Alligator Juice

A couple of weeks ago, my sister was in the state and Gabbie and I went to pick her up from a bachelorette party she had attended. The girls were all just waking up when we got there, so we got a chance to sit around and chat for a little while. Most of the girls have known Gabbie since she was a baby, so they were excited to see her and spoiled her rotten, sending her home with a bagel, a pink feather boa, and a bottle of yellow Gatorade all for herself.

Gabbie slowly drank that bottle of Gatorade, making it last for the entire day. She thought it was the coolest thing ever (the child can be entertained for hours by a bottled water, so you can imagine the excitement that comes when you add color, sugar, and a little flavor to that water). Between cooking dinner, talking with my parents and sister, and being a ball of nervous energy about my upcoming work trip, I wasn't paying too much attention to what Gabbie and my mom were discussing, but my mom filled me in the next day.

Gabbie told my mom all about how we saw the girls and they gave her a "Fancy Nancy" (the pink feather boa) and some alligator juice. My mom was a little confused, but went along with it. Then Gabbie asked my mom to get it for her from the refrigerator. My mom opened the fridge, and it didn't immediately dawn on her what Gabbie meant, so she lifted her up so she could get it herself. She grabbed the Gatorade, and my mom had a good chuckle.

Thinking about it, Gatorade/alligator juice makes total sense. I really don't know where she comes up with these things, but I hope she continues on with it for a long time. She's just so adorable in so many ways that I can hardly stand it!

Five Things

1. The current mosquito situation in Michigan is HORRIBLE. They are everywhere. They follow you in from the outside and bite you while you're sitting on the couch. We keep waking up with new bites, including the nickel-sized bite on the bottom of my foot I woke up with yesterday. This may be the worst location for a bug bite, ever! They have been so bad they've kept us inside, away from the gorgeous weather we've been having lately, and I am sick of it. There was enough of a breeze last night that we could actually spend some time outside without getting about 15 bites apiece in 10 minutes, and it was lovely. I hope those little suckers die off soon!

Poor Gabbie got a bite on her face in the car the other day while we were driving downtown (they follow us everywhere!), and now it looks like her eye is a little swollen. Poor baby! See that pink spot on her cheek? That's all a bite. There's one on her nose, too.



(Also, she really liked that pizza!)

2. I went to Minneapolis for work last week, and, surprisingly, the world did not end. I was completely stressed out and worried about the actual travel (I'm not a huge fan of flying, to say the very least), and about leaving Sophie, who was (and still is) in the midst of teething. (Last time I travelled she was in the middle of a growth spurt. I am not looking forward to whatever she has planned for when I travel in October.) I have to give mad props, though, to my wonderful husband. All I had to do (and really I didn't have to do this, but it was nice of me to do), was stock up the fridge with essentials, and he was good to go. My mom was telling me about how she used to have to cook, leave a schedule, do all the laundry, and get basically everything prepared for every day she was gone in order to leave to go anywhere. And my dad was pretty with it as far as dads go. Aaron, hands down, is the best dad I know. He helps me with all the girls' stuff every day, and so it wasn't too far of a stretch to remove me from the situation for a couple days.

So what if the girls didn't get baths at all while I was gone. They may have been a little stinky, but that didn't make me any less excited to see them when I got home.

3. Sophie is getting huge. Seriously. When Gabbie was a baby she didn't wear a size until she was whatever age was on the label, and sometimes even those things were a little big (although, length-wise, my poor girl is forever in flood pants just so her pants fit around her waist (she still can fit comfortably into size 24 months shorts)). Sophie, however, is already comfortably in nine month size clothing and she doesn't turn 8 months until tomorrow. She even has two teeth now, and sits up all by herself! We went out for dinner the other night (me being gone kind of ruined the whole "no eating out in August" thing a little, because we were all still so worn out from the busy week), and she sat in a high chair all by herself:


She thought she was big stuff, for sure! The blur (because she never, ever stops moving. Seriously never.) was a coaster that she nabbed as soon as I sat her down (she's fast and has amazing aim), so I inserted the pacifier to keep the coaster out of her mouth. She dropped it a couple of times and screamed at the top of her lungs until I crawled under the table to retrieve it and handed it back to her. She is not quite the well-behaved-angel-in-public that her big sister has always been. I just can't believe how big she's getting these days and how fast it's happening. I swear she was just a newborn.

