Sick and Computerless

I have been computerless for almost a week. On Monday while making a new "minimum maintance" list (in keeping with my attempts at improving my house management skills), my screen suddenly went totally black, well, I could kind of see the outline of the documents I had open...long story short, the LCD backlight on my three year old MacBook Pro went out. Apple estimates this to be a quick $600 plus fix (_cough_gasp_shriek_) I am more inclined to buy a regular monitor and loose the portability of a laptop than fork out that cash. Eric thinks he can fix it himself if we can find the part. In the meantime, my blogtime and general internet time is almost non-existent. Seriously, Eric is not on his for maybe an hour of the day (that he's home), and that's usually when we are spending time together. It has been both freeing and isolating at the same time.
Wednesday I got slammed with some kind of fierce head cold. I don't ever remember my sinuses hurting like that. Last night was particularly bad but I seemed to have turned a corner today (well, that and I haven't done anything today but read Northanger Abbey). Jane came down with it in full force on Thursday and so it has been fun. She seems to be showing signs of sinus infection, even though it's kind of early for that. She's had a real difficult time sleeping at night or taking any kind of a nap with all her coughing. It has been an excellent distraction to my own sickness. So far, Eric has only had it a little bit and we're crossing every possible appendage hoping it doesn't get any worse.
Anyway, just letting all y'all know that this blog might very well be silent for a while (as will my general presence in blogland) and certainly there will be no pics or videos till I get my baby back.
Speaking of babies, ours feels totally and completely nameless. I know it's still early, but we can't even come up with ONE name we even kind of like, let alone a list of possibilities...*sigh*

Reasoning Skills

Jane has become quiet adapt at asking for a treat "teet" or a M&M "numanum," both of which mean anything sweet which she particularly likes the taste of like frozen blueberries and medicine. Last night while Eric was getting her ready for bed, helping her brush her teeth, she saw her medicine dropper by the sink and asked for "numanum?" Daddy said "no, that's medicine, you don't need medicine." She then runs into her room and finds the ear thermometer, brings it to Daddy and tries to put it in her ear before asking for help. Daddy does and as soon as it beeps and Jane looks at the numbers she says "numanum?"

Talking

a few of her favorite things- Lammy, Lamkins, and her ducky pajamas...don't mind the dirty rug--
note to self, never by a dark blue rug.

I'm really floored by this talking thing. Jane is at that stage now where she's picking up a new word a day. It started a few weeks ago or so but I thought it was a fluke, she's too young for that, right? The thing is, I have to really think hard at the end of day because it seems like so much new and cute stuff happens all day long. Especially now that Eric is back at the grindstone and gone all the time (well, he sees her for almost an hour before bed and for 5 minutes in the morning). Yesterday Jane came up with "heavy." We were at Lowe's and she had been freaking out until I let her swipe my card and help put in my pin. She helped me push the cart out and then I grabbed the bags and she reached for one, so I handed her the one with the laundry soap in it and she got this very pleased grin on her face and said "heavy, heavy!" I had a hard time talking her into trading me for a bag she could actually lift, but she was so proud of herself for lifting something so "heavy." The thing is, I didn't consciously teach her that! It just came seemingly out of the blue. This morning, she told me she wanted "Kix" for breakfast, not circles (cheerios). And it seems over the last few days she's started learning her colors. Most of the time, she gets blue and yellow correctly and purple and green the other half of the time. She was so proud she found a brown one the other day, too. Anyway, I bowled over this talking thing and this parenting thing and it's just all so darn cool.

Kneeling

Eric has been putting Jane to bed lately and he recently taught her to kneel for her evening prayers. This morning at our family devotional, she showed me her kneeling skills. She was so proud of herself and kept saying "knee!" and pointing to her and daddy's knees. It was incredibly cute, sweet, and touching to see my daughter kneeling next to my husband in family prayer, something I never imagined getting such joy out of.

Elmo

I started this post back before the computer died, and then I wanted to wait to upload the picture. That is her Elmo-watching-face.

So Jane somehow figured out Elmo, too. We don't have any Elmo toys and I've tried to get her to watch Sesame Street a half dozen times or so during that first trimester, but she wasn't much interested. And all of a sudden she is obsessed! Her favorite, most enthusiastic word! When she first shouted it, I didn't even know she knew who he was. She does have a cousin nine months older that loves Elmo, so maybe she's seen it at his house? Crazy!

After a week of tuning into Sesame Street a little more regularly, she also says Abby, Zoe, and Big Bird by name and grunts for Oscar the Grouch. Eric dislikes Elmo's World quite a bit, apparently there is such a thing as TOO silly for one Eric Ludlow (I know, I'm amazed as well). I tolerate it because it means she's not destroying anything for 15 minutes and because she really does enjoy it. Except Mr. Noodle. Sometimes he scares her.

So Much On My Mind...

I have so much on my mind these days that my brain is burning and not in that intellectually exciting way either... But instead of throwing it all up here, I'm just going to post some general silliness here in mostly pictures. Mostly because I'm on my back again and typing sideways and one handed sucks.

Here goes:

My perpetually silly husband began teaching Jane at an early age that tights are also funny hats as this cell phone pic demonstrates.
I didn't find it terribly amusing until Jane asked to put this "hatu" on her head...
In other silliness, Jane has grown attached to this box. Joey was over last week and at one point she got inside and closed the "doors" for a while. She apparently needed space.

We went to the play area in the mall here last week-ish and Jane enjoyed the toys there to some degree, mostly the tunnels and secluded places instead of the slides and stairs.

But her favorite toy was the camera case. Perhaps she is hitting the purse phase early?

And finally, my girly girl has decided she's ready for the spa already. Here she is applying a blueberry yogurt treatment in her hair.