Thursday, November 27, 2008

"Uh-oh Mama"

This was how Roan summed up the situation on Monday night as we made our way back home from our long weekend in San Francisco. It was 9:30 at night and we had been on all manner of trains, planes and automobiles since 2:30 west coast time. She had exhibited patience and grace throughout. Though she remained awake through the entire 3 hour plane ride home, she had played quietly in her chair without complaint.

We finally made it back home to Denver and we were just a short 30 minute ride from the house. I was looking forward to getting us all into bed and having a full night of sleep. All of a sudden, out of nowhere she goes Exorcist on us. Full on pea green vertical shot of vomit all over herself. Luckily the bucket shape of the car seat contained most of the damage. Naturally she started to whimper, and then to cry. And then she exploded again. Then once more. And again. Four times right in a row, full force and with astonishing volume. Unfortunately the child is an overachiever even at vomiting.

Arwen asked me if he should pull over to clean her up in a gas station bathroom. For a half a second I tried to imagine 1. Getting her out of the car seat without spreading the goods all over the car and 2. Trying to tackle all that puke armed with nothing more than an entire package of handi wipes. "No honey," I told him. "I'm gonna need a garden hose for this. Just drive!"

I gotta say, Roan stayed pretty calm throughout the whole ordeal. We managed to distract her with a little singing in the car. She just kept saying "Uh-oh Mama" over and over again. And a couple of times she said things along the lines of "shirt sticky." Uh yeah I guess so! I was thinking. You're covered in chunks!

It was a late night at the Vaughan household. We had to get her out of the car, seat and all, strip all her clothes off in the cold (oh we are so mean!) and give her a bath before we could put her to bed. And then there was the car seat to contend with. Which to be perfectly honest I put off until the next day. Disgusting. She totaled the thing. Hosing off the padded cover was only the beginning. As I was stripping the damn thing down to foam, rubber and plastic my mind kept wandering to Dante's Inferno and his eight circles of hell. I am sure there is a ninth circle for terrible parents that invloves cleaning car seats. Let me tell you that thing has more nooks and crannies that the world's fattest man. And I found a raisin in every one. No lie my friends. I may have to form a support group to deal with the resulting post traumatic stress.

I don't know what prompted the vomiting, but I'm glad to say she woke up the next day appearing healthy. Until this little incident occurred, the title for this blog post was supposed to be: "I need three." This simple little sentence sums up so elegantly our little dumpling's personality, and I'll tell you why. On the plane ride home we happened to sit ourselves down on the airplane across from the overhead luggage compartment where they stow all the pillows and blankets. She looked up, pointed and declared, "I need pillows!" Arwen volunteered to grab her one. "I'm gonna get her two," he said. Daddy loves to spoil his little girl. "Honey she only needs one," I replied. What a stick in the mud Mom is. He hands her the pillows and says "Daddy got you two pillows, Roan." She doesn't miss a beat. She grabs them both and exclaims "I need three!" I guess she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it.

So it's creeping up on 1 AM and tomorrow I'm planning on doing all the things I normally do on my days off with Roan in addition to cleaning my house and cooking a turkey and about 13 other side dishes. And I don't really know how to cook a turkey. So maybe I should get to sleep rather than post the pictures I just downloaded from my camera. Those will come soon, as well as a recap of our visit to SF!

One more thing - a quick shout out to my Mom and my Grandma Carolyn, who both had birthdays this week. I love you both!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Well darn

It looks like a bunch of the photos in that last post are broken links. I'll have to fix that when I get a chance, sorry.

To compensate you, dear reader, for the pain and suffering the aforementioned broken links no doubt caused, I am uploading a couple of videos. Here is Roan this weekend discovering the fun of leaves piled up. She didn't quite understand jumping in with full gusto, but she's getting there.



Here she is having a grand old time showing off while The Moms were here. Doesn't she look just like Little Susie Who in The Grinch Stole Christmas with her striped pajamas and hair pulled up on top?


