Still Funny

Twelve years ago today, B and I had our first date. We were sophomores at Colgate and made plans (after weeks of playing message board tag) to go out to dinner. B was to pick me up at 7. It was snowing, which wasn't out of the ordinary for upstate NY. However, I did think everything was a big joke when he hadn't arrived at 7:40 and when he finally did, had already eaten dinner. Anyway, it all worked out just fine and the rest is history. April Fool's Day holds a special place in our hearts.

But today is no fun at all! I just got back from the doctor and have strep throat. It seems I get visited by the strep fairy once every few years. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't as good as it's been before. Not that there's ever a good time to be sick, but I have a good knack of getting sick on the weekends or when B is off. My fever started last night and is still hanging around today. And having a husband who is a dentist means that he really can't take off work and tell his patients to come another day because I'm feeling lousy, so J is trying to take care of Mommy today. He told me so. Then five seconds later he insisted I get off the couch and dance with him. Ick. Then read stories. Ouch. I think there's going to be a lot of PBS watching today.

Happy April Fool's Day. Hope you have more fun than I am going to be having today!

Back Home

J and I just returned from our trip to the Florida Retirement Resort. It was great. J got to sample a variety of resort activities including, but not limited to...



Ocean exploration... J has no fear when it comes to the water and the great big Atlantic was no exception! Getting knocked over by waves and the undertow didn't deter him from trying to "swim" by himself. He gave me many mini heart attacks!

Golf lessons....When you live near a golf course and watch the golfers in the morning, you need to practice your own putting-- indoors because it rained for two days.

Horseback riding... J got to experience his fair share of carousel rides at a great park and at the zoo.


Dressing up for formal occasions.... Happy Easter!

Searching for hidden treasure.... egg hunting also took place indoors because of the rain.

The best line of the week occurred during Easter brunch. The Easter bunny came to visit our table. J was so excited to shake his/her hand and had been talking about how the easter bunny would bring him bacon at the restaurant (strange, but true). After his little tableside visit, J said to his furry friend, "Bye bye, go back to the mall." We couldn't stop laughing. This kid makes so many connections, it cracks me up and amazes me.

Now it's back to more ordinary things like pulling weeds, laundry, and grocery shopping. All good vacations must come to an end.

Wash Out

I was hoping to post some pretty pics of the planting I did yesterday, but the torrential rains we had today foiled my plans. We were excited to find that some asparagus is growing in our garden (even though we haven't gotten the garden ready yet!)

J and I are off tomorrow to rage with the spring breakers in Florida. Actually we will be doing our raging at Grandma and Grandpa's retirement condo, but we hope to get to the beach to build a few sand castles. Hope everyone has a nice Easter and gets to eat as many (or as few) Peeps as she likes.

I Wear My Sunglasses...

I haven't given much of an update of the goings on around here lately. I started that post about 2 weeks ago and never finished it and now it seems pretty unimportant. I did finally upload some new pics so you can see all of the new styles J has been sporting. I hope he doesn't hate me for it someday.

J and I got tattooed (temporarily). Mine was from a Moroccan tea party. His was from his birthday.

We got a new table and chairs on craiglist. It matches our cabinets perfectly. I just need to recover the cushions.

J likes to do his own hair now. For you close lookers, my hand is not on my stomach for any particular reason, so don't get any ideas.

Practicing his stroke in a new swimsuit. It has those bubbles in it so you kind of float in the water. Makes his legs look so skinny. Sorry kiddo.
Fabulous red Crocs and new sunglasses (which he actually keeps on now!)

We have a bunch of parties this weekend, which should be fun. A double birthday party Saturday morning for the kids of a dental colleague/soccer teammate of B's, an adult party in the evening to say goodbye to some friends that are moving back to Dallas (dang those people who unexpectedly get better jobs elsewhere!), and a St. Patrick's Day party on Sunday afternoon. Somewhere in between all that we need to continue working on getting our yard ready and start planting some flowers and such. I need to read up on what to do with our garden and start getting some tomatoes planted, too. I can't believe that spring is here already. I'm excited, but it feels like it was just Christmas a few weeks ago.

A Look Back

Feathernester just posted a sweet pic of L on her blog inspired by J when he was about the same age, so I thought I would share his with you as well. It's one of my favorite pics out of the 5000+ I have taken. (Not all of those pics have been of him, but it's pretty darn close.)

Blueberry Heaven

If there is anyone you really love in your life, you really need to make this for breakfast next weekend. Or tomorrow if you have the day off.

Blueberry Pecan French Toast
Serves 6 Generously

1 baguette
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups blueberries (frozen is fine)
1 cup pecans
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1tsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
Syrup: 1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup maple syrup
1tablespoon lemon juice

Cut baguette into 20, 1 inch slices (no more than that because it will expand in the pan)
Place in a greased 9X13 baking dish
In separate bowl, mix eggs, milk, vanilla, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and nutmeg.
Pour over bread. Cover and let refrigerate at least 8 and up to 24 hours. (Most of the liquid should be absorbed by the bread.)
Set oven to 350. Toast pecans for about 8 minutes on a shallow baking dish. Toss with 1 tsp butter and 1/4 tsp. salt. Sprinkle blueberries and pecans over bread.
Cut butter into small pieces and place in a small saucepan with 1/4 cup packed brown sugar. Cook until butter is melted. Pour over the top of of pecans and blueberries. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Make the syrup while the french toast is baking. Add syrup and blueberries and bring to a boil until blueberries have popped (about 3 minutes). Place through a sieve and push blueberries through. Add lemon juice and stir. (I didn't sieve and just kept the pieces of blueberries in the syrup) Serve warm with french toast.

This french toast almost tastes like a custard when it is done. It will be a little on the soggy side, but the flavor is absolutely heaven and the texture is so light and fluffy. Trust me, you will not be disappointed with this one!!!

Crazy Caucus

We just got back from caucusing a few minutes ago. It was nuts. The precinct was not prepared to handle the hundreds of people that turned out. In fact, the Democratic chair said that normally they have about 10 people show up for a caucus. As we waited in the lobby of the community center, I jokingly said to B, "I wonder if all these people voting in the Democratic primary are actually Democrats." This old biddy, and yes, I will call her that pipes up with, "No. I'm not a Democrat, are you?" I told her I was an independent, but voting in the democratic primary this year. She said, "Well, I'm a mischievous Republican and my conscience brought me out here to vote the right way. It's legal and I am exercising my right." So there. I told her that I didn't find that to be ethical, but if it's her prerogative, so be it. She replied with, "I have no problem with it" and proceeded to tell the same thing to the person on her other shoulder, who seemed to have a similar view and they hit it off much better. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Sure, she has every right living in this state to vote in either primary, just as I do. But casting a vote to sabotage someone instead of casting a vote for someone with whom you believe shares your values or ideals just seems wrong to me.

Thank goodness the community center child care was still open or B and I would have had to leave. J was pretty squirmy and all the people were overwhelming him a bit. It's really hard to carry a 2 year old anywhere, let alone hold him for over an hour. Once we were let into the caucus room (1 by 1 as they checked the voting roll to make sure you voted there earlier) you signed your name and picked your candidate. There was a bit of a scuffle between a woman who was told she couldn't carry her Hillary picket sign into the gym (she turned out to be an ID checker) and a caucus observer who sported a Barack My World handbag. One accused the other of not performing her duties correctly. I didn't get a chance to see how that all panned out.
It would have been interesting to see how the caucus meeting actually went, but it was getting to be too late and the line to sign in was way too long.

Bonus for J for staying up late: firemen who were called in to help get everyone into a safe line that wasn't crowding the exits, and the police cars that were stationed by the driveway. He really enjoyed his election day. As we were walking in, he was happily shouting, "Ca-kus!! Ca-kuss over there. Ca-kuss not over there." And so on about 10 more times. Such fun being involved in the political process at such a young age.

Oh and anyone staying up late for results might just want to go to bed. I heard that it may not be until morning that we have results from down here.

His Mama's For Obama

The S family took to the polls this morning before B had to go to work. J really wanted to vote because he loves those stickers, remember? We used the computerized poll so we didn't have to sit and fill in bubbles. J really wanted a chance to vote for himself and didn't like the fact that he has to wait 16 more years to get a chance. As we were getting in the car, he kept asking for a boat. Boat? Boat? BOAT!!!!! J want BOAT!!! I think he was getting his consonants confused. While we were at the polling place, we kept encouraging J to say "Mama's for Obama!" which he did continuously. We really wanted the local Republican commisioner candidate to hear him, but she was busy. Seriously, this woman has probably spent just as much money running her own local campaign as the national candidates. And we really don't want her to win because she wants to build a toll road to get to the toll road with taxpayer money...don't get me started.


Anyway, we went about the rest of our day. J and I were at Panera eating lunch when he needed to have his diaper changed. Small tangent rant.... if a place has high chairs, they should also have a changing table... I'm sure they aren't expensive, so the fact that I had to put my child on the floor of a bathroom stall to change his diaper really makes me mad...and I will be writing a letter of complaint. As he was laying as still as possible because his head hurt on the tile (can you blame him?) he started yelling, "Mama for Bama! Mama for BA-MA!" The lady in the adjacent stall was cracking up. I told J that he should become a delegate and get on the campaign trail. He liked that idea and said, "J delegate for BA-MA! On campaign trail! On campaign trail!" This made the lady laugh even more, which made J squirm all over the place, which made the hard floor diaper change very unpleasant...(if you're wondering, I don't carry around a big diaper bag anymore, so I don't carry a changing pad with me since we never seem to need it)


Later on tonight we get to vote again in the caucus, which is part of the "Texas two step." It's kind of strange that you vote twice, but it's kind of cool at the same time. B and I find it very exciting that Texas has a chance to do something good for a change, after providing this country with such a moron for the last 7 years.

Reggae Ernie

This has been stuck in my head for days, so I thought I would share. Watch it about 10 times and then see if you wake up tomorrow morning with it still in your head.
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsjbEWKK8AU

(For some reason, I can't get my computer to post You Tube stuff even though I have enabled it to do so). Doesn't the guy at the top of the door look like B?

Line of the week:

J: Daddy come home soon?

Me: Yes, Daddy should be home soon.

J: In a few minutes?

Me: Yes, he should be here in a few minutes.

J: Daddy take lots of few minutes.

Sometimes he is so insightful!

Testing 1, 2, 3

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Things have just been a little out of sorts lately. For one, J has decided that two year olds do not need to sleep through the night anymore and has spent a good part of the week waking up at 1, 3, 5, 6. At first we thought he might have something, so we tended to it, but now it's a habit (hooray!) and we feel like we have a newborn again. Oddly, he woke up at 9:15 the other night yelling, "J kick feet! J kick feet! Poop! J kick feet! Poop" I think he adds the poop thing just to get us to come running, but there was no poop. He was kicking his legs in the air for fun. I'm sure this is just another fabulous phase.

Some good lines he's had lately are:
Me: Would you like some blueberries?
J: Yes. How-a-bout-raspberries-too?
(It cracks me up how he is turning into such a mini-me.)

J: Tweetle beetle puddle battle...That's-pretty-funny!
(After reading Fox in Socks, which if you don't remember, is one of the longest, silliest books created. And it's even longer when you have to read it slowly and after one reading, your kid knows when you've skipped a page...)

B: The steak is good. Do you like the steak, J?
J: Yeah. Mommy not good eater.
Me: Why?
J: Mommy not eating broccoli.
(I did eat my broccoli, but at that moment, I was chewing on some steak and we had just begged J to eat some of his broccoli, which he did.)


I've got some big fun lined up for this weekend. Tomorrow I have to spend the day taking some teaching tests. You know, tests for beginning teachers. Tests like the 4 I took in NY and the 8 I took in PA to teach there. Texas has decided that my 8 years of experience, and the tests taken in states with which they supposedly have reciprocal agreements, is not enough. I need to take 4 more tests to make them happy and get permanent certification here. I already had to shell out a bunch of cash to get a temporary certificate for this year (even though I am not using it, I wanted to have it just in case) and now I have to shell out about another $400 to make it all legal. Such fun. I know that licenses cost money and I guess that's okay, but what gets me is that these tests are for beginning teachers and even then they do not measure whether you can actually teach or not. I hate jumping through hoops and I am a little tired of jumping because this is my third time doing this. I know, I know, we moved here, so I have to reap what I sow, but it's such a pain. Oh well. 2 tests tomorrow and 2 in April, and hopefully that will be it.

Have a good weekend!

Things Are Looking Up

After nearly a week of cupcake and Grandma therapy, twodom has been fitting J a little bit better. On Saturday we had J's birthday party, which was a larger affair than it had intended to be, but it was tons of fun. Last year we had a small party with maybe 4 kids and their moms. A lot of people were busy last year. This year we had close to 35 people! Turns out everyone was in the mood to party on Feb. 9. The sun gods gave us some glorious 75 degree weather, so we were able to have everything outdoors.

We borrowed a jumping thing from our friends, J and G. They got it off of craigslist and it will most likely be passed around for all the upcoming birthdays.

Some people ignored our suggestion of no gifts or just gently used books or toys. J was so excited to get a fire truck from Z.

On Sunday, my mom and I spent part of the day shopping at the outlets in San Marcos. They are enormous and you could spend a few days there if you wanted to, but we only had a couple of hours. I got some silicon baking pans (the pink ones were an extra 20% off for Valentine's Day), an easter cake pan ($7 at WS outlet), and two cast iron pots. I just love them. They're red, which I love, but the best part was they were a true outlet buy-- you know how sometimes things in outlets are just as expensive as buying at the mall--the color was considered slightly off, so they were marked down about 70%! I've been wanting a cast iron pot for a while and although I got a 5 quart and an 8 quart, I'm not sure about keeping two of them. I just want to take a chance to figure out which one will be used the most.

I did a little bit of baking for Valentine's Day. The fudge covered brownies are for B's office and the heart pressed cookies will be put into little bags for J's friends. We're meeting at the park for a little party if you can call it that. It will be the same old playing on the equipment with some special snacks.

Here's a picture of J busting a move at the library Valentine's Day party earlier in the week.

And I just saw on CNN while I was at the gym that UT Austin will be hosting the next Democratic debate, which should create some interesting buzz down here in the next few days.

Two with a Vengeance

Something happened to my child on Feb. 6. He turned two. It was in no way as emotional for me as it was last year, but it was definitely emotional for him. Unfortunately, for most of the day, it was not emotional in a good way. It was as if an alarm went off in his head Wednesday morning that said, "Today you are two. Now things change. Now you get pissed off."

From the morning J woke up, nothing was right. He didn't want to eat breakfast. He wanted to go to child care at the gym instead of stay at home with Grandma (Grandma wasn't upset; it meant she got to take a shower.) He started to cry after he finished eating his banana after I picked him up from child care.

As we were riding in the car after running an errand to the grocery store to get cream cheese to make frosting for his carrot cake cupcakes, he announced, "No caddot cupcakes. No caddot cupcakes." Honestly this didn't bother me; I just thought, "More for me!" I had planned on taking him to his favorite Mexican restaurant (you ask if a 2 year old can have a favorite place to eat? Oh yes!) but he was just so unhappy I didn't want to subject anyone else to his unpleasantness. I asked him what he wanted for lunch and he told me, "Mac and cheese. Not cupcakes."

As we went home to make the mac and cheese, he just began crying and carrying on in the kitchen for no reason at all. He went outside to play a bit while the noodles cooked, but then he came back in and picked up right where he left off. When lunch was finally ready and was placed in front of him, he ate two spoonfuls and decided that wasn't good either. He saw me making the frosting and decided that maybe having a cupcake might be a good idea after all. Given his state, I didn't insist that he eat any more lunch and we sang to him and he licked off all of the frosting. At first it was slow and deliberate, but after awhile, he couldn't stop himself. Once the sugar from the frosting hit his system, he was a changed toddler. I hereby declare cream cheese frosting the cure all to any problem. If you are feeling down, add some powdered sugar to a block of cream cheese and go to town.

We lingered on that cupcake for nearly a half an hour before it accidentally fell on the floor and we had to take a break.

Poor cupcake gets the brunt of it all

After some dancing and a nap, it was time for Take 2 of birthday number 2. Unfortunately it wasn't much better. We opened a few presents, but little things kept happening that upset him-- such as the stacking blocks falling on his head, the new tricycle not steering perfectly, and of course, Daddy not being there (Daddy was home for cupcakes, so that was cool). So, we put J to bed a little earlier and hoped that he would enjoy his second day of being two better than the first.

A tricycle from Mommy and Daddy. I just love Craigslist! (Despite pointing out every tricycle he'd see for the last two months, this only held his attention for about 10 minutes.)

A fancy new drum from Nummi. Not sure if Daddy or J likes it better...

A florist delivered balloons to our house. They were from Auntie L and Cousin L and W. When the florist said, these are for JS, J exclaimed, "Balloons for J!" and ripped them out of the man's hand. Then they almost carried him away. It was pretty funny.

You probably think I'm lying about the day given all of the happy shots posted here. I had one good "I just want to cry all day!" picture, but it's too dark to show up here. Believe me when I tell you that our first day of being two was just a bit on the rough side.

Almost 1 Toddler Year Down...

J hits the two year mark tomorrow. Here are some things I have learned from our first year of toddlerhood:

• It goes by much faster than the first year, which leads me to believe that the next year will go even faster, and so on. That's pretty scary.
• Just because a kid likes peas or lima beans during their first year of life does not mean they will ever like them again. And that's okay.
• He loves spending time with Mommy, but the world stops when Daddy walks through the door. And that's pretty cool.
• Temper tantrums can last a really long time.
• Hysterics can emerge from a temper tantrum.
• Sometimes making yourself sound as upset as he is makes him feel better (it's called the caveman effect).
• There is a hierarchy amongst various chicken forms. It goes something like this from best to worst... chicken tenders, chicken fingers, chicken nuggets (not from the place with arches), wheat germ chicken tenders. Well, who can blame him?
• Golf can be played indoors with a mop. Baseball can be played outdoors with an ice scraper.
• Once a child learns to talk, he will tell you everything on his mind.
• Watching your child learn to verbally communicate is both a joyous and trying occasion.
• Even though he is not a baby, he still likes to cuddle.
• Jumping around and clapping your hands is good therapy for anyone.
• Never give your child broccoli and cheese when he thinks you've said Mac and Cheese.
• Separation anxiety feels like it lasts for a long time, but one day, he walks off and doesn't look back to see if you are still there.
• You can successfully get him to eat something new and perhaps not so tasty if you eat it first and then pronounce it is the most fabulous thing in the world, but this will not work a second time on the same thing.
• Earlier bedtimes usually help fix a sleep problem.
• My kid notices everything I do even when I don't think he does.
• He is still excited by books more than any other activity and I hope that lasts.
• Even though I worry, he always goes to bed when the babysitter puts him to sleep.
• You still need to pack that extra outfit in the diaper bag.
• Even when I don't think he can, he can often roll with the punches and is extremely flexible.
• Your kid will not die if he eats dirt.
• Sometimes kids this age have better manners and more tenderness than many adults.
• We still haven't broken him.
• There is still so much more to learn.

Last picture taken before I am two.

(Sorry for the flower bullets, but I have no idea how to change that)

Kid Speak

I know I've been posting a lot about all of the neat things that J says, but it just keeps getting better. For example:

Me: Do you want a red balloon or a blue balloon?
J: Blue balloon. NOT red balloon.
Of course. Not the red balloon.
These statements are so funny because they happen so often now. If I ask him what he wants for lunch, he says, "Not sweet potatoes" and things like that.

We are taking care of our neighbor's dog this week. We take Hunter walking on a greenbelt not too far from our house. I walk with J in the backpack.

Me: Okay, we are going to go to the greenbelt now that we have Hunter on his leash.
J: Mommy, J, Hunter go seatbelts.
Me: No, not seatbelts. We use seatbelts in the car. This is the greenbelt. We walk here.
J: Seatbelt car. Walk Greenbelt Hunter seatbelt.

On the way to our gym there are a bunch of office buildings. Each of the buildings has a letter in a top corner. J recognizes the H and the Z. The building with the Z is called Zimmer.
J: Hello H. Bye Bye H. Hello Z! Zimmer! (It's as if they're old friends when he says this) Bye Bye Z Zimmer. Zimmer again soon. Turn around. See Zimmer again.
It pains him to leave the Zimmer building.

On the way home from the gym...
J: Mommy fat chicken.
Me: What?
J: Mommy fat chicken.

I am dumbfounded by this one. I can't translate this into anything without digging myself into a hole. Does my son think I'm fat? A fat chicken? Why would he think I am a fat chicken?
We've never talked about things being fat. Where would he come up with a fat chicken?

When we were back at the neighbor's house and were walking out of their yard, J spotted something and said, "There. fat chicken mommy." Sure enough there was a large ceramic hen in one of the garden beds. Phew. Okay. That makes sense now. I'm glad I'm not the fat chicken after all.

Make Your Choice

I never watch tv in the morning, but I turned it on to find out if it was going to rain and be cold for a fourth day in a row (the answer was yes). I also tuned in to The Today Show at just the right time to see a segment about what to do with all of those unwanted catalogs.

There is a site called Catalog Choice. If you go to their website, you can browse through tons of catalogs that you unwantingly receive and ask to be removed from their mailing lists. The site will take care of contacting the company. You just have to click a few buttons. I was so excited about this because the previous owners of this house subscribed to every mail-in catalog known to man. I think her full time job was ordering from catalogs. Unfortunately you have to register on this site, so I can't put her name down falsely and keep the catalogs from coming here. I hope eventually they get the point and will stop sending them. We get about 6 a day. Do you think she'd ever know if I did create an account in her name at my address?

Anyway, the site was obviously inundated with hits after being on national tv, so it took awhile for me to get my registration confirmation. It will also take a bit of time to scroll through all of the catalog titles, but it will be worth it. Less production is good in the long run, right?

We have been so bored here over the past few days. As I said earlier, the weather has been awful. I can't seem to get warm, Jonah has been whiny because it's too wet, cold, and rainy that he can't play in the yard. I took some time to organize his closet this morning and put away a bunch of clothes that are too small for him. There was a dry spell for about 30 minutes this afternoon, so we raced outside in our hats and scarves and played on the swings for a bit. He hadn't been on a swing in about two weeks, so he was very excited.

There's not much else to report here. J is talking consistently in 4-5 word sentences now. He has something to say about everything. His favorite thing to say right now is, "Grandma Pam fix red blanket in couple weeks. Grab cake." Translation: Grandma Pam is going to fix the red, blue, yellow and orange blanket she made him when she comes to visit for his birthday. That's when he gets to grab cake." I don't know if he remembers his birthday last year when he got to dig into a cake, or if he is referring to grabbing the lemon cake off of the counter. Either way, he associates Grandma's visit with his blanket and cake. Works for me. And he's very excited about it because he says, "Couple weeks" at the most random times, such as when he's in his high chair, or when we're driving somewhere in the car. To even out the Grandma love, he also keeps saying, "Nummi hold tractor." That's because we picked up a really cool tractor tricycle at a consignment shop while we visited the farm. If you ask me it makes the farm complete.

Are You a Pigeon or a Statue?

I used to work with a guy who had a sign outside his office that read, "Some days you're the pigeon, other days the statue." I always chuckled when I saw this sign, but I could never quite remember the phrase when I wanted to mention it to someone. Yesterday, it came back very clearly. Yesterday I was a statue.

We were in the grocery store stocking up after returning from our trip. I wanted to make one last scan down the dairy aisle to look at the label of some yogurt they were offering for free with a cereal purchase. I read the label and put the yogurt in the cart. As I did that, I scanned up at J because I realized he had been awfully quiet. And any other mama out there knows that quiet is toddler code for trouble.

The trouble came in the form of two eggs. He had already cracked one over himself and was contemplating what to do with the next one. I asked, "J what are you doing?!" in my not so happy mommy tone and muttered/whispered "Oh crap" under my breath as I looked up to heaven. This was just great. J heard my mutter (he hears EVERYTHING!) and yelled, "Crap, crap, crap crap! Crap eggs!" What he meant to say was "cracked eggs" but it wasn't coming out right. I learned that later when he was retelling the story to me.

We quickly went to find a place to wipe off (I didn't know where the bathroom was since I don't make it a habit of knowing where they are in grocery stores.) One of the sample ladies gave us all her napkins and some wet paper towels. I cleaned him up as he continued to tell everyone, "Crap eggs." Nobody really seemed to notice what he was saying because I was hushing him a bunch, but I am sure somebody told my story to their spouse at dinner last night and commented on my parenting skills.

Yes, I am laughing about this after the fact. Yes, it was another innocent moment of exploration. My dad said it's all my fault because I actually talk to my kid and explain everything to him so he probably remembered cracking some eggs with me into some cookie mix or something and thought it would be fun to do it himself.

The part of the story will make you say, "Awwww" came when we were in the car. I was buckling J into his carseat and reminding him not to put his hands in his mouth until we could wash them at home. He said, "Mommy-mad- at- J." I said, "Well, mommy was not too happy this happened. But I know it was an accident and you are sorry." He said, "I-so-dee- Mommy." Ok, I'll gladly be the statue again for such sweetness.

Here's hoping that you have more time as pigeons (not that you should do what pigeons do to anyone; I think it just means they are a happy bird in the metaphor) and less time as statues this weekend!

Huh?

I am a bit of a punctuation/grammar snob and it always bugs me when apostrophes are in the wrong place. It also annoys me when signs don't make sense. Take the one I got in the mail as an example:



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I just thought this was funny. B just said, "Whatever." He does not share my passion for the crusade. We're off to CA tomorrow. J needs to learn about snow. He also needs to visit his goat and sheep buddies on the farm. We'll be back late next week.

The Baby Primary

Check out these baby pics with all the presidential candidates. Who would you vote for based on how they hold her?

http://www.slate.com/id/2181495

And for those interested, I posted some pictures from Tucson. Yes, there are some baby L pics there!

The Kid Just Keeps on Reaching

Here's an image for you to start your Monday. Remember a few posts back when I told you about how J grabbed the lemon cake off the island and started eating it and how I was amazed at his reach?

Yesterday B was using a pair of scissors to open a package. B placed said scissors in the middle of the island. J grabbed scissors. I walked into the kitchen to witness my son holding the scissors and jamming them in an up and down motion against the wood on the side of the island. Gash, gash, gash. I screamed since I didn't know what was worse-- the fact that he had the scissors, or what he was doing with them. Thankfully we got them in time and there are only a few little scratches.

Our safe places get smaller as he gets taller.

Arizona Potty Mouth

Happy New Year! We took a trip to Tucson last weekend through New Year's Day to spend time with Feathernester and family. J loved meeting his new cousin and was very concerned about her happiness. If she cried, he suggested she needed milk. If he didn't know, he said, "Baby fine." He tried as hard as he could to stay out of the baby swing, and he did a good job, but you could tell it was killing him to not be able to ride in it.
J and Chewy try to settle a territorial dispute

We took J on a field trip to the Sonoran Desert Museum, which he loved. He really enjoyed the javelinas, coyotes, and sea otters. He's been talking about the otters ever since and I always think he's saying, "All done". I guess their swimming and diving really made an impression.

L graces us with some beautiful smiles

But that was not the highlight of our trip. The highlight was the fabulous vocabulary J added to his repertoire. Before we left I was carrying a load of laundry upstairs and I wanted him to come up with me. He was taking forever so I said, "Come on, J, you're as slow as molasses." He cracked up at the word molasses. Then he made the sign for more and said asses. More asses. He said it over and over and over. We tried not to laugh. Uncle D thought it would be funny to add to the fun...

D: J, say pimp.
J: Pimp
D: Say J pimp
J: J pimp
D:Say Ladies molasses
J: Ladies more asses
D: Say J pimp ladies molasses
J: J pimp ladies more asses

It was funny the first time and even the second and third time. But when he started to randomly say it to try to get us laugh we knew we had to stop. Even today we stopped for some lunch and he made the sign for more and said it again. I think I need to get a bottle of molasses and show him what it is.

J gives L a kiss, which L is not quite sure about

Our flight home was intersting because it departed at 7:30 pm, which is J's bedtime. Everyone told us that he would probably sleep and we thought that this would happen because it would be dark. Well, we had seats in the bulkhead, so every noise in the galley caused J to lift up his head in interest. Then there were the fasten seatbelt lights and the lavatory sign-- all which probably went on and off about 10 times. The poor child tried and tried to sleep. His eyes were so glazed over, but it never happened. He finally snoozed in the car on the way back from the airport at around 11:30. And then he only slept until 8 the next morning. Oh well, it didn't kill him and he seems to have adjusted just fine.

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow. Sorry I didn't today, but we were busy putting away Christmas decorations and the camera was never close by.

Brothers with fancy eyebrows

Holiday Fun

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. It's always amazing to me that so much work goes into preparing for the holidays and then in the blink of an eye, it's all over. The S family definitely had a lot of fun this year.

Of course, J was the star and played to two of his sets of grandparents with pleasure. He was so excited by having them there that presents actually took a back seat. He was very excited by the first sight of a giant stuffed dog, whom he named Pretzel after deciding that his own name was not a suitable name for it. Actually I think he just wanted to eat a pretzel, but we ignored that and the name stuck. He also served up soup and roasted fruit for his guests in his new wooden oven. Other than that, J had very little interst in opening many of his presents. He "oohed" and "aahhed" as he ripped into some paper, but often put the gift down before he was finished and went back to read a book or make more soup. Here we are at 9:50 on Dec. 26 and there are still presents wrapped with his name under the tree. I'm okay with that. I'm happy that he wants to take his time. I am also sending out a message to anyone thinking about his birthday in Feb that we do not need any more presents. We still may be opening your Christmas gifts then!

J and Daddy cuddle with the new ball of fluff

I got to work on some different appetizers for the middle of the day. Crab cakes, which were out of this world, scallops wrapped in pancetta, garlicky spinach dip, and homemade hummus. I made the hummus for J, but he quickly rejected it in favor of the packaged roasted red pepper variety. Oh well.

Christmas dinner was delicious. We cooked a nearly 12 pound prime rib for everyone. B found a cooking method by his buddy Alton Brown on one of the new dvds he got. It said to cook it at 275 for 30 minutes and then increase the temp to 320 until the temp reached about 115. Then you put it in a 500 degree oven for 5 minutes and let it rest when you took it out. We were all skeptical of this approach, but it honestly worked beautifully. We served it with a red wine and thyme au jus, which was funny because B and I were "helping" each other using diferent recipes. oops. It all turned out fine. Roasted potatoes, tomatoes, beans, anda mixed green salad with pears, walnuts and gorgonzola rounded out the menu.

A big thank you thank you thank you to Ouiser for sharing her caramel pecan pie. She wasn't kidding when she said it was perfect. Yummy, yummy. There are still two small pieces left and I've beenn holding back from eating them for breakfast with ice cream on top. Seriously, abandon whatever pecan pie recipe you have at home and copy this one and make it right away. Smooth, sweet, but not too sweet and just plain comforting.

'm watching J as I type. He just found another present... a box of wooden fruit and a wooden knife. He's thrilled. Thanks, Nummi. You should see the determination on his face right now. oops, he's been distracted by the phone. Never mind.

We're off to Tucson this weekend through New Year's Day. J is very excited to meet his "Cousa Biddy". I'm glad I looked at my ticket info again. About a month ago they changed our return flight from 11 am to 7 pm (right at bedtime, that should be interesting!). What I didn't realize was they changed our departure flight from 9:50 to 7:30. We would have missed that one.




Happy New Year everyone!!

Holly Jolly

This past week was crazy, but a lot of fun. B and I finished the touch ups on our red room and we're really happy with the results. Luckily we only had to do two coats. I'm looking forward to finding pillows and a rug to go along with our new look.

Zoe wonders what happened to all the white

My birthday was on Thursday. Even though I only turned 32, I managed to receive a ton of "you're getting old" cards and wishes. I think that made me more determined to feel younger than I do. I got to share the day with friends and B and I went out for a great adult dinner at one of our favorite restaurants over the weekend.

We had two Christmas parties as well. One was hosted by a pair of dentists who just built a ginormous home. It was lovely inside and we really had a terrific time, but you know what felt really good? Coming home to our home. It was so great to feel that yeah, their house was brand new and fabulous, but that we just love ours. I guess it really is shaping up to being a home.

B and I hosted the second party-- a cookie exchange/toddler play/cocktails soiree. We had a lot to do to get ready like put up our tree, which was a little stressful because I am very picky about trees and ours didn't seem like it had opened up much. After a few days of relaxing in our family room, I'm happy to report that the branches have fallen a bit and it looks so pretty!

J puts the first ornament on the tree with extreme care

The party was lots of fun. It was great to see everyone and exchange so many cookies. I made pizzelles, which was my first attempt. I used to work with a lady who made the most perfect pizzelles ever. They were always the same golden color and had a perfect shape-- no edges missing or anything. I named mine "Not quite perfect pizzelles" because even though they tasted good, they would never have held up to G's back in PA.

My first cookie attempt of the weekend was a chai shortbread cookie made with butter, powdered sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper and a couple of other things. They had a very pleasant flavor, but I kept burning the bottoms. This is the second time I've done that with cookies and I never burn anything. I guess I really need to bite the bullet and start using that convection button on my oven.

Santa was nice enough to stop by (no, that is not J, it's A), as was Miss Claus. Don't they look adorable? J had a great time as well, eating his weight in pepper and hummus. He also managed to sneak a few cookies off the table when nobody was looking.





Try these pomegranate martinis c/o Oprah if you have a get together or even if you don't. They are yummy and a little dangerous!
1.5 cups pom. juice
2 oz. citron vodka
1 oz. cointreau (maybe a little more)
splash of sparkling water (optional)
squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and serve! Sooo good.

Here's some very impressive news. We had our first sentence this weekend. It was..... (drum roll)

"Mommy get a pear. (pause) Now. (pause) Please."

We also played our first rhyming/memory game. I've been reading J "The Night Before Christmas". Our friend J gave us a board book with the original poem in it (no missing stanzas) and some really great Santa paintings as illustrations. I think I've read it about 10 times at the most. Yesterday J was holding the book and I was putting away laundry. I started reciting the story.. "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a ___________" J filled in mouse. So I kept going. "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be _______". J filled in there.
We did the whole story this way. He even filled in the word thistle. Of course it sounded liked "thisso", but who cares? I used to do this activity with kindergartners! I was blown away by this. I know it's all memory, but I was totally impressed by how much he remembered and how much he could say. It was pretty awesome. Little does he know he has just upped the reading anty.

Family starts arriving tomorrow for Christmas so we'll probably be out for awhile. I hope everybody has a great one, gets no coal in their stockings and is able to relax as much as possible. Oh and if you are traveling, be safe and get to the airport early. K, C and Z were taking their first family plane trip, missed their first flight because of heavy security and got rerouted to Pittsburgh by way of El Paso, Albuquerque, and Chicago with a bunch of layovers. Definitely not wanting that to happen to anyone else. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Come and Get Me, Cop-per

Lock me up and throw away the key. This mama got her first speeding ticket today. On her own street. With her kid in the car. Watch out Britney, I'm right behind you!

Seriously, I was just driving along, not feeling like I was in a rush or anything. As I turned the curve of the street, two men in uniforms and on motorcycles were waiting with what I swear were smiles on their faces. They waved on the van in front of me and ordered me to pull over. I tapped my chest, asking, "Me?" as if I were being chosen for a kickball team in gym class. I was shocked.

"Do you know the speed limit around here?" Umm...30 sounds good to me. (Honestly that's what I thought it was. Turns out it was 25.) "You were going 36 and following way too close to the car in front of you who was going the speed limit. That's why you had to slam on your breaks." I didn't recall slamming my breaks, but whatever you say, officer. I felt shame wash over me as I said, "I'm sorry." I thought being extra nice might help me out, but this guy had it in for me from the minute we made eye contact.

Now, I didn't do too well in high school physics and maybe my PhD whiz friend A can help me out here, but I swear I remember this exact question from Mr. K's class. If was allegedly going 36 and tailgating and the man in front of me was allegedly going 25 (the speed limit) wouldn't I have hit him instead of continue to follow him? So something is wrong. Either the van in front was not going the speed limit and he got off scott-free, but this made the officer's story make me more sound worse, or his radar was wrong.

I felt like an idiot that this happened. J thought it was fantastic. As I was pulling my license out, he was yelling, "Peesman Peesman Hi!" as if I had just brought someone over to play.

Since I've never been pulled over, I didn't know what happens. Turns out in Texas, you have 30 days to appear before a judge. You need to contact the judge to discuss a few things like whether you will plead guilty and pay the fine, plead not guilty and go to trial, plead guilty or no contest and take defensive driving and maybe get it wiped from your record. The offices were closed when this happened so I have to wait until tomorrow to figure out my fate. I'm thinking the latter will be the easiest. Maybe I'll hire one of those sleezy attorneys and get a trial date. Not. For those who maybe interseted, there are all sorts of books you can order off the internet about how to beat any speeding ticket.

So for today, be ashamed that you know me. I'm bad people. And believe me, now I'm driving like a granny, which is tough for a girl who grew up on Long Island.

Santa, Santa, Santa

We had a very eventful weekend! It started out with getting a Christmas tree. Then B and J took a quick trip to the store to get an extension cord. While they were there, Santa was visiting and was taking free photos. J knows who Santa is but has never actually seen him in person. I wish I would have seen it. B said he freaked out. They had to take the picture together. J looks thrilled because he has a candy cane in his hand. B looks like he's enjoying being on Santa's lap. Actually he wasn't on his lap, but they looked kind of cozy.

On the way home, B and J got caught behind a fire truck going through the neighborhood. J loves fire trucks. This one was a cherry picker and Santa was standing in it and was waving and throwing out candy. Not only did they follow the truck all the way to our house, but then he got to see it two more times as it made the rounds down the other streets. What an afternoon to be a kid! Unfortunately, J wanted the fire trucks to only stay at our house and he got upset when he could hear them but they didn't come back.

The fun didn't stop there. One of the parks was having a holiday festival with singers, bouncy castles and slides, train rides, and of course, Santa. J got to sit on Santa's lap. This time, he went up bravely and shook his hand. He also danced with Frosty the Snowman, who was rocking out to a little heavy metal, which J found hilarious. He was a bit unsure about Rudolph, whom he kept calling a donkey. The best part had to have been the bouncing castle and slides. The pictures describe it best.

A little calmer with Santa number 3

This reminds me of the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie gets kicked down the slide

Don't you just want to bounce around and get that look on your face too?

We finished off the night with a little ice cream. J rewarded us by sleeping until 7:30 this morning. In between all the Santa fun, B and I finally got the first coat of paint on our family room. We are going to have to do at least one, if not two more coats. Red does not go on like any other color paint. It looks pretty good at night, but during the day you can see every single place we missed.

Today was a little more laid back. We decided not to paint today because it was so humid (it was 85 yesterday!) and we wanted to make sure everything was really dry. So we cleaned up the house a bit, did some laundry, met a new babysitter (yay!) and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at our neighbor's house. I made a lemon cake because I had fresh lemons from a friend's tree. While it was cooling and soaking in the lemon juice I went to do a few things on the computer. J came in saying something like, "mmm, yum." I wasn't really paying attention until he got closer to me. Then I realized he was saying, "Yummy cake mommy. Yummy." He had grabbed a big hunk off of the edge of the cake. Apparently he can reach to the middle of our island now. Oops. It was pretty funny. I'm glad our neighbors have grandkids and find J cute enough that they didn't mind a big hunk taken out of their dessert.

B and I start off with dentist appointments tomorrow. We can't wait!

Today's Vocabulary Lesson

Unless you are in the construction business and come across these all the time, I think you will be impressed with the objects J can now recognize.

Thanks to our new favorite book, Construction Zone , rubber-tired backhoe, crane with clamshell digger, tamper, paver, roller, and concrete mixer are as identifiable as a fire truck, bird, and daddy. It's really amazing. There are these little pictures at the end of the book with explanations of what each machine does, and J can pick out each of them without prompting. I think I knew bulldozer, paver and dump truck before this book came along!

That's all good. What is not good is that J has figured out that he can try to manipulate B and me. When things aren't going his way and he's with me, he calls "Dad-deee!" If he's with B, he shouts, "Mom-mee!" This has been occurring during the day, but also at fun hours like 2, 4, and 5 am. This morning he got so mad that I wouldn't get him out of bed at 5:15 that he sat there and screamed for B for about 30 minutes. Before that, he yelled for me. I'm sure we'll get him back on track just in time fore the holiday visitors to arrive!

We did some very exciting things this morning. We went to a propane store and bought blower. My mom and dad bought it for us as a housewarming gift and we had to pick out one that wasn't at Home Depot or Lowe's. We also went to the paint store and picked up the red for the family room. I am very excited about this project. It will be interesting to see how it turns out because some have told me they think the room will look too small, while others have told me that it may look too dark. I'm just going to do it and if it looks bad, we can always go back to white again. We'd also really like to scrape the popcorn ceiling, but that would be committing us to the entire downstairs because it would look funny to just stop in the family room and not do the kitchen, etc. etc. So I think we will leave that be for now.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quiet House

Things are getting back to normal at the S house now that Thanksgiving visitors are all gone. J got a dose of two sets of grandparents with back to back visits. He had a blast and I think they did too, but now it's back to reality. Snacks on a schedule, sleep on a schedule, not always getting our way. It's gonna be great!

J's come down with a bit of a cold which has been waking him up at all sorts of times during the night. His face is a mess and he's only breathing out of his mouth, so he's also drooling all over the place. Plus it's so much fun to try to wipe his face. There's not way to do it without screaming.

One of the highlights of J's Nummi's visit was that we got our garage organized. Nummi is a super fantastic garage organizer and this is her second time helping us in two years. Everything now has a place on a shelf (except for those dental and teaching books which are awaiting a shelf or two inside) and we can actually fit cars in there. Imgaine that. It's very exciting. Now we can move onto more fun projects like painting the family room (red) and putting up Christmas lights. The next few weeks are going to be fun! Although I don't think B shares my enthusiasm about either endeavor, but I am sure he will appreciate the final product.

I didn't really get any good Thanksgiving shots because I was in the kitchen all day, but here is a shot of J providing us with some post dinner entertainment. He was wearing his Babcia's shoes and clomping all over the floor.

Ehh...

Dinner is over. The turkey came out great. It was incredibly moist and looked golden and beautiful. We brined the turkey last night with brown sugar, salt, water, oranges, lemons, rosemary and thyme. Then we cooked it by stuffing it with oranges, lemons, onions, and rubbing the orange and butter, and pepper on the outside. The recipe said only to cover it if it started to look brown quickly and this happened after about 1 minute, so it got foiled and only took about 2.5 hours to cook, which is pretty fast for a 16 lb. turkey. That was at 425 degrees.

I made the stuffing yesterday because I wanted to see exactly how long it would take. I'm glad I didn't just try this on Thanksgiving because I am sure it would have been a disaster time-wise. The chestnut and apple stuffing was yummy! The chestnuts really give the stuffing a meaty flavor. I'm used to stuffing made with sausage, but I didn't miss the meat at all. And the fact that it was made with day old baguette instead of bagged stuffing cubes made all the difference. Now don't get me wrong, I still like the bagged stuffing cubes too, but this got so crunchy on top with all the butter. Yum. If only I hadn't sliced my finger while peeling the cooked chestnuts, this would have been fairly simple to make, but it took double the time because I had to work with one hand for awhile.

Now the disappointment was the gravy. It was a cointreau and cognac pan gravy. I doubled the recipe because it looked like I had double the drippings. Everything looked the way it was supposed to, but boy was it salty! You could tell it had some really good depth of flavor, but the salt just overpowered everything. I'm not sure if this was because the turkey was overbrined, which if it was, didn't affect the turkey, or if it was because the chicken broth I added along with the fact that it was brined just made it that way. Either way, I'm in a conundrum about what to do for Thursday. Not sure if we should brine the turkey less, use no sodium chicken broth and try again, or if I should just try a different gravy entirely? Any wisdom would be appreciated!

I should make mention that although this brined turkey was incredibly moist, I don't think it was any more moist than the turkey my mom makes, which is not brined and is cooked at 450 under foil, stuffed, and just coated in butter. I'm also debating if I should just do that instead. So as you can see, this dry run was good, but hasn't really helped me figure out my Thanksgiving menu!

Hummus Hat?

Here is a sentence I never thought I would hear myself say,

"J, please don't touch your Santa hat right now. You'll give yourself hummus hat."

That's what you have to say when your kid sits to eat his snack, asks for his new Santa hat, and continues to eat his red peppers and hummus.


This weekend is a cleaning weekend as well as a Thanksgiving dry run. I'm making a new stuffing and doing the turkey differently, so I wanted to make sure it works out well before I subject my guests to it. I made the chesnut and apple stuffing last night. It tastes great, but we'll see how it goes with the turkey and gravy that are cooking right now. I'll let you know!

But There are Three More Months Until He Is Two

The phrase "terrible twos" is a misnomer. For anyone that does not know, it starts earlier. Much earlier. Like 8 months earlier as they begin down the path closer to two-dom. Well yesterday we hit some major roadblock or something because it was just awful. There were no "Watch out! Terrible two behavior approaching!" warning signs either. It began at lunchtime when I couldn't get the milk out fast enough. WaaaahhhhHH!!! milk! Milk! Milk! MiiiilllllK!!!! It continued after a shortened nap because of the garbage trucks (stupid, blankety blank garbage trucks!). The pinnacle was at dinnertime. J asked for a fork, which we always give him, and a spoon. I suspect he wanted the fork for his meat and the spoon for his beans. Well somewhere along the line I did something wrong. He kept asking for help. I thought he wanted help scooping the beans on his spoon, but when I did that, he went psycho on me and started screaming at the top of his lungs. So I let go of the spoon. He grabbed his plate, turned it over on his tray and picked up every bean that he could and proceeded to squeeze them in his hand while he screamed. He kept yelling "help! help! help!" I had no idea. I tried again to help with the fork and spoon. This time, he threw what was left on his tray onto the floor. This was just about the time that daddy walked in. He got all excited, "Dad-deeee!! Daddeee!" Are you kidding me? Oh no kid, you just put me through hell all day. Daddy's going to hear about this. Daddy didn't have to hear about it because he saw it all over the floor. He held down the urge to laugh. We eventually got J to clean up his mess without tears. That was the success of the day.

We figured an earlier bedtime would help calm him down and set him up for a better mood tomorrow morning. The one problem was that he decided to wake up every thirty minutes from 2 until 4:30. At that point I threw in the towel and just took him into the spare bedroom to sleep with me. He talked to himself for nearly an hour as I lay there not saying word. "Pee pee...poop (I changed his diaper so I knew he was clean). poop...pee...punter (hunter the dog down the street) amy (ambulance) choo choo (the train went by... stupid blankety blank train) daddy, mama, mommy, seepy, seepy, Jo-nah, jo-nah, jo-nah (well go to sleep J, it will help fix that!). After getting kicked in the face a few times, clobbered on the stomach, he finally collapsed on me and slept until 7. I think I slept for about 3.5 hours last night.

I then took care of a three month old this morning for four hours, which confused the heck out of J. He kept looking at me like, "Where did she come from?" He handled it fairly well. Her mom swore she was an angel. Except she has a cold, wouldn't take a bottle, and didn't want to be in her sling or swing, which she supposedly loves. It all ended well, but I am so glad these two days are over. We are hoping for a very silent night tonight.

Baby Fix

I'd become a weepy mess before and after my little niece was born. My patient husband, wanting to make me happy, and more than likely hoping the weepiness would end quickly, suggested that I use miles to go to AZ to visit the new little one! This meant he would take care of J for three days on his own. He was a little panicked about this, but I left him a few lists and reassured him that he'd have a great, but tiring time.

I arrived on Saturday morning and returned home very late last night/early this morning. I'm so glad I was able to go. Lily is the most darling baby. Her cheeks are even more adorable in person. She makes tons of different scrunchy faces. She only cries a little when hungry or wet. And she doesn't quite have the pee/poop at the same time down yet, so we had lots of fun changing many diapers! It was so great to see Mama Feathernester and Papa D in action. Although they are very tired from constant nighttime feedings due to some lingering day/night confusion, they still look terrific. It was also tons of fun hanging out with Mama Scarlet Lily and talking about everything baby with her. Together, we solved all the breastfeeding issues of the world and told labor and baby stories like we were in the army. Poor Chewy-- the dog doesn't know what to do with himself. He has so much puppy energy that he ate a whole bottle of lanolin out of boredom and proceeded to throw it up. The last thing new parents need! We tried to get him out and running as much as we could, but he was still trotting all over the place, trying to lick Lily any chance he could. Of course the best part was holding Lily and smelling that new baby smell all over. Mom and Dad are doing great, but are focusing on sleep rather than email and phone calls, so here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Papa D really enjoys forcing his daughter to make all sorts of faces. She'll get him back one day for all of this taunting!

Content Mama and Baby

A cozy place to sleep--that is a burp rag covering her! So tiny...

The happy family

Peeking over Mama Scarlet Lily's shoulder

Proud Auntie, no longer weepy

Wide awake and ready to take on the world!

Happy Election Day!

A day late in the posting, but J loved going to vote yesterday. He kept trying to push the buttons on the computer screen. Then he tried to steal about 10 "I voted" stickers. The polling volunteers thought he was a hoot, especially when he started squealing because he thought I was taking too long. Doesn't he know that it takes awhile to vote on 16 propositions? He was thrilled that he got to leave with two stickers. And one of them ended up like this. I swear that there was no adult manipulation of the stickers to take this picture:

Nothing exciting is going on today. It's cloudy and in the fifties, which means that everyone has hunkered down for the arctic freeze. Except for us. We'll probably be the only ones at the park again today and we won't be wearing any hats and mittens like I saw some people wearing yesterday. Now that's thin blood.

Hooray!

