We’re hanging out this morning… William’s gift to us was sleeping until 7:20 am. Tony’s biggest gift to me was letting me sleep until I woke at 7:45 am.
Our gift to William was a shit-ton of Cars. A gingerbread cookie in his stocking. And his very own camera. He is one happy little camper.
So blessed.
Merry Christmas!
Filed under Best Husband, I feel Glad, I have Family, Our Kid is Cute
Me: What are you making over there, with your hot sauce.
Him: Tacos… I told you.
Me: Oh, that’s right.
Him: No one ever listens to me anymore.
Me: That’s not true. I listen, I just don’t remember.
Him: That’s not much of an excuse.
Me: It is, too. I’m old.
Him: You’re not that much older than me.
Me: Then that doesn’t give you much hope, does it?
Filed under Best Husband
I purchased a Groupon early 2013 with a company called Portrait Scene. We’d never done a professional outdoor photo shoot before, only indoor with Sears Portraits. The nearest Sears Portrait Studio closed down, though, so I wanted to find something else.
I was a bit concerned, doing a photo shoot outdoors in November… you just never know. Especially since it was booked months in advance. But everything cooperated. The weather, the park, even got a great photographer who claimed to have a little boy about William’s age… so he interacted well with him. <—That makes things SO much easier!
The only issue I had with them was the delay in getting my order. They had some technical difficulties uploading the proofs to their website, they don’t allow downloading once purchased, and I placed my order on 11/14 and received the CD of printable photos on December 7th. That’s a long time.
But worth the wait.
Filed under Best Husband, I have Family, Our Kid is Cute
Dear William,
On 12/8/2013, you turned 2 years old. As the days trickled by this year, counting up to your birthday, I visited my journal from two years ago and reminded myself of the anticipation I felt then, but also the concern I had every day that you would go beyond your due date. My doctor had warned me you were a big baby, and I didn’t want a c-section, so I trained like I was going to the Olympics! I speed walked to and from Disneyland, I swam for hours every day, I took the stairs, up and down, to all of my OB appointments (6 flights) and at work (2 flights). And then, the amazing labor and delivery we had, like a finely orchestrated dance… I sensed from the start that you were a good boy, and funny. Turns out, both of those are so very true… and you even came a day early!
STATS/TEETH:
You are 37.5 inches tall, weigh 34 pounds 14 ounces. You are wearing size 3T in shirts and pants and size 4T in footed sleepers. You wear a size 8.5 in shoes.
Your 2 year molars are currently coming in. Your left side molars have broken through the gums and your right side upper molar is a bulging mountain of swollen ouchy pink tissue. So is my index finger, because I went exploring but forgot to tell you not to bite. All I can say is, these molars must be truly awful for you, little one. Sleep has been rough and sometimes, even day time playing, you’ll just stop playing and start crying while grabbing your cheeks. Poor little guy.
THINGS YOU SAY:
Ice-crean is Ice cream. Balicious is delicious.
Lightming is “Lightning.”
You love to ask, “Hey! What are you doing?” And then you answer your own question by tattling on yourself.
NURSING/FOOD:
You don’t like sitting in high chairs anymore, and much prefer to sit in regular chairs, just like the rest of us.
You love to nurse and request to nurse often. It is one of my most treasured relationships in life right now and feel beyond blessed that I will get another Christmas of nursing snuggles from you.
SLEEP:
OMG… baaaaaaaahahahahaaa
SLEEP, REAL UPDATE:
The first part of this past month was an awful nightmare in the sleep department. One night in particular, you were simply unable to sleep. I nursed you for hours on end, and finally in desperation, I put you in your crib and laid down on the floor next to your crib and held your hands through the slats. You simply couldn’t sleep unless you were holding my hand, and I guess we finally must have slept for a few hours. You woke at 3am, crying. I don’t know if it was your teeth or the congestion you had and could hardly breathe, or very likely a combination of the two. It was awful and I swore you were trying to kill me.
