The Latest

Last week Gwennan developed an icky rash on her face and body. She was red, blotchy, and a little pimply. A trip to the doctor diagnosed her as having Fifth Disease - which is not actually a disease, in the classic sense, but just a virus. It was supposed to have gone away by the weekend, but it didn't. We went back to the doctor yesterday, and now we're treating her for allergies, with daily Zyrtec and hydrocortisone cream. Hopefully she'll be better soon. Poor thing hasn't looked like herself in some time.

BUT, she's certainly behaved like herself. Yesterday she had taken off her shorts and diaper while she was helping her dolls and animals each go to potty. (We've been potty training G and have had one successful potty episode with her so far). I decided just to let her run around that way for a while, and when I went into her room a little later to check on her, she had climbed up onto her changing table with a clean diaper, and was in the middle of applying diaper cream. I guess she had decided she was ready for a new diaper and she would just take care of it herself. Too funny.

The baby in my belly now has a name. We have decided on the first name William, and will call him Will. To make this decision official, Mark and I went on a date Saturday night to Art & Soul and painted a "W" to go on Will's door. Gwennan has a "G" on her door, so I wanted one for Will too. No progress on the middle name yet. Mark and I have been tossing around a few ideas, but haven't decided on anything yet.

When we went on our date, we left Gwennan with Mom & Wayne to spend the night. She stayed with them while we went to church the next day, and when we came to pick her up, she looked different. I asked Mom, "Did you cut her hair?" and sure enough, she had!! I was so furious. Mom complained that G's hair was hanging in her face and she decided to cut her bangs. Only she cut them unevenly and too far back (slightly resembling a mullet haircut.)
Let it be known to all grandparents out there that there are BOUNDARIES and PARENTAL RIGHTS that must be respected. Cutting a child's hair without a parent's permission is overstepping a boundary.
Mom's response to my scolding? "I knew if I'd asked you first, you would have said no."
Grrrrr ....

Finally, Mark and I have been slavishly working away on our downstairs family room. We primed over the navy blue paint below the chair railing and the horrible duck border that ran around the whole room. Then we started painting all the wood trim glossy white, which is a slow and tedious process - not to mention frustrating, as Mark and I are far from pro painters. BUT it's almost all done now and soon all that will be left to do is paint the walls a light green. The room already looks so much brighter and more cheerful. There are two windows down there, but the room still does not get much light, so I wanted to paint it something light and happy. Once we get this room done, we'll get working on our bedroom (no trim to paint there, thank God), and then we'll be done with painting for a while!

After all the painting's done, we'll be kicking back and simply waiting for the arrival of Will.

Gwennan's 2nd Birthday Cake

Like her mama, Gwennan gets into her sweets ...

Baby Boy

If you're interested, I've created a baby registry at Target. A lot of the items are only available online, although I think a few may be available in-store. We really don't need a lot of stuff. Mainly we need to convert the nursery from pink bedding to blue, and then there are a few things that I suffered without when Gwennan was a baby that I don't want to do without this time around - mainly a nursing stool, nursing bib, and a baby sling.

Anyway, if you're interested you can look at the registry online.
:o)

AT&T's secret offer

You know, I'm not a super-liberal person, really. I vote Republican mostly, but sometimes I'm not so sure I should be, especially as pro-corporation and anti-consumer as Republicans can be.
Witness the following article:

AT&T quietly rolls out reasonably-priced unbundled DSL

I've been ticked off for some time that we were forced to pay for a phone line in order to get the internet too - I mean, Mark and I both have cell phones, so we don't really need a "land line" - but I never thought I had an option. Then the other night our friend Nathaniel told us about "naked DSL" - a service AT&T was forced to offer by the FCC, but that they definitely don't advertise or hardly even admit to.

Well, I read up on it on the internet and today signed up for it. It was more expensive than everything I'd read - $32 instead of $25 - plus state taxes and a $5 "service fee" (funny, I thought the $32 WAS the service fee), but still it's cheaper than what we've been paying.

There are many other things in the article linked above that tick me off, but instead of ranting about it, I'll just let you read it and get ticked off for yourself.

In the meantime, let it be known that as of today we no longer have a "home" phone number. If you need to reach us, our cell phones will be the only way.

Beautiful

Tickle Me Gwennan

There's nothing like the laugh of a little kid. We love making Gwennan laugh. Sometimes she gets this really big belly laugh and it just cracks us up.
And then sometimes she gets this fake laugh - a "social" laugh, if you will - like when she babbles something totally incoherent to us, but then laughs and laughs at her own wittiness. We have no idea what she just said, but it was evidently quite funny. Cracks us up.

By the way, in this video you hear her say something about "blurs". This is her word for slippers, which she is noticing and commenting on as I tickle her.
BTW, this video is from early February.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

God bless her, Granny tried to teach Gwennan hopscotch, but alas, all she got was the hop part. And the counting, "One, Two, Six, Nine ..."
Check out the cool pigtails.