She's asleep early - I can blog (while avoiding other tasks).

There's nothing monumental to write about, but I thought as long as I had a few minutes (and have schoolwork to avoid), I'd pop in here.

Z and I went to the Co-op this morning, and the plan was to go to Avid Reader afterwards. Her naptime varies, but she often doesn't go to sleep until 12:30 or so. I was cutting it close, but thought I could get her home in time. Nope -- she fell asleep pretty much as soon as we left the Co-op parking lot, but I went to Avid Reader anyway. There, I got her out of the car and settled into the sling with as little jostling as possible, and she pretty much stayed asleep. I got our book, walked around, ate a sandwich, and went to the record store before she woke up.

At home, she had a little lunch, then we went to the neighbor's birthday party. I was a little concerned she'd be overwhelmed by all the bigger kids and the noise, but she was perfectly happy. She found a doll-size stroller and pushed it around for about two hours. They had several sit-in-a-circle kind of games that she was uninterested in, so I kind of just kept an eye on her as she pushed the stroller, looked at the koi pond, shoved grapes into her mouth, etc. During "musical cushions," the kids were REALLY slow at finding a cushion to sit on, and the mom was encouraging them to "find a cushion to sit on, find a cushion!" So Zadie climbed back up the steps to the patio, walked by all the kids, and plopped on an empty cushion. She got to have a juice box at the party, so she was THRILLED. In fact, she didn't even seem to care about the cake.

Just the other day, my dad and I were talking about Zadie's "jumping" skills. She says "I'm jumping," bends her knees, and pops up, but rarely gets any air, or only lifts one foot off the ground. So I was surprised today when she started successfully jumping and continued to do so for several minutes.

Also this evening, she grabbed a pencil and Sweetie gave her some paper. She scribbled happily for a while, then said "I'm drawing Mama." A minute later, she turned the page, scribbled intently, and said "I writed! I writed my name!" Then she pointed to the scribble and read "Zadie."

I've been slacking on grading papers because I have so little quiet time to myself at night and I have several craft projects I really want to do. I made a hat for my teenage nephew, but when I finished it and asked Sweetie to try it on, I realized that that one is going to have to go to my little nephew and I have to start another, bigger one for the first nephew. Also, Sweetie's birthday is this week, and he's asked for no presents, so I'm trying to craft a little something he'll like, but my first version didn't work, so I only have a few chances to get that done, too. Plus, I'm excited about some of my other Christmas crafts (not to be described here, as some of my readers will be receiving them as gifts) and I want to get started on those.

Okay, off to (most likely) find more ways to procrastinate!

Take care,
CM