Too-Too-Tudio

Quickly, my pretties, for I must, must, must do some Christmas shopping before bed, and, given the coughing sniffling tossing turning fiasco that was our 25-minute nap today, I'm guessing that my night ahead isn't going to be too restful. Might as well try to start it early.

Poor Tankbaby. When vertical, he seems just fine, apart from a few sneezes, but when he lies down, some internal mucous barometer (hey! I used to play bass for...never mind) goes all wonky and he ends up breathing through his mouth like an asthmatic ferret.

(Like a what now? I don't know...it just sounded...poetic.)

I have had such a productive, grown-up weekend that I've been feeling alternately self-satisfied and depressed. Like, on one hand, yesterday alone we:

• Finally picked up a second oven rack (having lived three years here with a single rack)
• Bathed the dog
• Scrubbed the bathroom (necessary after Dog, the Bathing)
• Bought a new fish for our tank (fishtank, that is, not for Our Tankbaby, although he enjoys the fish in his own aquarium-banging way)
• Picked up diaper liners (disposable soft paper liners that go inside cloth diapers and make solid waste removal less unpleasant--see, you're always learning something here at ol' Falling!) and, because he's vaguely interested and we had a coupon, a potty seat for Tankbaby. Not that we're actively trying potty-training yet, but hell, he keeps saying "potty" and I figure we can keep offering it as an option for sitting. Who knows? Maybe my sleepless infant will redeem himself by being an easily-potty-trained toddler. Shut up. It could happen.
  
• Vacuumed the living room (and the oven--Elly, was that you who recommended this practice? Brilliant! Especially since we'd extinguished a rather...persistent oven fire several months ago with copious amounts of baking soda and...just...left it there. I guess in case the fire resurfaced?)
• Tried turnips and parsnips for the first time (roasted with other veggies--verdict: neutral, earthy, benign)
• Let Tankbaby help make a holiday craft project
• Cleaned tiny blue footprints off a beige rug
• Rued letting Tankbaby help make a holiday craft project

As you can see, a rather full day. Which is very impressive and I felt pretty good about it, except when I was feeling kinda lame, like, what happened to my life that picking up diaper liners and vacuuming my oven are now occurrences that make up a Great Saturday? Then I feel even lamer, because it's not like I used to have amazing Saturdays where I learned French while building houses with Habitat for Humanity and making homemade soup and reupholstering antique chairs before a night of dancing with the Olsen twins. I used to watch a lot of TV. And sleep. Because I was apparently 17 for about seven years.

So. Established: Me. Lame, now and for always. But now with accomplishments!

Oh, and if you have any hints for getting "washable" blue tempera paint out of carpeting, let me know, would you? MOTH scrubbed away with some spray stuff and got most of it, but there are distinctly not-so-much-beige spots remaining. I don't know what was up with that paint, anyway. I had to give Tankbaby two baths (the first one, the water in the tub instantly turned an opaque sky blue, as if he was bathing in Smurf blood) and while the paint was clearly dissolving in the water (and easily wiped off the counter, tub, toilet seat, cabinets and scale that he managed to touch on the way in to the bath), there are also these spots where I couldn't scrub it off for love or money. It just left bruise-y shadows in places, so I guess this would be a bad time to have DHS called on us.

Today we puttered in the morning and failed to nap in the afternoon and in the late afternoon, we joined a dear friend at the zoo for Zoolights, an annual event where they hang millions of tiny colorful lights all over the place, decorating trees and paths and whatnot, but also have hundreds of light sculptures of animals, birds, etc. It's delightful (ha! deLIGHTful! get it?) and lovely and festive and impossible to see and feel Grinchy, even for someone like me who still doesn't believe that Christmas in the Pacific NW counts, because 47 degrees and rainy just isn't really December. Anyway, the lights and animals are all well and good, but what we really go for is the train. You can take a steam train ride around the zoo and see all the displays, and if you happen to have a train-obsessed toddler who will spend the three hours prior to the ride walking around, plaintively saying "too-too" (choo-choo) while signing "train," well, so much the better. We went a few weeks ago, and since then, about 60% of the time we put Tankbaby in the carseat, he hopefully asks, "too-too?" so it was a relief to finally say yes this time. We also got to see a very interactive otter (MOTH ran his finger around on the glass and the wee sleekit creature followed it, doing loops and swirls and generally being adorable), some crabby lions prowling about, wondering what the EFF was up with this decidedly non-African-savannah weather, and a whole lotta bats. Everyone but me found the bats very cool. I find them unsettling. Yes, I can appreciate their unique physiques, and I will admit that they have cute faces, but come on. Are you a squirrel? A bird? A snake? Pick one and go with it. Creepy little things.

OK! Christmas shopping time (in my pjs! Remember when shopping meant you had to be dressed? And outside of your house?). Good night all! Try not to dream of bats.