Sleep deprivation at your service

Sis. Homer ~

Goodness.  Why do I always forget to write until it's late?  Maybe that's why I get so rambly… I've no self-control this late.  More laughs for you.  Maybe it works out?  Though, looking at pictures, I don't know how much there is to say.  I'm sure I'll surprise myself.

So, first let's reply to your email.  I will tell BJ to send you an email about imaginary numbers.  He taught Teresa last night at 4th Sunday dinner.  :)  And you're right!  I forgot to send you that letter from Kessa.  I mailed it Saturday, so hopefully you get it soon.

Teresa is going to come and "live" with us for 3 weeks while your parents are taking a cruise of Norway and making me hate them out of jealousy and envy.  (Perhaps you could do your scripture study on those topics this week and send me a sermon on how to overcome them next week?)




BJ and I just got called (assigned?) to be on our mini-parade float committee.  It has to be ready in 2 months.  Yipes!  Luckily, the guy in charge is the one that works at Adobe and won the individual Halloween costume competition every year while Nick was winning the group.  So I think we've got a good chance at success.  Teresa is convinced that their float is going to win.  … even though we're not competing against them.  Seeing as how we're in totally different cities and all.  But whatever.  :)

Kessa and some of her neighbor friends eating Otter Pops
next door while the grown ups worked in our back yards.

Yard/garden update:   I finally got the rest of the newspaper laid out so I could shovel dirt up along the curbing.  That was nice.  And I got all my early spring plants planted.  Which, turns out, is more than half of my garden.  And we put all the tubing on the sprinkler heads and the drip emitters on the tubing for the plants we already have in.  And then we turned on the sprinkler system to make sure it was getting the right spots and KABOOM!  One of the heads of the sprinklers popped off and gave us about a 20-foot geyser.  So we shut it off, turned off that head, tried again… and got the same result on a different head.  Turns out, we're pretty sure we need a pressure reducer.  So we'll tack that onto our list of things to do…  So I'm still watering by hand, sadly.

Our new tree is so tall!  Seriously.
That's not a small pickup.  The tree is so tall.  I'm pleased.

Today we bought a Bradford Pear tree (it doesn't produce pears, it just flowers like a pear tree.  It's one of the most common flowering trees around these parts) to replace our maple that we're pretty certain is dead.  [sigh]

We also bought a pallet of flagstones!  Did you know a pallet of flagstones weigh 1500-2000 pounds?  That's a ton right there.  Literally.  And I actually used the word "literally" correctly there.  Hooray for grammar nazis everywhere!  Turns out, they didn't think it a good idea to transport in my minivan :D so I had to enlist the help of a neighbor.  Bless this neighborhood.  Seriously.  They're great.  We didn't have a place to keep them until I was ready to place them, so we just stuck them around the garden beds, figuring it would be easier to just rearrange anyway.  In good news, they look really cool!  In bad news, I definitely need to buy more compost to cover up the gaps between them lest I walk out barefoot and stub my toe something awful.  Things left to do: rearrange stone. Get and spread more compost.  Plant ground cover of some sort around the stones.  Get the sprinkler system pressurized better and get it turned on.  Wait for last frost and plant the rest of my garden.  Oh, and plant flowers in all my flowerbeds, weed the flowerbeds, and get the drip system fully functional there (though that should be decently easy).  Act modest with a tinge of giddiness whenever someone tells me how great it is.  … perhaps you should tack vanity onto that sermon.

Our garden as of this afternoon!  Isn't it so pretty?  Ignore the strip of green that's still tied to the tree.  It was too tall for BJ to finish untying and we weren't smart enough to untie it while it was still laying on the ground.  Go figure.

And now I'm thinking that instead of getting a play set, I might get a play house.  Much cheaper, provides its own shade, a smaller footprint, different from the neighbor's, and way fun. Yes?  Thoughts?

Abby had her 15-month checkup at the pediatrician today.  I asked her what I should do about Abby's refusal to eat milk and her more picky-eating nature than Kessa.  Her first advice was to get the word picky out of my vocab and to not discount any food as a dislike.  Continuously offer her the same foods in different ways.  Studies show that sometimes a child needs to be offered the same food dozens of times before she will even acknowledge it on her plate.  Then she also gave me tips on getting more dairy and veggies in her food.  So I've got my work cut out for me there.  But she wasn't actually too concerned, because apparently I've been getting plenty of calories in her.  She's now in the 15.33%ile for weight (18.74 lbs)!  Up from 5.6% 3 months ago.  And our little midget is getting taller!  She's 28 inches in length, which is the (ready for this?) drumroll… .91%ile!  (Note the decimal before the 91.  She's still under 1%)  Hahaha.  Up from .44.  And for fun, Head Circumference: 17.24 in; 8.91% (up from 4.19).  So she's growing.  Which is good news.  And she didn't have to get shots today!  Woohoo!