Now this next one is not all that exciting to watch for you or me, but I have to post it because Roan herself finds it to be a brilliant display of comedic genius. She begs to watch this video over and over again ("Baby hungry! 'Gen, 'gen"). In the clip she baits me to ask, "Is the baby hungry?" providing her an opportunity to reply emphatically, "No!" When we get to this part in the video Roan cracks up hysterically every time as if to say, "Damn I'm funny!"


Just a couple more pictures for this post. Last weekend Arwen spent a few hours at the welding shop creating some new house numbers for us. They turned out really cool. Here is a close up.


We of course discussed a design before he left for the welding shop, and I have to say he veered considerably from what we talked about. He was pretty sure there was no chance in hell I'd go for it. But what can I say, I am a really cool wife. And even though it's not quite what I had in mind I have to admit it's pretty freakin awesome! Now I'm trying to talk him into welding something funky for a handrail up the porch.

Here is our front porch.


Just for reference, here's what our house looked like when we bought it. What you can't see under that lovely vintage screen door [gag me] is that the front door behind it was a crappy hollow core interior door with the finish peeling off of it. I'm so happy it's gone! Now all we need is some landscaping up front and a couple of chairs to sit in...

Monday, November 03, 2008

Twice as Nice

We had lots of fun this weekend with Grandma and Lolli when they came to visit. We didn't really "do" a whole lot in terms of grand trips to scenic places, but we still had lots of fun just hanging out together. There were many delicious (and naughty) meals, some walks to the park and around the neighborhood, and some marathon shopping trips. And lots and lots of laughing.



They arrived Friday morning and helped Jen and Micah get ready for their Halloween party. Jen and Micah had great costumes - she a "hoochie" witch and he a devil. Roan got to hang out for the first hour or so and snack herself silly on chips and queso. "Chip. With cheese. I want it!"





Jen looked awesome!



Arwen and I had rather understated costumes. He wore a t-shirt with an "E" on it. He was an "E" male. Get it? And I wore clips all over my shirt as the attachments that went with his "e male." [Groan] My costume quickly became The Lamest Costume in the History of Halloween because Arwen refused to wear his shirt. The ink we used was, apparrently, "too stinky." All night people were asking me "What are you supposed to be" and I had to launch in to "Well, my husband is supposed to be wearing a t-shirt..." Lame. Very lame.



Roan revelled in all the attention. She raked in a few goodies too, including the adorable striped leggings in this picture:



She had a blast at our grand shopping extravaganza at REI. She also managed to swipe a super cute Patagonia fleece jacket which she loves to wear all day and even sleep in.


This is at Confluence Park near REI.


The weather was beautiful this weekend. Much warmer than you'd expect for the end of October. Lovely sunny days and cool crisp evenings. We took a little stroll around Berkeley Park and checked out the geese.


Oh get a room you two!


We shared a lot of yummy meals together. And ice cream out. And a stop to the chocolate shop. Naughty, naughty. This is Roan drinking her "kid coffee" at breakfast.

Roan kept us pretty entertained all weekend. It is amazing what comes out of her mouth. It's also pretty remarkable what all those ears manage to pick up. One night at dinner we were talking about thoughts on a future Baby Long, and Jen said something to the effect of "I hope our kid gets Micah's SWEET ASS!" We all laughed and then gasped when we realized Roan had been in earshot. Sure enough she began saying "ass ass ass" over and over again. Jen was petrified. "Please don't tell Arwen it was me!" "Don't worry," I told her. In a day or two Roan will forget all about that word.


Well the next day at breakfast with The Moms Roan was busily coloring away on her kiddie menu. I think she might have been working on saying her ABC's. Or maybe she was busy misspelling her name out loud. I don't quite recall what prompted Mommy 2.0 to say jokingly and half under her breath, "Roan, can you tell us what A - S - S spells?" We didn't even think she was listening. Sure enough she started up again with "ass ass ass." We all looked at each other in disbelief, trying to hold back the laughter. What Roan said wasn't half as funny as
the look of horror on Mom's face!

More videos coming soon...