Happy birthday to meeeee!!!

Hands down, this has been the best year of my life.

Just like last year.

And the year before.

I like this pattern. 🙂

A wonderful weekend. Also, I’m old.

Good morning all!** I hope you all enjoyed your long weekends; I trust you took a few minutes to count your blessings, and I hope you spent a little time thanking those who gave all in the service of our country.

We had a BUSY weekend here! Mike’s friends K and L got married on Sunday afternoon; Nana and PopPop babysat the kids and Mike and I had our first Date Night (with overnight hotel room!) since Noah was born two months ago. We considered it a belated anniversary celebration, since our five year anniversary was spent in the children’s hospital; our anniversary dinner was pizza and Diet Coke, eaten while seated on a rollaway cot. (The company was still excellent, but it was not as romantic or relaxing as I’d planned. Especially since it was laced with low-level terror about Noah’s fever.)

We are so VERY lucky that Mike’s parents live nearby and are willing/able to babysit. Did you know, though, that it takes a LOT of preparation to have overnight babysitters? Even babysitters who have spent quite a bit of time in your house and have crossed the line from guests into family. (They were always Mike’s family – duh. But it took a while for me to view them as family rather than guests. I now think it’s okay if they come over and I haven’t scrubbed the toilet in the last twelve hours.)

So I spent Saturday and Sunday morning doing the following:

-Buying a new grill. (This didn’t have anything to do with the babysitting; this had to do with our dying gas grill and Memorial Day sales. We got a Big Green Egg. It’ll probably garner its own post in the coming weeks.)

– Assembling two pasta bakes. (I needed to have dinner available for his parents that didn’t make them cook. Usually I’d crockpot something, but since I was going to be out all night they’d have to clean the giant heavy pot at the end of the night. No thank you!) A chicken from the deli, some Italian sausage broken up and browned with garlic, rotini, tomato sauce and some spaghetti sauce, mixed with reduced fat cheese and topped with a layer of full-fat cheese. Put into a cold oven and cook at 350 until the cheese is melted and things are bubbly. (They said it was very good – hooray!)

– Making up the beds in the spare room, aka nana’s room. Actually, Mike did that.

– Baking blueberry muffins and three loaves of pumpkin bread

– Bleaching the SHIT out of the spare bathroom to get rid of all traces of ants. Die die die!!!! I seriously used an entire container of Lysol bleach wipes in addition to soaking every bathtub toy in bleach-y water.

– Writing a two-page email with details on the boys – sleeping habits, eating options, eye drops, wraps, diapers, lotions, etc etc etc.

Then we went to a wedding. And I went back to the hotel to pump. Then we had dinner. And I went back to the hotel to pump. Then we went dancing and drinking and out to a bar to dance and drink some more.

Oh my GOD I’m old. I was moderate in my drinking and was careful to switch to Crocs for the dancing and walking and I still felt like hell the next day.

At least we look pretty 🙂

P.S. L’s favorite movie is Top Gun; they walked into the reception to the dulcet sounds of “Danger Zone.” And my favorite part of the evening was just after the reception ended; they called L to the balcony and K and about twenty male buddies sang “You’ve lost that loving feeling” up to her. It was AWESOME.

** Okay, it was morning when I started this post. Then Mike lost his wallet and I ended up tearing apart the house to try and find it. (We found it this evening.)

Technology is SUCH a blessing for a mama

Bubber is almost two months old – how the time flies! Seems like just yesterday he was in the hospital with a fever of 103 despite regular infusions of Tylenol. (That wasn’t yesterday. That was a month ago. He was 3 1/2 weeks old and scared the hell out of me.)

Bubber has been sleeping in a bassinet next to my bedside since we brought him home. We kept a small desktop lamp on so that at any time during the night I could glance over and make sure he was still breathing. Furthermore, it meant that for his 1 AM, 3 AM and 5 AM feedings I could roll over, pick him up, feed him, and roll back into bed with minimal disruption.

The great thing about our house is that the master bedroom is separated from the kids’ bedrooms by the kitchen and living room, so any noise will cause minimal disturbance to sleeping parents. Of course, that’s also the bad thing; when Bubber wakes up crying I’ve got to leap out of bed, dash out of the bedroom, negotiate my way across the playroom (which means I damn well better clean up the toys before I go to bed, or I’ll have new feet piercings), run behind the couch, and burst into Bubber’s room before he wakes up Little Gronk.

