The Princess and ChewLee left early this morning to meet up with Paw-paw. That's her daddy's daddy...or her paternal grandfather. She was in a good mood both then and when she came home. She was treated to shopping, lunch and then some flirting with a fellow that has a three-year-old son and knows how to *talk* to kids.

Paw-paw bought the baby some nice things, including the cutest pair of boots I have seen for a baby. I am going to try to take a picture of them and post them on this site tomorrow or the next day. I think I might actually be able to do this now but bear with me. He also bought her a pair of sneakers and what I thought was a pair of slippers but the Princess called them *gator knock-offs*, whateverthehell that means! They look like fleece lined slip-ons but they have stretchy bands at the back to hold them on a baby's foot. I put them on her and she had a tough time walking in them at first but finally got the hang of it.

He also bought her three pairs of pajama's, which she really needed. They are adorable and soft fleecy material. One is a Disney pair, the others are generic but warm and she may not appreciate them in the same way WE do but I will feel better about her staying warm at night.

She has learned how to open her bottle tops if they are not screwed on tightly and she managed to unscrew on of her juice bottles while they were shopping. It made a real mess of her clothes but paw-paw stepped up to the plate and bought her a little outfit to change in to.....a cute pair of brown jeans and a glitzy long-sleeve top. I had to soak her little top in some bleach water to get the red stains out but it looks fine now.

Unfortunately, the Princess got a call from the district manager and they needed a *manager-type* to go to the store in Scottsdale. They played the *well, if you can't, you can't but.....we really need you to go there...* thing so she felt obligated. She left while the baby was down for her nap and I knew she had to close the store so I didn't expect her home until after the baby would be down for the night. What I didn't realize was how overtired the baby really was!

After she got up from her nap, we played and watched tv as usual. She played with her keyboard, spent some time playing with the dog, helped me make spaggetti sauce (and you know how helpful babies are while they are watching you chop up stuff...lol) and then back into the computer room to watch my screen saver photos. When dinner was finally ready, I fed her spaggetti, some garlic bread (which she loves) and then some mandarin oranges for dessert. I cleaned her up, changed her diaper, put her into her pajamas and then we played for a bit.

She became extremely upset after a bit, though, and it took me a while to figure out that she was really tired. In fact, she was overtired and I am not sure exactly why. She had a nap but she was so cranky and crying for her mommy (which she almost never does until it's time for her mother to be home from work). She has a kind of sixth sense that way. She kept saying *night-night* but wouldn't stay down for more than five minutes, although she would seem to be relieved when put down. I actually think she was so tired that she was hallucinating at one point because she was terrified and kept pointing to one corner of her room when I went in to get her up.

But, finally, she was put down for *night-night* and she only cried about one minute and then went totally silent. I went in to check on her and she was out like a light. I think she actually might have just gone unconscious! She was THAT tired!

When the Princess got off work, she called to ask how the baby was and then asked me to keep an eye on her because she wanted to *hang out* with a couple of the people from the store she had to travel to close. She got home a half hour ago and took her shower because she has to open her store tomorrow morning. She is going to drop off the baby at her Paw-paw's hotel and he is going to spend the day with her. It gives ME a break and I am trusting the Princess's knowledge of him to know that he won't try to kidnap the baby. I told her to make sure to write down the license plate number...just *in case*. I'm just not as trusting as she is these days. Especially since he seemed not to be able to get through his head just what is involved in a restraining order. *sigh* His son IS the baby's father after all.

Well, it's late and I am tired. It's been a weird day for me since it didn't go quite as I imagined. But, tomorrow is another day and we shall see what it brings. Love you all and tell those you love that you do love them.

Live well, laugh often and love deeply.

I'm beginning to feel the pressure of taking care of a toddler. It's making me do weird things like locking myself in the computer room once the Princess returns or on her day off work. I kid you not! ChewLee (as Bratfink calls her and it sounds more like SHE says it) has learned how to open the door and it just so happens she LOVES to be with me. It probably helps that her toy box and most of her books are in here but she also likes to sit on my lap when I am at the computer. I used to be able to lay down on the floor and watch TV but she has decided it's fun to jump on me when I am down there at her level. If she's in my lap, she wants to use the mouse or hit the keys on the keyboard so it's useless to try to do something. She IS fascinated by my screen saver because I have it set up to show all the pictures in my picture folder. She will sit quietly in my lap for as long as *I* can stand it. But, I confess, I have actually set it to run after one minute just to keep her entertained and quiet.

Changing her diaper has become a real test of endurance. She will tell me in her own little way that it needs changing (although the droopy rear end is enough notice usually) and then it's off to the races. She wants me to chase her all over and then she will struggle through the whole process until the new diaper is on her. THEN, and only then, she will lay there peacefully for a few minutes. If I didn't need the rest by that time, I think I would be sorely tempted to strangle her little neck.

I don't dare mention eating to her at lunch or dinner time unless I have food ready to put on her tray. If she gets into the booster seat, she wants food IMMEDIATELY or she cries like she is going to starve to death unless she has something to eat NOW!!! The one thing this kid is NOT is deprived of food. Like all good (great) grandma's, I have bought all kinds of treats just for her including a lot of the special Graduate foods. She has her own special cookies and even some special fruit bars. The Princess just rolls her eyes since she feels the baby can eat almost everything that *we* eat. I also have been keeping a lot of the Dole prepared fruits on hand for her as desserts. She likes almost any kind of fruit but especially loves fresh bananas and the Dole mandarin oranges. She would eat more of those than I usually will give her because I am worried about the acidity of them and it's affect on the diaper area.

