"I Don't Lock the Door"

This is Calleigh's new phrase after her little incident late Tuesday afternoon. We were upstairs at about 5 pm and I decided to vacuum my bedroom. Calleigh was there for a minute or two and then took off for her room where I assumed she was reading some books (her usual pastime). When I finished vacuuming (all of two or three minutes later), I went down to check on her only to find the door closed...and locked! This was a first. We have never talked about there being a lock on the door so I'm sure it being locked was purely accidental which would also mean that it would be virtually impossible for her to figure out how to unlock it. I tried sticking a clothes hanger in it to try and get it unlocked but no luck. Next option was to try and take the door handle off to see if that would work. I ran downstairs and got Duncan's toolbox. Off came the door handle but it didn't do any good - - still couldn't unlock it. What's more, the way the knob was designed, if I tried to put it back on or fiddle with it too much, part of it would fall out the other side and then I REALLY would be stuck. So at this point, I decided to call Duncan. Because I had just vacuumed, I was totally sweating and could feel it dripping down me - - I think Duncan thought I was a nut. At any rate, he said he would come home so I knew help was on the way. At least with my side of the handle off, I could see into the room a little bit. Calleigh seemed completely unconcerned that she was stuck in the room and would peep out at me every few minutes. I couldn't really see what she was doing in there but I told her to just keep reading books. Her response: "No, I'm standing on them." Okie, dokie. While I sat and waited, I got the bright idea to go and investigate another door handle so I could play around with the lock. I finally figured out that if you put the handle back on that I took off and just jiggle it around a little, it would trigger the lock. Sure enough, that's what I did and voila! It opened up...about 2 minutes before Duncan got home. So, no harm no foul at least in this instance but for about 25 minutes, I was a little stressed out. Thankfully she hadn't locked herself in the bathroom. And yes, I did contemplate that if all else failed, and if Duncan weren't around, would I have the strength to knock down the door if I really needed to??? Needless to say, we now have safety knobs on the doors and every time Calleigh's sees them, she says "I don't lock the door. Only Mommy."

Tuesday evening, Rad, Jen, David, and Yully came over for supper and a visit. As I had mentioned, Rad and Jen are down here for the week at a timeshare with Jen's parents. We saw Rad and Jen briefly at Christmas (just at the restaurant and the Pops, I think?) and before that, we saw them for about half a day when we were down the Cape after Nova Scotia. However, when Calleigh saw them, she acted like they were her good friends - - calling them by name and sitting on their laps. Jen couldn't believe how she seemed to know them so well.I told her that she sees a lot of pictures and that must be it. Rad immediately started calling her "Mini Mel" (as in my mother) I guess because of the way she looks. Calleigh thought this was hilarious. She kept repeating it and laughing. At any rate, we had a nice time visiting with them and Rad and Jen got to meet Yully for the first time so that was neat. Oh, and I almost forget. Yully brought homemade Creme Brule with her - - which is Rad and Duncan's favorite dessert. We almost felt like we were on the cruise with the Copseys as we ate it since that's the only place we ever eat it for the most part. It was VERY good.

Wednesday morning Calleigh and I headed up to the zoo. The zoo is having story time every Wednesday at 10 am during the months of April and May so I figured it was something new to do. Plus, with the weather warm, we could take advantage of the splash playground they have there. The story time went well - there were definitely a lot of kids - and then we headed in to the playground. I think she was a little intimidated by some of the fountains as they were pretty big but she found some smaller ones to play in. It kept cycling on and off and this was very perplexing for her. She must have asked me about 30 times, no joke, "Where the water went?" (incidentally, she hasn't quite figured out when to use "go" as opposed to "went.") After about 30 minutes, it was getting to be late morning and we headed out. But, of course, we couldn't possibly leave without her riding the train which we did.

