So, the other day I looked up and noticed a truck driving across the lake, followed by another truck. Crazy bastards, I thought, and went back to reading _Go, Dog, Go_.

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Today is St. Patrick's Day. For the first time, I remembered to wear green, and actually had both pants and a sweater clean to do so. I also really played up the day to Raelin and managed to get her into not only green pants, but an adorable green and blue plaid dress to go over it. We took a family photo. There is something about kids and holidays that make them much more palatable (not that Guiness is un-palatable) and besides, it breaks up the daily grind. Anyway, Raelin was really excited about wearing her saint patty's day dress, or at least, she was excited about my excited voice. probably the latter.

We were invited to a St. Patrick's Day potluck. I brought- get this- Guiness Steak Pie. Seriously. Found it on irishfood.com (or something like that). I bought some yummy natural steak, a hunk 'o bacon from the pig formerly known as Emily (for some reason a nametag was included in the packaging. gross to some, but I found it rather comforting that she was thought of enough to be named and well cared for. the info posted about the meat said that she was of an heirloom breed and rather rare. glad i used her bacon for a celebration), and of course, the guiness. browned the meat in butter (yum) then slow-cooked it in the oven in a bath of guiness (yummier) then topped it with a pie crust and finished it off (yummiest). it was well received and quite easy to do. We sang "Old 'Donald" in an Irish brogue on our way to the party and stuffed ourselves in a most delicious and un-nutritious fashion. a successful second St. Patrick's Day for the young lass of the family.

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So... Raelin is a um, unique child. I have already mentioned in a previous post that she often accompanies me to the bathroom. At certain times of the month, she notices that mommy does something a little extra in the bathroom. Enter Tampon Fascination. Now, *everytime* I go to the bathroom, she announced, "mommy change her tampON" repeat. several times. She would really like to " SEEEE it!? HOLD it?!!" but that's where mommy draws the line.

Seems that the other night in the tub, the plastic cow was in need of a tampON. Luckily I was able to duck out of what inevitably was to follow, "mommy... GET it?!....cow....tampON?!"

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We've had a rather social week and went to a potluck at our good friends' house last night. Their daughter is 6 months older than Raelin and they adore each other, but are only just now getting around to actually interacting. They're taking it one step at a time. Well, the other night I was beckoned to follow them upstairs. "C'mon, Elsa" Raelin said as they climed the stairs, much the same way she says, "C'mon, Reg" to the cat when she wants him to follow her at home. Elsa takes on the maternal role and steadies Raelin on the stairs and doesn't say much. When we made our rounds to the bathroom, Raelin wanted to sit on Elsa's potty. Elsa, who is fully potty-trained instantly saw that Raelin needed to pull her pants down to sit on the potty, so she started tugging. I had to help that one along, so now we have Raelin sitting on the potty appropriately. Of course she doesnt' need to pee but needs toilet paper anyway. She wipes and puts it in the potty. I tell her to put it in the big potty. Elsa observes that there's no pee in the potty and tells me so. I concur, but decide to leave out long explanations of why. Raelin takes out her toilet paper and toddles to the big potty. Elsa follows, fastidiously trying to wipe Raelin's butt. Raelin doesn't mind. Raelin drops in her toilet paper and returns to the little potty.

Repeat.
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So, I'll end my little vingettes with this- it was almost 50 degrees today!! I did errands in a sweater, no hat, no jacket. Granted i had on a light wool shirt underneath, but wow, i turned on the classic rock station and cracked the window and it was like, spring. never mind the crusty, nasty old snow piled on the side of the road. there is no turning back now, winter is getting the boot. she might leave kicking and screaming with another few inches of snow just to make her point, but whatever. it was almost 50 today. there is no replacing that euphoric feeling of spring coming after a winter like this. it's kind of indescribable. even the dogs were out in record numbers at the off-leash park where one golden retriever just couldn't stop humping. i tell you, spring fever is in the air.