Nan and I made cookies a little while ago. Sugar cookies. Cut-out sugar cookies. Apparently I am overly ambitious in addition to being a glutton for punishment. At least I have cookies to eat while I weep with frustration. She was angry because she was too small to properly control the rolling pin, so I tried to locate her little rolling pin from her kitchen-- alas, it remains MIA. She was frustrated that the cut-outs weren't instantly baked cookies. She became LIVID when the dough would tear. But, she made me laugh with her interpretations of the shapes we cut with the cookie cutters. The gingerbread man was a flower, the mitten was a heart, and the stocking was a shoe. Hee. I shall let her live.

Blergh. It's been a long, long week, as Jay has been away from home 'til almost 10pm every day. He promised to be home for dinner tonight, so Nan and I prepared a fantastic steak dinner, w/ Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes. Yummm. We planned for a 6:30 dinner, so when he called at 6:50 and announced he was on his way home, I was less than excited. He eventually got here, and we had a nice meal. Nan was so happy to see her dad. And I was happy the child finally got a bath. Sandbox day at school didn't help on the filthy kid front. Next week, baths will be even spottier, unless we drag ourselves to Grandma's every other day or so. But, the musical is next weekend, and I'll have my husband back in the evenings. The weekends are still lost, but at least the girl will be clean.
Nan spent much of the afternoon wearing a tutu, ballet slippers, and her Indian headdress that she made at school today. Quite the picture. When she added her WordGirl cape to the mix, it really completed the ensemble. I have been raiding clearance Halloween costumes to give to her for Christmas, to enhance her dress-up box. Thus far, I have scored miniature doctor's scrubs, a Supergirl outfit, a geisha outfit (!), and a cowboy outfit (complete with a duster jacket). Each of those averaged around $5. Woo! I plan to ask my MIL to further enhance the dress-up trunk for Christmas-- she's an amazing seamstress, and I think she'd have fun making costumes for my girl. Plus, costumes are easy to haul back on the airplane. Unlike the life-sized Elmo and Winnie-the-Pooh dolls we got for Nan's first Christmas. (Seriously. The Elmo is enormous. It's STILL taller than she is.)
Oh-- bathtime is over. Time to go read stories. The best time of the day-- snuggling with my clean, sleepy girl.

Sooo... big things have happened. I am no longer employed. Last Thursday morning, I went to get my hair cut and highlighted, and Thursday afternoon, they called to tell me I was being laid off effective 10/31. I don't think there's any correlation between the two events. Anyway. I have new hair, and no job. Good news is I have three and a half months of severance pay to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. But! Trick-or-treating was a stupendous success, resulting in an amazing chocolate stash, as my daughter ate one bag of M&M's on Halloween night and promptly forgot the candy existed. Score! And the Halloween party went well. It was gorgeous outside, so the kids ran themselves silly out on my parents' lawn. It was awesome. The yard was overrun by fairies and pirates and firefighters and Robin Hood and various other creatures. The WordGirl costume was a big hit, and Nan is wearing the cape as I write this. I think she'd sleep with it if I let her.
The best part of my enforced downtime is I get to play with my girl. We went to the playground, and I wasn't checking my watch the whole time, thinking I need to get home to work. (Ok... I /was/ checking my watch... but it was just because I was bored silly after 30 minutes, not because I had to get back to work.)
I did sign up to do NaBloPoMo... but. The layoff, etc, made me a giant FAILURE. I think I'll try to get back on the horse-- I will do my best to post daily for the rest of the month. Stop laughing.