Ah, the first birthday party. So fun, so memorable, so...damp.
Yes, we got rained out, or rather rained on since we all fought through the weather and tried to attempt an outdoor party despite the deluge. It was sort of sad for me because I'd spent hours decorating and planning and wrapping tents in crepe streamers and balloons only to have all my carefully applied festivity turned into dripping piles of depression in mere seconds. I need to give a special shout out to Emily here for showing up an hour early and helping, and to Chrizzle for coming over the day before and assisting with the cupcake-age. Chrizzle stayed even after I had to go home and made sure all the cup cakes were gorgeous. Do check out the pictures on FB if you get a chance.
We ended up doing cupcakes and presents inside thank goodness. Priceless moments did happen, such as when my 4 yr old niece, Her Boopness, ate her first circus peanut. She took a bite and got a terrified look on her face at which point she carefully spat the bite into my hand and said decidedly, "No thank you, Mimi. I do NOT like it." I explained that circus peanuts are definitely an acquired taste. Queen Boopness the First stuck to popcorn, m&ms and other snacks she'd previously met after that. Princess Sparkle Kitty, my 9 month old niece, did not eat any circus peanuts but she did manage to brighten up anything within a ten foot radius of her with her blindingly gorgeous smile. I think Jeanine (T.G.'s cousin's wife) would have left with her if she could.
Little Guy fully enjoyed cramming a cupcake into his mouth and nose...and up his sleeves. After cleaning him off and changing him into clothes which were not liberally festooned with icing, he opened presents. He's the only baby I've seen open presents and have no interest in the paper or packaging but actually act like each and every present is the very thing he has longed for his entire life. He oohed, aahed, shrieked, gurgled, and exclaimed over every single present...even the clothes. Oh man, I love that kid. He's the best. Although once we got the new toys home he decided each and every one was actually a step stool which he could use to escape the fenced in play area we have for him in the living room. Sigh. Oh well, at some point he will probably notice they have other merits and not just jail breaking qualities.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Birthday Awesomeness!!!
Today is the Little Guy's first birthday. I can hardly believe it!!!!
And, since we are going to make our birthday breakfast right now, that is all. :)
And, since we are going to make our birthday breakfast right now, that is all. :)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Awesome Neighborness and other Sunday stuff
We have these newish neighbors, the muffin neighbors for those of you who read the previous post about them, and they rock. Yesterday a piece of their mail accidentally came here and we inadvertently discovered that they had gotten engaged. Hooray!!! Just so you don't start to think that T.G. and I are weirdos who open other people's mail, it was a postcard from a wedding planner that said 'Congratulations on your recent engagement' in GIANT letters. Of course we looked it and got confused before we realized it wasn't addressed to us, because...well, it came to our mailbox and usually stuff in our mailbox is for us. Anyhow, this lead to the totally awesome discovery of their engagement and we are very happy for them. (Especially since yours truly is not a fan of people playing house prior to 'death do us partage') When we got home from church, they were outside making the front of their yard look lovely with all sorts of pretty hostas and coral bells and nice chocolate brown mulch. So I took them their mail and the empty muffin basket and we talked a while. Then I helped R. prune his floribunda rose because it was beginning to eat the backyard like some sort of prehistoric thorn monster. (I just made up the prehistoric thorn monster and I'd advise you to go with it. There's no use in explaining to me that no such creature exists. Trust me.) Where was I? Erm...
Oh, right...pruning...rosebush...ah yes, we had a moment with our strangest neighbor. Weird Camera Neighbor.
While pruning the rosebush the Weird Camera Neighbor came over and acted well, weird. I don't think I've mentioned Weird Camera Neighbor. He's just...so odd. He lives at the very end of our block and has surveillance cameras mounted all around his house, mostly pointed at his various neighbors. He also seems to hate most living things and has coated his entire property with antiseptic looking white pebbles and large tufts of ornamental grass. There used to be some Japanese Pines and Weeping Cherries on his property, but he systematically cut off all their branches and killed them and then painted the stumps (which he left tall) white. Like I said, he's not exactly right. So W.C.N. came over to ask R. if he and V. had knocked over the white brick edging stuff at the front of his property. In truth he didn't ask so much as basically accuse them of it, which was typical of his brand of weirdness. They'd been no where near his edging, and why on earth would they knock it over? I mean...what normal person would just walk over to a crazy neighbor's yard and kick over their edging...especially in front of a multitude of cameras? I was standing there and wanted so badly to say to him "Listen wackjob, what's the point of all these cameras if you don't bother to review to tape to see who knocked over your edging?" But...I value my sanity and I have a very strong feeling that W.C.N. could become an extreme nuisance if he wished. For a while after we first moved in, W.C.N. would call the cops on T.G. and I every time a dog in the neighborhood barked. Granted we have dogs, and they do bark here and there, but one time he called them when they weren't even home. Plus another time he told the police our dogs had been out all day barking in the rain while I was in the house ignoring them, when in fact:
A. It hadn't been raining
B. The dogs weren't outside
C. I was at work
Like I said, he's a weirdo. The cop basically said to us "We know this guy, he's a weirdo. If you want to lodge a complaint against him you let us know." Hah. See? Even the cops think he's odd. One of the funniest parts of the dog saga was that he could never get our address right and he kept sending the police to our left hand neighbors who have no dog at all. Boy, were they perplexed. But now I'm all off topic. Getting back on...
