nursemaid

I've been sick all week and working from home. Poor Melba. She gets so concerned. Whenever I'm sick she is always close at hand. I think she's feeling nostalgic for my maternity leave, when I was home all day. Except this is better, because there's no pesky baby to share my affections with.

The Neighbor Cat

Melba is an indoor cat. As she should be—free roaming domesticated cats can wreak havoc on local song bird populations. Anyway... the next door neighbor's cat was checking her out in the laundry room window. In this video Melba (from her position of "power" behind a glass window) lets him know exactly what she thinks of him trespassing on her territory. Score: 1 Melba, 0 neighbor cat.

P.S. You may need to turn the sound WAY up to hear her vocalizations.
P.P.S. Her whole display was much more impressive before I was able to grab the camera phone to record it. Trust me.

the straight poop

Well it happened! An unassisted poop. We took a short trip to Home Depot to get some shades and screws and Lydia Violet was cranky the whole time. She was not cold, hot or hungry so I was at a loss as to how to console her. Then, when we got home and did finally eat, her good friend Melba Toast couldn't get enough of smelling L.V.'s butt. I took it as a signal to change her diaper but, honestly, I wasn't expecting a poopy one. It'd just been so long. Well, was I surprised. It was an award winner. I was tempted to save it for Dima to check out when he got home. That's how amazing it was. (Of course I didn't.) I think that poor L°VE probably lost about half of her newly gained 21 ounces in the process. Maybe more. I didn't realize one little baby could store that much waste. So, she's probably not pushing 9 pounds anymore but she's working at it.

Now, let's reflect on this topic—poop—and why I seem so ready to detail it on this blog... I can't really explain it. I don't believe I was one to discuss poop so readily prior to this... being a mother. (Though my friends may dispute that.) Perhaps it reflects the nature of my day to day lately, which literally consists of rounds of eat, sleep, poop (or at least the anticipation of poop).

At any rate, I'm pleased as punch that L°VE has finally cleared her system. Her little belly is no longer distended and she is at this moment sleeping soundly. I think the whole thing wore her out. She is sacked out now. Let's all cross our fingers that there will be no repeat performance.

White Noise

Lydia loves the sound of the vacuum cleaner. It's a sure fire way to get her to conk out.

But as we learned ahead of time from our good friends Claire and Ed, you can't run your vacuum cleaner to make the baby fall asleep all the time. You'll wear the belt out. So... we did what they did, we bought a vacuum cleaner CD. This is ingenious! And since we've now been telling other friends about it they are all confirming that they too knew the secret.

In fact right now I am blogging and LºVE (Lydia Violet Ekzarkhov) is in her co-sleeper dreaming of the vacuum clearner induced womb. I think that Melba might like it too, because she's laying here on the desk with her head next to the baby monitor sacked out.

We also bought dishwasher and rain and thunder. Thus far the vacuum is helping me relax too and therefore fall asleep faster, which is a must, I'm finding when you're on a 3 hour feeding schedule.

handy cat strikes again

Melba has been very helpful lately. Especially with electrical projects. Here she's assisting Dima with outlet installation in the new linen station and in Baby E's room.

the world is changing

Melba, last weekend as we were unpacking and building baby gear. She's never one to say no to an empty box but I believe the shear number of boxes and mounds of new stuff that have made their way into the house of late are a bit overwhelming to her. After she made her way into this box, one for the baby's car seat, she just stayed there and fell asleep. Poor kitty. She has no idea how much her world is about to change.

the return of Handy Cat

Yesterday, while I watched, Dima spent most of the day installing hand-me-down Ikea cabinets in the basement. Josh and Carey (my brother and sister-in-law) had these cabinets left over when they remodeled their kitchen. And until now they've been taking up room in our already overcrowded garage. It's safe to say that both of us had moments of regret in taking them. They were dirty and in the way. And I know it made the mess in the garage feel all the more overwhelming. But now that they're installed in their new home and nearly playing a great new role, we're both very excited. Dima even said this morning they look like they were meant to be in their new location.

We plan on using them as our new linen closet/laundry center. And with a baby on the way and such a tiny linen closet upstairs this new setup is long overdue. We'll be able to store all our linens right outside the laundry room now and the counter is a great place to sort and fold laundry. Wow... how domestic that I'm so excited by this.

And, as you might suspect, the whole installation it was just too much for Melba to resist. She was quick on the scene as her alter-ego "Handy Cat." You can see her here, closely inspecting Dima's work. Thank goodness for her keen grasp of her crucial contribution. Otherwise I'm sure the cabinets would have been installed incorrectly. ;^)

Melba Toast... What a Cat!

I'll tell you something... what more could you ask for in a cat. She's the Handy Man's assistant. She even help me a little bit tonight...







We weren't really sure what had her so fascinated... but I think I figured it out. She's just waiting for us to pull out the laser level. Click here to see.

Laying it on Thick!

Dima has been furiously spackling and sanding for the last two nights.



The wall is now begging for it's first coats of primer and paint. I bought some today on the way home from the office but we don't have a paint tray liner so it will have to wait until tomorrow. We were hoping to get the Elfa up tomorrow but it looks like it might be Friday.

Another proud participant in all of this has been Melba Toast. She supervised the entire process on Saturday and has been there to lend Dima a hand as he spackled and sanded.



We just don't know what we would have done without her!