BUT....my conversation level has dropped and, if you recorded it, you would be sure that I was some *special needs* person. You know what I mean. It's how you find yourself conversing with a toddler. I play games with her where I am *looking for the baby* and she is hiding her face under her favorite blankey (the one she drags everywhere with her). I keep saying *Where is the baby? I can't find the baby. Where did she go?* She will then pull the blanket off her face and laugh while I say *Oh..there she is!!!* and we start all over again once she puts the blanket back over her face.

I am saying things like, *You are such a silly baby. Yes you are. A silly baby.* and she will giggle and play her version of hide and seek which can be just hiding under my desk or in back of my chair while I pretend not to be able to see her. The Beast interrupted one of these games and gave me SUCH A LOOK! I was sure he was gonna call the men in the white coats.

My computer room, meanwhile, is a total disaster area. We have the Princess's bed, mattress, dresser, mirror and nightstand stacked in here against the far wall. The top of the dresser has the baby's huge toy box on it plus the diapers, wipes, a laptop computer and a few other sundry things. Next to the dresser are three big boxes that need unpacking (and possibly some items repacked in smaller boxes) but first the Beast needs to remove the things he still has in the bottom of the closet in the room the baby and the Princess share. The Princess can then put her box of various shoes (and she has many of them) and get some of the baby's stuff unpacked (and repacked since the summer things won't be needed...and many will probably be outgrown before they could be used again). We already have a half garbage bag of outgrown clothes ready to go to Salvation Army or, possibly, to Freecycle.

What is truly making me crazy is ChewLee's absolute refusal to recognize NO as meaning she can't touch whatever it is. She thinks it means she just can't touch it when someone is looking. She is especially fond of my books in the living room bookcase. I am determined that she will learn to leave them alone. She does, after all, have her own books. Most of my books have no pictures in them. I finally started making HER return them to the shelf that she pulled them off of and I hope that, after doing it often enough, she MIGHT just leave them alone. It may be hopeless but what can you do?

She loves boxes of any size. It can be a box of envelopes or a box of sodas (full). She will strain until she lifts that box up and brings it as far as she can then drops it (of course). That means THOSE sodas will be the last ones opened after they sit long enough to settle down. You can see where this all is going, can't you? It means that I am more than ready each day to turn over the care and keeping of ChewLee to her mother when she walks in the door.

The Princess assures me that day care is the next order of business with her next check. It will be much better for ALL of us, trust me. I will still have to pick her up on those days that the Princess has to close the store but it will be far better for all of us. I will then be able to truly enjoy my ChewLee although she will often grab my head and pull it down, wrap her arms around it and pat my hair. She also has the habit of wrapping her arms around my neck and patting my back in her version of a hug.

She has the sweetest *Hi!* in the mornings and then wants to give you kisses with her hugs. You just melt. At least, I do. How can you resist a kidlet like that?

Well, ChewLee is up. I can hear her trying to wake her mother up. She and her mother are meeting up with the OTHER grandfather (who has traveled here to visit for a few days). He's happy that they are closer to him now. He used to travel down to FL from SC and we are much closer to him now. He wants to take them shopping for some winter clothes for ChewLee. He knows the *winter* clothes from FL will not do in this area.

I just changed her diaper while her mother used the bathroom. The baby is in a happy mood, as usual, and had to give grandma kisses and hugs after her diaper was changed. For once, we didn't have the chasing down to get THAT done, thankfully. Her mother is now feeding her and then they will get ready to meet up with Richard (the OTHER *papa* as she calls them both).

I am going to check my emails and read my comics and whatever else I care to do this bright, sunny day. The two of them will probably be gone all day so I intend to enjoy myself. Love you all and remember to tell those you love that you do each time you talk to them. Life is just too short and it seems to be getting shorter all the time. And I don't mean just because the daylight is not lasting as long nowadays....it IS getting on to winter, after all. Live well, laugh often and love deeply.

I haven't written about what life has become for me since the 12th of the month. Today is the 22nd day and I think it's time to review how my life has really narrowed since I have been babysitting my great-granddaughter. Yes, it's become a VERY limited life and I think that has to change or I may go nuts.

Now you have to understand that our Juliana is adorable most of the time. But....she IS a baby and, as such, tries your patience on a daily basis. She is not a passive child but a very curious one....and she can be stubborn and defiant because she WANTS to do new things that catch her attention or curiosity. She loves her *doggy* (Baron) and he continues to be extraordinarily patient and good with her. However, I notice now that even HE sometimes feels the need to run and hide from all her energy. I find this especially funny because HE has always displayed so much energy that *I* wanted to hide or confine him until he calms down.

He hates to hear her cry and will become anxious if we don't make her stop quickly. You can see him sigh in relief when we dry her eyes and kiss her boo-boo or take care of whatever it is that has set off the crying. Sometimes, it can be just that she is tired and needs to go night-night for her nap. At other times, it's because she has been scolded for doing something repeatedly that she has been told is a *no-no*. She will sometimes go from cabinet to cabinet as you tell her *no* just to make sure that each and every cabinet is off limits. And she does it with a smile on her face while looking over her shoulder to make sure you are paying attention to her.

She has a face that can hide no actions she is planning. I hope she never tries to play poker because you can tell when she is planning mischief. She will even look out of the side of her eyes to see if she is being watched and then, suddenly, she is off!!!! She leads me on a merry chase on a daily basis. Sometimes it seems like it's hourly. What it means is that I don't get things done that I would like to get done....such as wash or vacuuming. Oh, I try but she knows what *busy work* is and will sit calmly down somewhere. Then, as soon as your eyes are not on her, off she goes to get into some kind of mischief. You can count on it!

So, I do what I can when her mother, the Princess, is still here to watch her or when she is taking her nap. I plan dinner preparation around her nap. I fold clothes when she is napping. I clean bathrooms when she is napping. In short, my daily routine pretty much depends on her naps. Most of the time, she will play nicely in my computer room with me which allows me some time to check my emails, read news, view my daily comics and talk to my sister and some friends online. Then she will decide she wants to be in my lap. This, of course, then limits what I can do because she wants to play with my keyboard or my mouse or any of the myriad things I have on my desktop.

