Conjunctivitis and Chili

Hello there!

Things have been busy around here since I received the lovely call  on Thursday that Lady Genevieve had conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye.

Dang!

I was peeved.

Then I dropped to my knees and thanked the Lord Jesus that it wasn't lice.

I have gone my entire life without a brush with those horrible little critters and I don't intend to start now.

The thing about pink eye is that it's contagious as can be.

You would think I would know all there is to know about this dreaded condition from my years of hanging with the elementary set.

Alas, no.

The extent of my knowledge was writing a note to the nurse and saying to a weepy 6 year old, "I better not see the whites of your eyes for at least 2 days.  That's right, those eyes better be white and not pink.  See ya."

Now I'm joking.  

But I really didn't know much.  

Now I'm on the opposite end of that phone call.

Not cool.

You mean my kid is not sick at all but I have to miss work?

Awesome.

No one mentioned that getting those drops to go into her tightly clenched eye sockets would be nearly impossible.

On Friday I slept in and decided to make the best of a day with my non-sick child.

We started with a kitty pow wow.

Then we went to Nordstrom to try on shoes, because for Lord's sakes what else could we do?

We made sure to pink eye up all of those communal crayons.

I was careful.  There was a lot of hand sanitizer involved.

We had lunch at Napolese.

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to infect my parents' giant cat, Finn, with pink eye.

On Saturday morning we had to bundle up to go out on the porch.  It was like 45 degrees.

Hello, Fall!

We had plans to attend a chili cook-off at our friends' house.  I made the mistake of referring to this event as a "party."  Immediately my little cake monger starting saying, "birthday cake?  birthday cake?"

Um, no.

I highly doubt they will have cake.  I stopped at Kroger to get G her very own "birthday cake."  

I will not stifle this.

The addiction is real.

I get it.

She engaged in some rigorous swinging.

Charlotte was all too willing to push.

Trinity and Uncle Robby were seriously engaged in tasting all of the chili.  It was a perfect fall day.  

Genevieve had school pictures this week.  I asked her to show me her picture smile.

I clearly need to iron my husband's pants.

He is incapable of doing so.

G had her 2 year well baby visit.

She busied herself by writing notes on the floor.

Ew.

She weighed in at 30 lbs, but we were unable to get a height on her. She refused to cooperate.

She's not like her mother in that sense.

I encourage everyone to reassure me that I am 71 inches tall but I have no interest in stepping on that scale, thank you very much. 

On Saturday morning we went to support Trinity as he ran a 5K.

As the runners took off G started yelling "run, run!"

So I illegally entered the race at the very end pushing my daughter in an unjogging stroller.

My Britax served me well as I did a mix of crazy race walking and jogging.  

On Saturday night we celebrated Stephanie and Kevin at a little reception at The Alexander hotel.  

My precious Steph was the tallest she has ever been in some fabulous heels.

Alas, I'm still a head taller.  

I ordered my first Moscow Mule at the bar.  Our bartender turned and said to the other guys, "Get ready, we're going to be making a lot of these.  Everyone is going to want to know what is in that lady's cup."

So true.

Who can resist that gorgeous little copper mug?

I almost ordered copper mugs for T's birthday, because if InStyle says they're good, you know they are.

I'm glad I tried the drink out before buying the essential barware.

They are very light and refreshing with vodka, ginger beer, and lime juice.

You all are probably like, duh Betsy, those are so 2012.

T followed up his mule with a whiskey drink that looked a bit girly.

Congrats to Steph and Kevin.

Genevieve's 2nd Birthday Soiree

We hosted a very small affair in honor of our little lady turning 2.  She had her actual birthday in California without cake, so I had to make up for that!

Abby and Papi could not make it since they are in the middle of a move. Uncle Robby and Aunt Meghan had a wedding to attend. Uncle Chip, Aunt Katie, Caroline,  and Aunt Shirley live a little far to drive for a 2 hour party.

We were sad pandas about missing some of our favorite people, but G was soon distracted by 

CAKE!!!!!

She had a hard time waiting for her few guests to arrive so I let her sample the goods.  

