Foreshadowing

My favorite kind of schoolwork growing up was literary analysis. Right up until I graduated college I loved writing papers which elaborated on the personification, alliteration, allusion, and any other device that made a story work. One of my personal favorite literary devices was foreshadowing. I loved (and still love) when an author takes a mundane detail and mentions it or highlights it and leaves the reader wondering, "Now, why did she point that out here and now? What's the significance?" That's when I file that detail away, expecting to see it play a major role right at the crux of the story's theme. aha!
Well, if I thought my life was anything like a novel then I should have seen this one coming. This morning, Texan made himself some scrambled eggs with cheese. I was horizontal on the couch trying to pay attention to the Today show as Scarlett bid good morning to her toys. Then Texan said, "Oh, that's not ketchup. That's chili sauce. That would've been gross on my eggs." I didn't respond. But I was listening. That one sentence stood out to me. I just wasn't awake enough to wonder why.
Later that morning while washing some dishes, I looked over to see Scarlett had reached up onto the kitchen table and pulled down the bubble machine I had recently bought. The floor was now flooded with liquid bubbles and she was kicking her feet in the slimy puddle. I changed her clothes and put her down for a nap. This was incident #1.
When she woke up we played outside. She sat in her swing as I played her Disney Pandora station and folded laundry on the patio. She ate lunch. Then we went on a nice long walk with our neighbor and her new baby. When we got inside I was shaking from hunger. It was already 2 o'clock and I hadn't eaten lunch. As I opened the fridge to put some shredded cheese on my salad it happened. Texan had grabbed the chili sauce from the fridge and put it back in the wrong place. He had put it where the ketchup normally goes--on the bottom rung of the refrigerator door. CRASH. In the time it took me to open the cheese drawer Scarlett had grabbed the bottle, holding by the lid, raised it up in the air and dropped it. It was a brand new glass 140oz bottle of chili sauce, which looks just like ketchup but smells 10x more intense. It was now all over my feet along with tiny shards of glass. I lifted Scarlett of the floor and inspected her piggies, which were perfectly clean. She smiled. I sat her in the living room and barricaded the kitchen with the ottoman. Instead of eating lunch I sopped, swept, wiped, and mopped the mess of the floor for what felt like an hour. I wish I had seen the foreshadowing. Incident #2
After I ate lunch it was time for Ellen, which I was only half paying attention to because her guests were sort of sub-par today. I don't remember what I was doing but I looked up to see Scarlett looking out the front storm door as she loves to do. Then about five minutes later Scarlett began to cry hysterically, which she never does without reason such as a fall or a pinched finger or toe. I ran over and saw a giant wasp or bee or yellow jacket (What is the DIFFERENCE?) floundering on the threshold and Scarlett was holding up her little pointer finger, which was swollen and red. She didn't want me to touch it. I immediately administered Benadryl, called my sister (because my niece has had bad reactions to insect bites), called her doctor, and while awaiting a return call I rang my friend who is a pediatric nurse. By the time her doctor called back and told me to give Benadryl and hydrocortisone Scarlett was asleep in my arms. After laying her in her crib, I located one of her newborn mittens from her sock drawer, covered her finger in the cream and slipped on the mitten. She didn't even stir. Naturally, I took a picture too. She looked so exhausted--she rarely takes 2 naps anymore--so I figured the exhaustion stemmed from the meds and the extra fresh air and mischievousness. Incident #3 to round out the day.
By 9:15pm she was still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which Texan loved because he got to spend extra time chasing her around the living room and calling her "Stink" as he does. So, she stayed up late. But today had its victories too. Not only did her finger go down in swelling, but she drank cows milk today! I have, in the past, not been able to get Scarlett to drink. Water, milk, juice, smoothies--she won't have it. She will only drink if she is sharing from my cup and drinking like a big girl. Which is just a giant mess in the end. But this past weekend she finally took to--of all things--the bottle! She has drank almost an entire container of apple juice over the past three days. That is huge for her. And tonight she drank 4 ounces of whole milk from the bottle. I am so excited. She still won't drink water from her bottle and when I give her a cup she will take only a few sips then throw it. But since she has never been a bottle drinker expect on a few special occasions, I am okay with this. I could really care less that we had a rough day filled with messes and medicine, I just wanted to jot this day down in history so I can look back at it. If every day was this hectic I would still never trade being her Momma for anything. She is my girl and I love spending my days with her.

Scarlett's First Birthday

We were without a computer from the beginning of the new year up until a couple weeks ago, and now I can finally blog Scarlett's first birthday!

Usually I blog from my phone so long as I can get all my pictures from my phone, but in this case I have a ton of photos on my camera that I needed to upload.

As you may know, Scarlett had surgery the day before her birthday party. My mom came into town to help me out, and I can't imagine what I would've done without her here. On Scarlett's birthday I went to the church early to set up for the party and had some help from my friend, sister and brother-in-law, while my mom stayed home making tea sandwiches and holding down the fort while Scarlett napped. When it was time for the party, I went home to find Scarlett freshly bathed and all dressed in her tutu and matching onesie, even right down to her matching bow and glitter shoes. My mom had the diaper bag all packed and my sweet birthday girl had a full belly and was even strapped into her car seat and ready to go. I have literally never see Scarlett ready to leave the house when I wasn't the one who did it. My mom not only had helped prepare all the food for the party, decorated cookies, baked desserts, but let me have a break from the stuff I have done every day for the past year without imagining what it would be like to have a break. Someone fed my daughter lunch, bathed her, put lotion on her, dressed her, put her in her carseat. I just have to relive it one more time. Ok. Now for some pictures. We had the party in our church fellowship hall surrounded by friends and family including my sister and her family, my dad, Texan's mom and Nanny, and of course my mom. Sadly I made the party plans not knowing if Texan would have the day off--because his first day at his new job was only five days prior to Scarlett's birthday. And he ended up having Friday off, which was nice because he got to see Scarlett in the hospital and be there for that big milestone. So he ended up missing the party. But since I have known him he has never made a big deal out of a holiday, birthday, or otherwise. So I am not under the delusion that he lost much sleep over missing the party, especially since Scarlett won't remember that he wasn't there. I think he would've been more hurt if she had been old enough to say, "You're not coming to my birthday party, Poppa?" with a sad little face. But that won't ever happen!

The party theme was Enchanted Tea party and the colors were pink and gold. Scarlett was showered with tons of summer clothes which I cannot wait to see her in. The weather has not warmed up at all despite it being March, so I haven't been able to see her in any of them yet. But I can't complain because she is still very much in 12-mo size and the summer clothes everyone got her are 18-month. At Scarlett's 12-mo visit she was at 15% for weight and 65% for height. So, she' very tall and slender and fitting just fine in all of her 12-month clothes, which I love because I am going to be very sad to see some of her adorable winter outfits go into storage bins in the attic. I hope I have at least one more girl some day so I can see her in these same outfits. Now, onto the photos.