The Perfect Uncle

Uncle C is only 9 years old, so for a baby that's pretty much the perfect Uncle... a kid, fascinating, easy to play with, shorter. Miss M is entranced by Uncle C.

Just wanted to share a particularly cute moment I noticed. J and I are big fans of nicknames and Miss M has many of them: Bean (and variations Beanie, Beaner), Monkey, Peanut, Margehrita Pizza, Munchkin, etc. Uncle C spent the day with us yesterday and was hearing us repeatedly use these terms of endearment, which he has now absorbed into his own vocabulary. He was kneeling on the floor asking Miss M to walk over to him and he kept saying, "Peanut, come on over here." And another time he was playing with her and called her "Beaner". So dang cute, kinda like a big brother. Made me want to get started on a sibling!

The "L" sucks.

Big city living, it sure is a pleasure sometimes. Take for example my least favorite mode of transportation, the "L". Always crowded, always full of rude, oblivious, smelly people, I could go on for hours about my disgust with the train. But I will keep it short. Yesterday, by some small miracle I got a seat during rush hour. Miracle indeed. At the very next stop a cracked-out, baggy pants wearing, no shower, orange soda drinking, stinky person got on the train. And at the stop after that the person sitting next to me got off. There were probably about 10 non-smelly, normal-ish people between the open seat and the shifty-eyed, twitching skeez-ball, but I knew as soon as my neighbor got up that the skeez-ball would be the one to take the seat. And try to strike up a conversation with me. Ugh. I hate the train.

Do they build a big enough dog house?

Last night J and I were sitting on the bed, watching the Oscars, and paging through an old photo album J had found on the book shelf. The photos were mine from college - mostly "bar" pictures (you know, all dolled up for a night out). J is flipping the pages and says to me, "Wow, you used to be really hot!".

Oh. NO. He Didint!

"Gee thanks, as opposed to now, when I'm not hot?"

He was digging out of that hole so fast I thought I was going to get hit with the shovel. A good lesson is never learned the easily though, and about an hour later we're lying in bed ready to go to sleep when he says something along the lines of "Don't worry, I'm going bald and getting fat, niether of us are as hot as we used to be."

Seriously, he said that to me - the woman with an extra 10 pounds glued to her ass that HIS offspring put there. I prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of my slide downhill - and dear husband, you are supposed to help me stay that way (if you know what's good for you).

Baby Barcalounger

Check out Miss M enjoying her Cherrios on her new armchair...

Thanks Granny Jean! I love my new chair!

She Must Really Love That Dog...

I got to witnesses a little Baby/Dog love fest last night. The two dogs were playing in the kitchen (or rather the little dog was trying to entice the big dog to play) and Miss M thought that was such a riot. She was walking in circles around the kitchen giggling at them. Then all of a sudden she makes a bee-line for the big dog (who yes, is still afraid of her) with her mouth wide open saying "ahhhhh". This is how Miss M "kisses" right now. No pucker, all tongue and slobber. Big dog let her get right up to him, she leaned in for the kiss, and he started licking her face all over. And I mean ALL over, they swapped spit, the dog and the baby totally made out, lots of french kissing. She was laughing the whole time the big dog was lapping her up, and I was yelling, "Ew... gross, get out of here!". What a germy mess, but I' m glad to see they like each other... I guess... there has to be a silver lining to this story, right? :)

Not Very Good at Hide and Seek

At daycare there is a Plexiglas partition between two of the cribs and it sticks out about 10 inches from the end of the crib. Miss M will stand behind that partition and look through it at people on the other side -- but I think she thinks we can't see her, because she'll look through it, press her nose and tongue up against the glass and make funny faces, then JUMP out from behind it and laugh hysterically, like SURPRISE! Um dear, we can see you honey, not much of a surprise. If I can get a picture of the squished piggy nose on the glass I'll post it for you.

Everything Important Happens in February

So today is my wedding anniversary. Two years down, 50+ to go. Every year around this time I start to think about how important February is to my life. Most people would gladly give up February in favor of a duplicate June or July, but not me. True, generally speaking I'm cursing the poor weather, freezing my butt off, anxious for spring, but if we didn't have February I'd have missed out on some of the best stuff! Like my wedding, February 17th. And the birth of my daughter, February 28th. February is when we got our first two dogs (a year apart). And February is when J told me he loved me, and I was sober enough to remember it (first time was actually in August, but that's a whole other story). So as I look out the window in my office, down onto a dirty/salty/potholed Michigan Ave, out onto a increasingly gray and ominous sky, I think... damn, I HATE winter. Good thing I have all these milestones to give me something to celebrate!

Our Weekend

Hello all, stories from our weekend...

1. We have an Olive Garden coupon. And since Miss M has recently realized how much she LOVES noodles we decided to use it - at 5:00 on Valentines Day. Apparently Olive Garden is THE place to take your sweetie on Valentines Day, because there was an hour and a half wait for a table... at 5:30pm... at OLIVE GARDEN! Crazy people. Needless to say we didn't wait. We went and introduced Miss M to Indian food instead. She was a big fan of the chicken tikka masala. Which leads me to my next story...

