Something about Cordelia hasn’t been right the past few days. While she’s still playing, and still throwing tantrums with just as much volume, it’s obvious to all who are close to her that something is off. On Wednesday, she took three – THREE – naps. Now, this is a child who barely takes one nap, so three immediately indicates that either she has been replaced by the fairies, or she’s not feeling well.

Other signs have been more subtle. She’s wanted to cuddle more, and while I enjoy this cuddle time, I know her status quo is normally on par with a Hell’s Angels biker in her desire to be clingy and close. She’s also gone from (non-parents, skip the remainder of this sentence and proceed to the next paragraph) hard, well-formed poop to some substance resembling peanut butter in appearance and a decomposing rodent in scent.

The verdict is that we believe she has a “virus”. What that bug is, we don’t know. This to me is one of the hardest parts of parenting. It’s clear my little girl is out-of-sorts, but we don’t really know what’s wrong and worse, we aren’t sure what to do to help her. She can’t talk yet beyond a few words, so she has no way of communicating her woes to us. She doesn’t seem ill enough to waste a trip to the emergency room or urgent care. Anyone else have a child suffer from what can best be described as a mediocre virus? How do you know when it’s time to pester the pediatrician?

Today was Black Friday, when people everywhere give in to commercialism to venture out into the cold and pre-dawn morning, while trying to push and shove and trample their fellow human beings, all for a good deal. Yep, we did it too. I’ll admit, even I can have sheep mentality sometimes (but only for a good deal, honest! Poor folks can’t pass up $6 DVD’s!).

We started yesterday by buying a paper and grabbing the ads (News? Who cares what’s going on in the world – there’s shopping to be had!). We planned our shopping trips and made our lists.

Aaron’s scores for the day:

Kodak photo printer, at Target, so my mom can finally have copies of all the digital pics I take of her granddaughter. He also grabbed a game for Aaron’s brother and a DVD for us.

Then he fought his way over to Wal-Mart, where the first rush had already passed, and picked up two Little People sets for $10 a piece! Yay for cheap toys!

After he came back, I braved the cold for a trip to Old Navy. While I found a lot of great $10 deals, I wasn’t as lucky as Aaron with the crowds. I waited in line to checkout for one hour and fifteen minutes. Yep, I typed that correctly, one hour and fifteen minutes. The line went around the entire store.

Want proof? Here’s my position in line, 45 minutes into it. Notice the light at the end of the line? That’s the exit, and the checkout.

Good deals? Yep. Crazy? Hell yeah.

Ah, Thanksgiving. A day of rest and relaxing with family. Well, that is, if your family is all in one place. For me, the husband and toddler, this meant a day driving to and from the houses of various family. You see, there’s a small clause in the contract you sign when you become a parent (you didn’t know about the contract? It’s hidden among your hospital discharge papers!) that says that once you are the proud owners of your own mini human, you are obligated to travel to see all family members in an 8-hour radius for each holiday.

So we started the day travelling south one hour to see my mom and her side of the family. We had Thanksgiving dinner there, stayed and chatted for a bit, then packed up and headed out. We then drove north, right past our house and to the other end of Columbus to have another dinner with my dad and his side of the family. While I’m certainly glad my parents are divorced, I do wish I didn’t have so many different families to see.

After our second dinner in 4 hours, we stayed and talked to them a bit before once again packing up and driving through the snow to Aaron’s family gathering. Luckily, his mom’s side of the family already had their gathering on Sunday, so we were spared another stop beyond this. We enjoyed our third dinner in 6 hours (yes, I’m about to be sick at this point), and stayed for about an hour before packing up and heading home to put the Bear to bed.

All in all, it was a tiring day. Travelling to three different houses with a 14 month old has got to be a form of torture in some countries. She requires time to adjust to new surroundings, but didn’t get that time, and instead was forced to have relatives she barely knows up in her face loudly talking baby talk and generally making asses of themselves. As you can probably imagine, the crankiness that eminated from her today reached new highs. And I got very tired of the questioning. Had I had the chance, I should have prepared note cards to hand out to everyone with the following statement:

Happy Thanksgiving dear family member!! No, Cordelia is not walking on her own yet. She can take a few steps, but probably won’t show you, no matter how much you beg. Yes, we understand we’re in for it once she starts walking. Yes, she’s a very good crawler. Yes, she sleeps through the night most nights. Yes, she’s usually this fussy. No, the doctor says her height and weight are on the upper end, but are perfectly normal for her age. She can say a few words, like kitty and socks. And no, there are no plans for another child yet. Thank you.

That would have saved a lot of time. Then again, there would have been nothing left to talk about after that.

Still, I have to say that I am thankful for the family we have. Without them, life would be so much harder for us, and the support they give us with Cordy is a godsend. I’m also thankful to have a healthy little girl who is the light of my life, as well as a husband who is loving and patient and such a good daddy. I’m thankful for our wonderful home, for our three crazy but cute cats, our dear friends, and for our jobs that keep food on the table. Life is good.

A message to Ohio drivers on the eve of Thanksgiving:

Hi everyone. Most of you have lived in this state for more than one year, I’d guess. Therefore, you know what Ohio weather can be like, and understand that our unofficial motto is, “Ohio: Don’t like the weather? Wait 5 minutes.” So it should also come as no surprise that while Ohio celebrates all four seasons, it doesn’t necessarily throw them at us in the correct order.

Yes, it was beautiful two days ago, sunny and warm in the 50’s. But today it’s snowing. A lot. Now I know that sometimes that takes a little adjustment, but you’ve all been through this. I know you didn’t learn to drive only on clear, sunny days. Surely you can remember how to drive in the snow by the time you reach the end of your driveways.

And yet you still can’t figure it out. You still drive like idiots, causing massive backups, traffic jams, and accidents, all because of a little snow (or rain the rest of the year). I’ve noticed that you tend to fall into one of two categories:

The fraidy-cats: You’re probably the ones who used to live in the south and never saw snow before, or maybe you were raised to be scared of anything. I don’t know, but why must you drive twenty-friggin’-miles-an-hour on the highway? OK fine, 25 miles an hour if you’re right behind the salt truck. Yes, the road is slick when it’s snowing, but going that slow is actually more likely to cause an accident, since those of us who drive at reasonable speeds have to slam on our brakes to avoid running over you like a speed bump, which then makes us skid. Oh, and please, if you do speed up, don’t slam on the brakes the minute you start to go over a bridge – that just makes it worse.

The invincibles: Of course you love to drive fast – you’re either 18 and have no sense of your own mortality because you only read the Cliff Notes of The Great Gatsby in school or you’re a 40-something man driving your mid-life crisis sports car trying to prove you still have testosterone even though your hair is running for the border. I don’t care – it’s SNOWING, you idiots! Driving 80 mph and weaving in and out of traffic is a sport for a sunny summer day, not a snowstorm. And while I could care less if you want to wrap your ribs around the smashed up melted plastic bits of your steering wheel and an unsuspecting tree, I do have a husband and a daughter I want to get home to see, and if I wreck and die because of you, I will gladly spend my afterlife kicking your ass.

So, to all my fellow Ohio drivers: please drive carefully this holiday weekend. Snow does require more caution when driving, but it doesn’t mean you can’t drive at a reasonable speed. Just use your brain, people.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I really don’t know why I buy toys for this kid. On Thursday, she spent 30 min. – yes, 30 min! – climbing all over me while I laid on the floor and looked at a magazine. There isn’t a single activity or toy she spends 30 min. on, but apparently the Mommy Floor Gym is the Toy of the Year in our house.