So after he asked R. if he knocked the edging down, and R. said 'Um, no." R. offered to help him fix it and he got all jumpy trying to say that if R. hadn't knocked it down, why was he offering to help put it back etc...it just got stranger and stranger. Then, and this might be the most amusing and also most wacky part, after W.C.N. went back inside the cameras suddenly swiveled so that they were all pointed at our poor innocent new neighbors. I can only shake my head at this typical insane behavior from W.C.N., whatever. He's nuts. At least there aren't more of him. Most of our other neighbors are lovely people. We can't really complain. Besides, he spices things up with his oddities and gives me a reason to roll my eyes while I weed the pansy bed. This doesn't mean I will stop my current well-founded plan for staying out of his way though.
Hm. This is long and I am tired. I think I'll stop now. :)
Oh, right...pruning...rosebush...ah yes, we had a moment with our strangest neighbor. Weird Camera Neighbor.
While pruning the rosebush the Weird Camera Neighbor came over and acted well, weird. I don't think I've mentioned Weird Camera Neighbor. He's just...so odd. He lives at the very end of our block and has surveillance cameras mounted all around his house, mostly pointed at his various neighbors. He also seems to hate most living things and has coated his entire property with antiseptic looking white pebbles and large tufts of ornamental grass. There used to be some Japanese Pines and Weeping Cherries on his property, but he systematically cut off all their branches and killed them and then painted the stumps (which he left tall) white. Like I said, he's not exactly right. So W.C.N. came over to ask R. if he and V. had knocked over the white brick edging stuff at the front of his property. In truth he didn't ask so much as basically accuse them of it, which was typical of his brand of weirdness. They'd been no where near his edging, and why on earth would they knock it over? I mean...what normal person would just walk over to a crazy neighbor's yard and kick over their edging...especially in front of a multitude of cameras? I was standing there and wanted so badly to say to him "Listen wackjob, what's the point of all these cameras if you don't bother to review to tape to see who knocked over your edging?" But...I value my sanity and I have a very strong feeling that W.C.N. could become an extreme nuisance if he wished. For a while after we first moved in, W.C.N. would call the cops on T.G. and I every time a dog in the neighborhood barked. Granted we have dogs, and they do bark here and there, but one time he called them when they weren't even home. Plus another time he told the police our dogs had been out all day barking in the rain while I was in the house ignoring them, when in fact:
A. It hadn't been raining
B. The dogs weren't outside
C. I was at work
Like I said, he's a weirdo. The cop basically said to us "We know this guy, he's a weirdo. If you want to lodge a complaint against him you let us know." Hah. See? Even the cops think he's odd. One of the funniest parts of the dog saga was that he could never get our address right and he kept sending the police to our left hand neighbors who have no dog at all. Boy, were they perplexed. But now I'm all off topic. Getting back on...
So after he asked R. if he knocked the edging down, and R. said 'Um, no." R. offered to help him fix it and he got all jumpy trying to say that if R. hadn't knocked it down, why was he offering to help put it back etc...it just got stranger and stranger. Then, and this might be the most amusing and also most wacky part, after W.C.N. went back inside the cameras suddenly swiveled so that they were all pointed at our poor innocent new neighbors. I can only shake my head at this typical insane behavior from W.C.N., whatever. He's nuts. At least there aren't more of him. Most of our other neighbors are lovely people. We can't really complain. Besides, he spices things up with his oddities and gives me a reason to roll my eyes while I weed the pansy bed. This doesn't mean I will stop my current well-founded plan for staying out of his way though.
