I'm alive

I just got a message form one of my followers (that sounds really creepy) asking if I was ok.  I am, more or less.  I've had a sinus infection for 8 or 9 weeks that's kicking my ass.  I'm on my seventh round of antibiotics, which, along with NOT getting rid of my sinus infection, have also managed to throw in the special treat of a raging yeast infection.  Seriously, my business was less tender right after giving birth to an almost 8-pound baby.  I'm hacking and coughing most of the time.  And it seems like when I stop hacking and coughing, I start throwing up.  So that's been fun.

 

Brian's done with grad school for the summer, so we've been working on a few projects around the house.  Our bedroom is almost done.  Brian's designing the platform storage bed and the built-in dresser for the closet, and his dad is going to build it for us.  I'm pretty excited.  I'm upholstering a headboard, but I haven't gotten started on that yet.

 

Other small projects that are taking all my time:

 

* Decided to make one wall in the kitchen magnetic, so we can hang all our crap on it.  It looks cool when there's nothing on it.  When we hung all of our stuff from the fridge, though, it just turned into organized chaos, where "organized" means "all your shit in one central location."

 

* Ellie has a wooden table with high-backed chairs that my aunt's in-laws gave to her.  I decided to paint the chairs each a different fun color.  I didn't think it would take long, because it's freaking spray paint on tiny chairs.  WRONG. HORRIBLY MISCALCULATED. WILL TAKE THE REST OF MY LIFE TO PAINT TINY CHAIRS.

 

* I've become obsessed with upcycling projects, such as painted mason jars (except I bought new jars, so that's not really upcycling at all), turning old frames into jewelry organizers, PAINTING TINY CHAIRS, etc., and repeat, ad nauseum.

 

So, ya know, I'm busy.  And stuff.

 

Ellie's entered the "Terrible Twos," which are just a joy to behold.  She's really very mild-mannered most of the time, so her "Terrible Twos" are significantly less Terrible than other Terrible kids' Terrible Twos.  But still.  We are frustrated.

 

Saturday night, she was up all night.  She just wanted to chat.  Tell us about her day.  All that business.  Brian, of course, slept right through it.  But he made up for it by getting up with her and letting me sleep in on Sunday morning.  I slept until 11:15, and I was still tired.  I'm not even sure how that's humanly possible, but it happened.  I haven't slept that late in at least two years, so it was an odd feeling.  By the time I got up, Brian had cleaned the house, been to the grocery store, fed and played with Ellie, and put her down for a nap.  Super Husband to the rescue!!

 

But then last night she was up all night again, and we were both up with her. It was like having a newborn again, except with a lot more of getting kicked in the face when we put her in bed with us, and much more being told "No."

 

She has blossmed into a hilarious little person, though, and she's just plain fun to be around lately.  You can have a full conversation with her (as long as you're ok with not understanding some of what she says), she listens to us when we ask her to do something (as much as any 18-and-a-half month-old does, anyway), and every time she even sort of gets an owie, she comes over to one of us and says, "Mommy, kiss," and holds up her hand (or wherever the owie happens to be).  She also, fairly often, refuses to wear anything but these brown boots my sister go ther last year, and she also insists we all dance in the living room to the musical stylings of her Fridge Farm.  If you ever come over, I would suggest just dancing and not arguing with her about it.  She gets pretty snotty if you don't dance with her. 

 

And to balance out all that cuteness, I spanked her the other day, and she laughed at me.  And it was hilarious.  So I had to control myself, because I didn't want her to think that I thought it was hilarious.  It was a giant failure, but at least I tried!

 

I've attached some recent pictures (I think. I'm doing this from my e-mail at work, so I'm not totally sure).  I'll try to blog more.  I make no promises, though, especially if I find some more tiny chairs to paint.