It was the trigger for something that I’ve been thinking about doing for awhile now, and that was to have the bed your grandpa H. built you lowered, and used as a functional bed for you now. I thought long and hard about it, trying to think of alternatives, but I kept returning to the fact that we should be using that bed now, not have it in your room collecting dust and outgrown clothes until you’re 10 years old. So the bed was lowered a few days after Thanksgiving, and on that very day you took the most epic nap you’ve ever taken in your whole almost two years of life. Three hours and fifteen minutes, and I woke you up because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to sleep that night. It has been that way ever since. This has been a learning adjustment for you, because the bed is much larger than your crib (e.g., a Twin Extra Long) and you can now reach your window shutters from your bed and your room has the best view in the house of all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood, but overall you’ve done very well, with long naps that you hardly move at all, even sleeping through the garbage truck coming by in all his noisy glee. This has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.
I know I’ve spent a lot of time on this part of the update, but I’m really astonished by this and am wondering if you’ve simply never been comfortable in your crib?
THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:
11/16 — last visit with your cousins, Huck and Milo for awhile (they moved to the east coast)
11/28 — Thanksgiving at home (Grandma & Grandpa H., Grandma D., Uncle Al)
12/6 – Disneyland/California Adventure Park with my work, and your grandparents came along, too.
Library on Mondays and Wednesdays
Music Class on Tuesdays
PLAYTIME AND CHILDREN INTERACTION:
One of the things we do before your bath is to let you run around in your diaper for about 15 minutes. You adore being Diaper Baby! In fact, I’ve started using a timer to help you transition through the bath time routine. When it goes “beep beep” it’s time to get in the tub, or out of the tub, or get of of froggy potty, etc. It really seems to help.
Mid-November, we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with everyone — Steve, Marigold, Huck, Milo, Grandma H., Grandpa H., Grandma D. — we celebrated early because your Uncle Steve & Aunt Marigold, along with your cousins, moved to the east coast. All the rest of the month, you requested to see Huck and MIlo and then responded to yourself, “They moved away, it’s so sad!”
You are best friends with our cat, Tug. You love him to distraction and treat him like a brother. You show and share your toys with him and attempt to play with him. You give him hugs and kisses and tell him “You’re my kitty cat!”
When we go to Chick-Fil-A, all you want to do is be the doorman for the play area… given that, it shouldn’t have surprised me that you are now able to open the fridge door and handily cart anything in there to the counter and request it for dinner.
FOR YOUR 2ND BIRTHDAY:
We kept it low key this year… for your actual birthday, we had your grandparents over and had a crockpot of beef stew, salad and bread. We had gingerbread cake with cool whip — gingerbread is your current favorite kind of treat and a few presents. For your birthday party, we’ll be having a small get together next Saturday (the 14th) morning at your grandparent’s house. I think you’ll enjoy seeing everyone and hanging out.
THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:
How darling your developing sense of humor is. You put your train on top of the garbage truck and say, “Oh, that’s funny!” Or you put Lightning on top of Tow Mater and inform me that Lightning is stuck. One morning I was lip synching the words to your favorite song, Trot Old Joe. You watched me for awhile and then looked at your father and said, “Mommy’s being funny.” The way you grab Froggy, shove him in your mouth and fake cry. Then you hand me Froggy and expect me to fake cry into it, then you hand Froggy to your father and request that he cry. One night you had been eating strawberries and burped. You immediately said, “Excuse me.” Then, a moment passed, and you had an odd look on your face and then you said, “That was a strawberry burp!”
You have started singing songs… with actual tunes and rhythm. You also like to hum songs, particularly Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while nursing. You love B-I-N-G-O. Your favorite of favorite songs right now is “Trot Old Joe,” which is on your summer album of Music Together. You also love the “car song” and “train song” that is on the same album. Other songs you know or are learning the lyrics to are Christmas songs — Jingle Bell Rock is a favorite and Let it Snow.
You have started to pick out what clothes you want to wear. You love a train shirt that was handed down to you from your cousins, in fact, you pulled it out of the laundry basket one day and carried it around with you. You also have a penchant for requesting to wear specific colors of shirts.
How this month you have been obsessed with Christmas lights and Christmas trees and Christmas music. As mentioned under the sleep update, we rearranged your room and now you have access to your window. One evening this month, you spent a half hour in your bed running back and forth to the window, opening the shutters and looking out at the Christmas lights down the street, saying all the while, “I see Christmas lights, mommy. I do. I see Christmas lights!”