Anyway, Bubber’s move to the crib has been fairly successful. I moan and petition the gods when he starts crying five minutes after I finish the feeding (which means I have to jump out of bed and run over to his room to replace the binky) but thankfully that’s pretty rare.

As for the technology bit, I want to say that VIDEO MONITORS ARE TEH AWESOME. During the first week when you leave your tiny baby in that enormous crib, it’s hugely reassuring to be able to watch him rolling around or sleeping peacefully. Plus, when they get bigger, you get phenomenal pictures like this:

Random thoughts

Little Gronk did SOOOOO WELL!!!! at New Preschool yesterday! I was beyond thrilled. This new place has camera access – hooray for living in the future!! – so I personally witnessed him clapping, dancing, sitting down for stories, and going to sleep on his cot. It was wonderful to see and the transition went so much smoother than I’d dared to hope.

Ironically, the ONLY time he cried all day was when I came to pick him up. He was sitting with the other kids for story time. When he saw me I was amazed that he didn’t get up or break rank; he just started bawling. The teachers laughed and told him he could go see me so he got up and ran . . . and went RIGHT past me to the doorway where I’d left Bubber in his stroller. Shows me my proper place in the world 🙂

I am very, very, very lucky that Gronk has fallen so in love with Bubber. Once the littlest dude gains the ability to move about I think that will change a bit, but for now Gronk likes nothing better than to poke his belly, gently pat his hair, put in his binky, or give big, sloppy kisses to Bubber’s face (“MWAH!!!!”). I am a very lucky Mama.

Speaking of Bubber, his umbilical cord fell off on Mother’s Day. That’s one day short of seven weeks old. Most kids’ cords drop off at 2-3 weeks. If everything about Bubber is as stubborn as that, I am a sitting duck when he gets old enough to talk. Let alone hits puberty!

You are the weakest link.

Goodbye!

… or, “How I have trouble hanging up the phone.”

How do you hang up the phone?  (Not with family or close friends, but in a professional-yet-friendly setting.) “Thank you, bye!” is my usual, but sometimes I’ve done something for THEM, and a thank-you is a little weird.

The other people in the office say “buh-bye”, and it seems to work for them, but me?  I say “buh-bye” and I hear “bubbeh.” Or maybe “Popeye.” And sometimes “bye-bye!!!” like it would be squealed by a three-year-old with blond pigtails.

And, every once in a while, I hear “awww, whosa cute kitty? cutie want some num-nums?” but perhaps that’s just me.

Damn that wanker Anne Robinson for ruining “Goodbye!”  It used to work perfectly well and now it just makes me sound like I’m calling the clients stupid.  Grrrrr.

Seriously. What is your closer for phone calls that you need to end on friendly-but-professional terms?

Quick post of randomness!

I had to take a break from cleaning the bathrooms to stick the pork half-loin in the oven to roast (do you guys have a habit of unscrewing the faucets to clean the flow screens with bleach? I didn’t used to and then the first time I did in this house it was absolutely disgusting so now I do it at least once a month) and my hands stink of bleach and I’m afraid it rubbed off on the pork but I scrubbed my hands across the stainless steel of the sink and it helped and oh the medications are helping Rajah in that he’s not licking as compulsively and litter-visiting with less frequency — thank goodness! — and thank you all for the good wishes and here, have the song that’s stuck in my head, while I go scrub a toilet and a shower!

Five Things I’ve Learned by Being a Home Owner

Good morning everyone!!  I’m alive, I’m well, Rajah has settled in nicely, and the weather is beautiful in sunshiney Florida 🙂  I’m surrounded by full boxes and packing debris.  I’m wearing the same pair of shorts over and over again (I *have* unpacked the laundry detergent). I spent a half hour searching for a metal pan so I could bring brownies to the party next door (it was in a box labeled GLASS; thanks, packers, that was helpful). Unpacking our lives in a one-level house is quite different than our settled Kitty Den on the second floor!

Top five things I’ve discovered so far:

5. There ARE such things as Stepford Wives! Holy Cow!! The nice woman next door had a purse party and a whole handful of women there fit the profile.  You know what I mean?  Very skinny, bleached blond, perfectly made up, perfectly groomed women talking of how much they spoil their children and how their husbands constantly irritate them by playing X-Box, not putting away their dishes or being generally untidy.  Is this what I’m supposed to be in five years???  The hair’s gonna look awfully weird on me, if so.

