Various Updates

I never wrote about Day 3 on Trip from Hell. It involved making several trips to obtain many continental breakfast items and taking 4 hours to drive what should have been a 2 hour trip. Spending 40 minutes getting "fast food" from McDonalds. Having to stop at another McDonalds 30 minutes away from our final destination for a last bathroom break. Having to stop at a Wendy's 10 minutes away from our final destination to get everyone consolation Frosty's which promptly melted in the 100 degree weather, along with all of our hopes, dreams and optimism. Arriving at Mom's. Unloading. The minivan, which had been professionally cleaned only 3 days before, now made T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland look like Disney World. Kelly and I indulged in a beer with the disapproving look of our grandmother and implored my father to drive us home. He did. We did not talk to one another for several days.

Several games of Scrabble ensued.

All of this is a moot point now because G has come and left. She flew back home. First class. Wonder why.

So we have turned to other pursuits to keep us busy. My garden is flourishing and I spend much of my time scouring the Internet for uses for squash. Yesterday, Tilda & I made Ginger Zucchini Cupcakes with Ginger Icing. Yes, you read that right. No, you cannot unread it. They weren't bad...but were odd. Very odd.

I also made a terrific squash casserole. Yummiest thing I have made in a long time.

Soon I will be looking for uses for tomatoes but I have at least one idea-seeing as how Mike and a bunch of people are working on a zombie movie, I think tomatoes would make good pulpy (and tasty!) gore. Even if they don't start filming until October-green, moldy tomatoes would be even better gore, right?

It's hard to believe it will be August this week and even harder to believe October is only two months away. This year has really flown by-uncomfortably so. I have real fear that I will blink my eyes and be an 86-year old widow living in a house by myself and waiting to die. I know I will be a widow because Mike is jerky enough to die before me, I just know it.

Friday is Tilda's 3rd birthday and the prospect of being a mother to a 3 year old is not helping. I can't really call her a baby anymore (and no, I refuse to be one of those mothers who say that my child "...will always be my baby." And yes, Ma, I am referring to you!)

That said, it has been really neat to see her become so...lucid, for lack of a better word. She remembers things very clearly, is starting to develop an imagination, and she has entire conversations with me, which I can actually follow. Such as this morning when she woke up:

Me: Good morning, Tilda.
Tilda: Morning, Mama. Where's Daddy?
Me: At work.
Tilda: At Batman-movie? (she has been watching a lot of Justice League. And Mike and I have been talking non-stop about The Dark Knight.
Me: No, Daddy doesn't work at Batman movie.
Tilda: At Superman-movie?
Me: No, Daddy works in Virginia.
(Eventually, she will understand that her Daddy is not as exciting as she may have initially thought.)

We have some version of this conversation almost every morning.

So, back to birthday. I'm not any good at planning these parties. At this point, the plan is to have cake and a little wading pool set up for Tilda. She has only asked for one thing-a tricycle, and that has been taken care of. So, open presents too. Family only. I hope she will have a fun, Tilda-centric day.

We were going to do a WALL-E themed birthday but found a great deal on Batman birthday decorations, so we are going for that. She likes Batman too. And all the WALL-E stuff really sucks. Besides, she likes any movie at this point. She's definitely her father's daughter. Even right now, she is watching Peter Pan or, as she calls it "Pita Pan."

So I will be spending the next few days looking for Batman-themed appetizers and fretting about my inadequacy as a mother. If you are lucky, I won't write about it.