Marriage-ism # 1

You can be certain that you’ve married the right person when there is no
one else in the world that you would rather spend the rest of your life
annoying.

The Three 'B' Words

Living in a houseful of males, at least two of which are on the geeky side makes for some entertaining events. Teenager loves to try to get his little brother to say new words and comes up with some pretty interesting options.The little guy has been learning more words lately and has really been to try to say new things. Although progress has been slow we feel encouraged and his Speech Therapist does as well. One of the new words he's started saying lately is "Bo" for "No" as he hasn't quite got the "N" sound down yet.

Now, a little background: The whole family are huge fans of the show "The Office". For Christmas this year Teenager bought me a DVD set of season three and we recently watched an episode which contained the following clip.

I must apologize for the poor quality, this is the best copy of this clip I could find on the Internet.

So since we watched this clip Teenager has been going around the house doing his own rendition of this. It occurred to him that his brother knows quite a few "B" words these days. The following conversation took place between the two of them:

Teenager: "Say: Bears."

Little Guy: "Beawr."

Teenager: "Now say: Beets."

Little Guy: "Beet."

Teenager: "Can you say Battlestar Galactica?"

Little Guy: "Bo."

Some things are worth it

Last night was a rough night for sleep around here. In fact, we haven't had a night like that since the first months after the baby was born when we were up all night long! We still haven't figured out what was going on with the little guy but it was an entire night long of him waking and crying for no apparent reason and each of us going in to try to comfort him in some way. At one point in the wee hours of morning I woke to no hubby beside me and no baby visible on the baby monitor. I ventured out to the living room where I found this:

A good night's sleep is worth a lot, but this is priceless.

Thank you, Mary Poppins

So we broke out the Mary Poppins DVD for the little guy. It's often enlightening and amusing to see what smart-alec comments the hubby comes up with during things like this. Tonight, he starts out by reminding me how lucky I am that he gets home from work so early because "Mr. Banks doesn't get home until 6:01 pm". He then goes on a good-natured tangent ribbing me about how his wife is there to greet him as he comes home to his hearth and home [or something like that.] I believe it's as this point Mr. Banks pours himself a Scotch, dons his satin smoking jacket and whips out his pipe. The hubby then states he wants a smoking jacket. I ask what on earth he'd do with a smoking jacket. His response: "Speak with a British accent and sing show tunes around the house." I now know what to get him for his birthday.

