. When she is well we do all sleep through the night. I don't have to set my alarm and get up multiple times to check on her or administer medication. She is a happy girl. She is developing and learning and growing just like she's supposed to be.

I don't want to be a complainer. It's easy to lose sight of the good things when something not so fun is having to be dealt with. The joy I derive from just having my sweet little girl around far outweighs the inconvenience of getting up with her during the night. I just want to make sure you all know that. :) Thank you for bearing with me and my complaints!

Sweetie

The Boogie cried for 2 hours early this morning. Just thought you'd like to know. :)

When we finally gave up on sleep and got up, My Man asked what I wanted for breakfast. I, of course, answered, "coffee."

While I was drinking it the Boogie (who was totally happy once she was up) bumped my arm and coffee splashed on my pink fuzzy bathrobe. My Man rushed to bring me a wet cloth. The Boogie eyed the brown wet spots on my robe and said, "Gwoss. Gwoss. Eww, gwoss."

The she looked up at me and said, totally unsolicited, "I sowwy, Mama. Ah you okay?"

Melt my heart. What a little love.

When Will It End?

This mama is used to offspring sleeping through the night. This mama is used to sleeping through the night herself. I don't like this waking up at all early hours of the morning. I have very little patience with that. Here is how last night went:

• 11:00 pm: I went to sleep
• 1:00 am: The Boogie woke up and I began the process of quieting her, soothing her, and getting her to lay back down while I stood by her crib, sat on the floor and leaned my head against her crib, and finally laid down on the floor next to her crib. Every time she would doze off and I would sneak out of the room she would instantly wake up as if she had radar or something. I got no sleep.
• 2:00 am: I gave up on keeping her in the crib and we both went to the couch. She wiggled, squirmed, climbed on me, rolled over and over, and talked while I balanced on the edge of the couch and told her repeatedly to lay down. I got no sleep.
• 3:00 am: I gave up on sleep and turned on the television. There is nothing good on at 3 in the morning.
• 3:30 am: I put in a Winnie the Pooh video for the Boogie while I got together My Man's lunch and started his breakfast.
• 4:00 am: My Man got up and got ready for work. The Boogie was repeatedly sent back to the couch from which she called, "Daaaaaddy? Whey ah youuuu?"
• 4:30 am: My Man left. I put the Boogie into her crib. I got into my bed. The Boogie began to cry. Thank the Lord we have no neighbors. I let her cry. I may have even dozed off during the crying.
• 5:00 am: The Boogie stopped crying and finally went to sleep. I went to sleep. Hallelujah. We slept for four hours.

There will be serious napping today in this house. There may or may not be a trip to the park since it's supposed to get into the mid-fifties today, a nice break from the freezing snowy weather of last weekend. My Man has tomorrow off again and it's supposed to get up into the sixties tomorrow and Sunday! I'm looking forward to that. Come on, spring. Fourteen days to go.

New Bed, New Chair

This is where the Boogie ended up sleeping this morning.
She woke up at 3:00 again and we headed to the couch. When I thought she was asleep I carried her carefully to her room, laid her in her crib, and without even opening her eyes she began to cry and plead, "Out? Out, Mama?" Back to the couch we went where she soon was snoozing again. I, however, did not sleep at all. When My Man got up at 4:00 I got up, too. After he left for work I decided to just leave the Boogie on the couch by herself. I figured she would probably roll off at some point so I put some couch cushions on the floor. You know, to soften the fall. I went to bed. Then I realized, duh, I could KEEP her from rolling off the couch (please remember that it was about 4:30 a.m. and I'd been awake since 3:00.) I got back up and arranged her little table and chairs next to the couch, along with the cushions to keep her from bumping her head or something. I went to bed again and slept for two lovely, uninterrupted hours. Around seven o'clock she woke herself up coughing (still haven't managed to get rid of that cough entirely) and I could hear her as she realized where she was, "Huh? Huh? Oh!" Pretty soon she came trotting into my room, pleased as could be with herself. "Hi, Mama!"

And look what came today!

She's very interested in sitting on the potty, though I know she has no idea what it's for. We'll get there soon enough. I'm in no hurry ...

A True Snow Day

We were supposed to get 10-14 inches of snow last night. Since My Man leaves so early for work he knew the roads wouldn't be plowed. When he got up at 3:45 this morning he looked outside, said, "I'm calling out," and came back to bed. Praise the Lord for floating holidays! It was so nice to have him home all day and I think the several extra hours of sleep he got really helped him kick the cold he was getting. We didn't get even close to the predicted amount of snow but we did get several inches. A little bit ago he bundled up the Boogie and took her outside for a few minutes of playtime. It is very, very cold so they didn't stay out for very long!

Last night while we were at church a transformer blew and we lost all power. Of course everyone pulled out cell phones to light the search for flashlights and candles. FIL finished up his sermon by candlelight! It was an interesting evening.

