Speak and Spell and Sigh

My little brother had a Speak and Spell, and I always thought it was a super cool toy, even if I was too old for it when it came out. I'm absolutely positive that Zippy would love the Speak and Spell, but Texas Instruments no longer makes this rockin' toy. You can find old Speak and Spells on eBay (and elsewhere on the web), but they tend to be sold for ridiculous amounts of money (well, at least a ridiculous amount of money for a present for a six-year old).



I'd love to know why Texas Instruments is making me sad like this. I guess I'll just have to send Zippy over to play with the Speak and Spell simulator instead of getting the real thing for her.


Sigh.

Zippy's Hair, Part Two

Apparently Zippy's last haircut was not to her liking, with the hair being just to her shoulders. All that *work* to keep it perfect was apparently just too much for the child.

The damage - note the dramatic bi-level haircut on her left, much like my friends and I had in the 80s. Alas, the bi-level is not in fashion, so this had to be fixed.

Back to Sprouts we went (they were able to get her in right away, thank heaven!), and Zippy now sports a lovely pixie cut! The photo quality stinks, because I only had the phone in my camera to use.

At Sprouts, you can get fairy dust put in your hair when they're done. Zippy loves the fairy dust. And I'm going to be finding the remnants of said dust for a week. Or two.

The final result, with the mandatory lollipop. I think it's adorable, I just wish the cut hadn't HAD to happen. But I've always been a fan of the pixie cut on little girls, so it's all good.

Wet

Rain, rain

Go away

Come again another day

Little Zippy wants to play.

Little Zippy needs to be outside. Or something. She's bored to tears after being stuck inside most of the week.

Zippy's Haircut

Here are a few pictures of Zippy post-haircut - I'm posting them here so my Grammy Ann can see them (and figured others might like to as well). xoxo

(thanks to Jen for taking such great photos!)

Zippy's Fashion Sense

Apparently Zippy has decided that short hair is all the rage. We now have to go get her handiwork fixed. Sigh.

Easter

I'm late posting these... but we had a great Easter, and the Easter Bunny was kind enough to visit and hide some eggs for Zippy. The bad news was that the Easter Bunny was apparently unable to find the Easter baskets that are still in a box somewhere in the garage. I expected more from him.

Sick Girl

The Zipster is sick. Last night, she fell asleep while sitting next to me on the couch - at about 5 pm. We knew something was up when that happened, because Zippy generally doesn't stop moving until she drops some time after 8 PM. And the child hardly ever falls asleep anywhere except in bed. Burger would just lie down on the floor (or where ever looked good) when she was tired, but Zippy has never done that (sigh). After Zip had been asleep for 15 or 20 minutes, I decided she felt warm -- and wow, was she. She had a fever of 102.8. EEK. (background - she finished a round of antibiotics for a strep infection YESTERDAY MORNING.)

After sending some Motrin down her throat, Mr. LT and I spent a little time debating whether we should a) take her to the hospital, or b) call the doctor's office. (side note: Mr. LT is always very very worried when one of the girls gets sick, and tends to assume the worst. I'm fairly lassiez faire about the whole thing, quite possibly as a result of being brought to my grandmother's Christian Science church throughout my childhood. But I digress.) We decided that we'd call the doctor to see what they thought (and that if her fever rose after the Motrin had time to take effect, we'd just go to the ER anyway). Doctor says that the amoxicillin that she'd just finished will knock out most, but not all, cases of strep. Sigh. My kids just have to be, um, special, huh? Doctor also asked that we bring Zippy into the office this morning, without an appointment, and tell the folks at the office (he's off today, smart man) that he said they needed to do another screening for strep, and that they should prescribe a stronger antibiotic if the test came back positive.

Zippy did indeed test positive for strep (can strep pick up the stubborn gene from the child?), and we now have some super antibiotic (that cost us 6 times what the amoxicillin cost!! and we have good (hah) insurance!) that should help get the poor Zipster feeling better. Whew.

Am I a horrible parent for thinking how nice it is to have her sitting quietly next to me, being all snuggly, instead of having her run rampant through the house, never ever sitting still? (I lie. She sits still for a good 4 to 6 minutes at a time. At least three times, most days.) I have so much love for this child. I adore her - she's funny, smart, and who else in the world says Oh.My.Shit?? Irreplaceable, this one. But boy, she exhausts me.

P.S. She also puked around 1 AM this morning. Have I mentioned how precious she is?

The phrases that stick

As I've mentioned before, Zippy has a speech delay. One of the side effects of this is that she does something called scripting, which means that she uses specific phrases to get a response. For a long time, she'd start a conversation with, "we rode on a boat," and that would prompt one of us to discuss the boat ride we'd taken with her. So it was her way of practicing conversation.