Thursday morning was a busy one for us. At 9 am, Accounting held the baby shower for me. Yes, it took a lot of work to be out of the house by 8:30 (considering Calleigh doesn't even get up until 7:30 and likes to enjoy a leisurely breakfast!) but we made it. I pushed her into the department in her stroller and within about 5 seconds, she burst into tears. She must have carried on like that for about 10 minutes. I do not know what came over her. For some reason, I have noticed that she doesn't particularly like being in the department there - - don't know if it's the basement or if it reminds her of something bad or what. Goodness knows she's not shy so I don't think the people bother her. I had to put her back in her stroller and face it towards me in my chair that was against the wall so that all she could see was me. And then I gave her some fruit and that seemed to cheer her up a bit but she honestly didn't really come out of her shell until right near the end. Very strange. At any rate, I had a nice time despite that. We played a game where everyone had to cut a piece of ribbon to the size that they thought my belly was. It's a good thing I'm not very sensitive because some people were WAY off. A few got pretty close but in the end, it was me, myself, who cut the ribbon the closest. I guess that makes sense. For gifts, we got a few things that we had registered for and then we also got some generous Target gift cards. It was really nice to see all my co-workers/friends (can't believe two years have passed since I was last seeing them every day!) and I'm really touched that they had this shower for me.

After that, Calleigh and I zipped over to Crib 4 Life. I've been searching Craig's List for a used crib like we got Calleigh (although it's not recommended to buy a used crib for safety reasons) but haven't had much luck. I looked at cribs at Target, Ikea, Babies R Us, and other places and just haven't found anything that was as good a quality as what we have for Calleigh. I didn't want to spend as much this time around but the more I looked at some of the stuff out there, the more convinced I became that I wanted to make the investment. So in the end, I ended up buying the exact same set as Calleigh has but in chestnut instead of ebony chestnut. . Duncan said he figured this was what would do all along so there you go. The nice thing is that they'll deliver it to your house and set it up for you at a very cheap price so we (I mean, Duncan) don't have to mess with putting it together. It will be delivered some time mid next week. I'm relieved to finally have this taken care of. Not that she'll be sleeping in the crib for awhile, most likely, but I've wanted to get the dresser set up so I can unpack the clothes.

The experience at Crib 4 Life was very nice if I can put in a plug. I had brought in my printout from two years ago when we purchased Calleigh's set and the guy immediately said they would honor those prices (and yes, I did verify that the prices were now more expensive). While he was filling out the paperwork, Calleigh started going bonkers over some binkys that she spotted. And indeed, this is a new type of binky that has hit the market. If the binky gets dropped, it has wings on it - so to speak - that will enclose the part you suck on so that it doesn't touch the floor. The guy told me some lady invented it and sold that patent for $750,000! Why didn't I think of that??? Anyway, the guy ended up giving one to Calleigh and now it has been coined "The New Binky" and she's very excited about it. I still need to drop it a few times to see if it really works.

Today Calleigh and I were going to either meet Rad & Jen down at Sea World or go meet my friend Tim (and other co-workers) at the hospital for lunch. But in the end, I didn't do either. I knew Calleigh would fall asleep on the way home from Sea World since we wouldn't have anyone in the car with us so that scratched that. And after what happened yesterday at the hospital, I just didn't feel like dealing with the hospital scene again. And hopefully we'll see Tim tomorrow at church. So we ended up doing our usual this morning - yard sales. It wasn't nearly as successful as last week but fun none the less. I also found a diaper trash can on Craig's List for a third of the price of new one and we picked that up this morning. Meanwhile, Duncan took a PDO (paid day off) today so that he could go golf 36 holes in Daytona Beach at the LPGA course. He went with Allen and some other folks. Needless to say, he was red and tired when he got back home. He left this morning at 6 am and returned at 7:45 pm so it was a long day. When he told me about taking the day off, I told him that was great, but the deal was that I would get to take a "PDO" on Sunday! So I'm thinking at least for the morning, I'll have Duncan get Calleigh up and get her breakfast and then they can hang out for the morning while I do...something. Of course, I know what will happen. My intention will be to sleep in when Duncan goes to get Calleigh up but as soon as I hear her say from the other room "I want to see Mommy" I won't be able to help it - - I'll have to see her! Who could resist?

Well, that sums up the last few days. I'm going to sign off here and sit back to enjoy the peach smoothie I just made. I tried out a new recipe (frozen peaches, OJ, vanilla yogurt, honey, and fresh grated ginger) and it's delicious!