I am spending a lot of time on the floor playing with her or reading her one of her many books. They are all baby type learning books and boring but she's entranced with ALL of them. Don't skip a page. She knows her pages and if she sees you didn't show one, she gives you such a look!!! I laugh a lot at her some days.

For example: She hates to be told *no* about anything. She knows that it's what grownups say a lot and usually will try to ignore it. She will continue whatever it is that she was doing until you are forced to take action. Then, after several times, she will get mad about having her fun spoiled and get pissed off. That is when she gets this really pissed off look on her face and will start to jabber like she is telling you off in no uncertain terms. You will hear her interject the word *no* several times during the tirade and it will make me laugh every time. I try not to laugh while she is doing it because I don't want her to think I don't mean it when I say *no* or that she has told me off and I am thoroughly chastened and trying to lighten the situation (she will do that herself so I know that is what would be on her mind if I DID laugh out loud). She would think that everything was *all right* and go right back to do things she shouldn't.

She has ample toys, lord knows. Everything from little vacuum cleaners that sing to you, a keyboard that she can even *sing* along with it's own microphone and has an assortment of background sounds available (and different tempos) plus a myriad of soft, adorable stuffed animals. She has bath toys, outdoor toys, things that rattle and roll, cars, planes and trains. She doesn't suffer from any lack of things to play with but what is it she wants? Pens, lighters, my glasses, my brushes, the tv remotes, envelopes, the telephone (and she has her own...even her own cell phones for heaven's sake!) or the computers, of course. A typical baby. Heck, a typical child of any age.

I don't get out much any more. If I do, it's got to be when the Princess is home to take care of the baby. I have actually locked the door to my computer room when the Princess is home to ensure that I get a break since the baby has learned how to open my door. She just LOVES to be with grandma even when mommy is home. I admit that I adore her but.....I also need MY ALONE TIME. I will not apologize for it. I have earned it. I have raised or helped to raise more than my share of kids in my lifetime. That is fine for when you are young and energetic. I did it when I was young but I am no longer young. I look forward to the time when the Princess will be able to put Juliana into day care and I will just have to pick her up on the days her mother works late. It will be a pleasure to do that and will give me a piece of my life back that has been lost. The Princess works five days a week and her days off vary. At least I will be able to do a little bit of planning now that she gets a two week schedule at a time. It's like I am back working a job again even though I am not leaving home to do it (and I can stay in my pajamas if I want to).

Well, I can hear the baby chatting (or trying to chat to her still sleeping mother) so they will both be up shortly. I had better close this for now. Love you all and have a wonderful day. If I don't get back to you for a few days, forgive me but....my life is both full and hectic these days. I will do what I can when I get some time to think.

I happened to catch a program on UFO's tonight that was a bit different from most. I'm not going to go into the program but it got me thinking about all the hoopla about alien life. What is the big deal about it? I, personally, would love to see that there is another civilization or two *out there* in the vast universe. I mean, really, if there IS a god that is as all knowing and all powerful as we are led to believe, why would he only make ONE of those billions of worlds and universes with ONE planet with life? It doesn't stand to reason to me.

Man was made in god's image we are told. But is that literal? Or is it that god's *image* is one of love, the ability to reason and to build? God may have *built* the universe and we can't do anything that spectacular, but we can build civilizations and cultures. I would love to believe that our god would fill the universe with life. That that same life would be just as curious as WE are about the possibilities of other life on other planets. Perhaps they are smarter than we are and advanced faster. Perhaps they don't have the serious cultural breaches that we do here so they were more harmonious about cooperating and developing their sciences. Perhaps this was part of god's plan all along....that some of the various civilizations would have those kind of differences. Perhaps our god is just as curious about how things can develop differently as any scientist is by varying their *experiments* and then letting nature take it's course.

I would not be surprised that there is life on other planets nor that those people (and, yes, they are people just like we are no matter that their form might be different) are just as curious as we are. I think curiosity may have killed the cat but it has led to fantastic developments when there has been a thinking brain behind it.

I think what bothers me is that there is a lot of evidence that we really HAVE been visited....and so much denial by the government that it is beginning to actually piss me off. I have seen videos taken in broad daylight by news crews, heard the testimony of airline pilots and military pilots about UFO's and the testimony of military personnel about their part assisting reverse engineering of alien technology. It gives you pause. It also pisses me off that, if this is true, why is the government treating this like it's protecting us from the knowledge of some terrorist attack? Isn't that kind of protagonist thinking? I mean, do we hope for the best and prepare for the worst or vice versa? It seems to me that even if the aliens came in peace, we would greet them with full military force instead of seeing what they might have in mind. Isn't that kind of defeatist since they would have to have superior technology even to get here to the earth from billions of light years away? Their technology would be so superior to ours that we would end up killing off all life with the limited technology that we have in comparison that they wouldn't have to do a damn thing to US themselves. We would do it out of fear to ourselves to prove...what? Think about it.

Well, that's all I am going to say about it for now. It was just on my mind. Love you all and I will bring you up to date tomorrow on what has been going on at the brat farm. Have a wonderful day.

The Princess had two days off in a row because her boss has only so many hours to allocate to employees per week. He had actually taken hours from other employees in order to provide her with almost a full week. This upcoming week is going to be her first with a real schedule. It means, since the work week for Radio Shack runs from Saturday through Friday, that she works Saturday, has Sunday off, and then will work until Thursday, which will be her second day off. I’m not sure if that will be her regular schedule or not. It will probably be a while before everyone settles in so I am going to have to be patient.

