The Bald One turned 40 this year. Instead of renting a limobus and hitting the bars, I suggested he do something more fun and hopefully with a better collection of memories afterwards – a trip through the bourbon trail with folks that would appreciate it.

This means that I’m without daycare while he is gone. Crap. That’s okay, I’ll get to spend time with Gummi Bear before Kid 2.0 shows up this summer. Can’t be too hard, right? Story hour, museums, get some housework done and maybe even be on the ball enough to get some work done before she gets up in the AM, right?

I call bullshit.

We are in the car, after running the two errands we remembered and we were trying to remember what the third stop was. From the back, we hear “home, after we get my Cheerios”

A few minutes later, we are debating where to acquire Cheerios, at Target or at the grocery store, when the same voice chimes in again: We need Cheerios, and m&m’s. Oh yes, on my list.

Right. Thanks. I guess we have a list.

Today I got the following text:

Was just berated for using your ‘R’ coffee cup. “That’s not yours. That’s mommy’s!”

Apparently the fact that I’m not there doesn’t mean he can use it. Sharing is perfectly okay for other things, but not when someone isn’t there to okay? Silly toddler…

I need to write more, I think. I started writing over at Heroes & Heartbreakers about my reading habits, but that may not be enough. I have all these thoughts swirling and I realize that my usual sources to talk may not always relate, or have time, or I don’t want to bother them with my insanity. And today, I believe, falls in the insane portion.

We had a weather something last night. It slushed while we were working on a staged reading in the early evening. I drove home through slush and fat, wet flakes. The Bald One went off to work while I put Gummi Bear to bed, only to wake up 2 hours later to coughing and crying. Only to wake 4 hours later to get ready for an early meeting, where there was a promise of coffee.

The coffee, due to a weather delay, never materialized. The hour-long meeting turned in to two. To be fair, once I was told what they needed me for and saw the open schedule after me, I knew we would go over the time. Unfortunately, I was doing it on less than awesome sleep and even less awesome coffee. In the meeting I was giving a high level overview on a project I have been chipping away at for the past six months. This was being discussed after I brought it up in a different meeting and it was realized that my project crossed and fed other projects. This meeting is something that may be launched, phase 1, in late third quarter.

As I am standing there, discussing my current timelines and theoretical deliveries for my pieces and they are pointing out what pieces they need, and where it is needed, I realize nobody is aware in the room that I will be out most of third quarter. Due to lack of caffeine, I drop that piece in a probably less than stellar manner. There is some blinking and some obvious tabling of that thought process as we carry on with what we actually need to accomplish other things.

It isn’t until afterwards that my brain really starts to think about everything that is involved in this project. First, there’s the review of the existing requirements and making sure that everything I have stated is true and necessary. Then there is an approval process, followed by finding someone to do all the work. And once that entity is found, I need to work with them to develop it and work internally to make sure that once it exists that everyone understands why we are doing it, how it will work and making sure that what will exist actually in fact will work. To put it succinctly, I need to create something out of nothing and fundamentally change an organizational culture.

Or, as my mother put it: isn’t that what you have your master’s degree in?

There’s a school of thought that focuses on the fact individuals who spend to long in academia forget how the real world works without regularly getting out into said world and doing a practical application of their work. Similarly, one would think that after a considerable amount of time has passed between academia and professional life that one may forget how to go back to the building blocks. Also, while one may have done well enough in academia working on theory and discussing why things work or why this did not work, the practical application of it for the first time can be slightly terrifying. It is why usually folks start with small steps and then build to larger and larger applications of theory.

So my Friday ended with me wishing fervently for the ability to go home to a quiet house, pour myself a glass of wine and turn off my brain. Instead, I went to the theater, indulged in a cheeseburger and excellent sweet potato fries before turning the lights on and off for a staged reading. Later, if I’m lucky, the part of my brain that freaked out over the application at this level will be calmed that everything went okay. Worst thing that could happen? It doesn’t work at all and we have to start over again. The likelihood is slim, and that’s what the freaking out part of my brain needs to realize. Minor failures are fixable, and we do that fairly often around here.