Hm. This is long and I am tired. I think I'll stop now. :)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Not exactly photo-drama, but...meh
Well, we got Little Guy's picture taken at Portrait Innovations last night during the storm of the apocalypse. (as Nickel is referring to it) It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I'd never go back. The girl who did our pictures and helped us choose the ones we wanted wasn't pushy and unfriendly, BUT there was another girl there who was all the evil I had read about rolled up in one. I felt so sorry for her customers. I'm not sure of her name, but if you go there and see a chunky girl with overdone hair and a nose ring, beware. She was pushy, snarky, inappropriate, and unfriendly with the two families I saw her working with. As far as the pictures went, they were pretty good. Chrizzle does better, though. T.G. wanted to do Portrait Innovations because you could get 40 prints for 10.00, and he wanted wallet size prints to hand out at Little Guy's party. We got the 10.00 package and one other print for just us. However, you get only one pose with the 10.00 package...which means you have 40 prints of the same picture, and additional prints are just a FORTUNE. 15.00 for the ONE other 8x10 we got. Ugh. They do push hard for more expensive packages, and we also found that they can get fairly annoying while you are trying to pick the poses you like. The girl we had kept suggesting the ones she liked as opposed to letting us just look and pick. Um, I'm sorry girl at P.I., I don't really care what you like. I care about what I like. Duh. That's why I'm there. To pick out a picture I like. Like I said, we aren't really thinking about going back. It just wasn't our cup of tea. One thing I did like was that they used a hand held camera, so the girl could really chase Little Guy around and get him from any angle. That was nice, but Chrizzle does the same thing and she takes magnificent pictures that just blow my mind with their fabulousness. I never would have done this except for the 10.00 package with all the wallet photos.
Oh, here's Chrizzle's website: www.paperdoves.com. You can check out her awesome work there.
In other news, on Friday I had the most fun date with the charming Chrizzle. We ate at this place called The Other Fish in Bethlehem. It's a tiny little sushi joint run by hot, punk rocky people. I was all apprehensive before we got there because I have never been to such a laid back, non-traditional sushi place. Most of the places I've gone too bring out all my eating in public anxiety with their overdone decor, however this was like a teensy little hole in the wall bar or diner with awesome sushi. Chrizzle and I sat at the counter and had a totally yummy dinner. One of the best parts is that it's so tiny, the sushi chef is right there in front of you making your roll, and you can watch him do it. After eating our sushi and such, we had Japanese ice-cream, which, if you've never had it, is such a scrumptious and fun novelty that I highly recommend it. You pick it up with your fingers and it comes in really cool flavors. I had green tea and sweet bean. Chrizzle had green tea and mango.
T.G. and I recently got tickets to see one of our favorite bands in July. We're all excited about it and called my parent's to see if they could watch Little Guy. I was a bit concerned because we won't be home until late and I felt sort of bad asking them to watch him until after midnight, but my mom said "Of course!" all happily and nicely. Dumb me didn't wonder why she sounded so very "Duh, Melissa, we will absolutely do this for you guys." Not that she and my dad aren't completely cool and nice about watching him, but that she seemed like it was so very obvious that they would say yes. It wasn't until yesterday that T.G. and I realized the day in question was our anniversary. Haha. We're so retarded. How did we miss that? No wonder my parents were so immediate to say yes. They knew it was our anniversary even though we didn't.
Anyhow, Little Guy is napping and need to do things. I'm off like a dirty shirt on laundry day. Wheeeeee!
Oh, here's Chrizzle's website: www.paperdoves.com. You can check out her awesome work there.
In other news, on Friday I had the most fun date with the charming Chrizzle. We ate at this place called The Other Fish in Bethlehem. It's a tiny little sushi joint run by hot, punk rocky people. I was all apprehensive before we got there because I have never been to such a laid back, non-traditional sushi place. Most of the places I've gone too bring out all my eating in public anxiety with their overdone decor, however this was like a teensy little hole in the wall bar or diner with awesome sushi. Chrizzle and I sat at the counter and had a totally yummy dinner. One of the best parts is that it's so tiny, the sushi chef is right there in front of you making your roll, and you can watch him do it. After eating our sushi and such, we had Japanese ice-cream, which, if you've never had it, is such a scrumptious and fun novelty that I highly recommend it. You pick it up with your fingers and it comes in really cool flavors. I had green tea and sweet bean. Chrizzle had green tea and mango.
T.G. and I recently got tickets to see one of our favorite bands in July. We're all excited about it and called my parent's to see if they could watch Little Guy. I was a bit concerned because we won't be home until late and I felt sort of bad asking them to watch him until after midnight, but my mom said "Of course!" all happily and nicely. Dumb me didn't wonder why she sounded so very "Duh, Melissa, we will absolutely do this for you guys." Not that she and my dad aren't completely cool and nice about watching him, but that she seemed like it was so very obvious that they would say yes. It wasn't until yesterday that T.G. and I realized the day in question was our anniversary. Haha. We're so retarded. How did we miss that? No wonder my parents were so immediate to say yes. They knew it was our anniversary even though we didn't.