I’m spending my days with the baby and not on the Internet. As soon as the Princess comes home, I leave the world behind, get on the Internet and do my catching up with emails, friends and family online and then Pogo. I figure I have spent my quality time with the baby and it’s then it's time for the Princess to do so. It IS her child (and I am grateful for that as much as I love Juliana). The baby, however, seems to have her own plans sometimes. It seems she is very attached to me. She loves me and likes to be with me. I keep thinking…maybe I could learn to be a mean, nasty old woman that she doesn’t want to be with but my sister, Bratfink, just laughed and said it wouldn’t happen. I have to agree with her. I just love kids too much.

The only consolation I have about not being able to play on Pogo as much as I might like is that I have reached the top ranks in the games I love. I DO miss playing with Bratfink as much as I did and it’s almost impossible for me to hold an online conversation with ANYONE since the baby loves to be either in my lap or sitting next to me. I spend time reading to her and she never gets tired of her books. She will grab one after another and hand them to me to read to her. I found out that any book appeals to her if you will read to her. I was reading, or rereading I should say, one of the Harry Potter books. It didn’t matter to her that there were no pictures. She just wanted *gamma* to read to her.

I hope that everyone with grandchildren has at least one that is as sweet and loving as my little one can be. I say CAN BE because she can also be mischievious, stubborn and downright totally ignore what she is told. Then there is the side of her that makes me melt. She will get the cutest little grin on her face and climb into my lap, wrap her arms around me, pat me with both those little hands and give me the sweetest hug. When she wants comforting or is tired, she will want to be in my lap with both MY arms around HER. If I remove an arm, she will grab it and replace it. I rub her back and she closes her eyes and just leans into me and relaxes. Makes you want to just absorb them into yourself. *Sigh*. I guess that is the only reason that, when they are bad, we can resist the urge to kill.

I am still amazed at times to think that Juliana is my GREAT-granddaughter. I mean, I’m not old enough to be a great-grandmother. Am I? I know women that are not even grandmothers just a few years younger than I am. How in the world did this happen?

It’s been two days since the Beast got home from his sojourn to southern Illinois and then to the Chicago area. Both the Beast and Baron were ecstatic to be home. Baron obviously missed Juliana and we all know that she missed him, too. He always gets a little wild and seems to need retraining when he’s around the Brother’s dogs. I was worried about his being too rough with Juliana when he got home but…surprise, surprise…he was just as gentle as he had been before he left. He WAS, however, wild with the Princess and he’s been doing more jumping up on everyone but Juliana. I am being very, very tough on him over that.

The Beast won’t even think about arguing with me over that. He’s pissed me off a couple times since he got home and I am about ready to send him to live with his brother. It’s bad enough he screwed up MY schedule for getting things done while he was gone by coming home two days early but he also screwed up our internet connection by downloading too much when he KNOWS we are limited by our satellite connection. Comcast, where are you when I need you?????

Yes, we do NOT have cable available in our little corner of the world….yet. The builder, however, has run the wiring for cable so that when it IS available, it will not take a lot to get it to the houses. Yes, the wiring will have to come from the front of the house to the connection at the side but the cable is already available. So, beware of BS Comcast. We KNOW what we have.

Hughes Net, which is our internet connection out here in the boonies, keeps advertising how much better and cheaper they are than cable. Don’t you believe it. We are actually limited in the amount of downloading we can do in a 24 hour period. If you are considering satellite, get that information FIRST. We didn’t have any limit with our AOL satellite and I thought AOL was crappy. I don’t remember who actually offered the satellite service we had through AOL but…it was a damn sight better than Hughes Net for the money. It was comparably priced but we had no limitations on the amount of downloading we could do. YOU SUCK HUGHES NET!!!! I will replace you as soon as a REAL fast internet connection is available.

Our weather is rapidly cooling down now and the hummingbirds have started on their long journey to Mexico. Our major type is the Ruby-throat and they make that long journey over the Gulf of Mexico, which amazes me. I guess they store up a layer of fat that supplies them for the flight but I wonder how many of them succumb to a lack of sufficient energy. It makes me sad. So, I will be bringing in my feeder for the winter with a bit of sadness because I will miss seeing them and watching their antics. But, I will look forward to seeing them again next spring when they return.

I have to get myself ready for bed now. The Beast, Baron and the baby are sound asleep finally. The poor baby woke up about two hours after falling asleep and her crying/screaming was a bit different than usual. When I went in to see why she had awoken, I found her sitting up (not her usual wide-awake standing) and she was sobbing real tears. I laid her down and wiped her face tenderly and smoothed her hair back from her forehead while talking low and calmly to her. I had this feeling she had awoken from a bad dream. I found her bottle wrapped up in the afghan and handed it to her while I made sure she had her blankey safely in her hands and covered her up. She was asleep, I swear, before I even closed the door to her room. I wonder what a baby nightmare is all about?

Oh well, love you all. Hope you have/had a good weekend. Remember what I always say about telling those you love that you do. It can’t hurt and it may help. You just never know

Well, the Beast is suffering from home sickness and a need for his own comfort zones. He is planning on leaving on Friday (after spending some time with his brother, who has off from work that day) and driving down to the Centralia house to spend the night. He will then leave from there for the easy trip back here to NE Alabama. So, I expect him and Baron to be home sometime around 2-3 pm depending on exactly WHEN they leave Centralia.

The Princess has today and tomorrow off work so we are going to concentrate on getting as much of the rest of her stuff unpacked, put away and a spot cleared out in the garage for the Beast to pull the car into when he returns. It will enable him to get Baron into the house without a problem if he can close the garage door without letting Baron out of the car.