And Abby's random milestone… she's sleeping without her blanket sack now!  I took too long to do laundry and all three of hers were dirty (don't judge me.  Laundry is overwhelming sometimes.  It gets procrastinated.) so I thought, "Well, she's getting to small anyway.  Maybe I should just put a real blanket on her.  So I did.  One of my baby blankets.  Awwww.  And she's done great!  Hooray!  She can also say cheese.  It's one of her favorite foods.  I was slicing some for her yesterday and her eyes got big and her smile bigger and she said, "Sheeze!  Sheeze!"  I had no idea she could say that until just then.  She can also say doggy (which sounds like dock'ee (where the ' is a glottal stop.  For Jessa. :D)), though she doesn't perform on command, so it's been several days since I've heard it.  She adores Teresa's dog she gave her for Christmas.  She always sleeps with it.  And when she sees it after an absence she gets super happy and cuddles it like there's no tomorrow.  She's loved one of it's ears off.  I really need to sew it back on.

And now… Kessa-isms!

• In a sing-song voice, “Now that I have my fi-irst kiss, now give me a ki-i-iss.”
• Kessa: Mommy, after we have a baby, I want a baby sister.
  Me: I thought you wanted a baby brother.
  Kessa: Brother! Yessss! [pause] Or maybe I want a boy.
  (editor's note: we're not pregnant)
• Kessa: Ok. Here's the deal. We have to make a slide.
• A) Kessa tells me she has headaches. She means hiccups.
  B) I had her drink water upside down to get rid of them. It worked. I asked her if they went away and she said no. I asked if she was still hiccuping and she looked confused, then said, "No, it just takes awhile to hiccup again."
• BJ, talking about family members: And who is Grandma Homer?
  Kessa: I don't remember her name.
  BJ: She is daddy's mommy!
  Kessa, very serious faced, looking Daddy right in the eye: I love your mommy. [getting suddenly happy] When I see her I yell, “Mama! Mama!”
• Kessa: I'm Santa! When you go to sleep I bring you presents. Easter Eggs!
• Kessa wanted to play in the playground behind that big house that was remodeled by your parents' house. We told her that she couldn't because we didn't know the people who live there. To which she replied, “We could go up to them and say he-ey.”
• Kessa: I'm hungry.
  Me: I'm sorry.
  Kessa: Why?
  Me: Because I don't have any food in the car.
  Kessa: Yes you do.
  Me: I do? What?
  Kessa: Fruit.
  Me: Fruit leather? You ate the last one in the diaper bag last night on the way home from Mama Homer's house, remember?
  Kessa: Oh. I want your phone.
  Me: You're going to eat my phone?
  Kessa: No! I want to play games on it. Not eat it.
  Me: Oh. Well, you were asking for food.
  Kessa: No I wasn't. I'm not hungry.
  Me: But you just said you were hungry.
  Kessa: But you don't have any food, so I'm not hungry anymore.
• Kessa: I've got loose teeth under my pillow. You be Santa, ok?
• Me: Kessa, did you break that crayon?
  Kessa: Yes! It's for sharing!

And a bonus conversation between BJ and I about Kessa:

Me: What kind of child are we raising that as soon as I say we're having pizza she asks “Where's the cheese sticks?”
BJ: Your child.
Touché.

And a really random thing that has nothing to do with anything, but I posted on Facebook this week:

My bank is touting, "No more standing in line at the post office. Pay that bill with [their bill pay system]." … does anyone really stand in line at the post office to pay their utility bill? Anyone? I mean, even if you still pay it with a real check, can't you just drop it in the box without standing in line?

Lastly, I want you to know that in order to write you a proper letter [remember, this blog is simply a modified version of my letters to Jessa on her mission], I consult your emails, my pictures from the week, my journal (where I keep all the cute things Kessa says), and Facebook.  It's hard work writing you.  So thank you for appreciating it.  It also gets me to blog. You're amazing, basically.

And... now I'm WAY tired and definitely need sleep.  Since this took at least 45 minutes to write… and my eyes are falling asleep here.

I'm excited for yours tomorrow!
~ Tianna and Co.