Anyhow, Little Guy is napping and need to do things. I'm off like a dirty shirt on laundry day. Wheeeeee!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Cue apprehensive music
We're taking Little Guy to get his picture taken today at Portrait Innovations. T.G.'s idea because they are doing 40 pictures for 10.00. However, I have heard unfun things about this place and I'm not thrilled with the idea. We'll see how it goes. You'll know if it was terrible, because there will surely be an angry tirade hoopla-ish post later. I am nothing if not a fan of the poison pen.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Shortie on Exboyfriendage
I know that this is totally immature and wrong, BUT...
Chrizzle told me today she saw the ex-boyfriend who used to break my heart on a regular basis at a trendy new bar last week.
He has gotten chubby.
AND
He was trying to pick up every girl there and striking out left and right.
Does this fill me with glee? You betcha.
Normally I'd feel more guilty about the glee, but this guy was a total jerkasaurus and for all the pain he put me through he certainly deserves some cellulite and striking out.
Wheeeeeee!
Chrizzle told me today she saw the ex-boyfriend who used to break my heart on a regular basis at a trendy new bar last week.
He has gotten chubby.
AND
He was trying to pick up every girl there and striking out left and right.
Does this fill me with glee? You betcha.
Normally I'd feel more guilty about the glee, but this guy was a total jerkasaurus and for all the pain he put me through he certainly deserves some cellulite and striking out.
Wheeeeeee!
Hooray, good weather!
I'm so relieved the weather is relatively back to warm and sunny. Cold and dreary doesn't work for me since I can't garden in it. Today I intend to get back outside because I have three green zebra tomato plants to get in, plus two large interesting flower things from the fuchsia family, and six nasturtiums. The planting will be prefaced by the official 'Cleaning of the Dog Poo', because I share the back yard with the dogs of insanity. I should probably note that they don't poo IN the garden, but in the part of yard which is near it. The garden is fenced in. This is just as much to prevent pooing as it is to prevent Scout from eating all my berries and veggies. I swear, that dog would be a vegetarian with no problem whatsoever. She loves plants.
While we're on the subject of warm weather, I've got a few words regarding flip flops. I love this totally unfussy footwear because it is easy to put on in a hurry and doesn't squish my feet...BUT...
Why all of a sudden have flip flops become high price items? I mean...we're talking about TWO PIECE, mostly plastic footwear. Granted, there are some pretty cute flops out there, and I do enjoy things that are cute...but are they really upwards of $20.00 cute? I got two pair yesterday and they were on sale 60% off...one pair for $10.00 and the other for $7.00. Personally I think this is nuts, but my last pair died at the yardsale two weeks ago and desperate times call for desperate measures. Plus I could not find cheaper ones anywhere. The current flip flop price trend reminds me of the chapter in Bridget Jones where she discusses how scarves used to be five dollar items and suddenly skyrocketed in price until they reached hundreds. Now I feel like I need to be careful with my flip flops and not get them dirty because they cost as much as actual shoes. This is dumb, because for me, one of the points of flip flops is that you can treat them as if they are disposable and not worry if they start to look yucky. Hmph.
Mmmm, Pandora Radio you make almost everything ok. Even my flip flop anger is starting to dissipate under the influence of the Be Good Tanyas.
Last night, during the great flip flops excursion, we took Little Guy to Hometown Diner for dinner. A very sad thing happened there. We found out that they no longer made fried chicken. Now, Hometown Diner made the BEST fried chicken and this is just...intolerable. It was always my thing when we went there. I had to order a burger instead and it just wasn't the same. T.G. got the farmhouse chicken, which is what he always orders, and I ended up feeling all sad and deflated because he got his favorite and I was stuck with a second choice moo cow sandwich. Pft. T. G. gave Little Guy some of his chicken and Little Guy liked it so much that he began saying "Mmmmmm, NUM NUM NUM!" and frantically signing "More, More, More!" This almost made up for my lack of fried chicken, but the problem is that I'm still craving it and will continue to crave it until I get some. A really funny thing did happen though. The hostess, a young girl who clearly doesn't have kids of her own, tried to give Little Guy crayons and a placemat to color. It was very sweet of her but we had to explain that while our 11 month old would enjoy both crayons and placemat, he would most likely eat them in short order.
Now Pandora is playing Lucy Wainwright Loche covering Everywhere and I'm in folky guitar heaven. YAY!
Holy crap, they followed it up with Cat Power. This is just a good day. I have this sudden urge to rush for a cassette tape and slap on record like I used to do with radio stations when I was 12. I remember when oldies 99 was Q100. Sigh.
Later today I'm meeting with the Chrizzlelicious and we are going to discuss birthday cup cakery and check out her gallery show. And then we're going to the Heavenly Hedgehog to eat ice-cream. Yum! If the Foo Foo shop is open I'm going to get a rubber duck for Little Guy's birthday. He has three now...but um...ok...I'm a little obsessed with cute rubber ducks and um...everyone should have variety.
