Last night I tweeted, “wii!!! and I’m never heard from again”. Why? Because we got a Wii!

I like video games. I’ve always liked video games. I can remember playing with Atari and Pong when I was little. And then when I was a little older my parent’s bought a video game system from Hong Kong. It took floppies. Ahhh remember floppies?

And then as an adult I’ve had Playstations and xbox and Nintentos. But I stopped playing games when Isabelle came along.

Alan always would joke around that if I got a Wii, Isabelle would never get fed, and would be ignored. I don’t think that could ever happen but sure it was in the back of my mind. I like games. They are a great vortex for sucking time. That’s why we didn’t get a Wii when I tried it last year. Also the soreness the next day was a good deterrent.

But that changed this weekend. Isabelle’s been playing games on the Nick Jr. site and having so much fun we got one, a Wii. And Isabelle’s been playing with it.

We got two games. One was for Isabelle, a Go, Diego, Go game and a family game. Alan asked me why I haven’t been playing with my game. Well, I smartly got a Cranium game, something that is multiple players so I won’t be sucked in for hours by my little lonesome.

So here is Isabelle playing. You may think it’s the most boring video ever but I think it’s freaking adorable, her swaying around and playing in her little footy pajamas.

Wii on Flickr

And when she’s not playing she wants me to play! I stand there shaking the controller, jumping up and down, digging and all sorts of stuff. And though she’s not playing she’s right there next to me doing all the motions with me. Weeeee!

Not a lot of words today. Just this:

And our monthly family picture:

Look at my big girl. She used the potty and wore panties that whole day to mark the occasion.

We woke up earlier than usual to the sounds of sniffling from Isabelle. Not a cold but a bloody nose. Isabelle gets them occasionally. I was hoping she’d go right back to sleep but nope. She was too busy apologizing. Poor baby. I tried to explain to her that it wasn’t her fault but she kept apologizing.

After breakfast we had a delightful outing to the post office. Yes delightful. That’s the only way to describe it. Our postmaster, well I think he’s the postmaster, of the very small post office we go to is always friendly and smiling. And he makes a trip to the post office a delight.

We were there to mail some blizzard soaps to Alice. I of course was not organized at all. I didn’t have a box or anything. Not even an envelope. Well, the postmaster found us a box, not a post office box but a cookie box (I love that that’s the kind of box he found), helped us package it up, and tape it up. He’s unreal in a very good way. Why can’t everyone be nice like him?

After that very nice trip we went to the video store. At the video store they have toys. At Isabelle eye level. YIKES. We walked in and there was an abominable snow monster toy from the Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer stop motion animation tv special. Wow that was a mouth full. You know what I mean.

Well anyhoo… It was supposed to be a quick trip but with a white, fuzzy, push my belly and I make abominable noises toy in front of her little toy loving eyes can you imagine her moving from that spot? Nope.

So to avoid a screaming crying mess I put it in her hands. That way we were able to quietly and quickly go through the store. At the register, though, my masterful plan didn’t seem so masterful anymore. Of course she wanted to buy it. I told her she could ask daddy when we got home and amazingly she put it back with only a little grumbling.

But walking by the big windows, when we left, with it sitting there staring at her was too much. She pressed her little face against the windows with her little hands out whining for the toy. It pretty much looked like this.

And oh my gawd I’m a moron! What am I doing drawing a picture of it?! Isabelle forgot about it completely up until this moment when she saw the drawing. Now she’s asking for her monster.

Ok as i was saying. I managed to get her away but that was the beginning of the spiral down. At the grocery store she didn’t want to sit in the cart. She didn’t want to help push, and she didn’t want to help with the shopping. So I didn’t give her a choice, I stuck her in the cart. And what did she do? She kicked her shoes off. So I tossed her shoes in the cart. That’s when she started to cry.

Well that must have gotten the scab from her bloody nose wet and blood started to drip from her nose. I didn’t have any tissue in my purse from one of the many times Isabelle had emptied it. I’m amazed I still have my wallet intact with her rummagings.

So there I am with a toddler dripping blood on her, on her shirt, on her pants. So I ran to the closest person who worked there, loudly asking where the tissue paper was. They directed me towards the back. But the back is pretty damn huge. Right in the middle of the back I had to interrupt another person, who was already helping someone, to ask for the bathroom. I don’t know if I was screaming at this point, which, yes, is an overreaction to a bloody nose. But there was blood. And it was dripping. DRIPPING everywhere. Is that a good argument?

I ran towards the bathroom pushing the cart wildly around the corners. You know, I’ve always wanted to do that. I thought it would be fun running around with a shopping cart. Yeah. Not really that fun.