I accept the fact that I have OCD. (See the story about blocks or about the tea if you doubt me.) My latest frustration is the bathroom here at work. It’s a bit logical – see:

1. The counter for the sinks is poorly laid out so that the sinks are set an unnatural distance back from the front edge of the counter.
2. The counter is also sloped in an unnatural way, so that when you get water spilled between sinks it rolls downhill to pool in front of a sink.
3. Because the sink is set unnaturally back, if you’re slightly short, you have to lean forward a bit to properly use the sink.
4. Because of this, I often have a line of wet on my shirts at just an odd (and not cool) spot.
5. This water spill may be due to the “automated” soap not always generating in a timely manner.
6. Not to mention the “motion activated” paper towel dispenser isn’t always activated.
7. The paper towel dispense can be set to auto-dispense when the current one is removed and despite this being set a few times, it mysteriously gets reset to the non-motion motion activated.
8. This isn’t so much a deadly problem any more, because they installed aerators on the non-motion activated, non-automated water faucet which leads to a lengthy time removing soap from your hands but your hands being about 50% dry by the time you need a paper towel you need fewer.

I also don’t understand the unspoken, but seemingly unknown by all rules of bathrooms.

• Don’t take the stall immediately next to an occupied one unless no other option exists.
• If you are in a middle stall, take a middle sink. If you are far right or far left, take far right or far left sink.
• Don’t answer the bloody phone while in the stall. Even if you’re comfortable with it, the other people in the room may be freaked out.
• And while you’re at it, don’t come in while on a headset and keep talking. Finish your call, then go to the loo.

Seriously? Why do we have these things happening? And why is it happening enough that I feel like I finally need to purge it on my blog?

One of the fantastic gifts we got at the baby shower for Gummi Bear was a tractor by Little People, courtesy of my former assistant and fellow Clevelander Missy. The tractor came with a little farmer holding an apple and an ear of corn and a cow. About the time the Gummi Bear was ready to play with the tractor, we inherited a zoo of Little People. Various animals became the favorite thing to play with around the house. We roar like a lion, swing our arm-trunks with the elephant and chirp with the bluebird.
The animals that have the most adventures have to be the zebra and the cow. These two go on regular adventures throughout the house. As far as we can see, they clomp over our table and jump off stairs of blocks. But to Gummi Bear, for all we know, they are exploring the Sahara or trekking the Appalachians.
I haven’t reached the point yet where I think we need a backup Cow and Zebra, but we have had a few heart-stopping moments when one of the pair decided to play hide & seek without telling us. The other safety precaution is that we don’t let Cow and Zebra leave the house. It gives Gummi Bear stories to tell them when we get home.
Every day is an adventure with a toddler.

 I fully admit I have my random bouts of OCD heck. I rearrange the tea boxes at work so they line up correctly and in order. I sort my M&Ms, smarties and reese’s pieces by color and eat in a specific order. Yes, I’m a little bit crazy and I admit it.

 My cousin (love you MishMosh) bought Gummi Bear these awesome blocks for her second birthday. They’re totally fun because you can use the grooves to stack them slightly more securely. Green & Blue are spaced one way, Orange & Yellow are spaced the other way. Yes, I figured this out.

Each block has:

• Two grooved sides: Green or Blue and Yellow or Orange
• Two color patterned sides: one that is Yellow & Blue, one is Green & Purple
• Two standard-ish block sides: the yellow or orange side is a number while the blue or green side is a function (=, +, <, >, etc) or a pattern.

The patterned sides form seven different four-block patterns. These patterns do not line up if you do one color set with the other side also matching (form the purple & green circle, the yellow & blue side is NOT a sensible pattern)

Gummi Bear likes it when we build a tower. Or stairs. We had to make stairs last night so her hand-people could climb up the stairs. Then they’d fall off (“oh no!”). Then they’d do it again. And again. And the stairs would fall, and we’d have to rebuild.

The reason this photo was taken: signs having a toddler is helping kill my OCD tendencies. While the grooves all match so it would stack, they’re a mix of blue an green in each stack. The side facing me OBVIOUSLY doesn’t all match and the patterns are all askew. Let’s not get started on how the numbers aren’t all lined up correctly. But, the stairs have to get built fast so the hand-people can climb.

Obviously, I’m a terrible parent. This stems from the fact that almost all my monthly posts about my dear first born are done past-tense and this one is going to sum up 21-24 months. Yes, I’m that bad.

Back in April, we celebrated for about a week little Gummi Bear turning two. The first stop was the day before (and therefore still free!) trip to the zoo.

As you can see, we had a bit of fun dragging everyone around whenever we could con our way out of our stroller. The stroller was great (umbrella style) for negotiating most of the time, but sometimes, we just wanted to get out and run around. To celebrate, she got her very own Zoboo to cuddle with and fell asleep clutching him for the two hour drive back home. Then there was cake shaped like animals, ice cream, and blocks to play with at home.