Whoosh! I'm off to shower so my day can officially start. Wheeeeeeeee!
While we're on the subject of warm weather, I've got a few words regarding flip flops. I love this totally unfussy footwear because it is easy to put on in a hurry and doesn't squish my feet...BUT...
Why all of a sudden have flip flops become high price items? I mean...we're talking about TWO PIECE, mostly plastic footwear. Granted, there are some pretty cute flops out there, and I do enjoy things that are cute...but are they really upwards of $20.00 cute? I got two pair yesterday and they were on sale 60% off...one pair for $10.00 and the other for $7.00. Personally I think this is nuts, but my last pair died at the yardsale two weeks ago and desperate times call for desperate measures. Plus I could not find cheaper ones anywhere. The current flip flop price trend reminds me of the chapter in Bridget Jones where she discusses how scarves used to be five dollar items and suddenly skyrocketed in price until they reached hundreds. Now I feel like I need to be careful with my flip flops and not get them dirty because they cost as much as actual shoes. This is dumb, because for me, one of the points of flip flops is that you can treat them as if they are disposable and not worry if they start to look yucky. Hmph.
Mmmm, Pandora Radio you make almost everything ok. Even my flip flop anger is starting to dissipate under the influence of the Be Good Tanyas.
Last night, during the great flip flops excursion, we took Little Guy to Hometown Diner for dinner. A very sad thing happened there. We found out that they no longer made fried chicken. Now, Hometown Diner made the BEST fried chicken and this is just...intolerable. It was always my thing when we went there. I had to order a burger instead and it just wasn't the same. T.G. got the farmhouse chicken, which is what he always orders, and I ended up feeling all sad and deflated because he got his favorite and I was stuck with a second choice moo cow sandwich. Pft. T. G. gave Little Guy some of his chicken and Little Guy liked it so much that he began saying "Mmmmmm, NUM NUM NUM!" and frantically signing "More, More, More!" This almost made up for my lack of fried chicken, but the problem is that I'm still craving it and will continue to crave it until I get some. A really funny thing did happen though. The hostess, a young girl who clearly doesn't have kids of her own, tried to give Little Guy crayons and a placemat to color. It was very sweet of her but we had to explain that while our 11 month old would enjoy both crayons and placemat, he would most likely eat them in short order.
Now Pandora is playing Lucy Wainwright Loche covering Everywhere and I'm in folky guitar heaven. YAY!
Holy crap, they followed it up with Cat Power. This is just a good day. I have this sudden urge to rush for a cassette tape and slap on record like I used to do with radio stations when I was 12. I remember when oldies 99 was Q100. Sigh.
Later today I'm meeting with the Chrizzlelicious and we are going to discuss birthday cup cakery and check out her gallery show. And then we're going to the Heavenly Hedgehog to eat ice-cream. Yum! If the Foo Foo shop is open I'm going to get a rubber duck for Little Guy's birthday. He has three now...but um...ok...I'm a little obsessed with cute rubber ducks and um...everyone should have variety.
Whoosh! I'm off to shower so my day can officially start. Wheeeeeeeee!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Muffins Ahoy!
We love our new neighbors. They are young and fun and not weirdos, which is a blessing what with the current nutjobs we have in this neighborhood. There is a good deal of talking over the fence, handing across of beers and slices of cake, and all around friendly attitudes. Last week, R (code name for male neighbor) brought T.G. and I two cups of homemade sangria while we were out in the backyard gardening. (well, I was gardening...T.G. was watching and holding Little Guy) It was GOOD. Mmmmm. Hopefully this doesn't make T.G. and I sound like big drinkers, we aren't. I have about three beers a year and a handful of wine type thingies, but I do appreciate a nice Sangria on a hot day. Anyhow, V (code name for the female neighbor) is a great baker. I know this because yesterday she showed up at our front door with an enormous basket full of muffins for us, thereby endearing herself to me forever. (anyone who knows me will tell you that I NEVER refuse a nice fat carb, EVER) The muffins were a thank you for this rigamarole we assisted them with recently regarding leaking roofs and lawsuits. She really didn't need to thank us, as we were happy to help, but HOORAY MUFFINS! I am also told that she makes awesome tamales and am currently trying to figure out how to finagle one. I am a sucker for mexican cooking. Little Guy and I had muffins and eggs for breakfast with a nice helpng of fruit salad that T.G. bought us at the farmers market. The muffins are ridiculously good. So good, in fact, that I shall not let T.G. take any to work as I had originally planned, but shall freeze the ones we can't eat right away instead. Now I must come up with something to thank them for, so I can bake them cookies. I love baking cookies. Sadly, I don't think I can bake them cookies as a thank you for the muffins as the muffins themselves are a thank you for the rigamarole assistance. Hm.
