Aurora Borealis

We were supposed to meet up with some of the folks from the pro-life commitee after they got finished with this afternoon’s annual Life Chain down at the cathedral.  But the benediction service following Life Chain must have been very brief because they were done much earlier than expected and weren’t interested in waiting until the pizza place opened at 5:00.  So just the family went.  Agent Murphy struggled to take an afternoon nap, but he still managed to be mostly happy at the restaurant.  (A kid’s birthday party - 8 kids and 8 adults - came in right after us, so even if he’d decided to be cranky and loud, it wouldn’t have mattered.)  Good food, and we’re glad to see this neighborhood pizzeria is doing good business, and we were very excited to see an ice cream shop is “coming soon” across the street.

In other news, all the letters from Agent Murphy’s name puzzle bench are currently accounted for.  It’s good he has his whole name back!

Well, sort of.  We had leftover pumpkin soup on the menu for lunch today, and we planned to make RW’s pumpkin pancakes with some of the extra canned pumpkin.  So we had them together as pumpkin brunch.  The pancakes were quite yummy, though my flipping technique needs some work.

Meanwhile, Agent Murphy has gotten up from his morning nap all grumpy.  Hopefully he’ll do better with his afternoon nap because we’re going out for pizza tonight.

Agent Murphy has a puzzle bench with his name on it that his Uncle G. and Aunt M. gave him.  Each letter is a separate, differently colored piece that comes out.  He loves it.  He takes the letters out and carries them around the house with him.  (He’s also gotten pretty good at knocking two letters against each other.  Banging things is good.)  We’ve been pretty successful at rounding up all the letters every night.  But the first letter of his name has been missing for over a week.  Today, Mr. Tldz found it.  Now two other letters are missing, but they’ve been seen in the last day or two, so they should turn up soon.

This is a cause for celebration because it means they won’t be bumping the classic country show we like off of the radio tonight.  What a lovely weekend.  Can’t wait ’til college football season is over.

I’ve been very busy.  Saturday last week I figured out how to stand up on my own, and get down.   So I’ve had to to do lots of practicing.  I’m getting lots better at getting down.  I like standing up under the dining room table.  It’s glass, so I can look up at Mommy and Daddy.  But I’m almost too tall to fit under there.  I have to be careful not to hit my head.  It’s been a very busy week.

Agent Murphy and I went for a little walk around the neighborhood this morning.  I should be doing that more.  Maybe now that the weather is nice and crisp, I will.  I am happy to report that I saw four McCain-Palin yard signs (still waiting for ours to show up) and only one for Obama.  I guess Georgia is considered pretty safe to go for McCain, but still this makes me happy.

In other news, Mr. Tldz and I had a lovely evening last night just being together.  With his new commute, it normally feels like we don’t really see each other during the week.  He gets home and we have dinner and then Agent Murphy does or vice versa, depending on the timing, I pack Mr. Tldz’s lunch, Agent Murphy gets put to bed, dishes get cleaned up, etc., Mr. Tldz spends a little time catching up on e-mail or other miscellaneous things he needs to do, and then it’s time to go to bed to get up early and do it all over again.  But last night was nice.  We need to find a way to make more “us” time regularly.

So I came down with the cold Mr. Tldz had.  Felt pretty crappy all weekend.  Still don’t feel great today, but I didn manage to get a fair bit done.  Of course, there’s feeding the Agent, picking up toys, picking up toys again, feeding the Agent, picking up…  Well, you get the idea.  But I also got diapers folded, a load of kiddo laundry washed and put away, scrubbed the stovetop and kitchen floor, and made another test run of Agent Murphy’s proposed birthday cake.  I didn’t mess up the frosting this time, so we’ll get more of the full effect.  But my cake decorating skills definitely need work.  Maybe the Agent will get birthday wishes written on his cake.  Right now we just have squiggles.

Mr. Tldz worked from home today because he isn’t feeling very well.  Well, at least he put in a few hours.  He has some sort of cold/sinus thing going on which started yesterday.  And today I’m starting to feel like I’m getting a cold.  So I’m taking Airborne to try to keep it away.  Hopefully Agent Murphy won’t get it.  He - knock on wood - hasn’t been sick yet.  I know it will happen eventually, but it doesn’t need to be now, does it?

Though I’m sorry Mr. Tldz isn’t feeling well, it was nice to have him home again - like “old times.”

You know, I always think with a long weekend that lots will get done and we’ll have time to really enjoy just being home, relaxing, etc.  Well, I guess we had a pretty good weekend, but it always goes faster than expectations.  Saturday we had regular errands, plus a couple of extra ones (haircuts, picking up a pair of shoes we’d ordered for Mr. Tldz).  Sunday we took Agent Murphy to a birthday celebration for his little friend E.  Unfortunately, Agent Murphy was fussy and just wanted to be held.  And he made the birthday boy cry when we tried to get them to play together.  Yesterday we went over the B.’s for lunch with a few friends.  And we were able to get a few episodes of Matlock watched over the weekend.  And Mr. Tldz got a little extra time in with his guitar, besides the normal 20 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before he leaves (the days he doesn’t shave).  So all in all a good weekend, but Labor Day was Mr. Tldz’s only day off for a long while - well, I guess until Thanksgiving; so it’s kind of sad to see it come and go.

Now Mr. Tldz is off to work again, and we’re back to the normal routine.  We really need to figure out how we’re going to make a move to give Mr. Tldz a less taxing commute.  Let’s just hope the big tax-and-spend folks don’t win in the fall elections (you know who I’m talking about) or we probably won’t be able to make a move.

My friend E. had his first birthday party today.  It was the first time I went to a birthday party.  It was at a pool.  I didn’t go in the pool, though.  Mommy and Daddy tried to get me to play with E. in his playpen, but I was fussy and would scream every time they put me down.  I didn’t get my afternoon nap, you know.  Mommy and Daddy said I was supposed to nap in the car on the way to the party, but I didn’t.

I ate a couple of tiny pieces of Mommy’s steak.  They called it filet mignon.  It was really good.  Mommy and Daddy said I couldn’t have cake until my first birthday.  But I wore a funny hat.  E.’s parents made E. put his hand in the cake and he didn’t like it.  He cried.

After the cake, we got to come home.  I had a bottle and I like being home.  I’m crawling around everywhere, carrying a diaper cover with me.  I’m getting good at carrying things while I’m crawling around.

E. knows how to stand up.  I have to learn how to do that.