The Chair

Back when I was pregnant we shopped for all the nursery furniture well ahead of time. We’d picked out the furniture we thought we really wanted when we were fairly certain we’d end up with a girl, though we did not order it waiting until we found out for sure what we were getting. Ironically, when we found out we were having a boy this threw us into a quandary about furniture as well as names because we had a hard time figuring out what we wanted and our girl choices seemed so easy. We eventually ordered the crib and other pieces we decided on along with bedding and décor and had the majority of the nursery done at least few months ahead of time. There was one piece of furniture we couldn’t decide on and took us entirely too long. As you might have guessed already this was a chair; a rocking chair to be used primarily for nursing the baby in his room. I did not want one of the typical wooden rockers with a chair pad because I didn’t think it was comfortable enough and it didn’t seem like something we would use later on. We looked at the stuffed chairs that were also glider rockers that came with ottomans which also glided and decided that would be the best choice. We ordered a nice neutral beige-ish/brownish one and it took forever to come in. In fact, it was mere weeks before my due date and we were still waiting. The store promised us they would bring it out to us as soon as it arrived and it ended up coming in within just days of my due date. I wanted to be sure I kept the chair as clean as possible and decided to buy a slipcover for it which I recall shopping for just a couple of days before the baby was born. This was a definitely one of my better ideas considering the amount of spilled milk, baby spit up and other things which would be introduced around the chair. I loved this comfy chair and it was a wonderful place to sit and nurse the baby. In fact I’d discovered that a little fold up table placed next to it provided a place to set the lap stop so I could catch up on e-mail and read news, etc, while nursing as this was the only computer time I got back in those days. I became quite adept at nursing at the keyboard [apparently referred to as NAK: nursing at keyboard]. Well, the baby weaned himself at around a year and the chair sat unused for quite some time. To be honest it pretty much became the place where we dumped all the baby’s clean laundry to be folded and put away. So onto the main point of this story since I know you’re probably wondering if I’m simply going to regale you with tales of nursery furniture shopping. One of the challenges with having a little one with Sensory Processing Disorder is the lack of snuggling opportunities. Little Guy is actually quite affectionate, but due to the effects of his sensory issues will only hug and snuggle when he wants to and it is very brief. Generally this means while running about playing he will occasionally zoom over to me for a nanosecond long squeeze and be on his way. This has become known as the Drive-By Snuggle. It’s hard for a mommy who loves snuggling and is part of a snuggly/huggie family to come to terms with this. So, recently I came up with an idea; since he’s the snuggliest upon just waking I decided to start taking him out of his crib and sitting down with him in the chair in the nursery. Now I make certain I stay on top of folding and putting away clothes (added bonus!) so I can sit down for “snuggle time” with the little guy. The chair is right next to his little shelf with books so he will often suggest a story he’d like to read by both singing and saying “book” and “read” and often “please” followed by something which loosely gives me the idea which book he’s referring to. This has been great because I can get him involved in a story (something that previously he had zero attention span for) and snuggle him on my lap while in the comfy, cozy chair. He generally wants to come out of his crib complete with a soft blankie and a bear or other stuffed animal—so basically his "snuggling accessories". This is such a special time with him and I cherish it every day. If I’m lucky I might get as much as 10 minutes or so and other times it’s more like 3-5 minutes but still more than a Drive-By! I admit I do still lament over his coming out of baby-hood way faster than I’d like, but I know I need to accept the fact that he is growing, learning, changing and is going through different stages and will continue to do so—a simple fact of life that sometimes is hard to face as a mommy! But as a very wise man often says: “Remember to enjoy every stage he is in”. Great advice from not only a wise man, but also a hot-geek husband.

Discontinued Favorites

Ok, ok, I know “living in the past” isn’t good. But I must rant for a moment. There are so many things I wish hadn’t “gone away” and I’m not just talking about my youth here. It seems like whenever I find a great new product it ends up discontinued. I always find myself wishing I had stocked up on certain things while they were still around but of course you never know when the manufacturer is going to yank it with no notice. Take for example one variety of Litehouse salad dressing: Tangy Citrus Ginger. I loved this dressing not only because it was tangy and citrus-y but because it was a flavorful, healthy salad dressing with a mere 35 calories! I used to make an awesome spinach salad with this and now there is nothing on the market to use instead that comes even remotely close. Then I find that Litehouse came out with a replacement for their discontinued dressing called Tangy Orange Citrus which sounds nearly identical. Well, my local stores don’t carry it for some odd reason. I even contacted the headquarters of my favorite store and have been told it’s not one the products they carry or intend to carry, even though it available and they carry other varieties of Litehouse Dressing. Since we’re talking about food items I must confess that I still long for the Chicken Taco from Jack in the Box. I wrote to Jack a few times mentioning that not only was it delicious, but surprisingly low in calories. It was so yummy in its crunchy shell with marinated chicken that I could even overlook the creepiness of using a cheese “slice” instead of grated cheese. Even the commercial introducing it was entertaining though sadly I cannot find it online or I’d have it here for you. The hubby even wrote Jack when I was pregnant and craving my Chicken Taco. Apparently I frequently griped about it mentioned it a few times. No luck though. My “products lost” list continues with my favorite tinted moisturizer by Lancôme now replaced with something more expensive and not as good. The thing I miss most though was from my childhood; it hasn’t been made in…well…let’s just say many years; a candy by Willy Wonka called Oompas.

