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(But I'm not going to tell you about the box until tomorrow, because I want to surprise the husband with the contents and he reads this. I will tease a little and say that I told Guppy it was mine, and she howled, "GIMMEE BACK!")

Met with one of the contractors today, hauled lilacs home and planted them. Have otherwise been dancing attendance on a small monstery monster. She remains largely bribe-able with watermelon, and I can still tuck her under an arm, so that's a plus. "I'm too HEFFY," she says when I pick her up, with an admirable echo of my own 'oof!'

Have a picture of the Ninja Batman Porch Dance:



For contrast, we also have Sad Baby in Pink Blanket:



She woke up on the wrong side of the crib after her Very Long nap yesterday and just cried and cried and wanted nothing but hugs and reassurance, in a very un-Guppy-like way. It took about 30 minutes to get her calmed down to just sad, and we cuddled for a while in my chair. "Do you want my happy hat?" I asked her.

"No," she replied with a tragic sigh. "I'm wearing pink blanket."

She cheered up a bit after food, and we watched The Little Mermaid.

Which... hmph. I loved that movie, though I was considerably older than Guppy when I saw it. I remember that a little girl I babysat twice a week while I was in middle school had the video (and very few other choices), and I would watch it nearly every night after she went to bed. I could still sing most of the songs. But as role models go? Goodness. She certainly was a snotty, entitled, self-important little crybaby, wasn't she? Still, it's a pretty movie, and now Guppy has some context for the Ariel pull-ups she likes best.

In better news from yesterday, I got to catch up with a local friend, and that was lovely. I also got this and am so happy I snagged it. It is even more gorgeous in person.

Alright, naptime is a-wasting. Back to the coloring book saltmines for me! I would like to launch the Kickstarter next week, so hold onto your britches!

So my tabletop gaming group pitched in together and bought me this: Jeep Overland Jogging Stroller.

I have no intention of jogging with it - a back injury means my chances of ever jogging again are slim to none... and it also makes baby-wearing problematic. But this thing ought to be marketed as an Amazing, Fantastic, Offroad, Hiking Stroller for the not-as-athletic-as-they-ought-to-be, and that's how I use it.

I am stretching its intended window use a bit - it is meant for babies that can sit up under their own power, which Elsa can't quite do yet. But I was able to cinch in the straps enough that I felt comfortable taking her out - and subsequently took her over some seriously pitched terrain - and she seemed happy and safe. I took her, and my sister, plus three dogs, out for our first trial a few weeks ago, and never looked back.

That first trip, we went over rough trail - lots of exposed roots, sharp turns, washouts - with no trouble. At the risk of sounding like a US Postal commercial, we went through water (several wide mudpuddles - my shoes fared worse than the stroller), mud (goopy, sucky stuff), ice (I had more trouble staying upright than the stroller did), snow (slush, really...) and even lifted over a fallen tree.

This stroller, you guys... I am SOLD. It is light enough that I never felt like I was wrestling a small car, and yet it feels incredibly sturdy, and some good abuse didn't so much as phase it. The brakes work fantastically - the foot brake in particular makes me feel perfectly safe placing Elsa between a river and a campfire. The tires are big and bouncy enough that Jake had to look twice to see that it didn't come with some kind of shock system. It turns on a dime, handles like a dream, and Elsa seems completely content and comfortable inside it. It went places some hikers would not go, has forded several overflow streams now, and it still looks as fresh and lovely as it did when I first picked it up. It has an adjustable sun/rain hood (with viewing 'sunroof' for worry-wart moms like me), and I am SO happy with the adjustable handle-height - Jake and I can both be completely comfortable pushing this. It even has a sound system, though I have not used this much yet.

It folds up - if not exactly small, at least smaller, and has a little bit of storage space underneath... storage space I sort of forgot about while fording some water, and the clearance is enough that my stuff didn't get wet! We also got the bug-netting and rain-shield with ours, and used both on our last camping trip - the bug-netting is hard to use while in motion, but some clips ought to fix that without much trouble.

Have some photos - I'll stop gushing now...