Barking Mad

Because I am Such a Tease...

...Here's a tiny preview of her Valentines Day photos.  No, I didn't take these myself.  We got asked very nicely if Gaby could be a model for a local little photography outlet in a retailer and for our time we came away with some pretty cute photos.  Here is just one of them, I'll post the rest in an album to the left, later on this evening (click to enlarge):

A Baby on an Airplane

Yes folks, that's going to be us, this Friday at 6AM (you don't even wanna ask me what time we have to get up on Friday morning) as we jet towards a long weekend in Seattle to fetch Zack and reconnect with Matt, Meg and Zack's paternal family.  Ok, so I'm naturally  a little nervous about that...I haven't seen any of these folks in nearly 11 years and well, lets all be honest, divorces, and in particular mine and Mike's didn't exactly leave any of them enamoured of me.  But hopefully that's in the past and we're moving towards more amicable relations.  Still though, that's not the thing that has me really wanting to make myself a valium necklace and lick it for the next week.

Nope, the thing that has me most nervous is flying with a 13 month old.   And we all know that babies on airplanes are just about everyone's favourite things, especially those poor souls who are booked on the same flights as we are.  I have a feeling Gaby is going to get in touch with her inner holy terror and as a result of that I'll be buying drinks for everyone on board.

Add to that, I have no earthly clue what I should take on the plane with us to keep her occupied during a 90 minute flight and then an almost 5 hour flight.   And I made sure, when booking the tickets that I wasn't going to cause a ruckus for breastfeeding at 30,000 feet.  Yes, we're still breastfeeding.  Oh quite rolling your eyes will you!  It's natural and normal and the way we were intended to feed our offspring, holy terrors or otherwise. Gabz will wean when she's ready.   Anyhow, thankfully our airline says they are  BF friendly.   But with my luck we'll get stuck next to some old coot that thinks boobs are for...well BOOBS!  I might just have to educate me an ignoramus!  And it's not like I just flop them out for everyone to see...I'm not that cruel!

So how many toys and books and assorted crap does one take on an airplane with a one-year-old?  I have no idea, but I guess we're going to find out.  And yes, we'll be documenting the entire voyage with both video and still cameras.   I want to capture the madness and share it with you all. *lol*

On that note I need to go drag all the luggage out of the garage and into the house and start getting us all packed.  Fun fun fun....NOT!

The View From Here

He's annoyed with me....the cardinal that is (click the pic for a better view).  I've been trying for the better part of an hour to get him or one of his many buddies out there to look at me, or not hide behind one of the branches, so I can get a decent shot.  I kind of feel like he turned to look at me as if to say; "alright already lady, are you happy now?  I'm freezing my tail feathers off, can I get some seed and be on my merry way?" 

We have about 14 resident male cardinals and I've only noted 3 females (they are not as brightly coloured but just as beautiful I think), one of which is so big she looks as if she's swallowed a tennis  ball, makes me wonder if she's getting ready to lay an egg...or does that occur more towards spring?  If she lays ANYTHING now it's liable to freeze!  It's all of ZERO outside right now!  Talk about cryogenics! 

We also have a whole slew of noisy, mean, bully-ish blue jays!  They're agressive and hog all the bird food, but I can't help but love them.   I'll post some pics of them later.  We also have our resident squirrels all of whom desperately need to hook up with Christie Alley so she can introduce them to Jenny Craig!  I'm also thinking of entering them in NBC's "Biggest Loser".  They no longer are the spry , quick-footed things they were last Autumn.  Nope, they're big-bellied furballs who have to get a running start just in order to get up the back porch steps to get to the peanuts. 

Well, I need to go turn up the furnace.  I can't seem to get warm.  Here are some other photos I snapped a few minutes ago...annoying the cardinals!