The baby will be glad to see her *doggy* back, I know. She is still haunting his kennel and climbing inside while saying, *doggy....doggy* and looking around for him to appear. When I have the doors open, she will run from one to the other (leaving her little hand prints clearly on the glass, of course) and looking for him out in front or in the backyard. Even the Princess admitted that she would be glad to see him back home because he helped tire out the baby and keep her occupied both. It's difficult to accomplish much with the baby stuck like velcro to one or the other of us, depending on HER mood. Plus, with her teething issues, she can need more comforting than we sometimes have patience to deal with it. She doesn't like the taste of the Numzit so she will fight if she notices us put some on our finger. She hasn't made the connection that it helps take the pain away; all she knows is that it tastes awful. Having tasted it, I know it DOES taste awful so I can't blame her. And the numbness kind of spreads to places that you don't need to be numb. Like parts of your tongue. Ewww!

It's not that I don't trust the Beast but....I know how he can be. He can get on the road and push himself more than he should because he gets so anxious to be home. So, I will have to keep tabs on him to make sure that I am ready with a hot meal and clean sheets all ready for him to hit once he gets here and eats. I am planning on making a pot roast because that will enable us to keep working while we can to be ready for him. I'm not worried about the house being clean because we have kept that up. It's easy since the house is not all that large. I just can't vacuum while the baby is taking her nap. She has a little toy vacuum that she will grab and try vacuuming alongside me. She gets the biggest grin on her face like...*See? I am helping!*

She said *grandma* very clearly for the first time yesterday. Before that, I was *nana*. Since that is also what she calls a banana, I wasn't sure if she meant me or if she wanted one. At times, that was really *iffy*. She said it a couple times and her mom and I laughed and clapped for her but then I became Nana again. *sigh* Well, it is progress of a sort anyway.

I have a feeling she is getting ready to go through a growth spurt due to the increased appetite she is showing. I almost couldn't keep her filled up. She already has a healthy appetite but she will go over to the booster high chair and want *up* when she is hungry. That had to have happened about six times. I'm just glad that she also knows what she likes and she likes a lot of healthy things....fruits, veggies and, definitely, MEAT. I told the Princess that her daughter is definitely a carnivore just like her mother. I remember her vividly as a child having a fit if she didn't get HER meats. She ate her veggies and fruits, too, but meat was her choice. That was the first thing she ate, and she wouldn't touch anything else until she had enough of that. At least the baby will go between her meat and veggies and when she is ready for fruit, she is almost done with eating. She doesn't like sweets until she is almost full, which is unusual as I recall but nice.

She is VERY fond of pineapple, I discovered by accident. I was making some ham steak Hawaiian and gave her a couple of pineapple tidbits. She went nuts. She wanted to eat the whole can and had a hissy fit when I finally wouldn't give her any more. I was a bit worried about the acid in it because she gets a diaper rash when she's teething. It went away when the teeth erupted but she has a couple new ones now and the rash is back. I don't want her to hurt. The Princess says there is a powder you have to get from the pharmacist that works wonders on it. The Day Care Center she had the baby at introduced her to it. It's expensive but non-prescription and we are supposed to pick some up today. I have been using cornstarch on her because I know it makes ME feel better and I am pretty sure that she feels some relief, too.

I went to the doctor today to meet my NEW doctor (I really had already met him when I was there with my husband when we found out about the tumor in his bladder). But, it was the first time we discussed ME and my medical history and problems. I find I really like him. He asked me questions and then LISTENED. He didn't rush and we spent more than a half hour (I hope it wasn't more than that for the sake of his other patients. He DID have a full schedule.) discussing my concerns and the pain I am having. The pain is decreasing, finally. His concern was that the meds my other doctor had me on were known to be addictive after long term use. He had only switched me to them about three months ago but my new doctor wanted to change that for me so he didn't have to feel guilty. I really had no idea why they were switched since the old pain meds worked for me but you don't question your doctor all the time about everything. He also wanted to switch me off the Soma, which I have been on much longer than the other. Same reason...known to be addictive and difficult to wean you off. So I am now on something else and, after taking one when I got my prescription filled, it seems to work about the same for me...so far. All-in-all, a very good morning for me.

He also told me that in another three months, we will see about trying to wean me off of some of my diabetes medications. He feels my 1A3 tests as well as the normal blood glucose tests I take each 3 months (the 1A3 test I only take every six months). For your information, that test tells the average level of your blood sugar over the three months. Mine has been consistently 5 or slightly less and that is EXCELLENT. It leads him to suspect that I can get away from my metformin and Actos and try just a diabetic diet for a while. I weighed about 130 lbs more when I was first diagnosed and am now at a more normal weight for my height and age. I also seem to be sticking to this weight (120 lbs) so I guess I have to get used to the idea of tiny, saggy boobs.

Time for me to get busy and help get some more of this stuff organized and moved. Love you all and you have a great day.

You must realize that I am saying that tongue-in-cheek. Yes, the baby CAN be fun but they are also very demanding in many ways and darn near as active as Baron. I had really forgotten what it was like. I also know that it is going to be much harder for the Beast to get used to having her around.

I'll give you an example. She is 16 months old and she walks. That means that every door handle on the lower cabinets is a target for her. She will open each and every one and, when you tell her *no*, she will bang the door shut and go to the next one. I have 10 cabinet doors within her reach and she will open each and every one of them. I think I have to get those child-proof guards that they sell and that means it will be a real pain for us until we get used to them. Plus, we have to close all the doors to the bathrooms and bedrooms or she is into the drawers and lower bathroom cabinets. *sigh* Although she DOES know what *NO* means, she tests the rules almost hourly. It makes me laugh sometimes but can be a real PITA (pain-in-the-a**) when you are busy.

