ZhuZhu Pets + Mini-bilibos = Great Fun!

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

WW - It's been a little dry around here lately

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Layering isn't always the best option

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

When my parents were here this past weekend, we started telling them some stories about the funny age that is 3. One of the stories was about the night when we checked on Penguin after she'd settled in to sleep, and discovered she'd decided to add a few layers to her pajamas before falling asleep.

How many layers?

Well, see if you can tell from the photo:

(Yes, that is her cookie costume as a scarf. Also, I took that one off right after taking the picture.)

Give up? You should... you can't even see the pink footie pjs that were her original going-to-bed-outfit... and which were still underneath all that!

Penguin's outfit that night (most of which were removed post-picture, without waking her up) included:

• her original pink fleece footie pajamas
• the purple princess/crown pj pants you can see on the bottom
• a matching purple princess/brown pj top
• the purple star/moon pj top you can see
• matching purple star/moon pj pants you cannot
• a denim jumper
• socks
• a tutu
• and her cookie costume.

We (ok, mostly me) just kept giggling as we oh-so-quietly, and oh-so-gently kept removing layer after layer after layer. I guess it's just a good thing it wasn't summer or she would have sweated herself to death!

The orange dress

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

...can be found here.

(You'll notice they don't show the short side without the boa, even on the model!)

Happy New Year Brain Dump

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Happy New Year to you all! Yeah, I know it's already the 6th of January, but better late than never right? As I've got several dozen "Oh, I gotta remember to blog about that" items rolling around in my head, I'm just going to brain dump a few of them. Maybe I'll get around to my 2010 review/resolution update and be a little more thoughtful yet this month!

• First of all, I'm only getting a chance to write this because Penguin fell asleep on the couch this morning. I don't remember the last time she took a morning nap, so I'm guessing she's not feeling 100%. Earlier, she used one of her two-per-day tv tickets & watched all curled up under two blankets on the couch. That's not unusual...but when she stayed all cozied up & just listened to music from her Pandora channel... and then covered up her head so it was dark... I decided I'd just leave her be. So we'll to to the library this afternoon instead of having quiet time; it's all good!
• We had a lovely and overly-generous Christmas visit back to MN. Good to see so much family and even a few friends. All of my folks' kids & grandkids were together for Christmas Eve, and all of Mr. Kluges's side were able to be together for a few hours on the Sunday following. We even managed to squeak in a quick visit with 3 of Mr. Kluges's high school friends, their spouses, and all the kids. Those are rare, since we're spread out from Illinois to Wisconsin to Minnesota to Colorado!
• For my park & rec grown-up tap class, we're wearing fitted, sequined, ORANGE dresses. Sure, they've got a built-in leotard, but they are SHORT. The asymetrical hemline reaches my knee on the LONG side...but the short side... well, I like to call it "cheeky." And I'm the youngest one in the class. We were going to wear black leggings under them, but it's just too Halloween-y with the pumpkin-orange dresses. So, brilliant me decides we should attach some 6" flapper-fringe to the hems for a bit more coverage. I'd mentioned the idea of fringe when we were trying to decide what to do earlier, but I could tell people weren't seeing what I was seeing in my mind's eye. So, yesterday I hit the fabric store for fringe... and dye since I couldn't get orange. Washed it, dyed it (not well, it turned out coral, but close enough to demo), attached it... and brought it to last night's class, where it was met with much enthusiasm. Yay! Now I've got 24 yards of orange 6" chainette fringe on order!
• Ok, Penguin woke up, so I'm off. Happy 2011 to you all!
  

Sickness, exercise, & unexpected adrenaline

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

As I may have mentioned, we've been sick.

Fortunately, Pumpkin's now sounding & sleeping much better, thanks to a round of antibiotics. Penguin's eyes are all cleared up... now she just needs to catch up on her sleep so she stops acting like a demon child.

I managed to transfer my pink eye from the right to the left, but in just a couple more days, I'll have done a week's worth of drops on that one, too, and can get back to my oh-so-more-comfortable-and-convenient-and-nonfoggy contacts. Mr. Kluges is still coughing... and even though he claims his green-and-now-very-red eye is festive and seasonally-appropriate, he has a stop at the quick clinic planned for tomorrow... so he can get his own eye drops.

