Edith Piap

B.R. 7/30/08

Once again the baby tried to wake me up. Sadly for both of us it was at 6:34 a.m. Needless to say I did not get up, despite the baby's best efforts -- jumping on me, licking my face, doing a dig-dig by my armpit, etc. It's a good thing that she gives up after a few minutes. *And* that she had a big sinkle the night before so none of the little sinkle shenanigans of the previous day.

When I did finally get up, she was of course overjoyed. However, because I think I may be unintentionally spoiling her by playing with her immediately upon entering the living room I waited a few minutes before playing fetch -- and by "a few minutes" I meant as long as it took me to wander around looking for my glasses. I think she was absolutely confused by this little bit of delay. Not to mention, I probably looked a little crazed and aimless as I was still sleepy and couldn't really see anything since I didn't have my glasses on.

Later in the evening -- after getting back from work -- the baby and I took our usual walk around the Heights. After running around Cadman Plaza like a crazy person, the baby very nicely followed me around the running path while being off-leash. She really is very good about being off-leash as her attention did not sway even when we passed a group of annoyingly juvenile construction workers who tried to get her attention by whistling and beckoning in high, sing-song voices.

Live baby report: Digging around her blankie on the floor, perhaps in search of a treat (since I sometimes hide treats there to encourage her foraging skills).

B.R. 7/29/08

The baby tried very had to wake me up this morning. Even though I'd gotten up earlier than usual it still wasn't early enough for the baby. In fact she made two separate trips to the potty for a total of 1 sinkle and 2 yumps in an effort to wake me up. The first time I just wiped her marshmallow and went back to bed. She did not like that very much. I guess this may have influenced her to try for a second time. I don't know where she got the wherewithal to come up with a second yump timed so closely to her first, but she did, and I took this as a sign that I should probably get out of bed (work beckoned anyway). Sadly for her I dashed off after showering and feeding her a quick breaky. Bet she didn't expect that.

Upon my return this evening, I noticed that she hadn't gone potty all day long. Makes sense as she'd probably squeezed out everything she had in her little body during the morning. That said, she did have a very large sinkle that covered up a good third of her wee pad about 2 hrs after I got home. Mind, she only sinkled after she realized that I wasn't going to play but rather take a nap. I'm beginning to think that she uses her potty skills as a tool to get my attention.

Anyway, we were having a lovely day overall until the baby made two unfortunate infractions later during our walk. The first occurred when we encountered a little westie who had been out walking with its owner. The westie had started behind us, and the baby allowed it to pass us only to chase after it for the next half block. That was bad in itself, but the worst part was that in her initial chase she tore her leash out of my hand. The second infraction occurred when we were on our way back. The baby tried to sneak some chickum that'd been thrown on the sidewalk. Bad girl.

Happy Barfday

The baby wishes Enn a very toothy happy barfday:

Manhole Drama

So the baby and I were watching tv a little earlier this evening when we heard a loud crashing sounding coming from the street below. Like good litte rubberneckers we ran to the window to check out the source of the disturbance. I had expected to find an auto accident because I definitely heard some sort of crashing metal sound, but instead saw this:


Well, actually this pic was taken a few minutes after I looked out the window. When I first looked out the guy who's standing next to the hole was down the street getting out of his suv which led me to believe (quite correctly) that he was the one who knocked the cover from the manhole. Anyway, after walked back to the hole, he picked up this long metal beam (seen in his hands), all the while looking really confused.

At the same time this was happening, these two older ladies who'd witnessed the whole thing tried to get the attention of two police officers to address the large gaping hole in the middle of the street. The two officers spoke with the ladies, shook their heads, and walked away:


Luckily, another officer who was dressed like court officer from the courthouse down the street came up and started to block traffic so cars wouldn't keep falling into the uncovered manhole. He also started rolling the overturned cover back to the hole. A short while later, I heard a lot of commotion -- I'd turned away to fix the baby's dinner -- and looked out again. Evidently someone called the fire department who seemed a lot more responsive than the NYPD:


Overall it hasn't been a very good day for the NYPD. Just saying.

B.R. 7/27/08 -- Weekend Wrapup

The baby had a very busy weekend with KJ and BP. The pair had come up for the weekend on Thurs, and the baby had her paws full playing hostess.

