Did ya Miss Me?

For those of you who didn't even realize I wasn't around, I have been in Charleston for the past week, bookended by a couple of days in Charlotte. I had no internet and only basic cable during my holiday, so I'm a bit behind in blog world, emails, stupid box watching, and other lazy-ass pursuits. What I did have was a lot of baby time with my now 7 month-old niece, who is the cutest human being on the planet. I shall prove this later with photographic evidence. That would require my unpacking, because my camera is shoved into my suitcase, which is spring-loaded with even more stuff than when I left, when I had to sit on it in order to close it. Don't ask how I got it closed for the trip back. It involved the bending of laws of physics, and I fear the government tracking me down for these little secrets...but I digress.

Lillian, as I mentioned, is now 7 months old and does much cooler things than when I last saw her at 3 months old. She sits on her own, which I shall take the credit for because she did it for the longest during this past week. She is just starting to attempt crawling, also something she first accomplished due to my superior childcare skills. Yeah, I'm taking credit for that, as well, even though I wasn't in the room when she first did it. She did feel compelled to impress me with an encore when I called her mother a liar, which proves that she did it just to impress me. Have I mentioned the cuteness? Oh, and for you parents out there who are score-keepers in the my-baby-did-that-way-younger sort of way? She was very premature, so really, these feats are even more impressive. She also laughs almost constantly, is an expert at doing "raspberries" with her mouth, and holds her breath as she is dunked under water, which illicits body-shaking laughter from her. My point? She is the cutest and the most clever human being on the planet.

Other vacation highlights:

lots of beach and ocean. I love the ocean, especially when it's not in the northeast where it barely gets above a temperature that makes your heart stop for a second. It was just cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough to not dread the initial plunge.

girl day. We do this every year..girls get a day, then the boys. I think the unofficial goal is most stereotypical gender-based activity. We had spa and shopping day, followed by the watching of The Family Stone, which of course, we forced the boys to watch with us. Boys went out for lunch, ate about 9,000 chicken wings in all varieties, saw Talladega Nights, and I think drove go-carts or some other boy-related activity. We totally win, due to the manipulation of roping them into a girly activity by renting our movie instead of going to a theatre.

poker. I was the household poker tournament champion, which was held the last night. Not surprisingly, I was the only girl who played. The girls were unimpressed with my victory, because they don't even know the rules and didn't sit and watch for long enough to even see a river card play. But the boys? They fear me.

Shopping related note: I don't wear flip flops, as a rule. That thing that sits between the big and second toe always hurts my tender little feet. I did find a pair that I love, though, and wore nothing else the last few days there (on my feet, people. My family isn't some weird nudist cult). Even more, they're from the most unlikely source: Crocs. Yes, those hideous plastic clog makers.*** I now understand the comfort factor for those fashion victims who insist on wearing those things..something I never would have found out because I refuse to put anything that ugly on my feet. Here are the very not-ugly and über-comfy flops:



***Note: I am not purposely chiming in on the now infamous blurbdoocery clog debate here...it's just a weird coincidence that the ugly clog people make super cool flops. Though I think it's obvious on which side of the fence I reside.

Unfortunately, I need to go to the grocery store, because I'm not so keen on eating a mayonaise sandwich on moldy bread for dinner, and that's pretty much the only food in the apartment. I'll be back later to share with you the fun of having a mother who is certifiably insane. That's not hyperbole. She's nuts. I think I will sprinkle that story with random pictures of the baby as an artistic study in the vast spectrum that is my gene pool.

Other subjects to come: update on CYB, Roy, and at some point, Man Notes.