what a week!

well, not the whole week, but the last few days of this week have been quite interesting. flash back to wednesday. adam and i were watching tv, winding down before nissa's bedtime and nissa wandered over to the computer. then we hear the windows noise for a piece of hardware being disconnected. "oh great, nissa unplugged the hard drive!" adam says. i look over and i see the ipod usb cord in her hand and when i come over, i notice she has it (had it) in her mouth. i'm pretty sure she had it in her mouth completely and it somehow closed the circuit and the computer thought SHE was a new device being plugged in! there were no other things unplugged and there was a warning message in the system tray that software could not be found for the new hardware that was attached. HA! nissa tried plugging herself in. i just hope she didn't get hurt too bad by the likely electric shock that accompanied the tone we heard. she didn't seem too upset or bothered. . . .

then thursday i had a long day at work: 4 presentations in a row from prospective vendors. sitting around in a warm room trying to pay attention can really make one tired. when i got home i wanted to stay outside with nissa and gibson and blow some bubbles. it's one of nissa's favorite things to do. so we were blowing bubbles, nissa squealing and reaching out or them, gibson really getting into chasing them down. gibson jumped up after one and came down on top of the planter holder by the stairs. to everyone's surprise, he got a couple of toes stuck in the leg, where 2 sections come to a point. . . so the more he pushed down and struggled, the more stuck he became. he cried like i never heard him cry before and i was frantic to help. keeping an eye on nissa to make sure she kept her distance, i set down the bubbles and tried to help gibson get free. i reached down and gibson bit my left had. ouch. i tried a slightly different approach and he bit my right hand. double ouch. neither were hard bites, more like how someone would squeeze your hand if they were in pain, but he just happened to be squeezing with his mouth and he has sharp teeth. . . by this time our neighbor craig and his friend jennifer came out to see what was going on. craig asked if i needed help and i said yes, so when he came around i asked him to pick up nissa. as he was coming around the open bottle of bubbles spilled and nissa started crying. she had been fine up until this point. then jennifer came around and took nissa so craig could be free to help me help gibson. i suggested me grabbing gibs into a headlock and have craig pull the stand off, but crag was concerned about me loosing my grip- a valid concern. i decided to call adam for advice and while i was on the phone with him gibson had broken off the leg of the stand he was stuck in (it had wedged into the stair rail) then began thrashing. just as he looked like he was about to fall down the stairs, he managed to pop his foot free. he was fine, nissa was fine, i had a minor scrape on my left hand (though sore) and a puncture on my right index, but was otherwise fine. i was beat.

i stayed up a little that night (after a long rest on the couch) to prep for the next day, especially since i could sleep in (till 830, compared to my usual 500). feeling better about the state of the house, i went to bed. then a little after 500 nissa woke up thoroughly pissed off. i got up, got her a snack and we went downstairs to watch some tv. an hour later, she had sat quietly sucking her thumb, i tried to put her to bed with no luck. we had a bottle, no luck. we tried some more tv, tried to put her down again at 700, no luck. by this point i had accepted my sleepless fate and hung out. i had breakfast, we went outside to blow bubbles, we exercised and played in the basement. eventually we got ready to go to class.

class was good. during the group time nissa "participated" for 2/3rds of the time, standing by the teacher. she even clapped after a few songs (with everyone else). she even tried to interact with some of the other kids, which i'm excited about. each week is a little better. now we'll see if i can get us into a summer class!

this morning, as i vainly attempted to sneak around the house to jot down some notes before a work out, nissa started her lazy cry (the "i can hear you" cry) so i was doomed to have company. i prepped a quick snack for us both and we headed down stairs. i popped in an aerobics work out and nissa danced along for some of it. she even did some squats with me. the most challenging part was keeping up while holding her. . . it wasn't ideal, but i can take comfort in the higher intensity factor. it was fun and tiring, the way a work out should be.

speaking of working out, i'm glad to say i rode by bike to the el tues, wed and fri. it's a quiet ride going there and i've found a nice side street path to get me back home out of traffic. so i get some exercise in and in about the same time i'd spend on the bus anyways (and way less time compared to bussing it in cubs traffic).