Home Sweet Home

I have a lived a long time in my red house.

Originally, I lived here from baby to age 9. I loved my red house. My dad even made me my own little red house to play in. I spent hours playing here. When we moved my dad took it with and painted it to match our new house.

1974

 
We then moved out to the edge of the suburbs until I was 18. During this time my dad had been renting the house out so when I talked about moving out after graduation my dad suggested I find some roommates and rent the house. Okay, it really wasn't that simple. I actually threatened to move in with a boyfriend that my dad did not like. At all. He said I could live in the red house as long as I only lived there with other women and he offered a ridiculously cheap rent. I wasn't stupid. I took him up on the offer and lived here for another 10 years with a variety of changing roommates. When I was 28 I finally decided to move out and eventually bought a duplex of my own.

 

Not a red house

As the red house aged my dad tired of having to maintain it and decided to put vinyl siding on it. He 'claims' he ordered red vinyl only to show up and see that the siders were putting this sad peach color on it. It broke my heart, but at the time it was filled with renters and I never thought I would be living here again.

I loved my duplex and loved living in the city (oh how I miss NE Mpls restaurants, friends, walking along the river...), but I knew I would need a larger home. I never actually thought I would move back to the red house, but my dad offered to sell it to my husband and I ...and here I am.

Shortly before I purchased the house there was a bad hail storm and the siding was damaged on two sides. At first the insurance company was only willing to replace the two sides. However, we discovered that the color had been discontinued. Yes! Apparently the insurance company searched warehouses nation wide before agreeing months later to reside the whole house. By this time my husband and I were in the house and were able to pick out the color we wanted.

Red, of course!

We still have a lot to do such as put new railing on the upstairs deck, add a new screen door, move the odd gutter that cuts over the sidewalk and well, there are more projects than I can list....

So this is my red house.

Mother's Day and 15 months!

Sunday was my second official Mother's Day. The morning started with Riley and I hanging out in bed. This normally wouldn't happen, but the hubby was already downstairs. This was a fun little moment for me and hopefully for her as well.

We were going to go to lunch with the Hubby's mom, but she wasn't feeling well so we figured we would connect when she was feeling better. Instead we headed off to my step-mom's nursing home.

Off to see grandma Ann

My step-mom has Alzheimer's and lives in a memory care facility. It is always fun to bring my daughter there as the residents all 'ooh and awe' over her. When she was younger a lot of the residents thought she was a doll. I would walk down the hallway only to hear people arguing over whether she was a doll or a real baby. Currently, Riley is really into pushing grandma's walker around and gets quite upset if you try to take it away or change the direction she wants to go. Mighty stubborn that one is.

Riley had skipped her morning nap and was bit on the tired side so we headed home with a quick stop at Von Hanson's so we could BBQ. A little seasoned chicken and steak... and some other meat stick type items and we were on our way.

Once home we put Riley down for a nap, grilled up some food, and watched an old episode from 24. Exciting stuff, I know. I would have liked to spend more time outdoors, but it was a pretty gloomy day. It finally started to clear up, but by that time for kiddo to go to bed. She had a little bit of a rough time getting down to sleep, but I am sure it was because she really wanted to spend more time celebrating mom. Right?

During the afternoon I tried to get a shot of my husband and daughter together. My husband HATES having his picture taken, but he humored me and then teased me about posting it here. I actually had no intention of doing so, but since he mentioned it...

What a handsome fella

Even though it was Mother's Day there were no pictures taken of me with my kid. We will have to remember that next year. I wouldn't mind a picture commemorating the day together. Instead I will share one more picture of Riley. It's not the best picture, but she has cute little elephants on her shirt so I have to share.

I have elephants on my shirt!

So Monday, May 9th, Riley turned 15 months and had her 15 month doctor appointment.She has always been on the small size for her weight (16%ish), but super tall (90%ish). This appointment clocked her in at:

20.8 Lbs (19%)

30.75 In (61%) 

Overall she did well at her appointment and impressed the doctor with her prolific conversation abilities. Most of her 'talking' makes no sense to us, but she sure seems to talk like she has something important to say. While I certainly want her to learn more words I have to admit I will be sad when she stops making some of these noises. They are just so stinking cute.

I'm 15 months old

To commemorate her 15 months her daddy compiled a few of the videos we have taken. It's a little long, but fun to look back at the last three months.

12 - 15 months

On Tuesdays I don't have to be to work until 10:30 so the little one and myself get to hang out. I didn't plan on taking pictures, but it was the first time I actually put pigtails in her hair so pictures HAD to be taken.

Above she is blowing. That's right, blowing. She loves to blow and will even do this on command.

She is hesitantly walking and I was able to capture a moment that she was giving it a go. She will often grab onto walls and what not for stability or just dropped down and crawl if she is in a hurry. Every week she seems a little closer to walking full time, but I feel like I have been saying this for months now. It will probably be like her ability to climb the stairs. One day she wanted nothing to do with it and the next she was booking up the stairs with no fear.

I can't wait.

Spring Time

I was under the impression it would rain much of the day on Saturday so I was quite delighted with the amount of sun and warm weather we had. Monkey got to spend a fair amount of time outside, but first played inside while I pulled out some of her warm weather clothes.

She has really been spending more and more time on her feet, but will still crawl when she wants to get somewhere fast. The other day she discovered how useful the baskets in our room can be to help her get around. Here she is pushing her basket around while wearing her summer hat, of course.

I always thought of myself as pretty pasty white, but her fair skin makes me realize what age and sun can do to one's skin. Her skin just looks so pure and unblemished.

Daddy was downstairs talking to her, but the gate was in her way.

Once we were dressed we headed out for a walk and stopped at the park to play. Here is daddy and daughter walking around near the playground.

Her favorite part of the day was walking up the playground steps and then sliding down one of the two slides. I think she could have done this all day, but it only took me a few times going down the curved slide to feel like I was going to puke. Thankfully, dad was there to go down with her too.

The following picture of her is from Friday when she and daddy were at the park. He snapped off this picture with his cell phone and sent it to me at work. LOVE getting picture updates of her (which doesn't happen often), but found this picture especially funny with the distortion of her hand.

Ronald

Dream 5/4/11.

I only remember bits of this dream, but the parts I do remember are pretty vivid. I got the feeling I was dreaming well before the first part I remember. This is where I remember it starting:

I walked into an exam room at my OB/GYN office. I see my friend, J, with her husband, R sitting in chairs next to the doctor. J and I both have the same OB in real life and that is reflected in this dream. J and R already have a daughter, O. When I walk in I see that J is pregnant which surprises me since she and I have had many conversations about the number of kids we will have. Last I heard she had decided on one child. J, R and I leave the doctor's off and head towards an escalator. R leads the way, followed by J and then myself. I notice that the escalator is broken. In fact the steps are all at a very steep slant... like a slide.

I am asking all sorts of questions as I had no idea that J was pregnant and when looking at her she looks VERY pregnant. As we are holding on to the railings of the escalator I ask her how far along she is. She states that she is 38 weeks. Seriously! Why am I just finding this out now? Has it really been that long since I talked to her? As we continue to shimmy down the escalator slide I think "this really isn't the best way for a 38 week pregnant woman to get down. It is so unsafe.". When we finally get to the bottom R turns around and heads up the up escalator. We follow, but I question in my head why we are heading back up. I turn to the left and notice the down escalator is operating normally now.

At this point the dream skips to the middle of the night. I am in a bedroom that has a play room attached to it. There are two doors to the play room and while the bedroom area is dark there is a light on in the play room.There are a lot of toys in the play room, but I only really remember seeing dress up fairy/princess type clothes hanging on one wall. I am woken in the middle of the night by some noise in the next room. I go to investigate and see a really tall Ronald McDonald.

He creeps me out and I attack him. How dare he break into this room in the darkness of night.

I realize that he has come to see O, J and R's daughter, and that she is standing to our right. I pretend that I was just joking as I figure I might have scared her attacking Ronald McDonald and all. So there I am looking down at her giving Ronald a big side hug. I remember thinking that maybe R had dressed up as Ronald for his daughter, but realize that Ronald has to be a good 2 feet taller that R actually is.

Unfortunately this is all I remember of the dream. What happened to Ronald? Was O excited to see him? I will never know. Also, looking back at this dream I could make all sorts of guesses at what the first part means, but I am pretty lost by the second part. Ronald McDonald? Really?

So I was going to end the entry there, but I couldn't help myself and had to look up to see if I could find a dream interpretation for Ronald McDonald. Of course I did not find a direct hit, so I am sharing the closest to it. From http://dreammoods.com:

McDonald
To see or dream that you are at McDonalds, signifies happiness and a worry-free attitude. The dream also suggests that you are living large. Perhaps the dream is telling you to expand your thinking or horizons. Supersize it!�Alternatively, the dream may just mean you are hungry.

 I would love to think I had this dream because I am happy, worry-free, and living large, and while some of that is certainly true I am guessing that in reality it was because I was hungry.  Reality sometimes bites. 

Forced to enjoy the nice weather

I would normally be at work on a Wednesday, but daycare was closed so I got to stay home with Pumpkin. The day started pretty traumatic as she fell out of her crib. Ouch. Her crib has several settings and apparently we need to go down to the bottom now. I knew this time was coming soon, but didn't think she actually had the strength to haul herself over the crib at this time. Lesson learned. Sorry kiddo.

After recovering from that it has been a pretty great day. We have spent a lot of time outside as it is a beautiful, sunny day here in MN. Seeing it was below freezing on Monday AND I saw flurries I wasn't sure what would happen for the rest of the week. Yeah for sun and warmth!

We took a long stroller ride with a stop at a local park. My city has a ton of great parks. It seems that you only need to walk several blocks to find another park. Today I thought we would try the swing again. This has been a hit or miss experience for us in the past so I wasn't sure what to expect.

 

 

 

It's a hit!

She loved it for about 30 seconds and then decided she was terrified. Fine. We'll move on to something else. I decided to try out the slide. Every time we have been to the park recently they have been wet so it has been a long time since she tried this one out - say a year. And when I say I am going to try the slide for her I mean WE are going down the slide together. Luckily for her there were stairs up to the slide. Of course, there would be stairs... but for a child who recently mastered crawling up the stairs this is pure delight. In fact, we have gone to the park and the only thing she wants to do is walk up and down the stairs as she holds on to my hands.

So up the stairs we go to the slide. I sit down, put her on my lap, and build up the momentum by counting to three before sliding down the slide. Apparently, the slide is AWESOME! I wish I could have recorded it as she would giggle each time we slid down. I wish I would have even taken a picture of this, but obviously this was a bit difficult when I was required to go down the slide with her.

Like most kids she is fascinated by other kids. A couple little boys started playing on the slide as well and she could not keep her eyes off them. I am sure she was taking note of their super slide moves for when she tackles this skill on her own.

We played for a little longer, but needed to get home for lunch and eventual nap.

Not happy

Leaving the park did not go over well, but I was able to distract her with snacks.

My husband is the one who usually gets to take her on an afternoon stroll (while I am still at work) and he has informed me that she is all about grubbing while being pushed around town. What a little Diva.

After eating we went outside to play again. For some reason she would only crawl towards the 'Danger Zones' aka the street and the alley. It was like she knew they were off limit. "Oh, I'm not supposed to go this way?" I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.Oh, I know that she will want to assert her Independence, but I hope she isn't stubborn by nature.

I then brought her inside only to bring her out on our second story deck.We have a great deck right off our bedroom that we hope to update the railings on one day and perhaps add some source of shading. I see lots of playtime out here in the future so I not only want to make it look nice, but also make sure it is safe. This is also a haven for the cats. They love it here and can even access the roof for additional space to roam around. I am pretty sure we are known as the house with the cats on the roof. Occasionally, I will look out a window to see people pointing at my roof. Cats.

It was becoming apparent that my child was getting tired at this point so I brought her inside only to jump on the bed. Ugh, what kind of parent am I to get her all riled up before nap time? I just decided to take advantage of the moment. After more giggles ensued I tried to create a quiet time by reading before nap time. Down she went...only to sit and 'talk' in her crib for a long time. At this time the husband came home and we decided to get her up and try later with the nap.

So here I am now writing this during her nap that eventually did happen! She is currently making noise so I think she will be getting up soon.

Once she wakes I think we might have to go outside again to take full advantage of this beautiful day.

Sicko

So the little Monkey has been sick last week. We thought she was getting better as her fever broke on Wednesday. Thursday she was looking pretty miserable.

The only thing that seemed to ease her was her Nuk and her lamb.

Usually she only sleeps with her lamb, but this week it was with her at all times.

At least the lamb helped bring a smile to her face.

Unfortunately she took a turn a day after the above pictures were taken and we had to bring her into the doctor. We discovered that she had an ear infection.

 
But now she is better than ever. I is nice to see her smiling and laughing again!

Miami Vice

I have recently been reading a co-worker's blog, so it explains why I dreamt about her and her family. She writes a lot about food and her daughter's development which you will see reflected in my dream. I have no explanation for the rest of the dream. I had several dreams this weekend… most I only slightly remember (Alec Baldwin?, quitting Facebook?), but this one was so clear and vivid I had to share. Enjoy.

Dream 4/15/11

I had just arrived at a co-worker's house and was standing in her kitchen. E and I work at the same company and used to interact more, but now I rarely see her so it seemed odd that I was hanging out at her house. We went to her house right after work and were going to make some food before a party she was having. As I stood there I thought "Why am I here? I know her, but would she really have invited me to one of her parties? This doesn't seem realistic". At any rate, she started making something like eggs and biscuits. She set a very small cast iron pan on the stove to heat up. The stove was brown in color and had a flat, counter like extension on the right. I thought it was very clever since there was no other counter nearby. So E cracks the egg on top of the flat part of the stove and it actually cooks a little. She cuts off the white part of the egg and flips it over into the cast iron pan. She then takes the yolk part of the egg and puts it on top of the white part of the egg in the pan. She is doing this all in a very instructional way as she is trying to teach me how she makes her version of eggs for this dish. I am taking it all in and thinking "I would have just poached that egg in the microwave" and "I think I might need to get a cast iron pan".

She completes the egg and places it on a plate and then places the plate on a dark wood table in the middle of her kitchen which is crowded with paper and other items. She turns to me and says "Didn't you want to take a picture of that?" Uh, ok. I look down and, hey there's my camera bag! I pick it up off the floor and prepare it to take a picture (it has the zoom lens on it). I keep trying to take a good picture, but can't get it quite right. I am trying to get just the egg on the plate, but keep getting some papers or the floor. Apparently I can't zoom close enough.  I give up.

I then notice there is a large room off the kitchen which has light blue carpet and a desk on one side. I notice there is a HUGE door in the middle of the room that shuts off one side of the room or the other. The door opens and closes and I see E's husband, B, at the desk working on his computer. I remark how that is the BIGGEST door I have ever seen. E remarks back with something about the usefulness of it. I realize I have not seen A, E and B's daughter, until I look down and she is cuddled up on the floor with a stuffed animal nearby and looking very tired. I look at the microwave clock and notice it is 6:43 pm. I remark that it must be near her bedtime which is confirmed by E and B. I go over to A, not sure how she will respond to me since we have never met. However, she grabs for the hand I hold out for her and lets me pull her up to her feet. She then walks hesitantly around the room holding on to only one of my hands. As she gains confidence she builds speed and now B and E are following after us. We round back to the kitchen when she does the following several times: she jumps into the air and kicks her feet together. We all get very excited about this and are laughing at how unexpected and awesome this is. Someone keeps commenting that she is doing an Irish jig.

I am especially impressed and keep commenting how advanced that is and that my daughter is no where near doing the Irish jig. When everything calms down E comments that even though I might think A is advanced she is worried that she might have (insert two unrelated letters here) based on some of her other behaviors. I have never heard of this and assure her that A seems more than fine to me. As A and I had been walking through the house I notice that all the furniture has an antique or vintage feel to it. I recall seeing pictures of E's house on her blog and notice the furniture doesn't quite match up especially the couch which is wicker with yellow cushions. Plus, there is a room that looks to have been recently gutted. I wonder what the plans for that room is.

People start arriving for the party. Everyone is hanging out, talking, eating, drinking... enjoying themselves. At some point everyone starts saying "Joe is here". Of course, it gets my attention because I hear my name, but realize they are not talking about me (as usual). We are all looking out the back door and windows and see a man stepping out of a semi truck in the driveway. E and B say something about it being a Tuesday and that they mentioned he should come on another day as they are not open today. Apparently, E and B have become so know in the antique/vintage furniture shopping world that they even have their own store they run out of their garage. Joe comes by regularly and he buys and sells furniture to them. So Joe leaves and a young man (mid to late teens?) comes up to me and says "are we ready to go?" In real life I don't know who he is, but I know that we are related in the dream. I know that I am driving him and his mom home. The second time he comes up to me and asks to leave I agree. I go over to E to say my goodbyes. I don't know why I do the following as I am not much of a hugger, but I go in to hug her and say goodbye and thanks. She pulls back, her body language clearly telling me that hugging is NOT ok. She shoots out a hand to shake and we have an awkward goodbye. Don Johnson then walks in the door as he is our ride home. Yes, that Don Johnson.

Next thing I know we are outside a gas station convenience store. Don and the teen's mom are in the store and the teen and I are waiting outside. We are standing against two different cars when a couple of tough looking guys walk up and evidently know the young man I am with. The one mean guy starts talking to the young teen as if the teen owes him for something. The larger, burlier of the two guys stands back as if he is waiting to step in and do the real damage. I wonder if they think I am with the teen and if I can walk away without getting hurt. Why am I not thinking about the teen's safety? I'm not sure. Perhaps I am feeling scared and selfish... perhaps I feel he has whats coming.  I look at the car the teen was leaning against. It is black and old, but in pristine shape. Is it an old GTO?

That is certainly a car that I could see Nash Bridges driving and saying "hey Bubba" in. I decide to slowly make my way away from the GTO (and the danger) and head around the corner of the gas station. The large, burly guy is following me with his eyes so I know I am not in the clear. As I round the corner I see another sweet, muscle car. This one is a little more sporty, but also black. Both car's paint jobs make the black look like it is still liquid. They are both so clean and polished they don't seem real.  I see a guy sitting in the front of the car and think "this could also be Don Johnson's car". I jump in the back seat only to realize I am in the front seat, or am I? I realize that the seats are facing away from each other and the car can be driven either way. The guy in the car turns to me and hands me the keys. I look down at them and notice the key looks like a small dagger (and actually starts the car!). I look over at the driver seat only to notice a security device strapped on the clutch pedal. It, like all the chrome in the car, is shiny and sleek. Now the large, burly  guy is heading towards the car. What do I do? Do I run? Obviously the car won't get me anywhere. Suddenly, Don Johnson is getting into the car and driving us away...

And then I wake up.