How when you really want my attention, you’ll come up to me and say, “Up, please, mommy?” Then you move your head until you’re eye-to-eye with me and you look in my eyes and say “Mommy?”.
The way you catch my eyes sometimes and just grin at me because you’re happy.
How I came up the stairs one night and you and your father were up there playing in the hallway. I asked what was going on and you replied, “We’re having a man party!” Your father claims he didn’t prompt you to say that, so you must have remembered it from when you were watching the Cars movie together and i said that to you guys. Oh, and when you watch a movie, you have to eat grapes, because … that’s what you two did the first time you watched Cars. And the other night, when you were watching the movie again, I brought you some rinsed grapes and you turned at me and grinned, an inside joke… but you obviously needed grapes to go with your movie.
The evening of your birthday, I realized that when I nursed you to sleep that night, it would be the last time I nursed you as a one year old. Nostalgia reminds me that you have literally grown from a helpless, newborn baby into an independent, loving, impressive little boy, right there in front of my eyes on my nursing pillow. Your entire body used to fit the length of my arm, I could pick you up and put you into your crib with one arm. Now your back is longer than my forearm, your legs hang off the chair when you fall asleep, and I have to use both hands and arms to lift you up, all the while I strategically leverage my body to get you into your bed.
You really love to help us in the kitchen. You press the button on my coffee maker (after I’ve put water and coffee grounds in), and then tell me, “I made mommy’s coffee…. yay!” You grab a kitchen chair and haul it behind you into the kitchen so you can climb up on it and help. I let you lick the beater when I make your banana cookies, and you really own that beater, your tongue wraps all around it and it gets all over face. These rites of passage, a child licking the beaters, a child running the upstairs hallways before bathtime, a child melting in my arms as he leans over and gets right up in my face and whispers, “I love you, mommy.” These are the kinds of moments I had hoped for, and I hope these are the moments you’ll remember fondly for the rest of your life.
You are a blessing times a million.
Love you forever, Mama and Daddy
Filed under I have Family, Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute
I had a few chuckles on the freeway driving home last night when I spotted these license plate frames. I couldn’t stop imagining that perhaps her son-in-law put these on her car, and she maybe doesn’t even know they’re there? Because, really, how often do YOU go look at your license plate frames? Once a year when you stick your new registration sticker on?
Then I thought how awesome that would be if Tony got some of these and put them on my mom’s car. And that’s when I really laughed. In fact, I was lying in bed last night thinking about that and started laughing… Tony said, “What are you laughing about?” I wouldn’t tell him because I wanted to post the picture to go with it.
Nice, shiny chrome plate holder that says, “Happiness is being… Tony’s Mother-In-Law!
Filed under I feel Amused
I don’t know where the month of November has gone. I know they say that time seems to go faster as you get older, and then you throw a child into the mix and it really seems to fly. I really hate being a cliche.
So, let’s catch up … late last month I was the recipient of a speeding ticket. It wasn’t an intentional thing on my part, it was more along the lines of me getting stuck in the middle of a huge group of cars who were doing 15 MPH under the speed limit, then, somehow, at the traffic light, the 5 cars ahead of me decided to turn left, leaving me the first in line and when the light turned green, my mind was on something else. Tony was right behind me and when the light turned green I must have reveled in my freedom. There wasn’t a real reason for me to speed, the lights are synched at that point all the way to the freeway, so no matter what speed I went, it wouldn’t have made a difference. There I was, way ahead of everyone, and I saw that motorcycle cop. Pretty sure it was the same guy who gave me my bicycle lane infringement ticket 5 years ago. I wonder if, when he saw me, in his head he chanted, “Winner, winner, Chicken Dinner!” I should have asked him that, huh? In fact, I’m gonna write a list of questions I want to ask an officer sometime… like, “Is it illegal for a motorcycle to use the double yellow lines between the carpool lane and the fast lane as a motorcycle lane, basically “splitting” lanes there?” and “Why does no one ever ticket the guy doing 40 MPH on the freeway?” You know, that sort of thing. I really am making a list, you know, because it’s these types of things I always forget to ask but really want to know when I’m faced with the officer who stands just behind your shoulder so you can’t really see him, while he’s asking to see your proof of registration and insurance and your hands are shaking because you’ve gotten caught breaking the law.