4. One cool/scary thing I saw in Minneapolis was a sink hole. It opened up sometime in the hour between when we got to an event and when we left the event. It was right in the middle of a (thankfully quiet) intersection, and was probably about 8 feet across. There were a few guys right up next to it taking pictures, but I was not quite that brave. (Aaron gave me crap, because he would have loved to see pictures.) I mean, seriously. There was a large hole in the earth that wasn't there minutes prior. Does it make any sense at all to go stand at the edge? Ever since I saw pictures of this massive sinkhole in Guatamala that looks like crazy CGI, but isn't, I've been wary of sinkholes. Nice, normal fear, right?

5. Last night at dinner we were coming up with topics to discuss with Gabbie to keep her from singing (no singing at the table, especially when we're in public, is a new dinnertime rule). Aaron asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. After a few, thoughtful seconds of reflection, she announced, "A mom. With noobs." (Apparently that's Gabbie's shorthand for "nursing b00bs.") I about choked I was laughing so hard. Hilarious, and adorable. And I'm glad she thinks so much of me that her life goal is to be just like me.

New Category: Nerd Power!

It may not be any sort of secret, but just in case you haven't noticed, I am a giant (and proud of it) nerd. I come from a long line of nerds, and we love to do very nerdy things. (I am, however, out-nerded by my brother, although he says he has seen the fringe of nerd-dom and he is nowhere near that nerdy) (apparently nuclear physicists have a propensity to be very nerdy).

Anyway, one thing I nerd out about is Harry Potter. So much so that Gabbie is in love with Harry Potter and can identify anything having to do with Harry Potter from a glance or a few notes of the movie theme music alone. She's allowed to watch the first two Harry Potter movies and loves them with all her heart (although she does hide her eyes when the giant, three headed dog comes on the screen in the first movie).

All this to preface what may be the most exciting thing that has happened to me in months (!!!):

In the off-chance you might be a little bored...


Today I have found myself stuck in a Reddit-caused internet wormhole, which started from the following posted question:
"What are the best random facts you know, Reddit?"
I'm not very far down the list, but this exchange, so far, is my favorite (and completely made me LOL):
"[–]joonyung 127 points128 points129 points 5 hours ago
'stewardesses' is the longest word that is entirely typed with your left hand on the keyboard.

[–]sleepyworm 380 points381 points382 points 3 hours ago

That's only because nobody believes me when I tell them that breasttastetester is a word."
I love this kind of stuff (and people are funny)!

My favorite random fact from recent history includes this awesomeness/Scrabble tip: The last word in the OED is "zxyt."

Once I start down this random fact road, I always want more. So, hit me up. What is your favorite random fact?

August Challenge

I love my kids more than anything else, ever, but hot damn, kids are expensive. Sophie started day care in March and since then it's like we've had our fingers in our ears, singing, "La, la, la!" refusing to acknowledge that maybe, possibly we should stop spending like we still have that extra money to play around with. We haven't put any money into savings since January, and we're carrying a (relatively small, but still) credit card balance, which is something we haven't done in a while.

Yesterday Aaron and I were talking about this and decided that something really needs to change. One of the things that has helped us get a little out of control with our spending is our propensity to eat out way too much, including nearly every day for lunch. Not to mention, it's not exactly helping our waistline or health either.

So, this month we've challenged ourselves to not eat out at all. No money spent on eating out. (I do have a lunch meeting this week, but work is paying for that, so I'm not counting it.) I know we can do it, it's just going to take a little extra time and effort, but we need to stop being so lazy anyway. I'm betting that by the end of the month I'm going to feel a lot better anyway, and bringing lunch with me will be more of a habit.

So, here's to four and a half weeks of home-cooked goodness!
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