Stranger than Strangers

Happy to be with Damon
Originally uploaded by scarlitwitch.

Mika has been getting better at being around people other than Mama and Daddy and actually letting them touch her lately.

Then again, she's had a big crush on Damon since she first laid eyes on him.


Visit Kerry's Flickr page for more awesome Zoo photos!

Springing

A mad weekend around here. Took Friday off, but sent Mika to daycare. Kerry and Damon came over and we tore apart the upstairs bathroom. Went out to get the replacement supplies, came back, and Damon started working. Kerry and I hauled 3x our weight in friggin tile and old drywall. Damon discovered a bit more black mold and we quickly contained and removed that. Some leftover from Bathroom Hell Part 1 that we had Damon over to fix a few months back.
Saturday was more early morning madness..we told K&D 8:30, but thankfully they were about 20 mins late as we all slept in around here until around 8:45 or so. Damon worked and worked again, then we sent the boys out shopping. They returned with 4 ceiling fans (two here, two for K&D's), lawnmower and a mulching blade for K&D, cordless weed trimmer for me (so I can give my monster size one to them as its overkill for my square foot of grass), and sandals for Daddy. Shop o'rama...but everything was so seemingly inexpensive. $24.99 for a ceiling fan w/ light? Done! $29.99 for cordless trimmer?? Done! If that wasn't enough, once the boys returned, we headed over to the Zoo for the afternoon. As decrepit as the Edmonton Zoo is, we still had an awesome time of it. You have to go in with the right attitude. If you want to be wowed, drive to Calgary. Anyway, we had plans to meet Saoirse, Kris, and Rob at the gate and the timing of it all was perfect. Mika and Saoirse seemed to have a blast. Mika demanded to walk without holding anyone's hand and had a couple of bails. She *loved* the petting zoo. Mika can't read yet, so she was blissfully unaware that chasing the animals is not allowed. Sorry to the hens 'bout that. I was mouthing off about how the petting zoo animals looked so mangey when I felt a slight tugging behind me..there was a sheep biting my butt. Should have listened to my Mom when she said "if you can't say anything nice...". The sheep are not so forgiving. Mika liked the big ugly sheep though. She loved the lamb and the goats and anything else that didn't run away from her. Kerry hasn't been to the Zoo since she was a kid...and it was all still the same. Freaky, that. The red pandas were being shy. Lame. Mika had her first taste of cotton candy..that was a lovely mess. Saoirse was feeding her share to her Daddy and being cute while mine was applying food colouring based tribal war paint on her face. After the Zoo, we went home to refuel and Damon worked a bit more. Then it was off to toysrus. We broke down and bought a baby gate. Mika is too quick with the stairs and can already be up the first flight when you notice that its too quiet and peek out of the kitchen. The best part of the baby gate is watching the cats find their way around it.
Sunday was more of the same around here. Bathroom construction, fan installs, etc. Mika went and visited her Grandma for the day while her condo was under construction. They both survived well, Mika better than Grandma whose back is not conditioned for Toddler Entertainment. The Penguin Puppet show that Mika demanded of Grandma almost killed her, I think. Kerry didn't come over with Damon as she had her own work to do at home...but
We see them again today! Daddy is finishing up the painting (Tangerine Dream from Totem. More orange! Yay!) in the bathroom and Damon is dropping by later to finish up the caulking. It's 10:05Am and Mika is not up for the day yet. She went to bed at 9PM last night, so I guess this is normal. Once she's up and fed, we're off to visit G, grab a few supplies, and heading back home to meet up with K&D. Once Damon is done with the bathroom, we're all heading over to Saoirse's place for a BBQ. Whee!

I just want to shower. Mika needs a bath. The end is in sight, thank Jeebus.

Happy 15-Month Birthday, Mika!

