Random Roundup

So, to finish the news from the week:


-We have gone entirely off the bottle as of this weekend. Indeed, today was the very first bottle-free day (well, since the days of exclusive breastfeeding, which has been awhile). She's only been having two bottles a day anyway, so it's not like this is really that big a deal, but in so many other ways, it IS a big deal. She's so quickly growing out of being my little baby, the tiny curled up creature who came home from the hospital with Bruce and me a little over a year ago. Indeed, she's walking- sort of- and talking- sort of- and definitely growing into her own personality. Her being off the bottle feels like one more milestone in the inevitable and inexorable progression into toddlerhood. And, I have to say, it's nice just having to deal with sippy cups, and not nipples and bottles and liners anymore. Much easier.


-However, as things get easier, they also get harder. We've moved into a toddler-like tantrum phase lately, where she gets pissy and whiny and fussy at the smallest things. For example, she was bored in the back seat of the car when we went out, so she fussed and pissed and moaned. She didn't like her toys, she didn't want her cup, it all sucked! She calmed down eventually, but this is new for us. She used to be okay just looking out the window. And she had like a 20 minute afternoon nap, so when we got her home and tried to feed her dinner, she pushed it away and just melted down entirely. Too tired to eat, and I knew she was going to be too hungry to stay asleep. So we put her down for a nap- at 6:45, a nap!- and then fed her when she woke up at 7:30. With bath and everything, she didn't go down until after 8. I'm sure she's still not feeling 100% from being sick, and I think she's teething, but also, she's becoming a toddler, with all the moods. Yippee.

-I should have said is definitely teething, because we can see at least one more tooth on the bottom, and I'm pretty sure I saw a second new one coming in up top. We have teeth pooping out all over! That would make 6 whole teeth.


-The bridesmaid dress I'm to wear in my brother's wedding will now cost approximately triple the amount it cost to buy it, with the major alterations it is taking to make it fit. It's far more than the tailor originally quoted, but I think when he started pinning, it just got more and more complicated. And even if I had ordered the size up, it would still have been a mess, since strapless dresses just don't fit me and always need alterations (they don't look good on me either, but that's a different story), plus a bigger size would have needed the length taken up, which, because of the hemline, would have been an involved process as well. So, basically, there is no incarnation of that dress that would have even approximated fitting me without major alterations. Sigh.


-OH! We sold our evil old house in Charlotte this week!! YAY! As Bruce said, "Goodbye, house. Go crush someone else's dreams." Seriously, we had bad juju with that house, which extended to the sale itself- the buyers totally took advantage of us, which our horrible realtor allowed and even, in some cases, facilitated. She was awful- she never copied me on any emails, even after Bruce specifically requested her to multiple times. Even sometimes she would respond to Bruce after I emailed her, and wouldn't copy me. Bitch. I gave her what-for in a couple of emails near the end, and when she responded, she made sure to copy Bruce on those. So she does know what that little "cc:" box means! But still- YAY for selling the house! It makes our financial outlook much more flexible not to have to worry about carrying that house.


-That said, we gave our nanny a raise this week, and extra $50 per week. She deserves it.


I will leave you with this picture of Caetlin "walking" with Daddy at the park this afternoon. She's not great in the shoes (heck, she's not great at walking, period), but she walked holding his hand. The T-shirt, a gift from her grandfather who works at NASA, says, "Houston, we have an emergency...check diaper system!" It makes me laugh every time I pull it out of her dresser. Sorry about the date on the picture- every time the batteries wind down in the camera, the date re-sets itself, and I didn't notice it this time.

She's getting SO BIG!