The problem with scripting is that it can be annoying to those of us with less than saintly levels of patience (read: Mr. LT and myself). We get tired of the same conversations, but we play along. Mostly. Right now, Zippy has for some reason latched onto the phrase (Wendy, cover your eyes), "Oh my shit!". Yes. Oh.My.Shit. This is my 5 year old's FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD TO SAY right now. I have no idea what conversation she's trying to start. None. And no idea where she came up with this, because I swear I've never before uttered the words Oh.My.Shit. I've used (Wendy, cover your eyes) "Oh my God" on a fairly regular basis, and admit to thinking it adorable when Zippy started saying, "Oh my Godge" (which I belive is a cross between "oh my God" and "oh my gosh"), but never Oh.My.Shit. And OMS is making me insane. Really. And I can't figure out how to make her Just Stop Saying Those Words. I've tried numerous tactics, and none of them work. I'm thinking I'm pretty much a failure of a parent because I cannot defeat my 5 year old's love for this phrase. Sigh.

So if you hear a cute little blonde girl saying, "Oh My Shit" around town, please be assured that her harried parents in no way endorse the phrase. We're mortified. Really.

Ringing Phones and Other Things

Our listing agreement with our realtor here in California expired yesterday, and weve had ten phone calls from other realtors so far today, with all of them wanting us to relist with them. The first guy was a huge jerk, woke me up before 8 am (7:17, to be exact) and then was rude when I told him I didn't appreciate the phone ringing before 8 am. I wish I hadn't been sound asleep when he called so I could remember his quote. Unfortunately, he doesn't answer the phone number that shows on caller ID, or we'd have had another conversation by now. Hell hath no fury than a woman woken up early on a day she could have slept in.

So... what are we doing about the house situation? Well, right now (hysterical laughter in background) we're just waiting. We cancelled the contract on the house we'd wanted in Bend because we felt like we were doing a disservice to the owners by keeping them hanging on - we know how much that sucks. I know they were disappointed, as we are, but there wasn't more we could do. We'll have a mad dash to figure out things if this place does close, but we can always move in with Mr. LT's mom for a little while while we sort things out, if necessary. We'll cross that road when/if we come to it.

In the meantime, poor Zippy is sick again - she'd been sick-ish all last week and last night her fever was 103 or so - some Motrin and a cool, wet washcloth on her head made things better. The fever came back again this morning, so we gave her more Motrin and it came right back down. She was still zipping around the place like she's fine, and grandma wanted her, and she had to see grandma, so Mr. LT and I drove her over there and then went and had a nice breakfast together, just the two of us. Yay!

Today is Columbus Day, so we will hear nothing about the house today. Patience. I guess.

Zippy lost a tooth!

Last week, I had to go out of town. So what does the Zipster do? Yes, she lost her first tooth when MOMMY WAS NOT HOME. Shiminy. The child has no sense of timing. Here's the report I received by e-mail from Mr. Little Things:

"Well she lost her first tooth, literally, it is GONE. I think she may have swallowed it with some gum from a lollipop. We were outside and she had the pop and I noticed a gap between her teeth like it may have been twisted. She finished the lollipop and was chewing on the gum then we went inside to brush her teeth and it was gone. We looked around outside but did not find it."

Mr. LT also sent some pictures. Here's one of them:

(Yes, she's mostly naked. We have a very hard time convincing her that clothes aren't optional, as a rule.)

I think she looks mighty cute sans tooth. I am shocked that she lost it this soon (she'll be five on Friday), as Burger didn't lose her first tooth until she was over five and a half.

(oh, and the tooth fairy did come to our house even though there wasn't a tooth to be found. Apparently a nice note written with the help of your big sister will suffice if a tooth is lost. Who knew?)

Zippy's school

I'm so late to the game. I just sorted out that the local elementary school is about 3 blocks from our new house, which really makes me happy - this means that we will be able to walk Zippy to school next year when she starts kindergarten. My guy apparently told me this in the very recent past, but somehow I didn't process that information. I'm such a dork.

I'm a little bummed that she won't be able to start this year -- but the cut off birthday for kindergarten is September 1, and Zippy's birthday isn't until September 21.

I do need to find some sort of preschool program for her - and I need to call the special education folks (the High Desert ESD) tomorrow to see if there's a preschool that does speech therapy. She'd qualified to do a preschool program this past year in California, but we weren't quite ready to let her go. (Another reason that we decided to keep her out of the program this past year is that we felt like the staff at the local school thought she was less intelligent than we know she is. She's a late talker, but that doesn't mean she isn't smart - my brother was the same way, and trust me, he's way too smart!)

Suckage. Mine, that is.

Last night, after dropping Burger off at gymnastics practice, Zippy and I made a grocery store run because we had ZERO food in the house. Condiments galore, but nothing to actually eat (well, you could fill up on olives, but oddly, the rest of the family won't. I would if it meant I could avoid shopping for another day). No meat. No veggies (I lie. There were jalepeno, habenero, and solano peppers. Hubby makes salsa, and it rocks, but salsa, alas, is also not something the family is willing to eat for dinner. They're so selfish.)

The hardest part of grocery shopping with the Zipster is getting her into the little seat in the shopping cart. She does not like it, and wants to be sure that I understand this. Her preferred method of letting me know this is to make her body go limp like a dead fish, which makes her extremely hard to pick up, much less contort her body into the little seat. This wasn't a problem for her until recently, and I'm peeved that I have to deal with it.

