what a trip

my daughter is such a trip. i love every minute i spend with her, but also cherish the brief breaks during nap time. she's been up to so much lately, that when i checked to see when my last post was and saw it was the doctor's appointment, i had to check the calendar to confirm that was only about a week ago. it seems ages ago!

last wednesday was an odd day for nissa, but it doesn't seem to have panned out to much. she was a bit more clumsy than usual and it was the day after getting shots. she tripped and fell while walking a few times, bumped her head on the coffee table while bending down, then ended with a face plant after sitting in the laundry basket and tipping it over. the finale resulted in a little bruise on her forehead and a rug-burn-like scrape on her nose. it was such a rough day i ended up putting her to bed a little early just to save her from herself. we called the doctor, but without any new/continued clumsy behavior to report, it was chalked up to post-immunization grogginess. i guess i can buy that.

friday night she made me laugh. we had spent a lot of time outside (we mowed the lawn) then came in to watch a little tv to wind down. after a single episode of handy manny, i said "ok, time for bed." nissa responded with a "no" and ran to the slide, then to the rocking horse, then to the punching balloon, then back to the slide. she ran the circuit a couple of times before i cut her off and dragged her upstairs. she had to get those last few minutes of playing out of her system, so i let her (briefly).

saturday was an experience. we got up bright and early with daddy, then grabbed breakfast from the double d (though a lame one without iced decaf, grrr), then swung by a park. i really like the park at revere, but it was jam packed, so we passed. we went to the bank, then walked through lincoln square- a dangerous temptation alley of desirable wares. we picked up overpriced tea tree oil, then some adorable froggy sunglasses for nissa, we looked for andouille, but ultimately skipped out. then we checked out the playlot by target, which was a little worse for wear. it even still had one of those red fiberglass slides with the metal sheet slide (like back when i was a kid). that was by far the oldest piece of equipment (except maybe the swing frames) but it was all usable. it seemed like not many kids played there, that it had become more of an unsavory adult hang out (funny, considering a recent article in the paper about how north side parks get all the money and south side parks are the pits- the north side has pits too!). oh well. we got our play time in (though the equipment is not as 18 month old friendly as other parks we've visited). we went to target, then headed home. it was later by the time we had lunch, so nissa took her nap and i got started cleaning the house. we were expecting company, so i had the itch. by the time i was done, i had swept all the floors, mopped the kitchen, put away the laundry, cleaned both bathrooms and vacuumed the stairs and basement. all in 3.5 hours. no, nissa wasn't napping that whole time, but she took an hour to fall asleep, then was awake for the last half hour. then we made dinner and dessert and had karl over to sort through baby clothes. hooray for sharing baby clothes!

sunday we got to visit the cool park at revere, then ran a bunch of errands. it got steamy that day, so when we made it home, i pulled out the little pool and filled it up. i filled it first, before going inside to put away groceries and such, to let it warm up a bit in the sun. i had mixed results because although the sun took the edge off, i had to wrestle with nissa to get her to let me put groceries away and put her swimsuit and sunblock on. she kept saying "outside" "outside." yes, dear, i know. but once out, she was the happiest kid ever. she splashed (from standing outside of it) and poured buckets of water everywhere. she'd even climb in and splash her feet while standing up. we had been outside for an hour before i even thought to check the time, we were having so much fun. we'd sit and splash, and stand and splash and had a great time. at one point nissa was taking buckets of water over to the porch stairs, dumping it out and sitting in the resulting puddle. one time she actually bent over, then looked backwards through her legs to aim her butt to sit down. it was hilarious! it wasn't until we'd been at it over an hour and a half that she started to run out of steam and i was starting to get hungry. she willingly came in for lunch, then quickly knocked out for a nap. i used that time to get cracking on some baby shower gifts and made some decent progress. that is, until i found out a piece of fabric i ordered was not big enough. man, i am so frustrated. i gave nissa a snack at the table where i was working, to finish up a few more things, but that was short lived. as soon as nissa was out of her seat, i heard "outside" about 100 times more. she even grabbed her monkey sweatshirt and gave it to me, demanding "outside." but by this time i had started on dinner. i was planning to grill, so we went out to light it. of course, the pool was still out and she wanted to splash and climb right in. oh, what a melt down she had when i had to bring her back inside after not letting her climb in the pool. it was heartbreaking. i called adam to ask him to put the pool away when he came home, so i could finish dinner. nissa was still having her fit, and he asked, "is she crying to go outside and play in the pool?" (he could hear "outside" and "pool" between sobs) and i said yes. oh, our little water baby. she was only partially satisfied by some time in the duckie before bed. man, does she get excited about that duckie. she squeals as it fills up with water. awesome.

i had an unfortunate surprise when *i* went to bed, though. gibson had an issue somewhere along the way because there was a poo stain on the comforter, then a little piece o' poo once i pulled it off (still way to steamy to use a comforter at night). so i changed the sheets and put them in the wash on hot! gibson will be spending the indefinite future sleeping in his own bed. when i uncovered the poo, he gave me this look like he was pleading for his life. it was kinda sad, but i had to banish him from the bedroom. i'm not sure how long it will last, but it was nice to have the bed to ourselves again. we'll see.