In other automotive news, a month ago, I backed out of my garage, shifted out of reverse into 1st, and my neighbor backed into my car. It took me a couple seconds to figure out what happened… because how does one hit something if I was moving forward and there was nothing in front of me? Then I realized I hadn’t hit anything, someone had hit me. So weird. I’ve lived in this house for 8 years and never even come close to this happening. Proof, once again, that little cars are invisible to big SUVs. He said he’d replace the broken tail light, but I’m still waiting on it. Not without many updates on his part, because I told him I was OK with a used part because Mazda plastics have a reputation of fading. Plus, he has a couple small children, so if he’s anything like me, money is tight and every penny counts and used parts are generally less expensive. The thing is, I’m finding, I really just don’t care… it’s not like I ever look at my own tail light. I guess if it’s not replaced in another couple weeks, I’ll have to ask him about it.
Thanksgiving is this week… even though we celebrated Thanksgiving early with Tony’s family this past weekend, since Steve and Marigold are moving eastward, we’ll be hosting a small “crockpot” Thanksgiving at our house on the real day this week. I’m looking forward to it. A three day work week is what I’m facing this week, and the first day of it (today) is almost over.
Happy Thanskgiving, then, if I don’t get on here before then.
Filed under I ♥ My Miata, I have Friends
Dear William,
On November 8, 2013, you turned 23 months old.
One of the biggest things this month is that we’ve having been working with you on your fear of water in the bath tub. Since you were 12 months old, I’ve been washing your hair with just a damp washcloth. A week before you turned 22 months old, something made me think you were ready to work through this. So, I started then asking you to lie back (while I hold your head) and rinsing your hair with water from a container. This was coinciding with your desperate need for yet another hair cut, because when you’re hair is longer, it’s difficult to get the soap out with a damp washcloth.
While we worked with you on this, I knew it was impacting you, because at various points throughout the day when it crossed your mind, you would say, “I laid back! You did it! Yay!” But when it came time to actually do it, you would start to cry and I would reassure you, “Mommy has you! Trust me! We’re just rinsing your hair.” And then praising you, “You did it! You laid back!”
Now, at 23 months old, you can’t wait to get in the bath tub. All the way home from running errands in the evening, you say from the back seat, “It’s not bath time yet!” Then when we get home, and get you in the tub, you start laying back on your own to rinse your hair, first thing. It looks like you’ve truly overcome your fear of water on your head, at least in this instance. Coinciding with this notable development is your love for “washing cars.” You rinse and rinse your bath cars and say that you’re washing them. You have very clean bath toys.
You now love bath time so much, that I have to set a timer and tell you, “When it goes ‘beep beep’ it’s time to get out of the tub.” Ridiculous, I know, but it really helps with the transition through the bath time routine.
STATS/TEETH:
You are weighing in at 33 pounds 14 ounces this month. You are 37 inches tall. You are in 3T clothing.
Teeth: Your two year molars are moving in. Often when we brush your teeth, we get blood on the toothbrush. I think both sides are coming in, because blood comes from both sides of your mouth. Poor baby.
THINGS YOU SAY:
Con-toy is guitar. Bicycle, you say the “y” with a long “i” sound. Police car – Podeece car. Ambulance is amubance. You stopped saying “s” in front of words for some reason, kind of weird.
The first week after having turned 22 months old is the first time you started regularly saying “mommy” when you woke from your sleeps, instead of crying. You still cry out in the middle of the night. This is to be expected, I suppose, given that your molars are coming in. It also appears as if you’re gaining control of your emotions or frustrations… if you’re crying and upset, I usually ask you to please stop crying and use your words so I can help you. Sometimes, you’ll stop mid-cry, sniffle and tell me what you want. Then you say, “Yay! You stopped crying!” That is not something I’ve ever told you, but apparently you apply praise liberally to any occasion.
You know your right and left. When I ask you for your right or left hand, or right or left foot to wash in the bath tub, you lift it for me.
You hear the cat’s collars from upstairs and say, “That’s a cat downstairs.” Indeed.
You know by sound what is going by on the street, a bus, motorcycle, fast car, or our neighbor, Michael’s car. ha
You know your primary colors… we ask you what color your diaper is when we change you or get you ready for your bath, and you always say the correct color. Red, blue, green, white, yellow… you know them. Also, your various cars, you ask for your purple car, red car, blue car, etc. Even though you’ve been doing this for awhile now, it never fails to surprise me.
You request specific songs from your music class CDs… “Want to hear the car song, please? Want to hear the train song, please? Trot Old Joe song, please?” So we often drive down the road listening to repeat of the same song over and over again. Just this past month you’ve started singing the words to some of them. I came home one day for lunch and you serenaded me with B-I-N-G-O. I was so shocked, not believing what I was hearing. We still have some to go before you sing on tune, though.
Also, when you have a stuffy nose, communication is helping you when I need to use the nose frieda on you. Instead of screaming and fighting us, and instead of just sticking the thing up your nose, I ask your permission first… “May I suction your nose? Are you ready?” And you reply, “Mommy suction nose! I’ll feel better.” And then you always like to see what I get out of there, and same for when I clean your ears, you like to see it. A human curiosity, I guess.
Your memory is amazing… we decided to stop at Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch one day, as we pulled into the shopping center, you said, “I go to Monkey Class???” Your gymnastics class is in the same shopping center, you recognized it despite not having been for a couple months. We went to JoAnn’s shortly before Halloween and there was lots of motion sensor, scary stuff. You talked repeatedly about “the scary aisle.” Just a couple days ago we went back, you looked around and then looked at me and asked, “Where’s the scary aisle?”
One evening I sat down to nurse you and you repeatedly requested your blue car. I repeatedly told you I didn’t have it. It turns out that technically, I did have the blue car, I just didn’t know it. When I stood up after nursing on you, I was sitting on the thing.
You tell me, “You’re my baby.” I have no idea where you get THAT from. ha
NURSING/FOOD:
You still nurse a lot, and enjoy it. I’m grateful that I have this comfort that I can give you. I still pump whie I’m at work, although I’m down to 2 sessions per day instead of the 5 sessions I was doing a year ago. Those two sessions give me a mental break, too, and I spend the time reading eBooks on my netbook.
SLEEP:
This month has been rough in the sleep department. Often you wake in the early mornings, and then don’t fall asleep nursing. In fact, I kind of think the nursing keeps you in a light dozing state. Your sleep is much more adult-like now (since you were 20 months old). So when I’m certain you’re not swallowing milk anymore, I will ask you to unlatch. You do, but aren’t too happy about it. I put you back in your crib and then you ask me to stay with you and hold your hand. I’m OK with doing that, but your father and I need to figure out a better configuration for that because I’m lying on the floor sticking my hand through the crib siding, and that’s just not very comfortable and makes for a very long day for me, if I’m getting up with you at 3:30am. To complicate matters, we had the time change this month…
THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:
10/12 — Tanaka Farms, we saw lots of pumpkins, a pumpkin cannon, we took a tractor pulled wagon ride, went through a corn maze and pet lots of goats. The baby goats were the cutest and softest. We also met up with a couple moms from our birthing class. The one mom, Claudia, was wearing her 2 month old baby girl and I was wearing you… you wanted to “pet her” and then I showed you her tiny little toes… the next day you were saying, “Saw a baby, saw tiny toes!”
10/19 — we spent the morning at Grandma D.’s condo and the afternoon at your Grandma and Grandpa H.’s house, visiting them and your cousins
10/26 — we attended Dr. Werlin’s reunion.
10/26 — we went to the Great OC Park’s Halloween event. You visited their pumpkin patch and rode their Wild Train Ride.
10/31 — you trick-or-treated as Krypto (aka Super Dog). It took you one time and you had the routine down, knock on the door, say trick-or-treat, get candy, say thank you … visit if they want to and then move on. You loved your pumpkin with candy it, although you don’t yet know that candy gets opened and eaten. You just like to have it and add to your candy collection.
11/1 — we went to our mountain cabin for a couple days
11/3 — we visited Mason Regional Park for the morning
PLAYTIME AND CHILDREN INTERACTION:
I’m super excited to have found a less expensive music class. Unfortunately I cannot attend, as it’s Tuesday mornings, but your Grandma D. graciously takes you. It’s 30 minutes (instead of 45) long and there’s a playground right near that you can visit before or afterwards.
Since our community pool’s heat is turned off for the winter, I’ve been swimming at the gym. This is noteworthy, because we’ve taken you a couple times and let you play in the Kid’s Klub there. You love it and get all excited to “go to the gym!” You lead us out to the garage the moment mention is made of this outing.
THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:
How you stroke my arm while nursing.
How, when asked if you’re done nursing, you say “no” around a mouth full of boob. You’ve also started humming songs to me while your nursing, mostly identifiable by the rhythm of it.
How you go into a sing-songy voice when you’re imitating something we’ve said to you.
How you love all the Christmas trees and decorations that are out in the store. In fact, you ask to “go see Christmas trees?” or “Go see big snowman?” the second we get into the store.
How your play has gotten so creative and imaginative. You pretend eat, we have delightful snack times out in your playhouse in the afternoons, with pretend “chicken pancakes,” leaves, spiders, persimmons, and whatever other items you think might be a good snack.
How you loved my Halloween costume, that I carry a Barbie doll dressed identically to me. You called her “mini mommy!” and you wanted to carry the doll around with you all night long.
How you love your sonic toothbrush. One night you ran off stealthily with mine and I found you sitting on the guest bed leaning back with it turned on and in your mouth. That evening I bought you one of your own. Best thing I ever did!
How you ask permission to do things, but it sounds like you’re making a statement. You’ll say, “You can touch that…” But what you mean is, “May I touch that?” It’s so funny.
How gentle you are with babies… at the gym’s Kid’s Klub, I came back to check on you after I was done swimming. You were lying on the floor, your face in your hands, your eyes closed, while a 7 month old patted your face. You patiently let him explore. When he was done, you got up, ran over and got a dump truck and rolled that toy over to the “baby” so he could play with it.
How you have entire conversations while holding your play phone up to your ear… and you really do have conversations when you’re on the phone with someone.
How you love cars. Hot Wheels to be precise. You currently have over 50 Hot Wheels. That means that we’ve gone shopping at least 50 times over the last couple months and purchased you a Hot Wheel. We purchased a case for them at Toys R Us when we went there the other day (that was the item on the list). It holds 72 cars. It’s half full. You even love carrying just the case around. We are doomed. It’s a good thing I like Hot Wheels. In my mind’s eye, I can see our house getting wheeled down the street by tiny little wheels… you love them, I mean LOVE them.You know when one is missing and will ask for it specifically. You send them spinning across the living room floor (hard wood). If it goes far, and doesn’t spin out, you stand up, clasp your hands together gleefully and say, “Oh! That’s a good one!” You lined your cars up one night and said, “They’re waiting…” I asked you what they were waiting for. You replied, “Green light!” I said, what happens when the light turns green? You said, “It turns red.” Huh. I guess you’re kind of right, I’ve certainly seen lights like that! The things you think of just make me laugh.
These things you do make me wonder what you have in store for you in the future, and who you will be. I have no idea, of course, but I’m absolutely adoring watching you figure it out.
Love you forever,
Momma
Filed under Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute
This past weekend, on the 1st, we celebrated my 43rd birthday. Tony, bless him, gave me the greatest gift any man can give a woman who is the mother of a toddler… the gift of a nap. The gift of a nap when said toddler failed at taking his, by taking the toddler away and on a drive that then turned into a car nap for the toddler.
Not to be outdone by that gift, he also took me to our mountain cabin for a couple days. Where we did our usual tour of our favorite breakfast place where I was serenaded with the Happy Birthday song by a fellow there singing, a surprise was that, I’ve never seen anyone there singing before, so that was a perk.
We also visited the candy store in town, where I bought my favorite candy there… a dark chocolate caramel apple, a dark chocolate covered pretzel stick and a dark chocolate peanut butter cup. Tony then bought us ice cream. Never mind that there was smatterings of snow and ice in town, residuals of the storm that had moved through there earlier in the week. Ice cream doesn’t need warm weather to taste good.
