Of Batteries and Babies

It's been an eventful last 2 days.

To begin, my car wouldn't start after work on Monday. My battery was dead. I must have bumped an overhead light getting Harper out of the car and it was on all day and drained the battery. Not really a big deal in and of itself. However, I stayed later than I usually do at work and only had 20 minutes to get over to Harper's baby school before it closed. Not the best time frame to try to find someone to jump your car. Luckily, one of my co-workers had jumper cables. But, when we went to connect the cables, we couldn't find the battery in my car. I know it sounds silly, but it's true. To my credit, there were some complicating factors such as a dark parking garage and the fact that I was stressed about getting to baby school in time. And, the battery in my car is not in an obvious place. Here, see for yourself. This isn't a picture of my car, but it's the same model and year. Can you find the battery (in the dark and under stress)?

It's not obvious, is it? It's hiding under the nondescript black cover thing in the very back.

In the process of looking for the battery, I accidently broke off a corner of the engine cover thing. Rob was not happy.

Anyway, we finally got the car started (which took several attempts - making us think that it may be a more serious problem than just the battery. But I said a prayer on the last attempt and it started.). Needless to say, I was a little late to pick Harper up. But I called them when I discovered that my car was dead to let them know I was probably gong to be late and they were fine with it (I love Harper's baby school).

The next bit of excitement came when I picked Harper up. Her teacher told me that she was running a temperature. She started getting some congestion on Sunday, but it wasn't anything serious. Just typical baby school induced crud. But by Monday night, she had a fever of 102. So, yesterday, I took her to the doctor and stayed home with her the rest of the day. No ear infection and her lungs are clear. Just a virus of some sort. Good news, all things considered. She's a little better today, but still not well enough to go back to school. Our friends, Laurie and Ed, volunteered to hang out with her so that I could go to work. So awesome. Harper loves them and I know she will have a good day.

The morals of this story are:

1. pray on the first attempt, not the last one

2. try to be more gentle with engine covers to avoid your husband's wrath

3. be thankful for friends who like your kid almost as much as you do and who are willing to hang out with her even when she's sick

The end.

Monday Morning Conversation

Harper and I had this conversation this morning. It's pretty typical of most of our conversations these days - ie. singing, removing of socks and shoes, and cookies are usually involved.

Hot Pockets

Earlier this week, I made the horrible decision to eat Hot Pockets for lunch. Never again will I repeat this mistake. However, the silver lining was that my friend reminded me of this hilarious bit that Jim Gaffigan does about Hot Pockets.

Conjoined Banana Twins

Last night Harper and I wanted a snack. So, I decided to cut up a banana. On the outside, this banana looked like all the other bananas except that maybe it was a little bigger. But, when I cut into it, I realized that we had something special! It was a conjoined twin banana - 2 bananas that were fused together! I knew it was a conjoined twin because it had 2 seed clusters (I have no idea if that's what you call them, but it works). I took a picture to show you!

I went online and found that twin bananas are fairly common. Here are some more pronounced examples.

Pretty cool! I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for more conjoined fruit and vegetables. I know. I have such an exciting life. You're jealous, aren't you?

Following Directions

Recently, I realized that I drink very little liquid of any kind throughout the day. I usually have a Coke first thing in the morning, but other than that, not so much. So, I bought a new water bottle in the hopes that it would inspire me to drink more water throughout the day. This is the kind I got. I like it. It's BPA free and it doesn't leak and it's pretty (and it was on sale big time at Target).

This morning, I decided to fill my water bottle up with Coke Zero instead of water. The directions that came with the water bottle said not to do this (yes, I read the directions for a water bottle). They said that because the bottle seals, if you put pop (or soda for those of you who don't speak Yankee) in it, pressure could build up and bad things could happen. I chose not to listen to the directions and did it anyway. The directions were correct.

Rise and Shine

Sometimes, you just don't want to get out of bed. Sleeping in must be an innate desire rather that a learned one - which is good news for those of us that like to sleep in. It's not our fault. It's in our genes.

Also, for those of you who think it's a good idea to just let your grandkids come up with a name to call you, take a lesson from Harper. The name she came up with for my mom is Da-Dom. Not something sweet like Nanna. Da-Dom. I don't know if it's going to stick or not, but so far it has.

Bullet List Monday

I don't know why I like to do bullet lists on Monday mornings. It's probably because my brain is functioning at about 30% and I can only process short snippets of information. So here goes...

• I think John Mayer's music is brilliant. However, I'm not very fond of him as a person. Well, I guess I should say that I'm not fond of his public persona because I obviously don't know him personally. Sometimes I have a hard time reconciling this. Does anybody know what I'm talking about.

• My daughter takes her shoes and socks off 3 seconds after we get in the car - every time we get in the car. I love this new pattern. I'm being sarcastic.
• MLK Jr. got it right.