In other news: T. G.'s parents are visiting next week for Little Guy's birthday and thus I must get the entire house in order prior to their visit. It's not that the house is a pigsty or anything, it's just that well...two busy adults and one small person live here with two rather insane dogs and things tend to get messy quickly. Plus things get put off, and pile up, and dust accumulates in record time around here. (dog related probably, but EW dog dust! ugh!) Since his parents live down south, and his mother is an exceptional housekeeper, I like to have things perfect before they arrive. Of course, this lasts ten seconds as they usually bring boxes of stuff for us and things get set about everywhere with no regard to neatness immediately. I'm not complaining though. I mean, hello? I love my in-laws and one does not complain about getting gifts. Gifts are lovely.
Speaking of gifts, I had the nicest first Mother's Day. T. G. got me a little birthstone baby with Little Guy's birthstone and two t-shirts of his favorite band, and a gorgeous apron from Country Living with big pink flowers on it. I know what you are thinking. Two t-shirts from HIS favorite band? Yes. But, I really like the band too, and he was so excited about them. He also got himself some t-shirts which means now we have t-shirts in common and possibly I'm lame for thinking this, but I am sort of all melty and affectionate about that. Anyhow, it's Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and I'll happily wear their shirts. So whee!!!! Happy Mother's Day to me!
We got T.G.'s mother a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, and my mother a Russian Sage plant, so all mothers were happy all around.
I have a dog behind me snoring away with her little body all curled up and round paws in a little heap in front. She could not be cuter. Now, if only she didn't shed, she'd be perfect.
In other news: T. G.'s parents are visiting next week for Little Guy's birthday and thus I must get the entire house in order prior to their visit. It's not that the house is a pigsty or anything, it's just that well...two busy adults and one small person live here with two rather insane dogs and things tend to get messy quickly. Plus things get put off, and pile up, and dust accumulates in record time around here. (dog related probably, but EW dog dust! ugh!) Since his parents live down south, and his mother is an exceptional housekeeper, I like to have things perfect before they arrive. Of course, this lasts ten seconds as they usually bring boxes of stuff for us and things get set about everywhere with no regard to neatness immediately. I'm not complaining though. I mean, hello? I love my in-laws and one does not complain about getting gifts. Gifts are lovely.
Speaking of gifts, I had the nicest first Mother's Day. T. G. got me a little birthstone baby with Little Guy's birthstone and two t-shirts of his favorite band, and a gorgeous apron from Country Living with big pink flowers on it. I know what you are thinking. Two t-shirts from HIS favorite band? Yes. But, I really like the band too, and he was so excited about them. He also got himself some t-shirts which means now we have t-shirts in common and possibly I'm lame for thinking this, but I am sort of all melty and affectionate about that. Anyhow, it's Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and I'll happily wear their shirts. So whee!!!! Happy Mother's Day to me!
We got T.G.'s mother a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, and my mother a Russian Sage plant, so all mothers were happy all around.
I have a dog behind me snoring away with her little body all curled up and round paws in a little heap in front. She could not be cuter. Now, if only she didn't shed, she'd be perfect.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Haircut of the Apocalypse
With the Little Guy's first birthday looming on the horizon, it was decreed that he must have a haircut. Well, my mother and I decreed it, quite emphatically I might add. T.G. was not as sold on it, because our previous attempt at Christmas time had resulted in a very um, interesting fringe of bangs. However, this was not anybody's fault. It was caused in full by my son not exactly grasping the need to sit still at six months old so my mother could shorten the giant sweep of hair which was falling into his eyes. (he was beginning to look like an infant Hitler, sans mustache, and I had started referring to him as the Tiny Dictator in my typical unPC way) Anyhow, the bangs had grown back in since December and he was once again sporting a Fascist comb-over. In addition to the Third Reich bangs, the hair over his ears had reached weird and epic proportions and fanning and waving like some sort of mutant cranial anemone. It had to go. Hence, the Haircut of the Apocalypse commenced at my parent's house yesterday. I need to preface this by saying that my mother is great at cutting hair. She's cut mine, she cuts my dad's, my niece's...pretty much everyone in our immediate family has been to Salon Mom. I took the Little Guy down, and she got out all her hair cutting stuff and we put him in the high chair in front of Barney. (Ok, I just want to point out here that this was his first time EVER seeing Barney. I don't do Barney. I don't really do TV, but if I did...Barney would at the bottom of the list, however desperate times and all. We just needed the Little Guy to sit still, if Barney got the job done...well then fine.) Barney didn't work. Not at all. At first things seemed ok, he was curious, but not upset. My mom was clipping away with the guard thing on the clippers and Rider was sort of passively keeping an eye on things. Then, with no warning, it all fell apart. He made a desperate grab for the clippers, and my mom was too fast for him so he missed. This led to a hardcore interest in the clippers for the Little Guy. He wanted them and was brooking no opposition. As my mother and I deemed it inadvisable to let him play with the hair clippers he decided it warranted a full blown temper tantrum. Within seconds the meltdown commenced full of wailing, red-faced fury, and copious tears. He flat out refused to allow any more hair to be cut and we once again had wiggly bangs and uneven areas. This was bad because in order to get an ok from T.G. I had to promise that we would not screw up. Things were, in fact, screwed up. Way screwed up. I tried everything. I even got a popsicle and let him hold it, which did nothing other than distract him for two seconds and coat his person in red, sticky, popsicleness. What we were left with was a hiccuping, semi-hysterical Little Guy, covered in goo, and half a haircut. The hair around his ears was nicely trimmed and the back was mostly ok, but the front was just...wrong. So, we decided to give him a break.