Batten Down The Hatches

We are supposed to get fourteen windy inches of snow tonight. Two days ago it was sixty degrees. I'm clinging to the promise of spring -- twenty days to go!

This past week we had another episode of Puppy Left in Downstairs Apartment. (I must add that after complaining to Downstairs Neighbor about the first time it happened, he continued to leave Puppy in his apartment by itself so we got to enjoy two more days of barking, crying, and whining.) We hadn't seen or heard Puppy in a few weeks. In fact, we hadn't seen or heard Downstairs Neighbor in a while, either. (On a side note, when Downstairs Neighbor would leave he often would forget to turn off his furnace. The downstairs furnace does a great job of heating our apartment. If it runs all day ours will literally run a couple of times in the morning and stay off for the rest of the day. Downstairs Neighbor was gone for most of February and his furnace ran and ran, day and night. Ours hardly ran at all. It was great! One evening after a couple of weeks I came home from somewhere and My Man mentioned that he noticed Downstairs Neighbor's previous roommate's car out front, and he saw her leaving with an armful of stuff. "Oh, no!" I said, "Do you think she turned off the furnace?" And she had. Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted!) Wednesday morning I woke up to the sound of Puppy barking and whining and crying, and it continued off and on for the whole day. On Thursday morning I woke up to the same thing only this time it didn't stop for THREE HOURS. Puppy is several weeks older from the last time this happened, and bigger, and louder. Finally I called management. I mean, I try to be understanding about things but this was ridiculous. About thirty minutes after I called, Downstairs Neighbor came home, got Puppy, and left. The very next day he moved out! Sometimes I wonder if we are the reason he moved and I have to be honest -- I don't care if we are. While I'll miss the heat of that furnace over this next cold month, I won't miss Puppy or anything else.

Our next-door neighbor moved out last week as well. I know for a fact that we are not the reason she moved as she was military and told My Man that she had orders to her next duty station. It's very nice not to have any neighbors at all but kinda scary at the same time to think that we'll be getting new ones eventually. You never know what you're going to get. We'll be praying for quiet non-smokers who are gone a lot. :)

The Boogie and I have recovered from our illnesses. Recovery included a couple of nights spent on the couch together so as to not disturb her Daddy. Sharing a couch with a toddler for the night is not my idea of fun. Praise the Lord she is back to sleeping all night in her own bed. :) Now her Daddy and Mom Mom are catching the sickness. Of course My poor Man will have to battle his way to work tomorrow morning in the snow and if he's sick it will be terrible! He is taking his vitamins and drinking orange juice and getting lots of rest so hopefully that will do the trick.

We had a milestone on Thursday that I don't want to forget: the Boogie sat through the whole church service with us. She was still coughing a bit so I didn't want her in the nursery. I loaded her diaper bag with books, coloring books, crayons, and quiet toys. I planned to keep her with us as long as I could, then take her to FIL's office for the remainder of the service. But she did great and sat with us the whole time! I was very pleased.

This week the Boogie has started saying, "how about". At first it sounded like "how bom" and now sounds more like "how bah" and goes like this: "How bah ... Gwarney [Barney]? How bah ... Joge [Curious George]? How bah ... Plablo [Pablo, the little blue bird or penguin or whatever he is from The Backyardigans]?" It was always about something to watch on tv. Now she says it when she wants anything: "How bah ... c'acker? How bah ... juice? How bah ... binky?" It's so funny. It makes when laugh when she goes through a long list of things. If I answer, "Not right now," to anything, she just goes right on to the next thing.

Her hair is getting so long. I am trying and trying to grow out her bangs. Of course as they get longer they are constantly in her face. She won't wear a headband and little clips slide right out. Tiny rubber bands have the unfortunate consequence of breaking off her hair at bang length so I try not to put them in very often. When I do, though, this is what we get. How cute is this? I ask you!

Yesterday My Man did not have to work so we ALL slept in (after an early morning episode of Get-Me-Out-Of-My-Crib-Or-I'll-Cry-For-An-Hour with the Boogie) and he changed the oil in his car. We used some coupons and a gift card to have lunch at Romano's Macaroni Grill. YUM!! It was, in a word, fabulous. We went to HMart to get my coffee; we went to Old Navy; we went to Target. By then it was late afternoon and the Boogie, who had been so good all day, was too tired to go on. She fell asleep as soon as we pulled into the Target parking lot and slept the whole time we were there.

See? Shopping carts are handy for more than just holding stuff you want to buy. She woke up just as we were leaving the warm store for the cold and windy parking lot and was happy as a clam for the rest of the day. When we got home she discovered a hole in the package of toilet paper. I guess maybe she figured we might need a snack sometime while *ahem* attending to business?

Well, when it's all said and done, she's a good little Boogie and lots of fun.