The baby is here! Congrats to S/D and sweet little L. For pics and all the stats, check out here. Of course, she is the sweetest thing ever! J is very excited to have a cousin, but can't quite say her name. He tries, but then he just laughs. He enjoys looking at her pictures and says, "baby, baby" and blows kisses at the screen. We can't wait to kiss those cute chubby cheeks in person!

B, J and I participated in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure yesterday. There were over 21,000 walkers and runners. We decided on Saturday that we would do it and went downtown to register. Then we were up practically all night with the excitement of the baby, but we did it anyway. We ran as much as we could, but it was so crowded on the streets and the stroller made it even more difficult to get around people. J was happy in the jogging stroller and loved it when B ran in and out of people. He also loved all the free food they were giving away. At one point after the race, he was dancing around to the music with an orange in one hand and an apple in the other. He was totally loving life.

Oh, and all of a sudden he can count to 15. We've been counting going down the steps each morning, but now he just randomly counts anything and everything. It's too funny. Of course he doesn't completely get the concept that one number goes to each object; he counts about 3 or 4 for each one.

Off to dinner. Have a good night!

Waiting

My SIL, feathernester is in labor! This is very exciting because it means I'm going to be an auntie very soon! I've never been an auntie and since they are having a girl, I hopefully will be a cool auntie that gets to totally spoil her. As much as her parents allow, of course. I've always said that I think I am only going to have boys and that if I do have a girl I will be totally shocked. As far as we know right now things were going very, very slowly to the point of boredom (they've been at the hospital since about 2 this morning). I joked to B that I felt like I was more excited about this baby being born than I was about my own. He said, "That's because you were sitting around in pain the whole time and you couldn't be excited!"

It really is amazing how pregnancy and labor is different for everyone. Out of all of my friends here, each of us has a completely different birth story. Some knew they wanted epidurals right away and they didn't work and had to do things the old fashioned way. Others wanted to do it the old fashioned way and ended up having c-sections. Some were incredibly long labors while others were only a few hours. And of the friends who have already had more than one, even those births were completely different each time. I guess it's nature's way of keeping you on your toes.

We can't wait for this little one to make her appearance! Keep your fingers crossed that all goes smoothly for everyone!

Yep. That's some dog.

I am still in shock that this actually happened. That there are actually people like this on the planet.

J and I were picking up bread and yogurt at the grocery store. As I was walking around our checkout counter, a highschool/early college age kid nearly collides with me because he was speeding on the back of his cart. If I didn't stop J would have had a cart in his shoulder (I was carrying him). He ignored us and kept going so I said, "Excuse me." I'm sure that excuse me had some force behind it. He said, "Excuse yourself, lady." I know my face went beat red and the mama bear said, "What did you just say to me?" He said, "You heard me." I said, "You nearly ran into both of us." He told me to shut up. I told him he was rude. Then, this is the best, he said, "Yeah. And you're fat and that's some dog you're carrying." Is your tongue hanging out of your mouth? Can you believe someone raised a child to be so hateful? I was so disgusted and shocked that I just walked to the car as he and his friend high-fived and laughed as they rode away on the back of the shopping cart towards their car. What I really wished I could have done was dragged him by his ear to his mother's house and stood him on the front porch and make him repeat what he said to me. This is what we're up against, considerate, polite people. It's gonna be a rough road ahead.

To make up for such an awful story, here's a random cute pic of "the dog" to brighten your mood a bit.

Treat

Halloween was a blast yesterday. J and I started out the day by attending a fall festival put on by the town. It was geared towards toddler and preschoolers, so they had little games at their height levels, a small petting zoo (we got to touch a baby hedgehog!), a hayride, and a fire truck. Best of all-it was free! I am continuously impressed by all of the family oriented festivals we find in and around Austin. So much fun.

J pretends not to hear the firechief tell him it's time to get off the truck

We weren't sure what to expect on our block once evening arrived. In the past 6 years we have never had a trick or treater come to our door (that's what happens when you live in apartments) so we were ready! I planned for a bunch of trick or treaters because one of the neighbors said we would be swamped living on the corner. It didn't start out that way, but once things got rolling, we had a stream of kids and I was glad I bought that extra bag of candy at Costco. One of the houses a few doors down put on this massive UFO/alien production. They built a spaceship that hung over their driveway. They also built a gigantic treehouse like structure for the aliens, complete with glow in the dark heads, to land. They rigged up a speaker system and had alien music playing. When kids went up the driveway, they yelled things like, "Bring us the children. We want the candy...Load up the ship, clearly there is no intelligent life here." If I were a young child I probably would have been scared out of my gourd. It really was neat to hear all howls and screams from the kids as they attempted to trick or treat there! B said he wants to try to beat them next year. I have my doubts and think we should just aim to put up some decorations.

J visited a few houses with B as I handed out the loot. He tells me that J loved knocking on the door and saying, "Treat" to everyone. If they had something on their porch that talked, like a pumpkin or skeleton, he said, "no, no no". Poor kid has something against inanimate objects coming to life. I can't say I blame him. J also helped pass out some treats with me before headed to bed just a little later than usual. I thought the noise from the house down the street would keep him up, but it didn't.

There was no way we were keeping that lion head on him today, but he did still do a heck of a cowardly "roar".

I guess there is a Halloween curfew because all the noise stopped at 9:00 and we had one or two stragglers after that who got all of our leftover candy. They were pretty psyched by that. If Halloween was such a production, I'm really interested to see what people do for the Christmas season!

What Do You Mean There is No Off Button?

Here are some examples of how our days now sound...

On Sunday morning...
(J wakes up):Stacy, Sean, Casey, Ka Ka, Zane, Corbih, Kay Kay, Paatee...

Me: Did you have a good time at the party yesterday?

J: Yah

Me: Did you dream about the party?
J: Yah

J: truck, choo choo, fiy chuck, cyca, choppa, vroom, choo choo, hopper..eat, oatmo.



Today in the car on the way to a store five minutes away...

"witch (pronounced with a b instead of a w), one, two, ghost, two, socca, socca, kick, dada
(he sees people playing soccer, they kick, daddy plays soccer) awsif awsif (office, office- meaning daddy is at the office if he's not playing soccer) punka, punka (pumpkin) gan, gan, gan (again, again, again) more, more more, (he wants more ghosts, witches and pumpkins) car go (car wash), Rosa, Rosa (name of a Mexican restaurant), munch (lunch), goat, neigh, neigh, moo, moo, sheep, sheep, sing, sing, pease, pease, (play that song again please or I will scream), see ba ba, see ba ba (cereal bar, cereal bar-- give me one now or I will really scream) see ba baaaaaaaaaa, see ba baaaaaaaaaa."

I didn't give him the cereal bar.



Later... at the park...

under, under, sirrl (squirrel), nuts, nuts, tee, up, up, tee, sky, arpane, arpane, gamma? (Is Grandma in the airplane?) see, see, sing (swing), kick, kick, out, off, jump, side (slide), oof-oof...end first two minutes at the park.

Do you have a headache yet?

Sure, all this talking is fabulous and cute, but this newfound ability to repeat and announce everything he sees leaves us with very little silence.

We spend the rest of our time trying to decipher the new words he is trying out. Somtimes they make absolutely no sense. The word "botch" has about 13 different meanings to him and I haven't a clue.

The word we are really afraid of popping up is "Why?"