By the following weekend, Grandma & Grandpa Z showed up…during a bit of craziness. But they got to have dinner with the grandchild, shower her with legos and an adorable new outfit and watch her run laps in her house.

As far as being an awesome kidlet….her vocabulary is scary. She has entire conversations between her toys (lego people, rubber ducks in the bath, her dad’s bobble headed devils) mainly consisting of “I’m going to get you” and “I’m sorry”. She’s amazing us each day with some new random skill.

In light of her increased independence, I felt comfortable getting back into the theater scene – to keep my hand in, as it were. The production started about four weeks before her birthday, which has meant a bit of a change in the household dynamic…but as of this moment I’ve got four performances left until I can go back to being a full time normal office worker and a mom. I’ve got some stories from all that, which has been…interesting.

Growing up, my dad had this thing he called a “dopp kit” that he tossed all his toiletries into. Mind you, this was ages before you had to play strip poker to get on a plane. The leather bag was just the right size for a toothbrush and other neccessities a man might need while on the road and was easily tossed from bathroom to suitcase to hotel bathroom counter and back. He kept it stocked, since he travelled fairly often and I remember being little and thinking fondly of getting to that point in my life.

Fast forward to me actually looking for things like that as women usually get comparmentalized to heck with train cases, toiletry bags with pockets for everything under the sun and adorable make-up bags that come free with purchase. Nothing quite matches my dad’s kit. Then, I spotted this tutorial…and realized I could make it.

It’s ridiculously easy, ridiculously fast and something that turned out to be kind of awesome. I made two right away – one became the “gift bag” for a girlfriend and the other became a travel kit for my husband. It’s killing off scrap material left and right, which is fabu, and being kind of adorable in the process.

now in hat form!

Have you met my latest addiction? It’s called Pinterest. Otherwise known as the way to find so many things to do that really, did you have time to do them anyway? Oh well! At least now they are all collected in one spot! Oddly, this collection of stuff has made it ridiculously easy for me to reference things that I want to do.

So for Christmas, for the Gummi Bear and her cousins, I thought “we need slippers” — and look! slippers on my Pinterest board. But how do you prove to Pinterest you actually did it? Right – I have a blog.

I decided that if I was going to make one pair, that four pairs were going to be just as easy. So I just had to figure out how much to buy of everything. The fun with DIY crafting, you get to guess about fabric volumes. Instead of having a perfect list, I had a sketched pattern that I used to measure out the material. A little tip: don’t forget that most fabrics are folded in half when put on the bolt. Let’s just say I’ve got felt left that I can use to make slip cases for my electronics with felt padding instead of standard batting. Once I bought the material, then I had to do this. I spent a nap time cutting up the felt & fuzzy material for the soles as well as some other fabric for other crafts and called it good as someone woke up.

The next weekend, we started piecing things together. This took longer than I thought, mostly due to scale. Also, I bought the wrong size rick-rack at first…go big or go home, my friends. A nineteen-month-old has tiny feet (she wears a size 4.5). Her older cousin & her playmate (size 9′s, both) was actually easier, so if you’re thinking of doing this yourself, I’d wait for the bigger feet. Getting the insides and outside all done and stitched killed another nap time. Which was good, because the next step is where I got flustered.

tea: necessary for tiny pinning

 Let me take you back to buying the fabric in November. I’m in Joann’s, surrounded by all these other crafty women and I’ve wandered the store twice looking for “sherpa-lined fleece for the sole” before finding it on a low shelf hiding amongst all kinds of random things. The lady who cut it for me said “you might want to do this one in a plastic bag, dearie” She wasn’t kidding. Sherpa sheds. I learned that when cutting all the material a week and a bit prior. But when you’re putting the pinning together, trying to get two layers of fleece and material that seems determined to come apart? Many breaks for tea to step away. At this point, Gummi Bear had woken up and really wanted to see what I was doing. So, occasional toddler on lap while stitching made things interesting.

Finally though, we’re all together except for eyes. Lots of black buttons involved, but this can be done while sitting on the floor in the living room while said-toddler plays with Legos (Duplos). Once the first set of eyes were done, we had to see what they looked like. I think it was a success:

dragons eat sheep

I’ve heard from both sets of cousins who’s girls also got these slippers. They’re a big hit with both girls. My Gummi Bear likes them, but more often than not uses them as something to play with for her teddy bears. Course, she doesn’t wear socks really either, so it is hard to be offended.