Queue triumphant music..

Eleanor used the POTTY!

It was slow going. She's still really little for potty training. I'm not really trying to push it, but she started showing signs that potty training might be a good idea a couple of months ago, when I saw Eleanor holding her crotch and doing a potty dance. So we bought a potty. I got the cheap, hard plastic one because I didn't think it would really matter. But for some reason they built the thing so the place were her legs would hang over was extra big so they couldn't hang over. It was really dumb and uncomfortable. So we got one of those cushy ones and it was shaped better in general, and she enjoyed sitting on that one. So Tuesday night after I had gotten her undressed for her bath, she sat down and used the potty!!! Yesterday she wasn't remotely interested. But then today she tried twice. The first time she got so involved with flipping over the cushion (she has to place it just so) that she peed squatting on the floor in front of the potty. The second time, she was sitting on it and then stood up to pee on the floor.. It's a work in progress.

Just some updates.

We went on our big trip last week. Woot! Definitely had the feel of a practice run. A great time was had by all, and we'll do it better next time. First we went to Nathan's grandmother's in Maryland. Eleanor charmed everyone present. She loved the stairs and got comfortable at Grandma Judy's and Papa Scott's right away. Amy came over and got to spend the night. (Sleepover!! woohoo!) Nathan's Dad surprised us all by driving up on his motorcycle unexpectedly. That was really nice. Thus ends the relaxing part of the trip.

Then we flew to Massachusetts, and on the way the plane got struck by lightning. Right on the engine. Lightning? That really noisy bright flashy thing that destroys? Apparently planes, including their engines, have an immunity. Totally no big deal. In Massachusetts we spent the remainder of the week running around seeing as much of Nathan's Grandfather, Aunt Nancy, and Fuzz (the dog); Shanna, Randi, Ryan, Ms. Loraine, and Evie; Sarah, Bob, and their little boy Isaac; Auntie Alice; Ms. Ellie; Aunt Karen; Gail, Matt, Jason, Manny, Manny (yes, two of them), and Smokey (the dog); and my cousin Nathan, and his wife, Sarah as we could. In the process, Eleanor pretty much got over her fear of dogs. Fuzz and Smokey are both big friendly, but docile black labs, and she loved them so much. (: Her vocabulary also had a growth spurt. She now says milk, book, Ashton, Ella (what she calls pictures of herself), good dog, baby, nap, bed, bath, circle, oval, ready (as in Nathan's Dad: "Ready?" Her: "Ready!") and several others that I'm just too tired to think about.

The daycare called me today at 4:15. I get off of work at 4:30. Eleanor had a fever of 101.2, and as you can imagine, they aren't taking any chances with sick kids at this time. So I bring her to the emergency room, since the Dr's office is closed. No flu. She has a double ear infection. This is her first ear infection since she got her tubes, but we know they fell out about a month ago. I REALLY hope this isn't the rebirth of Eleanor's chronic ear infections. She had 8 by the time she was about 7 months old. She had an ear infection anytime we brought her to the doctor for anything, including vaccinations. I don't want to go through that again.

At least it's not the swine flu.

I never knew doors were so scary!

Well, we had a little scare today. It's the kind of thing that happens when you have 6 adults in the house. Surely SOMEBODY'S watching the toddler, right? The door that leads into the garage has to be deliberately closed, if you want to be sure that it actually closed. Often enough, if you just pull it behind you as you walk through, it will bounce and remain open. So leaving the door open is easy enough to do. I was in the kitchen cutting up Eleanor's pork chop, Dad was in his office, Chris and Kelley had gone out to their car, and Mom was at a neighbors. Ellie had been playing in the kitchen, but she went to go play in the living room, in the opposite direction of said door. The pork chop required some special attention because there was Tony's all over it, and Ellie doesn't do the spicy thing yet. So I hear her playing noises fade into the back of the house, where she can potentially get into things, but I'm not overly worried. So I'm finishing up with her pork chop after a minute or 2 of not hearing her and I go to the back to get her for dinner. She's not in the back. Maybe she's with Dad. She's not with Dad. "Dad, I can't find Ellie." He says, "I think your mother took her over to the neighbor." I knew that was wrong, because Ellie was playing in the living room when Mom left. I run to the door to the garage and there it was. Wide open. Our garage opens out to a neighborhood street, but it's fairly high traffic with enough of a speeding issue that speed bumps were added about 5 years ago. Ellie's not there. "MOM!!" I started running to the front yard. "ELLIE!!" No Eleanor. I go back to the side yard and start heading down the other way, when I hear "Bridget!" from the front. I double back to the front and see Kelley holding Eleanor with Chris, just heading into the house. They were in the doorway, so I didn't see them the first time. Then Kelley tells me that Eleanor was found by a nice lady across the street and 2 houses down, playing in somebody's yard. The lady saw Kelley and asked if Ellie belonged to her, and Kelley took her and answered, "Yes and no." Thank God for nice ladies. I feel bad for Mom. We think it was her that left the door open. She's beaten herself up about it pretty badly, but Ellie's okay, and this won't happen again, and Mom will let it go soon. Besides, she walked less than 5 feet from me to get out of the house, and I shouldn't have let the quiet toddler go unchecked for that long. At least she really enjoyed her pork chops.

In other news.. Nathan and I are going to see his grandparents in April!! We're flying to Maryland to see his grandmother for a few days. While we're there we are also going to see my Amy. Then we'll fly to Massachusetts and see Nathan's grandfather, aunt, and some other family and friends for a few more days. Then we fly home. This will be the first time most of these people will see Eleanor. We're super excited.