Also, changing a diaper on her can be fun, too. She loves for you to try to chase her down and her little face lights up because she considers it a game. She will even play peek-a-boo by running behind the loveseat and peeking out from behind it. She WILL, eventually, come over and plop her little butt down on the floor so she can be changed but it's not as easy as it was when she was a helpless little thing. She wants to get right up while you are trying to fasten her diaper on her. Those velcro tabs are wonderful mainly because you can quickly stick them and let the little rug rat run to her hearts content.

She loves to have you read her books to her. It's cute as she points out the animals or colors. I really don't remember my kids being so engrossed in books at her age. She will repeat words of things you point out to her if you happen to be reading a magazine. She will ask to be picked up and will sit in your lap while you are reading and she seems absolutely fascinated. It's the pictures she loves. I was re-reading the last Harry Potter book the other evening and she kept looking at me like I was crazy once she realized I was looking at a book WITH NO PICTURES!!!!

The Princess and I spent Sunday going through some of her boxes which turns out to have mostly her clothes, still on hangers. I put a lot of them out for her to go through since we will re-pack all the clothes she can't wear (too light for winter here). She said to me, *...but I don't store them away!* My reply was....*we do HERE, dear. They will take up waaaaaaay too much closet space and you won't be able to wear them anyway. You will learn.* So she is resigned to going through them and we will repack them and store them up in the attic, along with all my Christmas stuff. I am determined to have that garage cleared out by the time the Beast gets home, which looks to be this Wednesday or Thursday.

He went to Centralia, Illinois where his brother owns a house that he will retire to once his house in Chicago sells. His deck on the bedroom side of the house had collapsed and they found out that it was obviously built by someone that knew nothing about supports. I think I brought this up on an earlier blog. Well, when the Beast got there, the brother had realized that the complete deck needed to be torn down (it goes completely around two sides of the house) and rebuilt. He doesn't have the money to do that right now so they ended up supporting it primarily by propping it up temporarily with some 2x4's that are NOT cemented in place and some strategically place 2x10's cut to fit as supports. The Beast was NOT happy but they did what they could with what the brother had available and the Beast said he would come next summer and help tear it out and rebuild the whole thing.

The baby is fascinated with hangers. All of ours are made of plastic. That's something we learned to use while living in Florida. The wire hangers used most everywhere else are just not practical in a state where the humidity is so high. Even with air conditioning, they eventually rust and stain your clothes. You might as well just throw them away (both the clothes with rust stains AND the hangers). Thank goodness I have so many spare hangers here. The Princess needed them. But, if we lay them down where they are within her reach, she will grab them and start twirling them around and biting them or trying to stick a big section into her mouth. She's teething and has been really miserable since they have just erupted through the gum. A couple of them are pre-molars so they really HURT. We bought some Numzit for her but she really hates the taste and will clamp her mouth shut. However, once we DO manage to get some over the areas, it's amazing how well she will sleep. The first night we did it was also the first night she actually slept 12 hours straight through. Ahhhhh, relief! And I mean for ALL of us.

Yesterday was the first day I had the baby to myself while the Princess worked. Although she eventually noticed that her mother wasn't there, she didn't react badly. She had been in day care and in the care of a friend of the Princess both, depending on her work schedule in Florida. She was also enrolled in college classes since the Princess has decided that she wants to work towards becoming a pharmacist. She will be able to enroll here locally (she's already been involved with our local college about starting classes in January). The college campus is in the next town south of us so it's not as long a drive as the Princess had in Florida.

She has gotten the baby on the list for something called *The Coalition* which is a subsidized child care program that will provide child care based on the Princess's wages and there is also some benefits to her being a single parent.

As soon as the baby's shot record gets here (she forgot to get a copy of it while she was still in Florida mostly because the Beast changed his mind about just when he was coming down to get her), she will look for day care for the baby so it won't be something I have to worry about. I'm glad she wants to be that independent because I did tell her that the Beast and I will probably be doing some traveling. When I mentioned Dolly World to her, she immediately wanted to go. It's something she's heard about and would love to see. It might be possible for her to get some time off work and I told her that we will probably go during the week since we have already seen what a nightmare it is on weekends. It might be different in the fall, however, since we were there when the kids were still out of school. She said if we go on a weekend, she could get Tara to take the baby for a couple days and go with us. I told her that she would have to discuss it with the Beast and left it at that. She wants to go on the rides but many of them involved water that we noticed and, somehow, I don't think she will enjoy THAT in cooler weather. We shall see. This could be fun.

The baby insists on being in my lap if I am on the computer. Since I primarily play on Pogo games if I am on and also chat with Bratfink on Yahoo Instant Messenger, that can be tricky. I can click to play the games but chatting is a chore because she wants to click on the letters. If I do not put her on my lap, she becomes fascinated with the computer itself and has found the buttons on it that shut it down or reset it. Needless-to-say, this has caused me some major upsets. Especially when in the middle of a game. So, yesterday, I was NOT on my computer for most of the day. I didn't check on my email until Bratfink told me about one she had received from Tara. So, while the baby napped, I finally DID go through my email and get that cleared away. I have a few sites I also like to visit (some are blogs of people I know mostly because of Bratfink).

Well, time to get ready for today. I am babysitting again and the Princess has to be at work at 9 so I will wake her around 7 (which is fast approaching). She has to shower, do her hair and makeup as well as ask me a dozen times how she looks. Her hair takes her the longest time since it's long and she *irons* it straight most of the time. I think it looks great curly when she decides to have that look but what do *I* know?

Oh, one last thing that's kind of cute. The baby keeps crawling into Baron's kennel and asking *Doggy?*. I think she misses having him around. Even the Princess misses him, mainly because he kept the baby so entertained. She keeps finding his toys and saying, *Doggy? Doggy?* and then she looks around and will go to the back door to look out into the yard for him. I know she will be happy when the *doggy* and the Beast return.

