Showing posts with label Placeholder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Placeholder. Show all posts

Friday, April 16, 2010

Placeholder

Not having anything particularly topical to write about, I decided to do another quick update on the goings-on at Casa de Stopster. We haven't really been up to a whole lot--finishing taxes (ugh! we are definitely withholding more up front this year), getting the yard back in shape, and trying to spend as much time out in the nice weather before the boiling Kansas summer comes home to roost.

Shortly after we visited the Deanna Rose Farmstead--okay, like the day after--we visited Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory in Louisburg, KS with our favorite 'also-parents', the Jantzer-Wards and their totally-squeezable son, JJ. This refuge houses 7 tigers, 3 cougars, 3 bobcats, a leopard, an adorable lion cub, and a couple of coatis (co-ah-tee), which may be Maddie's new favorite animal, or at least word to say. Cedar Cove, from what I could tell, mostly takes in animals that have already been captive in some capacity and need somewhere else to be. For instance, the leopard was originally in a private residence (yes, it's insane; I know), but when they decided to have a baby, they thought the combination of baby and leopard might not be a good idea (so, maybe not completely insane), and the shelter took him in.

After we gave the kiddos some tiger-time, we stopped by the other attraction in Louisburg, Somerset Winery, for some adult fun. They have a huuuuge open lawn space, so after those-who-are-of-age selected a bottle share, we sipped wine in the sun while JJ and Maddie got good and dirty running around in the grass, playing with rocks on the gravel path, and slogging through the mud near a small bridge. (The bridge seemed to allow one to cross a small drainage ditch, and yes, it was about as pointless as it sounds, but being almost perfectly toddler-size, they thought it was great.

Other than that, we've been sticking pretty close to home. Maddie's still going to Kindermusik every Tuesday, and she seems to enjoy herself. Her favorite part may be the stamps she receives at the end of class, but she also gets pretty excited about the dancing and story time. Maddie's the youngest kid in the class, so usually, when stamp time comes, the older kids kind of push her out of the way, but a couple of weeks ago, she ran right up to the front and pulled up her shirt to Miss Amy could plant a stamp right on her belly.

Oh, and Maddie has fairly flawlessly made her transition back to Laura's for daycare. She seems pretty happy to have lots of kids to play with again, but we have seen signs that she hasn't had to, um, "share" recently. Either that or she's well on her way to "two" a little earlier than scheduled. (I'm betting on a combination of both.)

On a final note, I thought I'd share this picture that I snapped last night. Apparently, when you leave the room to get more paper (20 seconds, people!), she will find a different medium to work with:

Friday, February 12, 2010

Placeholder

First things first: Yes, yes, I know. Two and a half (okay, really almost three) weeks without a new blog post is way too long. I'm sorry, okay? It's just that there really hasn't been that much going on, and our camera battery is dead, and we keep forgetting to charge it, so we have nothing to write about and no cute pictures to post, and really, you all just come here for the pictures anyway. Admit it.

So, I think, going forward, when I'm out of specific topics to ramble on about or adorable photos to share, I'm going to write something I'm titling a "Placeholder" to keep you generally updated on the goings-on at Casa de Webster-Stoppel (or the Stopster house, as we occasionally like to refer to it).

Since our last post (and seriously, not to call you all out since I've been a blog-writing slacker lately, but how could more of you not have commented on the world's most adorable video?), Maddie has recovered from pneumonia, but it seems that she's segued right into teething, canines no less. This makes her really grumpy, she's running a low fever on and off, and to top it off, she hasn't sleep past 6 a.m. once in the past week. In fact, in the past two days, she hasn't slept past 5:30 a.m. She's still sleeping through the night; she just seems to disagree with her parents as to what constitutes an acceptable end-time for "night." To make matters worse, her usual daycare provider went on maternity leave last Thursday, so we're also dealing with the side-effects of putting her in a new childcare situation. (And don't get me wrong, Michelle's been great. It's just that it's a new place, and while children are very adaptable, they're not quite as adaptable as people will try to lead you to believe.) So, we've been dealing with some serious separation-anxiety at drop-off and bed times, and I feel like this may also have a leeeetle bit to do with why she's getting up so damn early. (Sorry for the cursing, but dudes, I seriously need some sleep, or barring that, at least some "me" time in the morning. This morning, she played with the sliding glass doors to our shower--while I was trying to wash...)

Let's see. What else? Jon and I finally started working on the upstairs bathroom that has taunted me with its hideous '80s wallpaper since we moved in, so we've got that going on. This, of course, means that we've had to move all of Maddie's bath stuff into our bathroom, so right now, my vanity area is not only covered with books, toys, and old jewelry, it's also covered with soft plastic bath toys and towels. It's okay to be jealous of my life, really. Anyway (do you see how lack of sleep affects my mood, people?), so far, we've taken down the offending wallpaper, removed all the cabinets and drawers, taken down the baseboards, torn up the carpet that was covering the step-I-thought-was-going-away-but-now-appears-to-be-staying, and sanded down the cabinets and drawers in preparation for priming and painting somewhere down the line. Our next steps will be to de-popcorn the ceiling and tear out the weird divider/privacy wall by the toilet. I've always found that little half-wall pointless. I mean, I get that maybe it shields the toilet, but it's not like our bathroom is as big as Grand Central Station (or probably even the bathrooms in Grand Central Station). If someone is in there with you while you're going to the bathroom, trust me, you're going to know about it. We'll put up some before, after, and during pictures once the project is completed. Moving on...

Not really sure what to move on to. See? It been a slow news week around here. Um, doo-da-doo-da-doo. Oh, Maddie's been dropping complete sentences every once in a while lately, so that's sort of exciting, right? She'll ask for "More milk, please" or various versions of a request. She'll ask "Where'd [so-and-so] go?" I don't know if she gets all the individual words in phrases such as the last one, but she's repeating the entire phrase, and she knows what it means, so that's good. Her vocabulary is already pretty large for a kid her age (even her doctor said so, so it's not just me being all proud-mom-my-child's-so-special-and-gifted), but it seems like she learns new words every day. They stick, too, which is good. She knows how to ask what something is, and a week or so ago, she busted out the word "spaghetti" at daycare. Okay, so it was more like "bahgeddi", but it was clear enough that Laura (may her maternity leave be pleasant) understood her.

Trying to think if there's anything else going on. Jon and I are currently obsessed with Lost, which yes, I know, is sooooo 2004, but we've been watching it on Netflix, and we're hooked. We're only on Season 2, so if you watch it, for the love of the hatch, don't tell us anything about it, and please, people, don't post anything about it on Facebook or Twitter or what have you. It will only ruin it for the rest of us. Also, shame-moment, the Lost-cession may or may not have something to do with the recent blog silence as of late. I'm sorry. I'll try not to neglect you for so long in the future.
And now, because I told you that our lives weren't currently that exciting and also because we all know it's true, here's the picture you really all read this for anyway:

This was taken last weekend when Maddie and her soon-to-be cousin Oliver were playing at her Uncle Chris'. (Photo courtesy of Nancy "Nana" Stoppel.)