Po-Pee McGee and the Baby Salt Mines: Part One

note: I am going to try and restrain myself and post this in more than one part, so stay tuned!

Po-pee McGee wearily wiped the sweat off his bare head before retying the blue salt-encrusted bandana around his neck. The sun beating down on his brow was nothing compared to the glare from the surrounding salt flats, and he squinted his eyes against the blinding light.

It seemed like forever that he had worked here in the dreary Baby Salt Mines. He barely remembered the last day of his idyllic former life, though anything before that was a distant blur. That distant afternoon he had been lounging on the beach, enjoying the rhythmic lullaby of the waves washing back and forth along the shore.

He could still recall the strange man that had slunk out of nowhere, offering him all the delicious cereal he could eat, the man with the black cape and the hooded brown eyes. Innocently, he had followed him away, only to learn the hard way that this stranger was the one and only Don Jimmy, the Baron of the Baby Salt Mines.

Now his life was one long waking dream of salt, sun, and sorrow. How long had he been here? One, maybe two weeks? Or were they years? He had given up on ever returning to that hazy existence on the sea shore, the distant life that he was forgetting more and more each day.

At least Don Jimmy’s promise about the cereal had been true: every evening when the work was over, the baby miners were treated to all the cereal they could eat. Small comfort, considering the crushing workload that lay ahead the next day.

Po-pee sighed, and began to clean up for the evening. Suddenly, he heard an unfamiliar voice whisper behind him.

“Don’t move, Po-pee. Let the others go to dinner without you….I’m here to rescue you! Pretend that we are not talking.”

Po-pee kept his head down, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a tall stranger shrouded in a billowing white cloak. This was certainly not another baby! Nor did he think it was one of the harsh task masters of the mines; they always wore the black and red of the house of Don Jimmy. Whoever this ethereal stranger was, Po-pee had a feeling that he meant no harm.

To be continued.....

Elora's pink snowsuit and the icecicle of doom

I really am working on an interesting post. Its just taking a while.
In the meantime, I'm trying to play more with Elora during the day so that she's not so grumpy.

But then I don't get as much done. In Everett, we had dial-up, so it was much harder to get on the computer. And since Joseph didn't get home till midnight every night, I used the evening hours to do computer stuff. But that doesn't work here. And its so easy to get on the internet now, its hard to resist!

Speaking of Elora, we finally broke down and bought her a snow suit about a week ago. I felt bad when we saw other kids outside playing on the giant snow piles that the snow plow leaves while she watched longingly out the window. Unfortunately, everything in Joshua's size was sold out, so we still can only go out when its warm enough for me to carry him around in just his jacket.

She loves her suit though, and asks to wear it all the time. I gave her the option of pink or purple, and she insisted on pink..she must have her grandmother's genes. (Or she takes after her old babysitter.) The funny thing is, I think she hates walking in the snow! Its a little scary for her when her foot gets stuck. Poor kid. She must prefer the rain of the Northwest.



Oh yes, the icicle of doom. We have this gigantor icicle out our living room window. It has fluctuated in size depending on the temperature, but the other day it was about twice as long as me, and the top was bigger around than my head! I'd hate to be standing under that one when it falls. It would do more than put your eye out!




This picture doesn't do it justice at all. But I don't mind the snow and ice. Its better than living somewhere where its 115 degrees in the summer!

I saw this meme on the blog Lynne's somewhat invented life, and I thought it was kind of fun.
Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

My book: Life, The Universe, and Everything, by Douglas Adams
(we started reading this forever ago, and its been sitting by the computer for quite some time.)

The sentences:
In fact it would be fair to say that he had reached a level of annoyance the like of which had never been seen in the Universe. It was an annoyance of epic proportions, a burning, searing, flame of annoyance, an annoyance that now spanned the whole of time and space in it's infinite umbrage.
And this annoyance had been given its fullest expression in the statue in the center of all this monstrosity that was a statue of Arthur Dent, and an unflattering one. Fifty feet tall if it was an inch, there was not an inch of it that wasn't crammed with insult to it's subject matter, and fifty feet of that sort of thing, would be enough to make any subject feel bad.

