Tag: Marceline

Cups vs Glasses – Monday August 31

meisajDaily Life

I told Sam recently that I think we need to rethink out dishware and glassware. Almost all of our cups are coffee related or alcohol related glasses. The few pint glasses are stolen from the Old Pink or Essex St. Pub in Buffalo over a decade ago. A ritual from when we used to close bars at 4am in Buffalo in our early – mid 20’s.

The coffee mugs are all either gifts or stolen (my cherished Denny’s mug!). The only one that purchased outright in the last few years is the NPR “Stand with the Facts” mug we got when we donated to our local NPR station this year.

We have 8 resuable Starbucks mugs that are all over 5 years old and are our go to travel drink mugs. We bought two for a dollar each and were gifted the rest as Christmas presents.

And we have 2 Burger King Star Trek mugs left out of a set of 4 I bought for Sam years ago, a Coca Cola Buffalo Bills glass and a big yellow plastic mug that is 2 decades old and carries with it a fantastic story from a college Spring Break field trip.

All that aside, we have 5 Tupperware kids cups that Sam’s mother held onto for us until Marceline came along and we are grateful to have and use everyday for Marceline.

Essentially I’m saying we have no set of drinking glasses. If more than one of us sit down for a meal at a table, we would have different cups in front of us. Not a huge deal, but also kind of weird. On a daily basis we don’t use any of these glasses except for coffee mugs and Marceline’s cup. We (Sam and I) have two water bottles we carry around with us and use regularly, and other than coffee and water we really don’t drink much (I know…. there is diet ginger ale bottle in the background – but that 2 liter is 2 weeks old now).

Not sure if that is normal or not, but whatever…. it is what it is.

In today’s big news, Marceline got out a bottle of Worcester sauce from our Lazy Susan this morning. Not a huge deal, she likes getting bottle out and lining them up on the kitchen floor, and none of the bottle she can reach are very big. But she did drop it on her big toe, which lead to more crying than we have had in a long time.

Look at her poor toe!

Today’s list –

  • Clean Living Room and Kitchen
  • Vacuum Basement
  • Scoop Kitty Litter
  • Change out Marceline’s books in the living room
  • Vacuum hallway rugs
  • Walk with Marceline (she likes walking down the road holding my hand)
  • Put away laundry

The Good – Thursday August 27

meisajDaily Life

Yesterday I noticed some blood coming from Marceline’s mouth while we were reading books. Stuck a finger in her mouth to inspect her teeth (which by the way… ew), and her molar on the upper right side had burst through her gums. I’d been able to feel it under her gums for a few weeks, but it was there fully through – which Marceline promptly let me know by chomping down on my finger.

As far as reasons to bleeding from the mouth, that is pretty innocent.

But I am pretty sure that is also why she woke up at 5am this morning and didn’t feel like going back to sleep.

Totally stole this image from the Columbus Dispatch

Oh, and the Cuyahoga River is on fire again. The 14th time! This time it is from a car accident that resulted in an oil tanker spill. And thankfully is much smaller than the larger garbage, trash and pollution fires of the past. Still kind of funny and sad that a river is on fire.

Marceline and I ate breakfast outside today. I think we will try to do this more often. The biggest difficultly is getting outside with Marceline and the breakfast without the cats joining us. They like to try and go outside even though 3 out of 4 of them are scared of being out of the house. They other one will go outside and immediately bolt for anything he finds interesting.

Marceline enjoyed it mostly for the three dogs across that were playing in the yard across the street. I enjoyed it for the quietness and ability to drink my coffee outside.

WCLV has been calming on what already feels like a long morning. I absolutely love that Cleveland has a classical radio station.

Today’s list:

  • Buy cat litter (didn’t leave the house yesterday)
  • Clean Marceline’s room (didn’t happen yesterday)
  • Hydrate (I drank way more coffee than water yesterday)
  • Put away laundry
  • Vacuum, sweep and mop kitchen and living room
  • Mow backyard?
  • Organize downstairs bar*
  • Dinner plan – Corn on the Cob, peas, chicken breast, garlic bread?

*the bar is a holdover from the previous owners. We use it as a tv/entertainment stand.

Cat Empathy

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Sam sometimes complains that Marceline doesn’t understand when we are hurt or feeling bad. She doesn’t quite get when we frown or say “ow.”

But, while she doesn’t have that empathy towards us, she definitely has “cat empathy.”

When I comb out our longer haired cats, who continually get knots in their fur and hate being combed, they meow really loudly and clearly distraught. Marceline gets really quiet at that time, and eventually starts making noises that she is not happy. She actually started to cry once.

Today I was clipping our cats nails, and she did the same. Clearly she was not happy the cats were being restrained and fighting against having their claws nailed, and flailed her arms in a very concerned manner.

So while she may not care about us being in pain, she clearly doesn’t want the cats to be in any sort of pain. “Cat Empathy.”

CAKE SMASH!

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Marceline turned 1 yesterday.

We did a cake smash for her. Made a banana cake with blueberry whipped cream and put all of the family on video chat through our phones.

Marceline was pretty stoic for most of it, but loved it and got talkative towards the end.

I’d say it was pretty successful.

Face Down Sleeping

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Marceline sleeps face down now. Ever since she figured out how to roll over a few months ago she won’t sleep on her back. Even if you put her down on her back she rolls to her stomach and sleeps face down.

Even more interestingly she now sleeps with her knees under her and butt high in the air. I know this isn’t exactly unusual for a baby, but it reminds me of how I slept after my appendix tried to kill him 15+ years ago. I slept face down with my knees under me and butt in the air for weeks. It was the only way I could fall asleep without pain.

So I can relate to it’s comfort when needed, although I’m pretty sure Marceline’s appendix isn’t trying to kill her. But maybe sleeping habbits are changing. I walked in to check on her last night when she was making noise and she was sitting up looking around the room. New things every day.

Too Damn Small

meisajDaily Life

Marceline finally laid down for a nap. It’s been a particularly crabby day where she did not want to be put down. Her first cold, so I can understand.

Anyways, I sat down at my desk to work on a few things. I have this journal I bought a while ago. Its a nice leather bound journal. Thick cover, lined pages with headers. And best of all, super on sale. I bought it thinking, I could journal. Maybe write something for Marceline for later on in life.

I had bought my parents these little books a few years ago. Found them in a bookstore. Basically “Mom in her words” or “Dad in his words”. I asked them to fill them out, never quite expecting to get them back. One of those things, you know. Like would be nice, but not super important. But I did get one back from my mom, and it is pretty awesome and sits on my bookshelf.

So I started this journal. I had a lot of trouble starting it. Where do you start a journal for your child. At my childhood? High School? College. Post College? I decided to start writing about moving to Cleveland and see where it takes me. I started it in October, and have made it almost 30 pages into it. Not too bad. I write when she’s asleep, and usually when I’m home alone. For some reason it feels odd to write in it when Sam is here. Not that she doesn’t already know everything I could possible write in it.

And I like that it isn’t the “Dad in his words” book. I like the free form of journal writing. I don’t think I could fill out just a list or with suggested topics. I always consider myself a story-teller, I have a ton of stories and put together, they tell a lot about my life.

As part of this I went back and read a lot of blog posts I had done from when I moved to Cleveland. To see what I remembered and what I may of forgotten. There’s a lot that was going on in my life at that time. Woo.

But, and here’s what I was originally writing about…. my desk doesn’t fit me working on the journal, having a laptop open, and my cat. And my cat demands attention. My desk…. it is just too damn small.