What 'Chou Talking About??

Marielle and I are communicating a lot more with each other these days. I no longer have to repeat all phrases at least twice as communication with my daughter. Now my questions are answered with "yeah" or "no!". Even though we are making great strides, we still have a lot of gaps. Like yesterday when I walked in the bathroom and found my liquid foundation all over the tile floor. I called Marielle in and pointed at the ground and asked her what happened. She did her best to explain. I didn't understand a single word she said but she was definitely trying to tell me something. She jabbered on and on, using hand gestures and voice inflection. Although I'll never really know her true plea of innocence, I think the gist was "things just got a little out of control mom, before I knew it that pink stuff was everywhere!"

Later in the afternoon we went to the mall. Living in Houston, we can't just go to the park in the summer, so we hit up the playplace at our mall. But seeing it was four o'clock that place was crawling with kids, most of them way taller than height requirement, and leaping off tall bridges, trucks and waterfalls. Poor Marielle didn't stand a chance. She played for about 20 minutes and then sought safety by sitting with mom on the bench. I wasn't ready to head home yet, so we went off in search of other mall adventures. I let her walk at her own pace and she wandered in and out of stores. She loved the computers at Build a Bear and the Pet Store seemed like a regular zoo with birds, bunnies and puppies just a window pane away. (The funniest part was Marielle wagging her finger and telling the puppies "No, no!" when they nipped and crawled all over each other.) After a nice afternoon of air conditioned playing, we headed back to our car. On the way there Marielle saw a Backyard Jungle Gym on display. I knew it was trouble the moment she yelled "park!" and started running. I caught up to her hanging on the fence next to the sign "Display Only -- No Climbing!" We sat down and I tried to explain to her that this was a park where children don't play (I was too tired to try and drag her away at this point). As I continued to explain the unimaginable to a toddler, I could see Marielle was having the same experience I had had this morning with the liquid foundation mess. She didn't understand a word I said, but the gist was "you ain't playing here baby!" I saw some colorful brochures and Marielle took one home with us as a very distant second to actually playing at the "park." And so mom and daughter carry on. Not really understanding each other, but nodding and smiling a lot and looking forward to the day when Marielle can talk.

Mom Baby

I'm not sure what happened. Somewhere in the past week my cute, smiling, easy-loving baby girl got lost in the time stream and replaced by a temperamental, no-need-for-Dad, wants-only-Mom baby. I'm tempted to buy/steal a flux capacitor so that I can go back in time to find my daughter that doesn't cry every time she sees me, but then I'd have two Marielles. One of which who still doesn't like me, and the other who would become that way in a week. And from what I've heard, having 2 babies is so much easier than 1 it can hardly be called Parenting anymore. (Right, Alex?) Mix that all in with the scientific research presented by Napoleon Dynamite and Marty McFly on time travel, and I think it's all just a little too risky.


We just need to ramp up the Daddy-Daughter one-on-one time so Marielle realizes I am not the bad guy. Accordingly, yesterday when I got home from work, Mary Karlee had packed as some sandwiches, and we went off to the park. I quickly learned that MK had been neglecting our daughter's education because she didn't even know how to make explosion sounds. I taught her to drop a pebble down the ladder chute and say "Bombs away! and then "Brrgggghhhh!" when it hit the ground.

The Results...

The gift card finally made it home. After knocking on several doors (guess my memory wasn't so great) over a couple days with no luck, I gave up the search. I figured I had given it my best shot, but I just couldn't keep knocking doors. Just for the record I "cleaned up" the story a bit by just saying I found the gift card on my way home one day. Then yesterday I noticed someone was throwing away a crib box. Figures the answer would also come from the trash heap! The mother to be was very happy and grateful, and I was glad to the saga was OVER!

Now to completely change the subject-- if you feel like stalling before you start your dishes, here is a great song from youtube. I heard this song on an old time country station and loved how mellow and relaxing it is. I later found it on youtube and enjoyed watching the pictures that go along with the lyrics. It'll make you smile, I promise. :)

Who Am I?

I've been tagged. In case you were wondering who is Mary Karlee, really?

1. My Rockstar Name:"Muffalo Villager" (first pet, current car)

2. My Gangsta Name:"Rocky Road Reefs" (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite shoe)

3. My Native American Name:"Purple Parakeet" (favorite color, favorite animal)

4. My Soap Opera Name:"Karlee Ogden" (middle name, city where you were born)

5. My Star Wars Name : "Mulma" (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 of your first)

6. My Super Hero Name :"Blue Strawberry Lemonaide"
(second favorite color, favorite drink)
7. My nascar Name :"Walter Barney" (first names of your grandfathers)

8. My Stripper Name :"Love Spell Peachie"(favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)

9. My TV weather anchor name :"Loman Louisville"
(5th grade teacher, city that begins with same letter)

10. My Spy Name :"Spring Tulip"
(favorite season/holiday, favorite flower)

11. My cartoon name (favorite fruit, article of clothing you are wearing now):"Pineapple Socks"

12. My Hippie Name :"Fruit Oak" (what you ate for breakfast, favorite tree)


I am tagging anyone who has ever legally changed their name...

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

So as I was driving home today I noticed someone was throwing out a whole bunch of gift bags. They were separated out from the rest of the trash and looked clean, so I stopped, scooped them up, stashed them in my car, and hurried home. (This is just a glimpse into my cheapness, I will go where many draw the line.) While at home I started sorting through the bags to decide which bags to keep and I found a gift card to Target. It still had the card around it so I discovered it was worth $60! Now my dilemma: return the card and have to admit that I went through their trash or spend the money and feel the weight of my guilty conscious? What would you do? Some additional information to keep in mind -- I have never met these people. This would be my first interaction with them. Do I really want that kind of first impression? Second, I am not completely sure which house it came from, so a drop and run might not be effective. Finally, these were gift bags from a baby shower. By the looks of things this family cleaned up. I am placing a poll on the sidebar and invite your opinions. Comments are welcome too. I'll post in a few days what the finally decision and outcome becomes. Until then, wish me luck!