An Auspicious Start

Well the new year is off with a bang... litteraly. Poor Tilmani stub-mauled his pinkie toe on the floor level wood trim in the bathroom. Not only did the stubbing hurt, it also bit a chunk out of his toe. ((He has a bandaid on it.))
 Mini Monster has been gleefully unaware of the injury, and has stepped on his daddy's feet seven or eight times. Mini monster is doing ok, but he had a stomach bug yesterday, which I seem to have today. ((I have a kind of upset stomach.))

 Really great way to start 2011.

Ringing In the New Year

We're ringing in the new year with surprisingly warm weather ((50 degrees or so)), some new games ((check out Holding Pattern)), a cold beer and the X-files movie.

 We watched pretty much the entire series, so it's kind of interesting to see what they do with the whole movie thing. Maybe not the most traditional means of ringing in the New Year, but hey, we're geeks, what do you want?

 MiniMonster has had a busy day, and he's sleeping right now. He also outgrew his 12 month clothing for the most part, except for the few with nice button necks to give them more room. The other ones are too squinchy and he gets really upset if you try and put them on. He even outgrew all of his 12 month footies, and he's not even 12 months old yet. Big guy!

 We went on a major shopping spree this week to buy him upgraded stuff, and made some good finds. He also has Batman PJ's now. ((We got them in two sizes so he wouldn't outgrow it quite as fast.))

 He also made a point of picking himself some (largely green) Dino and Monster socks. That was kinda funny. <3 Oh and he convinced Auntie Roo's good friend Lil' to buy him an incredibly cute stuffed tortoise at Kohls. It was kind of impressive to see him in action, since Lil', like Auntie Roo, isn't entirely comfortable around small children not having handled them very often, and especially because he's been in clingy, anxiety mode lately. I know it's normal for kids, but it's frustrating for everyone I think, him too.

 And we still haven't figured out what kind of cake we're going to make him.

 I do recommend that even the non geeks check out Echo Bazaar though. It's fun, kind of Lovecraftian and turn based, and easy to master. Less tricky and thought involved than Die2Nite and it's zombie glory, but definitely addictive. I'm having a blast.

I'm not Dreaming of a White Post-Christmas

But I might tonight, since Tilmani and I spent an obnoxious amount of time shoveling something like two feet of snow out of the driveway, and that's after he did some break out shoveling last night. Needless to say we're both pretty sore, but the driveway is clear and so are the steps.

 The back and Side yard have really wild and interesting Snow Drifts, full of edges and valleys. In some places the ground has only an half inch of snow due to the powerful wind gusts last night, and in other places... well... it's like the driveway. It's sort of cool, but dang heavy. The snow wasn't the wettest and heaviest we've shoveled, but it certainly wasn't fluffy and light.

 I'm rather glad I own some home made wool socks these days ((These were made by my teacher and her antique auto-knitter.)) They kept my feet toasty warm, which was fantastic, since normally my fingers and toes practically freeze off by the time I've been out shoveling for a little while, regardless of my foot and hand gear.

 It's a good soup day, so we're making the Onion-Potato soup in my recipe list, although I admit I tossed some bacon bits in just to change it up a little.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

 Well it's almost Christmas, we've even got all the gifts for people wrapped, and ready. Unfortunately the soonest we'll be delivering any of them is Sunday, and then the others on Monday. I was hoping to deliver some of them today, but Grandma S isn't feeling up for it.

 We tried out a cookie press we got at WalMart, it had... well... mixed results. Tilmani thinks that the cookie sheets themselves might be the problem. I'm not sure that it's not the cookie press.

The edge you press to the cookie sheet is scaloped, so it doesn't actually get that close, and although one click is supposed to be 'one cookie', that doesn't mean the cookie actually leaves the end of the press.  The recipie itself isn't bad though, so I guess we'll experiment and see what we can do. It's not having trouble coming out through the shaping disks, just sticking to the trays.

 Also, just to provide you with a hearty dose of cute:

Cold Toes and Stuffy Nose

The MiniMonster has a cold, so I'll save you the horrors of one of his 'just sneezed' pictures. They're pretty sloppy right now, but that's probably what he gets for trying to chew on cart handles every time I reach for something at the store. :/

 I'm trying to prevent him from doing that but I'm only human... and I'm not the kind of person who wants to shut him in a Lysol soaked bubble.

 The tree is now fully decorated and looks pretty awesome. We turned off the living room lights last night ans showed it to the Monster. He was crying at the time but stopped when we brought him in and showed him the tree in the dark, all lit up with colorful little pinpricks and cool blue glowing snowflake lights. I suspect he'll like it even better when there are toys underneath for him to rip the crinkly paper and tissue off of.

 I'm going to make another 'food run' later today and drop more food with some of my relatives. Crock Pot BBQ and some loaded mashed potatoes, the potatoes in little single serve bowls.  ((Thank you locking lids!))

 I also made a new post at Holding Pattern, and I actually pulled in a big old rant on that one, because it's something I've been subject to, and it's really annoying. I guess in some ways Role Play communities can be a lot like being back in school, only the players aren't always high school aged. It may well be the age of the geek because I can name any number of players, male AND female, who are thirty and up, as well as under thirty.

 I think that says a lot for us not shutting our imaginations in a box... and that's kinda cool.

The Caffine is the Life

 Maybe it was the excitement of having a  GIANT GLOWING TREE covered in bells and colorful things in the living room, but MiniMonster did -not- want to go to sleep last night. He refused to lie down until almost ten, and then he only made it about ten minutes with everyone else in bed before setting up a howling ruckous.


He was clearly exhausted, he kept cuddling up and rubbing his eyes, but absolutely would not sleep, didn't want bottle, didn't need changed, didn't want food... but couldn't seem to sleep. Eventually, burnt to a frazzle trying to figure it out, I took him to our room, where the second he touched mattress... he was out like a light. ((it is very interesting to try and reposition an instant-noodle.))
 He took over half my pillow in the process and staked his claim by dropping his pacifier and drooling.

 Pushed to the edge of the bed, and already anxious ((Grandma S needs some minor surgery, nothing technically serious but it's not stopping me from being obsessively anxious.)), I couldn't sleep a wink, and was pretty much awake until sometime after 2:30. I did at one point also make the mistake of trying to take MiniMonster back to his room, and that... well that went exactly like the begining of the night. ((not well))

 Tilmani checked on him, got the same results I had, and deposited him back in bed with me, where he latched on and snoozed again.

 He was cute enough this morning to be forgiven for his night time antics, crawling back up onto my pillow and poking my nose while making doe eyes, and looking out through the curtains and bouncing. ((It was snowing)). So He was forgiven and got blueberry pancake with the rest of us.

 We just ordered him something we think he'll love, an baby-Mp3 player from ThinkGeek. It's got a solid rubbery outside to keep it from being damaged, hidden volume control... good stuff.

Oh Tannenbaum Oh Tannenbaum,

Mini Monster would like everyone to be very clear on the fact that WE HAVE A TREE. It's an Artificial Tree, but it's a pretty nice one, though we did spend some time 'fluffing' the posable parts of the branches to fill it all out. It's not 100% decorated, we need to put the tree skirt down and also put on some more ornaments, but it's most of the way there.

 MiniMonster was extremely excited by this, though he was a little edgy when it first went up because everyone was a little stressed. When it was up and lit (It's not lit in the picture) however, he did a circuit of the tree and delicately poked the lights he could reached, and jingled the bells that we hung down low.

 I still need to finish fixing the toe of his Christmas stocking, but it's a pretty good Christmas Season so far.