On Friday, she showed KJ and BP the Promenade, as well as her athletic prowess as she dared those two to catch her in a game of tag on Cadman Plaza -- they couldn't! While at Cadman Plaza, the baby also met two piaps -- Brownie the dachshund and Collin the bichon frise. Although the baby seemed initially frightened by these two piaps, she soon settled down. She even tried to sneak a sniff or two at both Brownie and Collin -- that is, as each walked away from her. The baby doesn't seem to get that the play pose only works if one is doing it to someone else's face, and not their bum. And what happened when one of these piaps would turn around when the baby got into a play pose behind their respective back? The baby would turn tail and run away. Even still, I think her socialization skills have improved a great deal within the past couple of months. Hopefully by the end of the summer she'll be comfortable enough other dogs that she may even play pose them to their face and not their butz.

Then on Saturday, the baby led the three of us to Aunt Ephanie's for some Bon Chon chicken (and sushi for me) and cupcakes -- all in the name of Enn's B-Day celebration. The baby is amazed that Enn is able to move as well as she does for being as old as she is, but I guess as compared with her 16 months Enn's 384 months must seem quite ancient. And although the baby had a terrific time at the party, she was quite sad that no one wanted to share knuckles with her. That said, she did get to have an extra large piece of chickum in honor of her old muhmuh.

I think the baby must've been tuckered out by the activities of the past several days, because she was -- quite frankly -- a little slow in getting up this morning. Although she got out of bed when I did, I noticed that she deposited herself upon BP's aerobed promptly upon entering the living room. Then later, as I returned to the bedroom after my shower, she took the opportunity to sneak herself back into the bedroom and onto the bed. All day long she's been somewhat lackadaisical in play. She was even a bit slow as we started out on our walk today; though she did put some zing into her steps when we ran around Cadman Plaza like crazy people.

Live baby report -- passed the s out.

A Little (Big) Visitor

Outside the window yesterday... I thought one of the neighbors had thrown something awful outside, like a ciggie butt, but when I checked I found a very pleasant surprise:

B.R. 8/23/08

Thank goodness for the baby. If it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed until well after what was acceptable for work. Turns out that I forgot to set my alarm last night, and with the noise machine on it wasn't like I was going to hear the traffic or anything else that would've woken me up. But never fear, there's the baby. Twice she came into the room to jump on my body/face. I thought she was just getting antsy, since she settled down after the first time and curled up for a little while (I think -- can't be sure cuz you know, I drifted back to sleep). When she did it the second time, I thought that I might as well check the time cuz it seemed as if I'd been asleep for a while. Also, I wanted to check if the baby had sinkled or anything else. As it turned out, she did -- twice! Some bell should've gone off in my head cuz she only acts "pesty" when she wants me to come with her to the b-room so that she'd get praise for going no. 1 or no. 2. She's good that way.

Well, once I check the time I got a little freaked out because it was late!

After a quick breaky for the baby and a little breaky for me -- and a quick game of fetch as a reward cuz she did wake my azz up -- I got to work.

Knowing that it was going to rain today -- supposedly all day though as it turned out it was only early this morning and then again in the evening -- I took the baby out a little earlier than usual for our daily walk. Since it was still daylight out, quite unlike our usual walks, I brought along a camera in case the baby was feeling like posing. She did! Here's the baby on the Promenade (a little Vertigo, dontcha think, that is if vertigo was horizontal and not vertical, well whatever, you get the point) ------>

B.R. 7/22/08

The baby is recovering from a weekend of heat and humidity. However, ever the trooper, she was up for a leisurely stroll this evening. I don't know what the weather people are complaining about, I thought it was perfectly nice out even if the temp was around 85 degrees. There was a nice breeze, esp. by the Promenade.

The baby had a pretty good time I think. We ran into a little fawn colored chi who looked like her mini-me -- a little smaller and a little squatter. Well, actually a lot squatter. Mini-me's muhmuh even said, pointing to the baby, "see, that's what you'd look like if you exercised"; oh, snap. Then later we ran into some other pups from our building: a pit bull named "socks", a great dane named "pansy" and a futz lab whose name I did not catch. The baby did not play with these pups, but rather hid behind my legs. Oh well. At least she didn't growl and snap.

Now the baby is passed the s out. Sometimes when she does this her face gets all smooshed like this:

Two Walks

Yesterday.

Today.

Different routes, similar items of note:

(1) The baby ran like a crazy person in Cadman Plaza.

(2) The baby has a penchant for jumping off of the curb in search of edible or potable garbee.

(3) The baby is still not interested in other dogs except in circumstances where she can sneak up behind him for a stealth sniff.

Yumptastic!

