ninja baby

i am feeling a little better today. we still have no clue if we can afford to go to the in-laws this week as planned- which brings it's own set of headaches if we can't, but being that said in-laws are also too broke to loan us money for a freaking week so we can go up when planned & not push it off again, i think they have to be understanding. everyone's going through some tough shit right now & i really am lucky that i don't have to worry about house foreclosures & deciding between utilities & food. it's just the extras that we can't have right now. and i really can live with that.

the other reason i was so down is that our tv also decided to break. the hub got this tv a little over 3 years ago & it was awesome- but crazy expensive. unfortunately it also has this inherent problem with the sound board chip that no one knew about until they all started to break around 2-3 years... and the warranty is out & the company that sold it didn't make it, but won't say who did & there are no new parts to be had, but for $150 you can send your old part to someone to have it rebuilt. haha. if we had $150 we could buy a kick ass surround sound stereo system & reroute the problem ourselves. but we don't- so the tv is now only the really awesome monitor for our laptop & the laptop speakers provide the sound. thank god for ne.tflix, hul.u, and proj.ect run.way online! we really hadn't watched too much tv these days anyway as we got rid of the cable months ago, but i will miss our jeopardy date nights very much. other than that- we can watch the news upstairs before falling asleep & tv during the day is really more of background noise anyway. i should just bring a radio down here & put on music or npr...

but- i have to say that being laid off & going through all this without the pumpkin would be hell. she is my bright spots to the day. yesterday she was having her typical floor time- roll, roll, army crawl once or twice to toy. mommy moves toy- start sequence all over. except she made it off the blankets & i just watched her to see what she'd do. there was a toy roughly a foot in front of her reach, she lifted her little butt up, put knees underneath and did an honest to goodness, coordinated arms & legs crawl to get the toy! i then freaked out- got the camera & tried to get her to recreate it. of course she was so over it by this point that she just put her head down, cried & told me it was naptime!

then last night she was getting fussy about a half hour before bedtime. i wanted to keep her up until said bedtime since she was so off her schedule the night before to disastrous results, so we brought down the walker. i figured it would just be something new that could hold her attention far better than being strapped into her bouncy chair (where she would have just fallen asleep) and the swing was definitely out of the picture. she was only into standing on my lap, but i was of course attempting to eat. (i know- silly mommy!) her feet didn't quite hit the floor, but the newness of the toy was fascinating to her. my brilliant hub decided that he would get creative & put a couple thick cookbooks under the walker so she could stand on something. well- she could stand allright. and take some steps! the books kept her from actually going anywhere, but overall the walker was a big hit.

after she went to bed the hub (who really is the mechanical genius of the family) figured out that the legs on the walker were adjustable & could go down another inch. this morning i put her in it instead of her bouncer & she was thrilled to be able to stand. my back was also pretty thrilled! being that we have a family history of bad hips i don't want to use the walker or the snu.gli or anything that holds their weight mainly from the pelvis too much, but as long as she was standing & only resting momentarily i am fine with it. well- i decided to use my freedom to check e-mail & this is what happened: (photographic recreation of actual events. forgive the very dark & bad pictures at first- the light was so weird this morning)

establishing shot- note distance to dog bed & radiator behind her:

this is realy only about a minute later- the hub & dog jumped in on the fun:
i had to use the flash since we have absolutely no overhead lighting in our living room, but you can just make out the door & the dog in the background:

here she actually come within sight of mommy in the chair- as evidenced by the arm:

and finally- arrival at mommy! whole process was about 5 minutes, but very very exciting to all involved.

i hear her waking up from her nap, but in short- no money sucks, but we can get around it. pumpkin loves her mobility (and yams. i'm making some of my fruit & veggies that will go bad if they aren't eaten before/if we go away into baby food. i decided to let her try the yams & you would have thought i put crack in them. she ate that shit right up! no breastmilk in it either).

we are having a tough time, but we'll get through it.

oh- and nevermind on the meme, i have what seems like tons of time on my hands & a need to feel productive. that doesn't mean anyone else has to do a thing!