mish-mash

Now that Elliott is nearing full bipedal status, I figured he could use a little more space to play. A few nights ago, I took his big square pen apart and used the pieces to build two fences, one to close the gap between the living room and dining room and one to block access to the fireplace and bookcase. I spent most of today cleaning the floors and shuffling the toys around so that Nico's big boy stuff is safely behind a gate in the playroom and the things Elliott is old enough to share are out where he can reach them. I'm happy with how it turned out, and Elliott greatly enjoyed scattering things all about after his nap.

I don't have a photo, but we bought Elliott his first pair of shoes yesterday and they are so cute. I had hoped to keep him in soft-soled shoes for a while, but because Nico's feet were so much bigger at this age, his hand-me-downs fall right off Elliott's feet. We went to Target to try on new ones and found that his feet are too fat for the 6-12 month size, but far too small for the 12-18 month size. I'm okay with him wearing just socks anytime we're indoors, but with trips planned to state parks and zoos plus a family vacation in the next few months, I wanted him to have some kind of actual shoes to wear outdoors. We got him a tiny pair of size fives with flexible soles (these, in navy) and I made him practice toddling up and down the aisle wearing them and nearly died of the cute.

Our air conditioner is not currently working and I am beyond frustrated about it. We had a brief moment of rejoicing when we thought that replacing a fuse had fixed the issue, but after a brief celebration it became clear something was still amiss. All the working parts were replaced in May 2008, so I'm pretty furious that it has already broken down. I'll be calling the company that did the installation tomorrow to see if there are any warranties covering anything, then I guess we'll find out how much the fix will cost. If I could go back in time, I certainly would not pay to fix the furnace only to have to turn around and fix the air conditioner. Ugh. So cranky!

Spider day at preschool went really well. I read the kids two books and talked to them about how spiders have eight legs and two body parts, then I showed them the tarantula. They loved her and kept going to the table where I'd put her cage to look at her again. I had explained to them that we weren't going to touch the tarantula because its bristly hairs can make us really itchy, but one of the kids really, really wanted to touch the spider. She sidled up to me while I was helping one of the other kids make a spider puppet and whispered, "Miss velocibadgergirl? I want to pet the spider." When I reminded her that we couldn't because it would make us itchy, she earnestly told me, "I want to be itchy." I promised her that I'd find some animals she could touch when the class comes to see me on their field trip in May, and she seemed willing to accept that.