Love you all and have a wonderful day. At least NOW I have a real excuse for not keeping this blog up on a daily basis. It will all depend on whether or not I am babysitting. It looks like I have a few more days before the Princess has a day off. Today she will be home early because she worked late yesterday. Hopefully, we will be able to get some more things done and be ready for the Beast when he gets home. He misses his garage and knows that he will be doing more projects once the weather gets cold. We have heat we can turn on in the garage when he is working out there so that helps keep him out from underfoot a bit. He also loves to play Hearts on Pogo so that also is a help.
Love deeply, laugh often and dance like no one is watching.

It was bound to happen. The leaves are turning and now we are waking to much colder weather. I just wish it had waited for another couple weeks to get cool enough that you want to turn on the heat. This morning it was just 58 degrees when I got up. It's now almost 11am and it's only warmed up to a whopping 66 degrees. The poor Princess is going to be miserable! She really hasn't adjusted to NE Alabama yet and now she's going to have to start wearing real winter type clothing.

Of course, being the Princess, she will enjoy the idea of needing a new wardrobe. I'm thankful she has a job or she would be depleting her savings on a daily basis. She loves clothes and, of course, she's still young enough (and thin enough) to look good in almost anything she wears. She has expensive taste and has since she was a child. The Beast is partially responsible for that, unfortunately. He loved to take her shopping for special occasions and I used to cringe when they came home and she would have a dress and shoes that cost the sun and moon. It also pissed me off because I was always trying to be money-wise and shop for bargains. Not the Beast and the Princess though. They only went to the upscale shops and didn't even look at the tags until they got ready to leave. Sales people got to recognize the two of them and would make a rush to be *their* salesperson when they walked in the door.

It's funny how some things have changed for her since she got a taste of having to pay her own bills, buy her own clothing and provide for the baby, too. She now shops *sales* and has an idea in her mind of just how much she might be willing to pay for an item. She still buys the good brands (meaning the brands sold at the *upscale* shops) but she waits for the markdowns. I still shop at Walmart and online.

Of course, NOW we are on a definite budget since we are both collecting social security checks. We own our house outright but somehow it never seems like we have enough and have to pull money out of savings. It's incredible to me. But it seems like every month there is something that comes up that is not normal and...oops, time to transfer some money. Sheesh!

Of course, we hadn't counted on making the trip down to Florida to move the Princess, nor on the rental of the trailer. The gas and food all added up, too. Now we got hit with a double whammy. We have car insurance due this month and I just got our bills for renewing our Alabama license plates. Now THAT was a shock. Apparently, it's tied in to the value of the vehicle. So, for our 2 year old Toyota truck, our new Toyota car and the little Honda motorcycle, it turns out it will cost us almost $400. It kind of explains how our property taxes can be so low. They kill you on the cost of the auto stickers.

With Christmas coming up fast, I am not looking forward to hearing the Beast have a shit fit. Me? I roll with the punches and don't let this kind of stuff upset me. Why raise my blood pressure over something that you can't control? It's still cheaper overall living here in Alabama than it is in Florida. ALL of our insurance premiums plus the costs of the new tag stickers still come to less than our homeowners insurance in Florida.

Did I tell you the baby has a favorite blankey? She drags it with her everywhere and has to have it when she takes a nap or goes to sleep at night. It's also something she picks up when she's upset and just wants to be held. The blankey is an indicator of her frame of mind. If she's got it in hand, she needs comforting.

With three teeth coming in (yes, we counted three getting ready to burst through yesterday), that poor blankey really took a beating. Plus, yesterday one of the pre-molars erupted (finally!) but she drooled like a rabid dog most of the day and the blankey took the brunt of it. It really looked and felt awful.

The Princess tried to sneak it into the washer just a bit ago. She picked it up when the baby was eating and not looking in her direction. She then wrapped it up in another blanket and put it in a pile of clothes that needed to be washed. She threw it into the washer and turned it on to start washing. Would you believe it, when the baby got out of her high chair, she headed right for the washer and started beating on the door (it's a front load) and crying for her blankey? How in the hell did she know?

Well, I am giving in and turning on the heat for a bit to get the chill out of the house. It's just not comfortable right now. I have to go to the doctor's office this afternoon to meet my new doctor (my old one moved out of the area) so I had to decide which of the other doctors I wanted to see. I shall see if I like this one or not....*envision raised eyebrow here*

My son called last night all excited about a new program that he has been developing. The idea came out of a need he saw at some of the places that he services. When he explained the idea to me, I could see how great it will be once he gets it all together and any bugs worked out of it. His problem has been the need to keep working to pay the bills, buy gas and eat. You know, all those mundane worries. Apparently, he showed what he has already developed to one of the people that actually NEEDS that kind of a program and HE got excited about it. He wants to purchase 25% of the *stock*, so-to-speak, and just wanted my son to name his price.

We discussed the ins-and-outs of it and I recommended that he make notes of the things we discussed and had an attorney draw up the actual agreement. It will save problems down the line. It was apparent that he had given it a lot of thought (what he was willing to give up and what he was NOT willing). The end result will be that it will give him time to do his *research and development* and complete the program without worrying about bills for a while. For a long while if he spends it wisely. I am excited for him because he saw a need and now is going to fill it. It could end up being a real cash cow for him. It might even make him fairly rich...well, at least comfortable. Rich is too much to believe but I would settle for him having enough money to relax and enjoy life a bit. He might even be able to settle down and find himself a nice gal to marry and have some kids. He loves kids but he had his heart broken a while back and is still battle scarred about that. I would like to see him get over it and be happy. Love you son (in case he reads this) but I really DO want you to have your dreams and that requires a good woman.

