I’m finally feeling better today. A couple weeks ago I decided to order a dog clipper. I was tired of the groomers, and the clipper was cheaper than one trip to them. So I figured I’d give it a try. Today I finally had enough energy to give it a go. It turned out way better than I had anticipated. At first I had no idea what I was doing. But after an hour of fumbling, I finally got in my groove. Java looks like she just came back from the groomers (inexperienced groomers, but the groomers never-the-less). And Bombadil looks better than he ever has. I’m far from being an expert at using the thing. But each time it will get easier. And the result was sooo worth it.

So here’s some pictures of Thalia (of course) doing our weekly outings and playing… and also some pictures of the shorn dogs.

So it turns out that it wasn’t bad milk that made Thalia sick. Wednesday, during music class I had a terrible stomach ache. A couple hours later I started throwing up. A few hours after that AL started throwing up. We spent all night taking turns at the toilet. And yesterday we spent all day on either the couch or the bed. Today we feel much better but far from great. I had to cancel all of my plans for the week and now we’re spending another day on the couch. On the plus side, Thalia seems to be fine now, and she has been an absolute angel in all of this. She let us rest all day and played by herself and watched some movies. She went to bed without any trouble and ate whatever we were able to conjure up for her. So hopefully we’ll be back to normal before too long. I’m just happy to not be throwing up anymore.

We were supposed to go to the gym for yoga, then the playground for an hour, then our first swimming lesson today. But instead Thalia is throwing up. As soon as I think she is getting better, she throws up some more. She can’t keep anything down, but she doesn’t have a fever. I think she drank some bad milk and has food poisoning. So our day is a bust. I also can’t eat because, after smelling and cleaning massive amounts of vomit, I can’t bear to even look at food. So we’re just sitting on the throw up-free portion of our couch and watching Pixar movies all day. We have a 5k to go to this afternoon… but I’m not sure she will be up for that either.

So in the meantime, I’ll just be looking up Orlando homes, daydreaming, and trying to work on my pen and ink drawing. I don’t dare bring out my renaissance festival dress because I don’t want it stained with vomit.

I just don’t seem to have the time I used to for posting here these days. Thalia, AL and I keep very busy. Every week we have our mom groups, music lessons, yoga, weights or running at the gym, weekly 5k at Salsa Brava, dog training, MAJOR gardening, hiking groups, swimming lessons… I’ll be adding in art lessons for both me and Thalia in the fall. And don’t forget those lovely doctor appointments and vet visits that seem so frequent this time of year. I’ve been working on art daily… trying to put in at least an hour a day when Thalia lets me. So the only time AL and I have to ourselves is between 8 and 10 at night. And I usually will not use that time to blog.

But the good news is we are doing well. Thalia is a lot of fun these days. She enjoys almost everything we do. She’s been peeing in the potty almost exclusively lately. And today, for the first time, she pooed in the potty all of her own accord. She learned how to crawl out of her crib while we were in Florida so we had to convert her crib into a bed. First we had to train her to get used to it. After a couple nights of screaming, she stopped and accepted it. She slept through the night several nights in a row. But a couple days ago she woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream and has been keeping us up a couple hours a night since. She takes a mid-day nap about half the time now. And usually I wind up taking one with her by accident.

I hadn’t mentioned yet that I took her to the doctor a week or so ago for her 2 year examination. She weighs about 25.5 lbs and is in the 35th percentile. Much better than when she was down below 10%. She is also 35″ long which puts her in the 60th percentile. And her head is 47.8cm which is right on target.

I’ve sort of been in super-mom overdrive lately. I’ve been making all kinds of crafts and doing all sorts of creative activities for Thalia. We’ve been working on a matching card game, coloring and drawing (of course!), singing and dancing (you HAVE to see her dance to “Hug a Pug“), stringing cheerios on yarn to make necklaces, learning how to “wash” dishes using a bowl full of soapy water and a washcloth (I think this is her favorite)… I made her a 4th of July Fireworks pompom out of a stick and target bags… turned out really cute. I created and painted an adorable mailbox for Thalia to receive her own special mail each day. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get the point of receiving her own mail and always takes the mail she gets out to our mailbox to mail it. And I have been cooking all sorts of enjoyable snacks… mostly involving fruit and desserts. I love summer fruits! I plan on making some homemade play-dough and having a play day involving that soon.

Every night before she lays down to sleep we read a book to her. She never used to like listening to stories. She preferred looking at pictures. But after a couple nights of reading Rip Van Winkle to her, she decided she loves story time. So far, her favorite book is Leo the Lop. Which is unfortunate, because we don’t like that book much at all.

In a couple weeks, AL’s Dad is visiting us for his summer vacation. We plan on going to the Renaissance Festival again this year. I intend on finishing my dress that I’ve been putting together for the festival since last year. I’ve been working on it for many months and have made very little progress. It will be beautiful. But I will not be surprised if it isn’t completely finished in a couple weeks… partly due to my craft counter being covered in drawing and painting supplies, partly because it’s very complicated and I’m not a very good seamstress, and also partly due to time constraints. But those are just excuses. If I really put my mind to it, I’m sure I could finish it in time. We shall see what happens.

Thalia’s music class with her teacher, Miss Ro, has ended for the school year. She had a wonderful time. And we’ll be attending a few summer sessions with Daddy as well! Here is her end-of-year pamphlet. It’s very cute. And she’s changed so much!

Thalia and I took another trip to Florida. We swam. We boated. We relaxed. We played. We sunned. We had so much fun. And here is some proof. (By the way, the first five pictures are of Thalia in Colorado… hence the heavy jacket.)

Here are Thalia’s Easter pictures. And I’ll try to get her Easter videos up soon.

Drew this in about 40 minutes today. I just love chickadees.

I meant to put this up for Kit a while ago. I finally got ahold of the pictures of my haircut when it was new. Here they are: