All over the place

Aloha. I'm still alive--not sure why I haven't been writing. Sure, life is busy and blah blah, but no busier than normal. So anyway, an entry...

Ari is doing well--she is deep into perfecting the art of being a Drama Queen. I am so not kidding. Her latest thing is this helpess act she does--when she wants something she can't quite reach, her first reaction is to whine. Of course, as a good mom, I check out the situation (to make sure she's not hurt, or that it's something she genuinely can't reach), and then kindly tell her, "Get it yourself." She'll pause and give this this Look. I can't figure out if her look is one of genuine amazement ("You mean I am capable of doing this on my own?") or indignation ("What do you mean you're not going to help me? And you call yourself a mother..."). But when I refuse to budge, she realizes she has lost, and then will easily get whatever item she was pining after. It never ceases to crack me up and frustrate me at the same time. It's like she doesn't even try--she wants to whine first and see if we'll let her be lazy.

Her other new thing is to "yell" at inanimate objects when she gets hurt. For example, last night she took a tumble out of the rocking chair in her room. I didn't see it happen--just heard the dreadful "thud" and then the dramatic antics. When I went into the room, she was standing up (no blood or visible bumps), pointing at the chair, and loudly complaining. It was as though she was tattling on that naughty, naughty chair for having the nerve to dump her onto the floor. I leaned down to hug her, which she allowed me to do for approximately 1.2 seconds before disentangling herself and continuing her rant about the evil rocking chair. It's like this mixture of anger and sadness--she'll have a couple tears on her face, but her tone alternates between sounding genuinely wounded and seriously angry.

The oddest things seem to annoy her or freak her out lately. Mom said the other day she had a string sticking out of her sleeve, and she forcefully complained about it, pointing at it anxiously, until Mom cut it off for her. Last night, she threw up a little (I'm guessing she just burped and some food came up with it), and she indignantly pointed at the table, bellowing about the mess until it was gone.

Yes, folks, we have a true drama queen on our hands here. Toddlerhood is going to be fun.

Any fellow American Idol addicts out there? Yup, I love me some bad auditions, so I get sucked in every year. And I have to comment on this one guy last night. His wife's water broke while he was in line waiting to audition, so of course he gets his own personal camera crew to ride in the car with him to the hospital and even to get a quick update once he and his wife are in a room. Which is all fine and good, but here's the kicker. She had the baby, and he came back on Day 2 to audition. No big deal, right? Except that right alongside him was his wife, dressed nicely but simply in a black shirt and jeans, hair done, makeup just so, smiling and walking around, carrying sweet little Emma Grace in her arms. All I could do was sit there with my mouth hanging open--I could barely walk the day after giving birth to Ari, let alone appear in public and on TV looking every bit like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I'd love to be snarky about this, but all I can say to her (I don't even remember her name) is, "You go, girl." I think she is my new personal hero. She'll probably lose all her baby weight in less than a week, too.

On to other thrilling news... I have what I believe to be a plantar's wart on my foot. It's kind of on the side of my foot, but right near the bottom, so maybe it's technically not a plantar's wart. I haven't had any since I was a teen. I have warts on my hand, leg, etc., that never go away. You know how they say most warts go away on their own? It's a lie. Mine don't. I once had them frozen off, and after they blistered and the blister fell off, they came back, bigger than before. I had them burned off, which worked for a while, but most of them are back--smaller, but back. I read online that some people swear by a duct tape remedy for warts--simply slap some duct tape on the wart for several days, remove, soak and then exfoliate said wart, then repeat until the wart is gone. I figure it's worth a try, before I go spending money on expensive over-the-counter stuff (which has never worked before) or on a dermatologist. My only problem is that the idea of keeping the duct tape on for 6 straight days is not working out so well--it comes off after every shower. It's no big deal to reapply it, but I can't help wondering if it defeats the whole process. Anyway, I'm interested to see how this experiment works out. As I'm sure you all are, too.

Tony stopped at the grocery store last night to pick up 4 things, and came home with 4 bags of stuff. But I couldn't fault him for that, because one bag contained a package of 4 gigantic chocolate chip muffins, all for me. Have I mentioned lately that my husband rocks? And I firmly believe that muffins which are given with such love contain no calories.

I have jury duty tomorrow. Well, maybe. You know how it is--you have to call the evening before to see if you still have to actually appear. I hope I don't have to, and I feel like a really bad citizen for thinking that. I just don't want to have to drive into a major city in rush hour traffic and deal with unfamiliar roads and rotaries and buildings. I hate going to strange places alone. Maybe I can talk Tony into driving me.

Big day coming up on Saturday--first, a girls' day out with my 2 closest girlfriends. Then, later in the day we're joining up with all our husbands and the 6 of us are going out for dinner. I have been looking forward to this ever since we set the date a few weeks ago. We're planning on going to a store that sells knockoff designer purses wicked cheap (and you all know how I love my purses), and then lunch, and then who knows. Whatever we do, the best part will be all the girly gabbing. I can't wait.