YaYa snuck in a little photo session.

The wind was so naturally blowing through our hair, much like Brooke Shields in an old Jordache jeans ad. 

We had a big box fan out there to create this effect.

Chortle, chortle.

The weather was just perfect with a bit of wind.

I laughed until I cried about this photo attempt.

I'm not sure what I'm doing here, but it appears as though I am trying to compete in some sort of local beauty pageant for mothers.

Where am I gazing?

What's with that poker straight posture?

At least I'm not slouching as is my usual pose.

Charlotte and Liam were excited little present helpers.  

YaYa, Bob, Uncle Chip, Aunt Katie and Caroline certainly delivered with a Bitty Baby and lots of accessories.

Uncle Kent, Aunt Cindi, Cousin Scott, and his girlfriend Rachel arrived ready to party and with some fun Elmo gifts. 

We bid adieu to YaYa and Bob, which always elicits tears.

Then Jamie, Allison, Trinity and I sipped Stella Artois Cidres on the porch (so good) as the kiddos played in the yard.  

Charlotte found a fuzzy caterpillar that she named Pumpkin.

Pumpkin provided at least 30 minutes of entertainment before he was set free.  

It was a great afternoon.

DisneyLand!!!!!

Bob insisted that we visit Disneyland on this trip.  He did his research and found that Mondays in September are the least crowded of the year.  

Mom and I thought that he was nuts and G was too young, but as is typically the case, my father knew what he was doing.

We were up and on the choo-choo at 6 a.m. to Anaheim.  

We had to take an Amtrak train since there was no chance in he** that my mother was getting "on the five" as she affectionately referred to the freeway.

I can barely get her on 465 in Indianapolis, let alone  I-5 in California.  

We were all smiles so early in the morning!

We had already been up since 4 anyway!

The train ride was great.  It went right past the ocean.

It was a beautiful and stress-free  way to get there.  

This was the view.

Why do we live in Indiana?

We went straight to the Californian Hotel in Disney to eat breakfast with Chip and Dale at the Chip and Dale Critter breakfast.  

She wasn't too freaked by Chip and Dale, but the other "critters" included two bears with big teeth and a giant raccoon.  

Even I was afraid.

I didn't get photos of those reactions since I was too busy shooing those pesky critters away from our table.

We sprayed on our sunblock and headed into the mayhem.  

Lawd, my friends, it was hot.

At 10 a.m. it was already like 88 degrees.

Bob was representing our alma mater, as usual.  

Disney had all of their fall finery out, but the weather didn't correlate with that fall.  

Now, I have to hand it to my mother.

She was like a track star when a character appeared.  

She ran like the wind.  

Once again, G wasn't sure about the characters.

Minnie was a hit.

There was no fear with this one.

She was thrilled, despite what her face shows.

YaYa was really thrilled.  

We spent almost all of our time in FantasyLand.

G loves a carousel.

We rode it twice.  

There was no line.

Good work, Bob.

We skittled over to the Flying Dumbo ride.  

We waited about 10 minutes and things were heating up.  

This picture of G and Bob might be my favorite.  

We hit up Dumbo a second time on our way out of the park later and had no wait.

We needed a break after that and went to ride It's A Small World.

I love that ride.

I'm not sure why she looks so freaky here, but I think it was the steam on the camera?

She was also really hot!

She was mesmerized.

We all cooled off.  

Nostrils!

Two sweaty gals spinned their rear ends off.

We saw Pluto, and we had another iffy reaction!

We spent a lot of time in Toon Town and met Mickey.  I'll post the picture once we get it.

G dozed off in FrontierLand.

Bob stood watch with a BBQ sandwich while my mother and I ran off to Big Thunder Mountain!

We got right on and in the front row.

It was great.

We also rode the Roger Rabbit ride and Pinnocchio (which was freakin' terrifying).

We ended the day with waters at Starbucks (teas for the grandparents).  It was 100 degrees.

The next morning she was so jazzed about Minnie.  

Here was our last breakfast after I told her we had to leave California!