Yes, this author has a propensity to write very long run-on sentences, so you sometimes have to read them over again to understand what the heck is going on.
Now I'm not going to tag 5 people, but I'd love to see your take on this meme, whether its in your own blog or in the comments!

Excerpts from the Saucy Diaries

Thanks to my friend, Sarah, we have a cute little book to record some of the fun things Elora says and does. I don't remember to write in it very often, but reading back on what is there has been pretty fun. Its kind of like her first journal; its strange to see how fast she grows. (If you don't want to read it all, I'll highlight a few I think are pretty funny.)

1-23-06 (two months old)
Elora pooped everywhere on our bed! While we were cleaning her up, she peed all over her clothes. So we gave her a bath...then she threw up all over her naked self. Poor baby!

2-14-07 (written by Joseph)
I was drinking my soda when we went out to lunch today, Elora pressed her cheek next to mine and grabbed the glass to try and get a drink too! I felt so bad when she started crying.

7-12-06 (nine months old)
Yesterday Elora and I were watching "My Best Friends Wedding" while we ate dinner. When they were singing the song at the Crab Restaurant, Elora started laughing and looking at the tv. When all the people started clapping along, she started banging her spoon on her tray too. She loved it!

8-17-06 (ten months old)
Elora finally learned to clap by herself, not just me helping her do patty-cake. We were watching "America's Got Talent" and a family was doing step dancing while playing the violin. Elora was bouncing and laughing throughout the performance. When the audience clapped at the end, she started waving her hand in front of her. I clapped and said, "Yay!" Then she suddenly brought her other arm out and started clapping! The next day there was a re-cap of the show on, and she clapped vigorously for the same family again.

9-21-06 (eleven months)
We went to look at Halloween costumes, and we saw a full size Elmo costume in the toddler section. When Joseph showed it to Elora, she squealed and immediately began talking to it in a high-pitched voice. I didn't even know she'd seen Elmo before, but apparently Joseph watched it with her on the mornings I worked. When she was allowed to touch the costume, she grabbed it and hugged it close.

12-26-06 (14 months)
Elora is learning to say lots of new things lately. She can say, "shoes, socks, toes, ear, eye, nose, hair, poop, eww, no, yes, mom, dad, get up" and the animal sounds she knows are, "ruff, meow, oo-oo (monkey), bit-bit (frog) and occasionally others.

3-14-07 (about 17 months )
In the mornings, Elora tries to help mommy get up (when she's in my room). She'll give me my glasses and my watch, then she picks up my robe and says, "Thank you!" The other day I left my bra out and she picked it up. She said, "heart?" and pointed to her chest, then she pulled it over her head and tried it on.

7-20-07 (21 months)
Elora has the funniest sense of humor. The last few nights she's asked me to sing a song but I don't understand what she's saying. It sounds like "Back on." I jokingly asked her, "bacon?" She laughed at that, but showed she got the joke by taking it further, saying to me, "Chicken?" When I laughed she continued, "Chips? Ice cream? Chocolate?"
......When Elora first met Grandpa, she thought he was kind of scary. So when I told her he was coming to visit again, she said, "Grandpa? RRAAAR!" Then she continued, "Fe, fi, fum!" She was delighted when we laughed at that. After that, everytime we'd mention grandpa she'd tell the same joke.

12-11-07 (26 months)
We were "playing" Connect Four today, and I told Elora "I think I'm winning!" She said, "No, you're mommy!"
Last week Elora came into the room with no shirt on and her doll pressed against her chest. "Look," she said, "my baby is eating on my tummy!" Presently she said to her baby, "You done now? You wanna try the other side?" Then she swung the baby around, taking care to postition it just right.

1-30-08 (27 months)
The other day I heard Elora calling, "mommy, mommy!" from the back room. I thought she'd locked herself in, so I went to open the door. She held up her hand to me and said, "I have boogers on my fingers, I need a kleenex." I got her one and asked if she had been locked in. She answered, "No, my was just laying on the floor picking my nose."
As if I didn't have enough to be embarassed about!

I can only imagine Joshua's book will be just as interesting. (At least to his mother.)