For six hours.
It kind of worked.
When we came back to the haircut at around six PM, he was much less miserable, at least until my mom actually started cutting. At which point, he returned to his wailing and wild fist waiving fury. This led to an odd dance between myself, my determined mother, and my windmilling child. With me chanting, "It's ok, it's ok, you're fine" punctuated with "Now! Now! I have his head still!" and my mom deftly snipping where she could, things evened up on his head. Eventually, we had an actual haircut with more or less even bangs, and a nice, symmetrical back. Besides, as my mother pointed out, I can just push his bangs to the side and no one will ever see the slightly ragged ends. Voila! No one was injured, Little Guy has a haircut, and T. G. may actually allow future styling at Salon Mom. (Although the hard part now is going to be convincing my mother to attempt this debacle again, sigh)
For six hours.
It kind of worked.
When we came back to the haircut at around six PM, he was much less miserable, at least until my mom actually started cutting. At which point, he returned to his wailing and wild fist waiving fury. This led to an odd dance between myself, my determined mother, and my windmilling child. With me chanting, "It's ok, it's ok, you're fine" punctuated with "Now! Now! I have his head still!" and my mom deftly snipping where she could, things evened up on his head. Eventually, we had an actual haircut with more or less even bangs, and a nice, symmetrical back. Besides, as my mother pointed out, I can just push his bangs to the side and no one will ever see the slightly ragged ends. Voila! No one was injured, Little Guy has a haircut, and T. G. may actually allow future styling at Salon Mom. (Although the hard part now is going to be convincing my mother to attempt this debacle again, sigh)
Monday, May 10, 2010
Finally...I did this blog thingy...
Ok, so I just started this and have NO idea what I'm doing...thus, no pictures yet or anything. I must speak to the divine Nickel and sort out how to do all that. However, I needed some sort of literary outlet before my head fell off from disuse, and for that purpose...no picture needed.
Since I tend to run on a non-conformist, totally bizarre, and mostly random thought pattern at all times, that is how I write. And talk. My poor husband. He has to deal with my stream of thought babble on a daily basis, but, after five years, he's gotten used to it.
Which reminds me...I must come up with an alias for him and the little guy. Hm.
Oh, right back to thought thingy from before...stream of consciousness...um...oh yes. Here's where I was going with that. I just watched last week's Glee (because we got rid of cable, so I have to work it into my crazy week whenever I can via Hulu) anyhow...Jessie. Yeah. I never liked him until just this week when he dumped Rachel. Clearly I have never quite gotten over my high schoolish 'unattainable man syndrome'. At least, some small part of me hasn't. Because frankly, he's sort of a douche, but not in a good Puck kind of way, and I've never liked him at all. Until now, and I'm guessing it's because Rachel can't have him. Speaking of Rachel...I used to root for her, but now she's become so irritating that I can't even stand the sight of her. I think maybe they need to tone down her character or something. She's totally unlikable lately.
Hm, my first blog here ever, and somehow it turned into a Glee tirade. I will have to work on that.
You know, I think the little guy's alias is going to be Little Guy, but I still have nothing for the husband. I think the problem is that it is very easy to come up with unflattering code names for people, but my husband is mostly lovely and it's hard to think up nice ones. He is very um..thrifty though. VERY thrifty. He's the Thriftmaster General of the Lehigh Valley, you can ask anyone who knows him and they will totally tell you that. So. Hm. Ok, he's going to be T.G. for Thriftmaster General. There. Done.