He claims he's going to take the Greyhound bus down to visit us after talking to Buttmunch and finding out what a nice trip it was for her. He says it is a lot cheaper than driving his old truck down, which he's worried about making the trip anyway. So, we shall be a bit packed in here since his air mattress will have to be here in my computer room to give him privacy. My love seat isn't long enough for him to sleep on and we no longer have our travel trailer as an alternative. It just means I really will be busy when he comes since he has been here before and wants to do a couple things. It also means that, weather permitting, the Beast will probably be putting the boat into the water at least one more time.

Well, I need to shower and get dressed to go to the doctor's. Love you all and have a great day. Live well, love deeply and dance like no one is watching. Life is too short to take anything for granted. Tell everyone you love that you do. A simple *love you* to end a phone conversation will do.

Sunday at our house was the normal chaos since the Princess and the baby moved in. I was still not feeling great but I did manage to make the manicotti. I just never got into making my homemade Italian bread so we did without it. No one seemed to miss it. The Beast watched his football games while the Princess played outside with Baron and the baby. I made my manicotti, got it ready to pop into the oven and retired to my computer room to feel miserable and play some Pogo games.

Meantime, the Princess set up this cute little tent contraption made for babies and left the baby and Baron to play in it. The Beast was so inspired by it that he went and got his camera to take some pictures (finally!) but he missed the cutest one. The baby and Baron were both inside the little tent (it has a kind of door that is soft and flexible and they both climbed OVER it to get inside). They both peeked their heads out of it at the same time and it looked so darned cute and THE BEAST DIDN'T HAVE HIS CAMERA READY!

He did get a couple others that were cute, including one where Baron was standing next to her with his mouth open and she had her hand halfway down his throat! I think she was trying to feed him something but I'm not quite sure. After that, they started running around the tent and on to other things. He sent that picture out to some of the family and friends who didn't really believe that our moose of a puppy could be that gentle with the baby. He just titled it *The Kids* and that's pretty close to the truth since Baron IS like a kid in his own way.

Later on, the Beast got a call from his brother who was at his home in southern Illinois. It seems they had arrived to find the side deck on the house collapsed. When he inspected it, he found out that it really had no supports underneath. It had been attached to the house and the railings held it up at the front edge. So, needless-to-say, the Beast volunteered to run up there to help his brother (who is NOT mechanically OR carpentry competent). He started putting together the tools he would need BUT he DID tell his brother that it would have to be a couple days after the stitches were taken out from his eye before he could leave. Since the stitches were scheduled to be taken out on Monday, I knew that meant he would wait a day, maybe, before he would leave. I was right.

So, on Monday, the Princess went to Birmingham for her interview with Radio Shack for the Assistant Manager position she had applied for and the Beast got his stitches removed. The Princess got the job, BTW. The Beast came home with the declaration that the doctor was brutal in taking out the stitches. I told him the eye area is so tender that, short of using an anesthetic in the area (which also would have hurt like hell), it would have felt brutal no matter what.

On Tuesday, it was preparation day for the Beast going to southern Illinois. It meant washing his favorite pair of nasty pants (to me nasty, to him comfortable although ragged in some ways) for the *construction project*. The actual packing went quickly since I had washed everything but his nasty, errrrr, work pants but I had a few odds and ends I threw in so it wasn't a wasted wash. What's hilarious to me is that he ended up finding another pair of pants (I thought I had thrown them away ) so the current ones never made it into his bag.

Wednesday morning, he woke up bright and early but delayed his leaving until I woke up to have coffee with him before he left. Since it's a fairly easy drive from our home here, he didn't see the need to leave as early as he usually does for his *trips* to either Florida or Chicago. It takes only about 7 hours for him to get there. The nice part (for me) was that he planned on taking Baron with him since his brother has two German shepherds and another friend was bringing his St. Bernard.

The Beast arrived there before dinner time and, when he called to let me know he had arrived, they were sitting down to play some cards (back alley bridge is the game of choice) before dinner. He had been there long enough to inspect the mess (which his brother and the friend had pretty well cleared up) and make a list of things needed to pick up at the lumberyard the next day).

The Princess and I went out shopping for some things she needed for her job. She had no oxford shirts and needed at least one or two (she can order the rest online) and wanted a few more pair of slacks to wear, as well as a comfortable pair of shoes. We did, finally, manage to find a couple nice ones at Tommy Hilfigers (I think that's how it spelled, if not, forgive me). Then it was stop to grab something to eat, a stop at General Dollar for some things *I* wanted and home after only 4 hours.

Dinner was leftovers again and most of those are gone now so I am cleaning out the fridge and washing all the containers to start all over again. I decided that today I would make shrimp creole (which the Princess did not remember eating before but I HAVE made it for her when she was younger). I am making it without the okra since it's not my favorite veggie. I am, however, adding some fresh green beans for the baby since SHE loves them and so do we. It tastes just as good in the creole since the seasoning is everything. I'm using the Zatarain's creole seasoning in it just because it's a lot easier and it's not so *hot* as mine would be. Otherwise, the baby wouldn't eat it. She will learn as she gets older because we all like things zestier than most people do, including the Princess. It's how she was raised in our household.

Today the Princess finally has emptied her trunk of all the dirty clothes she had packed in it along with her laundry stuff. She is washing clothes, folding them or hanging them up, whichever is required. She's been emptying my closet in here of the spare hangers (I have LOADS of them). I am determined that we will have all her stuff out of the garage by the time the Beast returns from his brother's on either Saturday or Sunday.

Well, time for me to go do a few more things while the Princess is busy with all her laundry(you would die to see the floor in my living room and she claims it's just two weeks worth of clothes ). It would take me over two months to accumulate that many clothes.

Love you all. Have a wonderful day. Live well, love deeply and dance like no one is watching. Be sure to say *I love you* to everyone you love. Remember, life is fleeting and old age comes at a very bad time.