2. Everyone loves Miss M. The waiter at the Indian restaurant was trying to set her up with the little boy two tables away. And the two hostesses came and sat at the table right next to ours and made faces and talked to her through the first 15 minutes of our meal. Very nice, but a little disconcerting as well. I mean, how do you have a nice meal out with half the staff practically sitting in your lap? The other strange thing about the restaurant - it was pretty dead when we got there (it was early) but as we ate it started to fill up... with stroller after stroller after stroller. There was an 11 month old when we got there (what is it that makes people with a baby think that because YOU have a baby you must want to talk to them?) and by he end of the meal there was four other couples with strollers in the restaurant. Very high stroller to diner ratio.

3. This morning Daddy was leaving for work and was trying to wrangle a kiss out of Miss M. "Smooch, smooch, gimme a kiss honey!" I was holding her while he was doing this, and she turned away from him and planted a big wet one right on my cheek. Daddy was not happy. Mommy sure was though! (and no, daddy didn't get his kiss)

4. Walking in circles. Miss M does not stop moving, she literally walks for two hours straight, then gets all cranky and takes a nap, wakes up, walks for two hours straight, etc. Saturday J and I were sitting on the floor and she was walking back and forth between the two of us, giggling and smiling. Then she decided to change up her game. She would start off towards Daddy, get about half way then do a U-turn, laugh hysterically, and head back to Mommy. She was so proud of herself, it was like she had just figured out how to turn around right at that moment. What a goof.

Sesame Street = Baby Heaven

Miss M doesn't watch TV. I wish I could say it's because we're trying to raise her without the constant influence and stimulation of man's best friend, but that's not really true. If I could get her to sit still for a Disney cartoon once in a while I would. But the kid is not normal, and she has no tolerance for cartoons in any form. Nor is she interested in "grown-up" programming. But then we found Sesame Street, and she is in awe. This morning, for example, Miss M spent the entire half hour between 6:30 and 7:00am with her jaw dangling open, completely entranced by numbers, letters, puppets and children. Well, almost the entire half hour - when they switched to a segment featuring a cartoon she got all pissed off and started crying - but when Elmo reappeared she calmed right down and fell back into her trance. Watching her watching TV has so far been the highlight of my day. Gotta love public television.

Now... I'm Tired.

I'm tired. Exhausted really. I don't really even have a good reason to be. I think it's really just my brain that is tired, and it's making every inch of my body drag along with it. Maybe it's meloncholy, I love that word. Yes, I definately think there's a little saddness mixed in there. I'm sad my a$$ is still about ten pounds heavier than it should be. And I'm sad that I can't justify the expense of getting my hair professionally colored (I'm beginning to look like an orange crayon, I swear to god). And I'm really sad about how guilty I feel every time I want to go lay down by myself for twenty minutes when I could be playing with the Bean. I mean, mathmatics is a science, and the math tells me that she lays those big blue eyes on her daycare teachers for more time each week than she does her dear old mom. Wouldn't that make any parent sad? So... now, I'm tired. Add to the mom-guilt and fat a$$ a whole lot of work stress and expecations, mix in some wife/daughter/friend responsibilities and you'd be tired too! I bet you are actually, we're all in the same boat. Geez, depressing. I think I need more sun, Chicago winter is starting to make me loopy.

Caught in the act...

Pictures of Miss M's affinity for cookware...

65 and Sunny - time to hit the park!

Miss M got her first chance on the baby swing at the park this past weekend. It was unseasonably warm - around 65 degrees! So the stroller came out of storage and off we strolled. Deposited Miss M into the baby swing, pulled back, and weeeee!!! And in a split second Miss M was NOT having fun anymore. Her lower lip began to quiver and a look of sheer panic crossed her face, and then came the tears. Her first swing was abruptly halted, and the tears stopped quickly, but she was not a happy camper. We'll try again in a few months I think.

Swim Class

Milwaukee Public Museum

So you might wonder what an 11 month old could possibly learn at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Well, she might learn that her older cousin C loves her very much and is very entertaining. She also might learn that Mommy thinks Museum's are pretty boring. Or that Daddy gets a strange glazed over, far away look in his eyes when he's forced to wander through "The Living Ocean" and the "Wisconsin Woodlands". Here are pictures of a few other things she learned on our trip to the Museum yesterday.

Butterflies are interesting and weird....


And we're not allowed to touch them.


Our Cousin C is also interesting and weird, but he fits nicely inside a giant peapod with me...


And he's fun to play chase with.

Someone get this kid some Static Gaurd

We visited a furniture store and tried out some new sofas. Miss M loved flopping down on the giant sectionals. It must have been pretty dry in there though - cuz look at her Mr. Wizard hair!

(and no, we didn't buy a new sofa)