Long Time

As has been noted by my readership, all what? 4 of you? I have been rather absent from my blog of late. Perhaps you are wondering why. Perhaps not. Regardless, I will tell you why. It is because the month of April is prep for marriage month here in Happy Valley. We have two universities here and Mormons being what they are, they like to get married as soon as school lets out. Which means hell on earth for those of us in the wedding business. Marriage is supposed to be a joyous time, a binding of two people forever. But, whatever joy the lovely people may or may not be experiencing, the majority of them do not choose to share it with me. Instead, they choose to share their worst side. I don't really understand why I am still in this business, but I am. Oh well.

On top of the regular workload at the bridal shop, I have had several emergencies, as well as my usual side work. Now, the side work has actually gone fairly well and my brides were quite pleasant for the most part. The people involved in the emergencies were also pretty nice. It waws the others that make me want to tear out my hair. Them and their moms. Heehee. That sounds like a childish insult. Oh yeah? Your mom!

Brides think that they are the most important person in the world at any given time. I could be half dead with swine flu and they will still be angry with me if I have to postpone their fitting for a day or two. See, that is another problem with brides in Utah. They don't plan things in advance. In the rest of the world you have to plan for a good 6 months or so to get a dress and have it altered. In Happy Valley, some of them wait until a week or two before the wedding to take care of things. I have had brides pitch some serious fits at me because I charge them a paltry rush fee if they want their alts done in less than two weeks. Most weeks this month I have had in excess of 30 gowns to alter. They don't care. I still have to get theirs done or all hell breaks loose and they think that I am horrible if I don't. Ergh. So annoying. I hate brides right now. Here are some of my side brides, though. I like them.

The Small One loves to help with the wedding gowns. She sticks lots of pins in that I occasionally forget to remove.

In other news, a few weeks ago we took a trip to St. George to visit the in-laws. Michael's grandmother and uncle were coming in for a visit and, quite franky, I seriously needed to get into some warmer weather and sunshine. As always, Southern Utah delivered. Hoorah! I did NOT want to come home. Whilst there, we celebrated The Small One's second birthday. Can you believe that? Second birthday? Where the heck did the time go? Here are some pics from the delightful event.

Here is The Small One holding her much younger cousin, Adyn. The camera angle makes Adyn look a lot bigger than The Small One, which she isn't. But nearly as big. ;)

Speaking of The Small One and St. George, she made friends with Mike's Uncle Larry and likes him VERY much. The Small One is extremely picky about the people she chooses to friend, so this is a minor miracle. In fact, she continues to talk and sing about him with relative regularity. Although, she calls him Grandpa Larry, but he said that is okay.

Small One also got to go horse riding with Aunt Kaytee and Uncle Josh. That was terribly exciting and a little frightening for her, at first. Then Aunt Kaytee got on the horse with her and all was well. The Small One is an adorable little horsewoman, but heretofore had only ridden ponies. The largeness of the horse was a bit off-putting for one so wee. I think I will make her a little pair of jodhpurs and get her some proper English riding boots. We are not cowboys, you know. I would happily post some pics of the adventure, but they are on Mike's camera, which is currently not in my possession. (Speaking of Possession, have you seen that movie? Excellent bit of cinema.)

The Small One retains her humour. Or at any rate, still makes me laugh. She is quite naughty, as usual. I think that will likely never change. Lately, with me working so much and Mike being gone to Super Sekrit Scout Camp two weekends in a row, she has been more fractious than usual. Bless my mother, she is without a doubt earning the paltry salary we pay her for watching The Small One. A few days ago, we (meaning me, Small One, my mom, my stepdad and my nephew, Small One's BFF, Ethan) all went to The Pizza Factory for dinner. Small One was oddly wired, not sure why, maybe because I came home at a decent hour. Anyhoo, during dinner she was all over the place and I was constantly telling her to sit down, turn around, be quiet, eat your dinner. You know, the usual. All to the entertainment of the older couple seated nearby... I was very tired and overworked and rather short on patience. Finally I grabbed her arm and got right in her face to tell her if she didn't start to behave there would be some serious consequences. Well, right as I got to her face, what do you suppose she did? She LICKED me! Just stuck out the tip of her wee little tongue and licked my nose and lips. Well, that did it. I couldn't stay annoyed. Being the bad mamma that I am, I dissolved into giggles. As did everyone else at the table. Sigh. I can't win.

The Small One went in for her two year well baby checkup earlier this week. I had high hopes for her weight gain, but as usual, they were dashed. She weighs just over 20 lbs. Seriously. She is still right on her curve, growing at a normal rate, just well below the chart. Height-wise, she is still a tall little thing. Right around the 50th in height. Her head? Yep, still ginormous for her size. 75the percentile. Still deserves the nickname lillypop. She is a stick with a big round ball on top. Her gross motor skills are about average, meaning she can run and jump with no great agility. Part of the lack of gross motor skill stems from a Tibial Torsion. Sounds bad, but isn't really a big deal. Just means her tibia is slightly twisted, which makes her foot turn in as she runs. You can actually watch it happen, as she runs along, her right foot slowly turns further and further in until she actually falls over it. Doesn't seem to bother her, she gets right back up and carries on. But it does mean she doesn't run and jump as well as she could. At any rate, she will outgrow it.

Check this out. She is too lazy to hold her bottle, (is that a gross motor skill?) so she propped it on kitty so kitty could hold it for her.

Her fine motor skills are well ahead, as usual, as is her mental development. Nurse April asked if she could use two word phrases and I laughed. The Small One speaks in sentences. She also likes to use big words. Last week, daddy installed new smoke detectors in the house and inadvertantly set one off. It scared the goodness gracious out of The Small One and when I came home from work, she told me all about it. "Moke Detecka, mamma." Uh, what? "Moke Detecka make sad! I cry!" Mike translated. The Smoke Detector made her sad and she cried. Now, it is her favorite word. When we went over to Memma's to see Ethan, she bent down in front of him and said "E-e, moke detecka. Say it. Moke de-teck-a"' She made sure to enunciate very clearly so he could learn to say it as well. I got tired of hearing the word and am trying to teach her hippopotamus instead, but she doesn't seem interested. Apparently, hippopotamus is just not as cool. I could try to teach her pneumonultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but it might be a bit beyond her. (Are you impressed? I learned how to spell that in seventh grade science as the bonus word on all spelling tests for the year. It is a lung disease.)