Then there was the birthday cheesecake and sparkly numbers atop it. Well, more like birthday cheesecakes, and since it was my birthday, I sampled each and every one of them… and, being in a generous mood, I let Tony sample them, too. They were delicious, indeed.
Finally, there was the moment as we drove down the mountain, our time there enjoyed immensely… and we held hands, as we drove we entered what I call our magical forest. When it snows and the trees are heavy with it, the light sparkles it turning it to frozen diamonds. It looks like something out of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was there several years ago that it was where I realized that the love Tony and I had for each other was too much, and that we needed a child to hold some of the love… and wasn’t that a good idea to start a family with? Too much love? And this time, as we drove, our child chattered at us from his seat in the rear seat, happy and content, smiling and singing and yelling, ” Boo! Mommy and Daddy, boo!!”
For as much as a child’s birthdays marks the years passing like mile markers on a freeway, so does my birthday mark the passing of time of my happiness in the family we’ve made. There is no gift in the world that I want, for I have all I could have ever dreamed… and more.
I am so very, very blessed in this, my 43rd year of life. Happy Birthday to me.
A few months ago, the management company replaced the toilet paper dispensers in the restrooms here at work. This travesty was wrought one afternoon and, had I known, I would have removed one of the keys and saved it when they were available, sticking out of the dispensers the afternoon they were installed. Then I could have been known as the Bathroom Hero and rescued the toilet paper rolls out of there when needed.
Now we have these dispensers that are ineffective… the toilet paper breaks off (double ply, even) before you get even a couple squares off. To be somewhat efficient, you pretty much have to start wrangling and wrestling with the thing, while it clangs and bangs in protest, the second you sit down. In my estimation, that kind of defeats the purpose of taking a bathroom “break.”
In frustration I vented to a co-worker one day about them as we were leaving the restroom. She nodded in understanding and commiserated that she hated them, too. Which makes it amusing then, to me, is that sometimes the janitors leave extra rolls of toilet paper outside the stalls on top of the feminine hygiene dispenser and, inevitably, those rolls of toilet paper always end up in the stall, sitting on top of the toilet paper dispensers. And those extra rolls of toilet paper are always used up first.
Moral of the Story: One should always test drive toilet paper dispensers before installing them.
Filed under Money Hump Building, Time Consumers, Weird is Fun
This weekend we went to the local farm where they grow seasonal items (Christmas trees, pumpkins, watermelons, etc.) as well as garden variety types of plants (kale, lettuces, carrots, etc.). They have tractor pulled wagon rides, a corn maze, a hay bale maze, a pumpkin shootin’ cannon, as well as a petting zoo (lots of goats and sheep, as well as an imu or two). Usually it’s a dusty and dirty affair, and no matter how cold it is, it somehow always manages to feel about 10° hotter than it really is, and there’s always lots of people there and photobombs are pretty much guaranteed. They claim all the pumpkins are organically grown on site, and there are boxes and piles of pumpkins, as well as the ones still attached to the vines. We were there for the experience, not to buy — we grew our own pumpkin this year at Tony’s parent’s house.
Since a pumpkin farm just isn’t enough pumpkin viewing for us, Sunday evening we headed out to the Orange County Great Park to see the “pumpkin” in the sky! They were sold out of tickets for the ride, but the carousel was there and William really, really, really liked riding on that. Unlike Tony, who turned an interesting shade of green after the first round on it.
So, William first rode the “Biggest Horsey” then the Zebra!! and then the Ostrich. I was trying to pick the most unique of the animals to ride, and so I built up the excitement about riding the Ostrich. The Ostrich, William! Can you imagine!! An Ostrich! By the time the ride stopped, he was leaning off the Zebra and ready to go see this mystical and amazing creature, the Ostrich! His legs were stiff with excitement, his smile wide as can be. We got there, he took one look at it and said in a no-nonsense tone of voice, “It’s a duck.” No amount of persuasion tactics could change his mind.
In his eyes, the thing was clearly a duck and, while he enjoyed it, he really would have rather ridden on the “Scary Cat!” Unfortunately, we closed the carousel party, and all the animals had to go to bed, so he only got to pet the scary cat as we exited the ride.
Filed under Entertainment can be Cheap, I have Friends, Our Kid is Cute
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