Baby Steps
I�m back. Been back. There are many days that I wish I was a Lady of Leisure (though not necessarily a Stay-At-Home-Mom) so I didn�t have to get my ass kicked at work after being on vacation. 150 e-mail messages I was assaulted with on Monday, reminders of things I�d forgotten to do (oops!), meetings I�d been scheduled to attend without my okay. All of which to say, I�ve been pissed off for days. At pretty much everybody.
Now, I�m feeling a bit better but I�m still so far behind, I�m going mad. The only bright side is that Friday is payday. And I�m having dinner at my sister�s on Saturday. Yay!
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So, the beach. It was nice. The house � oceanfront � was cozy and just right for us (4 bedrooms which is as small as they make them these days). It was also a good house for a walking baby. Everything was one level and all the bedroom doors were pocket doors so we could close off everything and keep Red in one area. More or less. The house also had a crow�s nest room on a second floor accessible only by a nice old wooden spiral staircase. Dusty was instantly drawn to this and wanted to spend the night up there. After a series of nightmare visions where I hear her tumble to her death in the night, looking for the bathroom, I nixed that idea. So, she just played up there with her Fisher Price house boat and little people. And Barbie, who�d brought her red Corvette. This also kept a whole bunch of toys from ending up in Red�s insatiable gaping maw. I swear, that child would put shit in her mouth if it was lying on the floor.
And, the beach marked the end of Red�s crawling and the beginning of her life as a biped. From the instant we entered the house, she gave up crawling. It was as if she�d always been a walker. Amazing. And she walks like a Junior Monster with a heavy, stiff-legged stomping that is quite cute. Apparently she hasn�t realized that her knees bend. Baby steps, as they say, baby steps.
What is not cute is her new eardrum shattering squeal that she likes to emit for no good reason. She finds it highly amusing to scream as loudly as possible when the mood strikes her. SCREAM, laugh, SCREAM, laugh. If she wasn�t such an adorable little monkey, I�d have to kill her.
So, we sat around and frolicked on the shore � the ocean being too cold still to immerse ourselves in � collecting shells and watching pelicans fly around. Thursday evening we were entertained by our Tax Dollars At Work: the U.S. Naval Base down in Virginia Beach sent scores of helicopters our way which dropped numerous bombs in the ocean. Over and over again. For fun, I guess. I mean, how many times do you need to practice dropping bombs into the ocean? We see them hover. Then a huge plume of water or smoke (or both) would rise up. Then�three seconds later�we�d be assaulted by the booms. They finally went home around 9pm.
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Gardening News (If you are not a gardener, you can skip this part):
Over the Mother�s Day Weekend, I finally got my garden planted, thanks in part to my trusty sidekick, Dusty. We planted 12 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, 3 eggplant plants (or should you leave out the second �plant�?). We then planted seeds: zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, pole beans and bush beans, nasturtium, and �mystery annuals� that came as a bonus from Burpee. We also planted marigolds, lantana, basil, dill and parsley in front of the house. Plus more nasturtium seeds. I still need to find zinnias. I love zinnias. They�re like lollipop flowers and their colors kick butt!
So, what else is growing? Roses (red), peonies (white), pinks (pink, duh), irises (purple), and other perenials like rudbeckia, echinachia (sp?), marjoram, thyme, butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, lavender, rosemary.
This weekend, I need to complete the fence so that my furry neighbors (skunk, possum, cat and gopher) don�t destroy all my work.
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I got more to say but there are errands to run and work to do. Ta!
