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.