The delicious little flattened round disks about the size of a quarter were filled with peanut butter and chocolate and encased in a candy shell. Yeah, I know what you are all thinking; “Um, you mean just like Reese’s Pieces?” No, they were much yummier—I don’t know what it was, but it was more than just the size—I think it had more of a equal chocolate to peanut butter ratio and the peanut butter was creamier. *sigh* Yeah, it’s sad but as my husband tells me every time we drive by a Jack in the Box and I moan about my chicken taco I’m just going to have to get over it.

Conversation Outside our Bathroom Part 2

Me:           "Honey, how much was your little beard trimmer/shaver thing?"

Hubby:   "I don't know, why?"

Me:           "Because I think we're going to need to buy a new one."

Hubby:    "Don’t worry, the whole head pops off, so if you dropped it and the head came off it will just snap right back on."

Me:           "Well, what does it mean when the head pops off, a spring flies out and lots of little plastic pieces go everywhere?"

Hubby:     "It probably means you were right in the first place. And how did you manage that?"

Me:             "I don’t want to talk about it."

Off to a Great Start

With the start of the New Year comes new resolve to try to be "better" at things like diet, exercise, organization, etc. This week the hubby and I resumed walking in the mornings now that our holiday/company and other excuses have run out. We know we need to kick it up a notch with exercise, because let's face it, while walking is certainly better than no exercise at all, it's hardly going to melt the pounds away and firm anything. I know this has to be the case because I wear a heart rate monitor and I have a really hard time getting my heart rate up there even power walking as fast as I can and if I'm not in the appropriate zone then I'm not getting the cardio I need. So this morning was the start of our plan to incorporate running for several short bursts into our walking until we gradually get to the point where it's more running than walking. Some of you may recall a previous post dealing with the topic of starting to run in which I feared looking much like Phoebe on Friends. This morning's stunt was equally as hilarious. The hubby turns to me and says; "Ok, there's a nice long stretch of flat sidewalk ahead of us, do you want to run to the corner?" I agree and we start running. We arrive at the corner where I assume we're going straight and he assumes we're turning left...I think you can see where I'm going with this. We had a crash in what looked like some kind of Tweedledee -Tweedledum incident. But hey, we're running! Well, sort of. Baby steps.

Return to the Routine

Happy New Year. I know it’s the 5^th, but this is the “official start” of the New Year for our family. It’s the day we get back to our routines after a long holiday break. Both Teenager and the Hubby have been home on vacation time and we’ve all been used to sleeping in. So this morning was brutal. We’ve slacked off on walking for the last...well, let’s just say it’s been a while. We had holiday company, extra cold weather and pretty much any other excuse we could come up with. Last night when we went to bed I told the hubby I felt like the lack of exercise and not sticking to our diet during the holidays had really caught up with me. I turned sideways and showed him my tummy, which felt extra bloated at the time. He laughed and told me I was pushing it out. I wasn’t. So this morning we dragged ourselves out of bed an off we went walking.

Speaking of getting back to our routines, the hubby got dressed for work wearing what I refer to as his “Monday pants”. Hence the name, these are the pants he wears every Monday and he knows I hate them. They are olive drab Dockers and I guess that’s appropriate because the feeling of a Monday morning could easily be associated with anything drab. Hubby cracks me up with his predictable work attire habits. Every week on Casual Friday his “uniform” is jeans and a black shirt. So a couple months ago he started noticing others in his office wearing jeans and black shirts on Friday. Yeah, he’s quite a trendsetter. Now just for fun he’ll shake things up a bit and wear a colored shirt with his jeans on a Friday and really get the office in an uproar.

It was a little sad this morning seeing everyone leave to return to the old grind. Hubby leaves out the front door for work and teenager out the back for school and they both leave at the same time. So, it’s just me and the little guy, who I like to call Baby Cranky Pants. Thankfully his Playgroups also resume today after the holiday hiatus so hopefully that will keep him happy. Yeah, it’s feeling like an olive drab Monday alright, but, “Everything’s Fine in 2009”. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.