The problem is that Grandma is nice. Grandma rocks. Grandma could walk on water. Really. Because Grandma lets Zippy push the cart. Grandma does not make Zip suffer the indignity of riding in the cart like a baby. Oh no, Grandma is great. Mommy sucks.

The good news is that I'm still bigger than Zip, and that she actually listened when I told her that Grandmas and Mommies have different rules. We'll see how long that lasts.

No more shopping with Grandma. At least not until the next time the Zipster is driving me up a wall. ;)

Zippy's so happy!

The ice cream man came! The ice cream man came! For a four year old, there's nothing better on a summer day than hearing the music from the ice cream truck and getting told, "Yes, you can have ice cream!" Zippy chose the classic sno-cone for her treat, and was just the happiest sunniest child alive when we came in to open it. I don't think she'd ever had a sno-cone before, but she chose it and was extremely pleased with her choice.

The fun of a sno-cone is that the first lick just tastes like ice. It's once you get through the outer crust that you really find the flavors. Yum. I swear she ate this in record time - it was gone in under three minutes!

It's the little things like this that can make my day. Call me easy, whatever. But I'd buy her a sno-cone every day just to see that smile.

Yum-Yums

Zippy has declared that M&Ms are now called yum-yums. And that she loves them. And that her favorite color is pink.

Zippy has also discovered syllables, and one of her new favorite things to do is to find two sticks and count the syllables while using the sticks to emphasize the individual syllables. This is very cool, hilarious when you give her a word with more than three syllables, and slightly dangerous if you get too close to the sticks while she's counting syllables.

Tonight, my guy is out of town - he's taken off on his most beloved Harley Davidson with two friends (he left the house around 4:45 this morning - yuk!), and has gone out on the road. They made it to Flagstaff today, have their tents up, and are going to have some dinner and drinks. He didn't mention if they were planning on telling ghost stories or not, my guess is not, because these guys are all way too cool for fun things like ghost stories. Well.. hubby would most certainly tell a few if Burger was there, because she's fun to scare, but I'm guessing ghost stories just won't happen when there are three grown men involved. Too bad. If Jin from Lost were with them, he'd show them how much fun ghost stories really are!

Tomorrow the guys are going on the second leg of their trip, through Sedona, Arizona, and I really wish I were there to see it, because the pictures I've seen are gorgeous. Too bad I'm such a wuss and hate to get on the back of that motorcycle, but really, I just hold on and pray when I have to ride it. And since:

• I am not sure I actually believe in God


• I don't want to die, especially not at the same time as hubby (well, maybe when we're really old. But until then, I think that's a shitty thing to do to your kids)

I just don't get on the back of the bike. It's been almost two years since I've done so. And while I wish that I liked it, because hubby loves it and it'd be nice to have something we do, I'm just not able to make myself get on it right now.

Hubby will be home tomorrow night, and his mom is going to keep the kids overnight. So I'll make dinner, rub his feet, and we'll hang out and um, do grownup stuff, and then I bet he falls asleep early, because long days on the road wear a person out. And I'm cool with that.

Zippy*

Zippy - Easter 2007

Zippy was a surprise child. We didn't plan for her to be here, but she is, and she's full of life. I mean, the child doesn't stop moving from the time she wakes up in the morning until the time she is ready for "night-nights". She is totally herself, and absolutely knows what she wants to do and what she will not do. You cannot use reason with her, but big smiles and a little bribery help get us through most days.

Zip didn't start talking until much later than most kids - at three and a half we were told that her speech was way behind (like, um, two years behind). Most parents would worry, but really, we weren't so much worried as aggravated - it's HARD to know what your child is trying to convey when they're grunting and pointing at things instead of explaining exactly what it is that they're trying to get at. (Yes, I know infants don't even give you that much of a clue -- but really, infants grow out of that, usually within a year or so! We dealt with this for over three years - which makes us wonderful, loving parents, because we didn't toss the kid in her room and shut her door until she could talk. We thought about it, but didn't follow through, because we're so loving and nurturing. Really.)

Zip started going to speech therapy in October. She attends class three days a week for an hour and forty-five minutes each day. She loves loves loves her teachers and the other children in her class, and always has a big smile when she leaves for school and when she gets home. Last week she learned about syllables, and she's having a blast figuring out how many syllables are in familiar words. Once you give her a word with more than three syllables, though, hilarity ensues. ;)

Now the Zipster can't stop talking. I mean, the child goes on and on and on and on!!! But we're cool with it. It's still hard for her to always communicate what she wants, but she's better at getting her ideas across, and she cracks us up on a regular basis. When she doesn't have the words to tell you what she wants, she says "show me", and then we correct her, "Zippy, you say 'I want to show you this'," and then Zip says, "show me" again and we get up off our butts to see what it is she wants. Usually food. In the snack cabinet, where she needs help to reach things. (We do feed her regularly, and if we were smart, we'd probably move the snacks to somewhere where she could easily reach them. But we're not that smart. At least not most days.)

This child just brightens our days so much. I'm so glad she surprised us and is here!

*Thanks to Haven Kimmel for the nickname.