Walking, running, dancing, skipping, climbing, and contortion are Mika's current fave activities. Also..drinking water from out sport bottles, hauling her damned rock n roll Elmo around the house, climbing into her lawn chair and immediately hopping out of it again, climbing backwards into her rocker and rocking it until she almost topples, playing with the fridge magnets, reading, and going up and down the stairs. Daddy and I are continually exhausted while Mika has seemingly endless energy. Her bedtime has been moved up to around 7PM or so..sometimes later. Mika wakes up after an hour or so anyway and demands to go downstairs whether she goes to bed at 6:30 or 8:30. She runs around like a maniac for an hour and then its usually fairly easy to get back to sleep. I use a more stern voice and announce that it is bedtime. Mika pats her chest in agreement. She waves goodnight to Daddy and accepts a kiss (Baby Diva is fussy about giving kisses). We head back upstairs for a bottle and she's out.
Mika loves to be outside and seems to especially like birds and trees. She's unsure about grass and dirt, but I'm sure that they will quickly become favorites as well.
Mika recently decided that Daddy and I can no longer use her rocking moose as a small telephone table. She rocks like mad on that thing...I swear that she is trying her best to tip it over.
Thankfully we have no major sickness to report. Mika has had a spotty rash all over her body this week, but the doc said its nothing to worry about. Either heat rash or a leftover from her last viral infection. It doesn't seem to bother her, so hopefully it will disappear eventually.

This weekend is gonna be hella busy. Uncle Damon is coming over to redo our bathroom. We're heading to the zoo on Saturday afternoon. Mika is probably going to hang out at her Grandma's place on Sunday while we work. Monday is finishing touches and BBQ at Saoirse's. Might not sound like much, but it will be nutso, I assure you. :)

Toddler

Mika was in bed asleep by about 7:15 last night. She woke after about half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes, and screamed until we brought her downstairs. She proceeded to walk and run independently for about an hour or so when I was able to get her back to sleep. I guess Mika is officially a toddler as of today. So long sanity..I'm gonna miss you!

Mayday!

Mika's still got some sniffles and congestion, but such things don't even phase her anymore. The sleeping routine is all bent out of shape! We follow the routine and put her to bed and then anytime between half an hour to an hour later, she's up and freaking out. Screams bloody murder until we bring her downstairs then happily rages and freaks out for about an hour. After that, we can usually get her to go back to sleep or just give up and let her cry herself out. Daddy and I kinda hate the cry herself out thing, but when we know she is exhausted, not hungry, not in need of a diaper change, and just wants to play instead of sleep, the cry it out thing is almost our only option. Yes, we have tried going for strolls. It only works so far. I can usually wear Mika out fairly quickly by playing stampede wrestling with her. I piledrive her and body slam her and pin her arms down and attack her. She squeals with pure glee and giggles giggles giggles. The more aggressive my attacks, the happier Mika is. Last night, we tried something new: Mika and Saoirse had a playdate at our local playground. Those girls are just too cute together. Plus I am apparently the only other trustworthy adult aside from Mama, according to Saoirse. The girls climbed and played on the slides (Saoirse is seemingly Fearless), had some sand and swing time, were chased by a boy, and generally had a good time. The best was that they gave each other a "bye-bye" kiss when we were leaving. There's not much that I think I could possibly find more cute than Mika and Saoirse giving kisses to each other. So gentle and sweet. Maybe they'll be smart enough to just date each other and leave boys out of the equation! Anyway, Mika was certainly tired out by the end of it. A quick bath, another bottle, and off to sleep without a peep. Of course, she woke at 11 wanting milk, but whatever. I don't mind Mika waking up if its just for a quick diaper change and refueling. It's the waking up and wanting to play for a couple of hours that I mind.
Tomorrow Mika goes for a visit with her Nana while Daddy and I test drive some vehicles. Mika needs a new ride. Saturn Vue or diesel Jetta Wagon is what we're thinking. We might end up going over to Grandma's and setting up her new computer (Dude! She got a Dell!) if it gets delivered today. Otherwise, we save Grandma's house for Mother's Day next weekend.