So at the bathroom, I lifted Isabelle out of the cart and put her on the floor. We rushed into the bathroom and that’s when I realized she didn’t have shoes on. Or socks. She was in her bare feet in a public bathroom. Aaaaahhhh!!!

So now there’s blood on her, on her clothes, on me, on the floor, and on my purse. I stuck tissue in her nose and lifted her up to wash her feet in the sink. Looking at myself in the mirror with her in my arms I just had to laugh at the ridiculous situation. The look on my face, a perfect example of a harried mom. I should have taken a picture. If only I had an extra hand…

I then went to put on Isabelle’s shoes and dropped one of them. It flew out of my hands and was headed towards the toilet. It was so close I absolutely expected it to fall in. I mean after the ups and downs we had, I was certain it was going in the toilet. Amazingly it did not. Something went right.

Then a senior came in wanting to use the single bathroom. We got out of her way and when she came out so was so helpful. She was so nice and calming after my flustered sweaty run through the store. She put her purse and cane down and helped get us paper towels from the stuck paper dispenser. And she gave helpful advice to cool Isabelle down and helped hold the door open while I got more tissue. She helped us when the employees who walked by didn’t. They didn’t even bother asking if Isabelle was ok.

After finally getting the blood stopped we continued our shopping. The only problem: somehow I had misplaced my grocery list in the rush of everything. I ended up buying whatever.

But did our bumpy day end there? No, of course not. Tonight Isabelle was using the potty. I turned away for a second and I don’t know what happened, if she stood up or what but…pee. Everywhere. On carpet.

Can I just say, I’m so glad this day is over. I really hope tomorrow is less bumpy.

Today was much better except for being low on sleep. I had some bloody murder dreams that had me tossing and turning. You know, very, very, very violent ones that involved people getting chopped into teeny itty bitty pieces. And then I had to wake up early for a routine doctor’s appointment. Neither of those are conducive for a good night’s sleep.

So it wasn’t any surprise that when I got home I didn’t want to do anything. I was telling Bethany that I could barely get up the energy to grab a bowl of cereal! I sat with Isabelle watching tv until we saw a little crafty project, Ni Hao, Kai-lan no-sew winter hats.

Oooh fun! Isabelle wanted one. She was jumping up and down asking for the Hoho hat. That got me going. I was practically jumping up and down myself. We went and looked up the directions, printed out the template, and went digging around my fabric stash.

Isabelle chose some green fabric, I measured her head twice, you know measure twice cut once. Then I cut the fabric and reread the directions. Then I read the directions again and started to laugh. It said, “height of the hat should be about 32 inches“. Ha ha ha! 32 inches!! Let’s see what that looks like.

Yeah, so if you’re going to make a Ni Hao Kai-lan winter hat DO NOT follow those directions to the letter unless you like 32 inch tall hats. I cut off the excess and have a whole hat left over.

The rest of the hat making went smoothly, sort of. Ok not really. I don’t have any puffy paint and I couldn’t find any pink felt or fabric glue. The biggest thing was the fabric glue. So I thought I’d sew the hat instead. That worked except for the very visible seam in the inside. It will show up very clearly when roll the brim up. But I kept moving forward.

I had all the pieces cut out and Isabelle helped me position everything so we could have an idea of how the hat would look.

Well she tried. I had to reposition everything or it would have looked like blobs of nothing.

I was about to hand sew everything down when Alan woke up, came out, and asked a very smart question. Why didn’t I sew everything down on the machine before I sewed the hat up? I just gave him a blank look. I think the lack of sleep was effecting me. I had no idea what he was talking about. It took me a few seconds and then I thought, what a good idea. Too bad I had already sewed up 32 inches of hat. I wasn’t going to pick it now.

Instead I was determined to find some glue. I dug through my supplies and found a fabric spray adhesive so I used that. I used a permanent fabric marker for the eyes and eyebrows and used chalk instead of pink felt for Hoho’s blushing cheeks.

I think he looks pretty good.

If I were to make it again, and I totally could with all I have left, I’d make Hoho smaller.

He wraps around Isabelle’s head so much you can’t see all of him. And I’d also use fabric glue and not a spray adhesive because he’s already coming off. I may end up having to sew him down after all.

My Hoho Monkey on Flickr

Isabelle did this the other night. It was frustrating and oh so cute. It was time for bed and I was cleaning up the living room. I was straightening everything and piling her toys up nice and neatly because I didn’t feel like dragging them all to her room. Then she starts walking by me with more toys. And she’s piling them up there too. I think, oh how cute, she’s helping me clean up. I turn around for a second and that’s when she slid down, the toys falling every which way.

So frustrating but yes, cute. I had to smile then pick them all up again.

Go read cute baby #24, missing daddy.