Oh, I talked to Emilie Laiche the other day (via email). She was going to be near Natchitoches and wanted to know if anyone was still around. She and her boyfriend are living in Florida and have a cat and a fish. They're doing great, and Emilie wanted me to say hello to everyone. Hello Everyone!

Okay, now for some fun new pics.

Happy 200th Birthday, Incredibly Historic Person of Choice! *kazoo*

Today is both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Do you know what that means? That means that Charles Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln were born on THE SAME DAY. I don't know about you, but that completely blows my mind. It seems strange to me that there are a bunch of people celebrating one, and a bunch of people celebrating the other, and not very many people celebrating them both. I don't really know a lot about either, but I feel like saying a few words about both.

Lincoln. Well, what can you really say? There really isn't a more famous president in US history. As it turns out, I really don't know anything about him at all, except how he died, but you don't talk about things like that on a man's birthday. Does anyone else think it's poetic that on this man's bicentennial birthday, a man who gets a fair amount of credit for helping to free the slaves, the first black man is doing his old job. Not only that, but he's from Illinois, is extremely charismatic, and took the job at a time of great strife. Now I don't mean droves of American citizens killing each other to defend their ideals, kind of strife, but a lot of people are really scared. It's scary. Happy Birthday Abraham. Thanks for helping us get here. By here, I mean closer to true racial equality, not the strife thing.

Darwin. I read some Darwin in college, and it turns out I'm actually a really big fan. The man was quite silly. He used to toss iguanas into the ocean just to watch them swim back, and ride on the backs of giant tortoises. It's his fault we know that worms are good for the soil, and not just gross pests. When doing experiments he would often solicit his young children to help, and engage them in the learning process. As a parent, I really appreciate that. There's a zoo in Australia owned by the family of the late Crocodile Hunter (who's name escapes me just now) and in that zoo is a tortoise that was found by Charles Darwin. He's met him. I want to meet that tortoise. Happy Birthday Charles. Thanks for helping make our differences make sense.

Gratuitous pictures:

Running late

My annual public service announcement is a bit late this year. What with all the babies and happiness, it's been a bit too cheery for it.. but then, that's the time to be the most careful. Sometimes bringing balance to the force is not a good thing.

Ahem:

It's that time again! Take your vitamins, drive defensively with your seat belt on, and keep an eye on your very old and very young. It's December! The deadliest month of the year, even when you exclude the holiday suicides. We've got a lot of little people this year so be extra cautious. We like having them around, and we want them to remember you.

Everything has been great here. Eleanor is completely wonderful. Garret (my sister's baby) is just a smiley, drooling, lump of goodness. He's starting to kick and wave and hold his head up. Good stuff. Eleanor likes to sing and dance and sort things. She's a strangely orderly child. She rearranges the shampoo bottles in the tub, the contents of the bottom shelf in the pantry, the VHS tapes in the cabinet, and the tupperware in the kitchen cabinet, just to name a few things. That doesn't stop her from knocking everything off of the coffee table onto the floor, but even that is often a very methodical process. (:

We brought her to see the Christmas lights at Acadian Village. She had a great time, but it had very little to do with the lights. She just liked being put down and allowed to walk around on her own. She loves to explore new places. We got to see a few friends there. Regan was drumming with the belly dancers and Cheramie was with him. We also met Jeremy and Bri there, while they were in town visiting family. It was an awful lot of fun.

Nathan's almost done with training, and will soon have his regular schedule. His hours will still be pretty late, but he'll have 2 out of 3 Saturdays off! Woot! Working at the Lafayette office has been fun. It's great being in the same building with Kelley. Though I will admit, I'm missing my Natchitoches office buddies. I also miss Chanel. That's pretty much it though. Oh, and the land people. We had great land people. But it's great here. I like it a lot. Now for some pics to reward you for reading this whole thing. If you just skimmed, go back to the top and re-read before you can see the pics. Just kidding.

Here's Eleanor stacking some cups. She did this totally on her own!




And here she is helping me decorate..



And loving Garret, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically..




And just smiling for the camera.. (:



There you go.

I.. live..

IN LAFAYETTE!!!

Yep, I'm finally here. We're staying with my parents while we save up for our house. We'll be here a while, (2 or so years) but then at the end, we get a house. I can live with that. (: Working at the Lafayette office for Natchitoches Medicaid is actually going pretty smoothly. There have been some printer issues, but that's been the worst of it. Now I just need to find my reading glasses. Nathan is really liking his job with AT&T so far, but we work opposing hours. That's no fun, but he gets home before I go to bed (unlike our opposing hours with the hotels) and his hours will eventually and gradually improve. Eleanor is happy at her new daycare. It took a while, she was pretty mad at me for a week or two, but now I can tell she has a good time while she's there. Also, when I tell people where she goes, if they are familiar with the place they tell me why they love it. I really like that. There is so much craziness going on, we still have boxes in the garage, and my sister, her husband, and their child still live here while they actively look for their new house. My parents are inhumanly patient when it comes to the big stuff. If I don't post very often that's because a) that's kind of a general theme for my blog, if you've ever been paying attention, and b) It's crowded here and I'm in charge of the 1 year old and making sure she and her mess don't push someone over the edge.

Maybe TMI, your call.

I'm actually on my period. I haven't had a period since I was 24! (I'm 26.) It cramps, it makes my back ache, and it makes me feel blah. It's just like the last one, and most of the ones before. How weird. Well, I'm not pregnant. Didn't think I was, but still good to know. Huh.