The baby is not one to yump or sinkle in front of anyone. In fact, she will not even enter the b-room to do her business if I'm in there; and if she comes in not knowing I'm in there, she'll turn around and wait until I'm done before coming in. So it was with great surprise that she assumed the yump position during our walk. At first I thought she was just sitting, but then I realized she wasn't sitting but rather squatting -- and that meant one thing and one thing only: YUMP! For those curious as to where this event occurred, just look for the tell-tale sign on the map to the left. Anyway, luckily I had a bag with me as I always bring one just in case the baby ever decided to do her thing outdoors. I wish I had brought a wetnap with me as well, cuz the baby's umm you-know-what wasn't so clean. In addition to feeling happy that she felt comfortable enough to yump in public, I was also quite glad that she did her business outdoors because her yump was not the firmest and I would've hated cleaning that up indoors. Hee.

B.R. 7/10/08

Evidently I did a bad job of hiding the baby's stuffed pig today, because she found it while I was at work and tore the poor thing up. That's one thing about the baby, she loves to chew a couple of holes in her stuffed animuls and then rip out their stuffing. I sometimes wonder whether she's simulating ripping out the innards as she might should she ever get the chance to eat a whole animul, or whether her interest is limited to disemboweling stuffed animuls. Luckily for the two of us, I don't think I'll ever find out the answer to that question. Anyway, since I had a meeting after work, Enn came over to babysit the little beast and so it was she who discovered the remnants of the baby's slaughter of the pig. However, because Enn was so horrified at her discovery, she left the crime scene for me to clean up so I too got a chance to see the terrible scene. Although I cleaned up the wads of stuffing, I'm sure that I'll be finding little tufts of polyfill for days to come.

Although she was a naughty baby, I nonetheless took her out for our nightly stroll -- it's not her fault that her animal instincts have been reduced to the slaughter of stuffed animuls. For a change, we headed towards the park first. I thought that since we were getting such a late start to our walk (it was already about 10:20 p.m. by the time we headed out) I should probably tire her out; and what better way than by letting her run around like cray person in the park (which she did).

We've been back for a little over an hour, and she's still going strong. I wonder if part of the reason is that she's a little hopped up on the bits of coffee she managed to lick off of the street. I know, it's horrible and disgusting, and it's something that's she's only started to do the past couple of days -- that is, find random food items that's been thrown or tossed in the street. Since she used to be so shy about everything and was so easily startled by new things, I tended to let her sniff about at will and explore the various scents we'd encounter during our walks. At first I thought that there'd be no harm in letting her sniff coffee ut now I know that I've got to keep a close eye on her because goodness knows she's not very discriminating.

B.R. 7/9/08

The baby asked for an early release this morning, so I obliged. Who knows what she was doing outside the bedroom for the hour or so? I do, actually, so it's not really rhetorical. You see, the baby returned to the bed to wake me up and when she does that I know that she has something to show me -- and sure enough, she had a lot of potty to show. After receiving her praise, she ran to her bone and gave me a look that said, "well, I did that, so now you do this." And so I did. That's how this morning went.

When I returned home, the baby -- after doing her dance of joy -- seemed rather anxious about something. She played a little fetch, but I could tell that her heart wasn't in it. She did a lot of sighing and looking, and the only thing I could think of was that she might have wanted to go outside. Unfortunately for her, there was heavy rainstorm on its way from Philly, so we had to wait that out. It wasn't until a little after 9 p.m. that the two of us managed to make it outside for our walk. She went a little cray while we were in the park (as denoted by the circle on the map), and paid the price when we returned home by passing the s out for a good hour.

While this is not from tonight, it is illustrative of what one means when one says that the baby is passed the s out:

Chihuahuas of the Air

So I was trying to find the baby's equivalent of a raptor, i.e. bird of prey. The two finalists are the American Kestrel (left) and the Pygmy Owl (right):


I dunno, they're both pretty darn small -- and cute. I just want to eat them.

B.R. 7/8/08

The baby and I had a fitful night because someone at the DOT saw fit to have overnight construction on the street adjacent to our building. I don't know what the purpose was but there were jackhammers, lots of bright lights, and many large trucks including this big truck that ripped and sucked up all the asphalt as it rolled down the street. This is the second or third time that a construction crew has torn up this particular street. I wonder if this is how overtime quotas are being met.

Anyway, although neither the baby nor I had slept all that soundly we were nonetheless able to put forth a smashing effort in our regular morning bout of fetch. I think this was in a large part due to the baby's innate athleticism. She is a very excellent amateur athlete.

Following a quick breaky for her and a showee for me, I was off for the day and so the baby was left to her own devices. Upon my return, I noticed that the baby had not only shifted some of her toys around, but had also uprooted the blanket on her window pillow. I wonder what kind of party she had while I was gone. It's probably better that I don't know.

