Category: Calliope

This is a pretty horrible story, as far as it concerns my parenting skills, but it is hilarious and I swore to record it somewhere, so here it is.
I’m sitting in the living room with Calliope and Frida (our lovely cat).  Just doing the normal morning type of things like crawl around, play with toys, make lots of noise and generally lounge around the living room.  At some point, Frida starts making that half choking noise that she makes when she is about to heave out a nice hairball along with some bile type juices.  I jump up immediately and remove her from the nice area rug to the wood floor where she proceeds to make a mess.  As usual, it is pretty nasty, so my first thought is to clean it up as soon as possible.  I glance over my shoulder and see Calliope looking in my direction curiously and I think to myself… “I will just pop into the kitchen really quick, grab some paper towels and be back before she even knows I’m gone”.  And that is exactly what I tried to do…
Much to my dismay, when I returned from the kitchen, not even a whole minute later, there was Calliope with one finger smearing hairball and all associated juices around.  I just caught her arm before her finger made it to her open mouth.  But that only saved me from “seeing” the horrid event.  There is no telling how many times she had already stuck her finger in there.  And while I was happy not to experience the actual, I took no chances, scooped her up and proceeded to the kitchen to wash her mouth out with soap.
What in tarnation would make me think she couldn’t get across the room that quickly?  Or even better, what made me think that she wasn’t paying attention?  After all the commotion I caused in order to get Frida off the area rug and onto the hardwood floor, of course Calliope was interested.
Se la vie…  We all make our mistakes.  I hope some of you laugh at this heartily and then skip going through it yourselves.  Learn a lesson, please.  Just the image of her finger makes me want to puke up my own hairball… ew!

For all you pirate fans out there!  We finally got some rubber duckies for Calliope to play with in her bath.

The crawling has begun

Just having fun in the park

Calliope hung out with Camille today and came home very happy, full and rested! I am feeling better, so I got to hang out with her for a bit. Catherine sent us this cute photo today of them playing with the “computer”.

Yesterday, we were all set to go do our Christmas shopping for each other.  We had decided to just do it together but have been having a hard time finding the time to do it.  Well, yesterday was it supposedly.  But of course, I woke up and didn’t feel all that well.  I persevered through coffee and Calliope’s first nap.  I even posted some items on craigslist for sale and straightened my desk so I could see just how much work there is to do!  By the time Michael and I were ready to walk out the door, which can take an eternity these days, I just couldn’t do it.  I was tired, my head hurt, my throat was on fire and I just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the comfort of home for a rainy day out with the family shopping.  Yes, I passed on shopping to stay home and drink tea lined with whiskey and watch two of the four Resident Evil movies featuring Milla.  A true testament to the fact I was not feeling well.
Michael was awesome.  He took Calliope with him and they did some shopping of their own, including bringing me some less expensive whiskey to put in my tea!  He continued to care for Calliope the rest of the day so that I didn’t get her sick again.  It seems we have been passing things back and forth for about a month and a half at this point.  Incredulous, and tiring.  At the same time, several persons responded to my craigslist ads for the bed and coffee table.  Yippee!  Money!  AND space!
Again, Michael was awesome and we took down our old bed and finally put up the upholstered headboard that I had custom made about 6 months ago and the West Elm bedframe (which was a total bit@h).  I’m so happy.  It just feels less cluttered than the sleigh bed which had a foot board.  The new frame does not.  Bliss.  Unfortunately, our buyer didn’t show up when he said he would.  In fact, he never showed up 🙁  The old bed is in the hallway.
And Michael had to wake up every time Calliope did in the middle of the night because I was zonked out on flu meds and whiskey.  And this morning, I feel only slightly better.  My mood is certainly better and my head is not as congested, but my throat still feels like a fire truck ran through it and then forgot to put out the fire it came for in the first place.  I’ll go see the lovely Greg (doctor) today and get it sorted.  Calliope is going to the babysitter, last minute, so as not to catch whatever I have.  Michael is dealing with her this morning, feeding, changing, packing her up to be gone for the day.  I refuse to touch anything for fear of contamination.  Some lovely friends suggested a hazmat suit via facebook.  Something tells me that will be hard to find.  Though I do live in SF.

Frida will do anything at this point to get attention! Poor
thing…

The prevailing thought that enters my mind is how happy Calliope is…  She is always smiling.  Maybe its just me…  or just me and Michael, but she seems so happy 90% of the time…  And that smile is just awe inspiring goodness.