(Yes, our dear families, we sure hope we're not still sick or contagious by Christmas! We will understand if Purell becomes a stocking-stuffer of choice.)


Not that that was exactly why I decided to do a quick post. But since I was sick (plus, you know, wrapping presents & doing other Xmas stuff every night), I haven't been exercising. We even ended up calling off our belly dance troupe practice last Wednesday due to conflicts & sickness, so I was really feeling the lack of any sort of exercise.

Sunday night I decided to hit the treadmill. Sure, I knew I wasn't going to be running my usual 3 miles, but I figured even if I just walked for 45 minutes, it was at least something.

So I put in "Miracle on 34th Street," the first of 10 "why haven't I seen that yet" movies I'd like to watch. (Suggestions still welcome either at that post or this one.) I was alternating walking and running, and doing much better than I'd thought I would. "This isn't bad!" I thought. "Sure, I'm taking it super easy, but I thought I'd have to take it easier!"

THEN SUDDENLY A BLACK SHAPE FLUTTERED PAST MY HEAD AND OVER TO THE CISTERN WALL! IT WAS A BAT! A BAT!!!

I know, I know, bats don't try to get into your hair, they see just fine, blah blah blah, but YOU try not ducking when a bat unexpectedly flies past your head, in the basement, in the winter, while you're running on the treadmill! Landing on my knees resulted in a couple of little scrapes, but I can vouch that pulling out the safety key really does stop the treadmill.

Of course, by this time he'd disappeared into the closed-off cistern or the hollow block walls, but yeah, me and running were done for the night. I did a little research on-line (not that I'm going to try to refind the links to post right now) and I think our basement might be just cool-constant-temperature enough to be cave-y and somewhat suitable (in a bat's mind, anyway) for hibernation. Also, one website said that they will occasionally wake up from their semi-hibernation to get a drink and eliminate waste. So, I'm guessing that's what he was doing?

...but it's not a real incentive to go down and exercise again!

WW - Our Christmas present to each other

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

The Sicky VonMcIckyson Household Update of Yuck

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

• Pumpkin's long-lasting cold? The one got her sent home from school last Tuesday & for which we kept her home Wednesday & Thursday? The one for which I brought her to the pediatrician on Thursday? Yeah, it turned into pneumonia. So, out on Friday, too! "Early presumptive pneumonia" at first, but radiologist confirmed it. So, a course of antibiotics for her. She hates the taste, so twice a day, she now gets a piece of her custom-made (with Daddy) chocolate bar as reward/to take away the taste.

• Penguin's almost-as-long-lasting cold? The one that has caused her much, much nasty, icky eye goopage? Was long-enough lasting I brought her to a quick clinic today to find out she doesn't have pink eye. Also, when Pumpkin gets a piece of chocolate for her medicine, Penguin does, too, so she's very encouraging. :)
  

• But I've got the pink eye. Thanks, kids! And here I was starting to think I was immune to this particular evil germ after wiping noses, washing eyes, and catching coughed-up phlegm (yup, sometimes parenthood sucks) for more than a week. Guess not! So, it's no contacts for the next week, funky-out-of-the-ordinary eye drops 3xday for my allergic-to-most-common-antibiotics-self, and a rediscovery of the joys of how glasses fog up when coming in out of the (dang cold!) cold.

• Mr. Kluges... well, he's had some of that vicious same cold for about 3 or 4 days less than the girls. Not that he'd go in to see the doctor unless he was on death's door, but he's sniffling & hacking & coughing. He did manage to maneuver the snowblower yesterday enough to do our driveway and everything, but he's certainly not operating at 100%.
  

Here's sending you our best wishes for YOUR continued health & well-being! You might just want to go and wash your hands after reading this post though - apparently, we're highly contagious right about now.

WW - Pint-Size Pine Trees

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

(Photo taken by my good friend GH, JH's mom.)

WW - For my husband

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

(Photo cross-posted to House of 42 Doors.)