After a quick meal of a couple of home-made vegetarian zongzi (for me) and chickum and kibbles (for the baby), we were off on our evening stroll. Nothing interesting to report other than that tonight the baby had her first encounter with a NYC rat (!). It occurred on our way through Cadman Plaza. The baby stopped and sniffed about, and while I wondered to myself whether she had spotted a rat (mostly because there were all these signs around about rat poisoning in the grass -- an area that we avoided), this rather large rat poked its head out of the bush not two feet from us. The baby and the rat kinda looked at each other and then each wandered off in the opposite direction. I guess that's better than if they'd gotten into a scuffle because I have a feeling that the baby might not have come out on top.

Live baby report: Sitting on my lap waiting to play.

B.R. 7/7/08 -- Sick Day

No, not the baby, but rather me. I wasn't feeling so well so I stayed home and slept for most of the day. And being the good girl that she is, the baby kept me company throughout. We woke up at 8 a.m., at which time I fed the baby, and then the two of us returned to bed for another six hours. By the time we got up again, it was already mid-afternoon. Although I wasn't feeling up to snuff, I felt guilty about making the baby sleep her day away (though I somewhat suspected that this was probably how she normally spent the day) so I played some fetch before collapsing onto the sofa. Maybe I just needed the rest because by early evening I was feeling much better and not nearly as nauseated as I'd been just 12 hours prior. So, after sharing a mango with the baby, the two of us, to the baby's delight, headed out for our evening stroll.

The Baby's Retreat -- Discovered!

Some of you may been wondering what the baby has been up to the past several days. Is it merely the case that she's taking a needed respite from her busy social schedule? Or is it something more ominous? Has she finally worked herself so deeply into the cracks between the cushions that she's now stuck? Or did she get lost during a game of hide and seek, and is now wandering the building like a lost little soul? Where in the world is the baby???

Well, wonder no more. Evidently the baby has created for herself a home within a home; a little getaway. And where is this new hideaway? Just look -- it seems that she's built herself a nest in the laundry bin:

B.R. 7/1/08

After a weekend of activities, both the baby and I were glad to return to a normal schedule today. But today's Tuesday, shouldn't that have happened yesterday? Well, yes, and no. Yes it was a Monday. No it was not normal -- mostly because I had to leave the baby earlier than usual because of an early morning conference call. (Unbeknown to the baby, I will have to leave even earlier tomorrow; but why spoil things before their time?)

The morning started off well. The baby, as has become her habit, asked to be let out of the bedroom about 7 o'clock; and I obliged. I even came out and opened the shade for her so that she could sunbathe for an hour or so while she waited for me to get out of bed. However, that was not the baby's plan. Shortly after I let her out, she ran back in -- as is my habit nowadays I tend to leave the bedroom door open once the baby has emerged for the day, just in case she wanted to come back to bed. I quickly checked her marshmallow, carried her to the b-room, and praised her while her marshmallow was dabbed. I thought she'd want to stay out and sunbathe, and that her jumping back to bed was merely her way of letting me know that she'd done good; but as it turned out, the baby was ready to go back to bed. She snuggled up and we slept for an additional hour.

It wasn't until later that I realized that the baby must've sneaked back out and had a yump; because what did I find upon entering the b-room? A little yump. Luckily for everyone involved, the yump was very small and very firm. I checked the baby's bottom and it looked as if it was a clean yump. No harm, no foul.

After some extended play and breaky, I left the baby for the day. As usual, as soon as she realized that I was about to leave without her, a look of despondency set in. The baby can work the forlorn look better than anyone. Unfortunately for her, her mama has to earn money for all that chickum the baby loves.

As I felt somewhat guilty about leaving her this morning, I allowed the baby two portions of egg yolk -- one more than what she is normally permitted. Perhaps this was not the best thing to have done, as the baby seemed to have yolk-y vomit for the next several hours. Luckily for me, most of it happened while we were out walking. Hmm.

While we're on the subject of walking, I have to mention that the baby was startled, not once but twice during the walk by fireflies. I'd been seeing them out during our walks for the past couple of weeks, and even tried to catch one so that the baby may see one up close (didn't really work because it wouldn't turn its bum on so I let it fly away). However, I don't think the baby's really seen them until today. The first time she saw it was when one lit up its bum right in front of her eyes. The baby stopped in her track, and looked really confused as she sniffed the ground searching for the shining thing that just flashed before her eyes. The second time she spotted one was while we were on our way back on Henry Street. I'd been walking a step ahead of the baby when I felt a tug on her leash. Looking back, I saw the baby staring at a firefly walking across her path. Too cute!