Sometimes we call the Little Guy the Poopmaster General of the Lehigh Valley. (He's not quite one, and still in diapers) I don't mind changing diapers but sometimes it leads to me doing the dumbest stuff. Like today for instance. He took a poo that required a bath, and me...being the idiot I am...carried him into the bathroom naked, and while holding him, turned the water on.
Oh yes. I so did this dumb thing. And of course he peed all over me and everything within a five foot radius. Fortunately, that was my share of drama today, so things were pretty low key.
I'm working on planning the Little Guy's birthday party right now, and am caught up in the fun of party planning. I just adore planning parties. I could do it for a living except that I KNOW I would not be able to put up with tacky people wanting ridiculous things and would end up 'having words' with people over paper fold-out bells and the like.
Wait...what was my point here? Oh...BIRTHDAY! The Little Guy is having a circus theme first birthday and we are going to have all sorts of fun stuff and I'm in negotiations (haha) with Chrizzle over using her 'Hello Cupcake' book to make circus theme cupcakes. Actually, the negotiations have gone well with me asking if I could check out the book and her offering to help make the cupcakes. She's very kind like that. She also had a very cool wedding and understands the need for untacky. It was in an art gallery with all this amazing glass sculpture stuff and she had an ice-cream wedding cake...OH and the coolest flowers. See, that was sneaky because I did her flowers. But she will tell you herself that they were cool, so there.
Hm. 10:30. I must go to bed because the Little Guy usually wakes up around 6:30 AM, and this Domestic Diva needs her beauty sleep. (or any sleep really, because in a house with a semi-toddler, sleep is at a premium) Well, I am off to bed, wheeeeeeee!
Since I tend to run on a non-conformist, totally bizarre, and mostly random thought pattern at all times, that is how I write. And talk. My poor husband. He has to deal with my stream of thought babble on a daily basis, but, after five years, he's gotten used to it.
Which reminds me...I must come up with an alias for him and the little guy. Hm.
Oh, right back to thought thingy from before...stream of consciousness...um...oh yes. Here's where I was going with that. I just watched last week's Glee (because we got rid of cable, so I have to work it into my crazy week whenever I can via Hulu) anyhow...Jessie. Yeah. I never liked him until just this week when he dumped Rachel. Clearly I have never quite gotten over my high schoolish 'unattainable man syndrome'. At least, some small part of me hasn't. Because frankly, he's sort of a douche, but not in a good Puck kind of way, and I've never liked him at all. Until now, and I'm guessing it's because Rachel can't have him. Speaking of Rachel...I used to root for her, but now she's become so irritating that I can't even stand the sight of her. I think maybe they need to tone down her character or something. She's totally unlikable lately.
Hm, my first blog here ever, and somehow it turned into a Glee tirade. I will have to work on that.
You know, I think the little guy's alias is going to be Little Guy, but I still have nothing for the husband. I think the problem is that it is very easy to come up with unflattering code names for people, but my husband is mostly lovely and it's hard to think up nice ones. He is very um..thrifty though. VERY thrifty. He's the Thriftmaster General of the Lehigh Valley, you can ask anyone who knows him and they will totally tell you that. So. Hm. Ok, he's going to be T.G. for Thriftmaster General. There. Done.
Sometimes we call the Little Guy the Poopmaster General of the Lehigh Valley. (He's not quite one, and still in diapers) I don't mind changing diapers but sometimes it leads to me doing the dumbest stuff. Like today for instance. He took a poo that required a bath, and me...being the idiot I am...carried him into the bathroom naked, and while holding him, turned the water on.
Oh yes. I so did this dumb thing. And of course he peed all over me and everything within a five foot radius. Fortunately, that was my share of drama today, so things were pretty low key.
I'm working on planning the Little Guy's birthday party right now, and am caught up in the fun of party planning. I just adore planning parties. I could do it for a living except that I KNOW I would not be able to put up with tacky people wanting ridiculous things and would end up 'having words' with people over paper fold-out bells and the like.
Wait...what was my point here? Oh...BIRTHDAY! The Little Guy is having a circus theme first birthday and we are going to have all sorts of fun stuff and I'm in negotiations (haha) with Chrizzle over using her 'Hello Cupcake' book to make circus theme cupcakes. Actually, the negotiations have gone well with me asking if I could check out the book and her offering to help make the cupcakes. She's very kind like that. She also had a very cool wedding and understands the need for untacky. It was in an art gallery with all this amazing glass sculpture stuff and she had an ice-cream wedding cake...OH and the coolest flowers. See, that was sneaky because I did her flowers. But she will tell you herself that they were cool, so there.
Hm. 10:30. I must go to bed because the Little Guy usually wakes up around 6:30 AM, and this Domestic Diva needs her beauty sleep. (or any sleep really, because in a house with a semi-toddler, sleep is at a premium) Well, I am off to bed, wheeeeeeee!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