4. Neighbors are MUCH different in an actual neighborhood than an apartment building.  We lived in the Kitty Den for two years; at no point did we know any of our neighbors by name or take a step through their doorways.  We’ve been here exactly a week and I’ve already met the neighbors on both sides (both of whom offered to answer questions or loan cups of sugar, etc.) as well as the next two houses to the right and one more house to the left.  I already attended a party thrown by one neighbor and Mike met the baby and puppy of another neighbor down the street.  It’s very friendly, but it’s also strange and kind of intimidating.  Perhaps I’ll manage to keep the Raj Mahal tidier than we kept the Kitty Den, if I think that folks might wander through on a random basis.

3. It’s mind-blowing (to this newbie) how much work it takes to set up a house.  I mean, unpacking and stuff, that’s expected.  And turning on electricity and water.  But you add on the home owner’s association, the person connecting the phone line and internet, the person installing Direct TV, the handyman examining the attic access and roof shingles, the Direct TV guy coming BACK to install something else he should have done the first trip, calling the security company to have them reset the system to your new phone line, being home when the new grill is delivered (YAY!!!), the pest company coming to transfer the termite bond, learning how to work the irrigation system . . . yeah.  I hadn’t used my iPhone calendar one TENTH as much as I did this month.

2. Tiles are a big change from carpet.  (Especially carpet in an apartment that was down the entire hallway from the elevator; all rain and mud was generally tracked off by the point of entry.)  We scrubbed the whole place before the furniture arrived from MA, but with all the comings and goings (and construction projects and unpacking) it’s getting a little gritty underfoot.  I have both a broom and a mop, but I’m having to negotiate around boxes and barricades of junk and it’s difficult.  ENTIRELY worth it, however, from watching Rajah skid out; he tried to turn a corner too quickly and slammed DIRECTLY into a cardbox box at full speed.  We laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.

And the number one thing I’ve discovered since becoming a home owner:

1. Crab grass is the Devil’s pubic hair.

Happy Monday, guys!!

The Celtics make me a sad panda.

That’s all?  That’s it?

After staying up past eleven?

After drinking my appropriately green Bud Light with Lime?

After obsessing over KG’s knees and whether Rasheed Wallace would show up and all the rest?

This is the way our Finals ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

That is all.

Malaise – I haz it.

Thousands of feet of “superior” boom are available in Maine, but not being used in the Gulf.

A moratorium on drilling was ordered on the recommendation of scientists, who actually recommended no such thing.

A Congressman assault citizens on the street.  Not only are no charges pressed, not only does he not resign, but blame-makers swoop in to attack . . . the citizens.

Europe’s busting up, the euro’s possibly breaking up, the area’s drowning in debt — hey, let’s add more government debt and a magic windmill program for ourselves!

Israel is not allowed to actively defend itself (i.e., attack the forces attacking it), nor to passively defend itself (enforce a blockade and guard its borders with a wall and checkpoints) without being accused of apartheid, genocidal tendencies, blood-drinking of innocent children, etc.  Everyone’s okay with this except us, and the US is slipping towards “meh” neutrality.

Elton John sings for Rush Limbaugh’s wedding.  This is a good occasion to mention how racist, homophobic, sexist, evil etc. Rush Limbaugh is.

Elton John is barred from singing in Egypt because of his beliefs and his behaviors.  “Meh.”

Social Security’s imploding.  ObamaCare’s a disaster in the making.  “Meh.”

It’s enough to make a girl want to climb back into bed with a cup of coffee and her copy of Atlas Shrugged.

(Now on Kindle!  Although, whoa, I paid a LOT less than that when I ordered it — it was $8.99 back then.)

Random thoughts

My head is an absolute muddle of thoughts this morning.  And none of them are clear, articulate or pithy enough to warrant its own post.  In no particular order, then:

• I really wish I knew how to sew.  I’ve used a sewing machine for one project in my life and that was sixteen years ago.  It’s not too late to learn now, is it?
• But sewing machines don’t sew leather, I don’t think.  How does one sew a custom holster?  Doubletrouble, does your wife do it by hand?
• I can sew buttons and that’s about it.  However, I have a project that I hope to reveal to you later this week, when my desired package arrives in the mail . . . more on that in a few days . . .
• I’m shocked, shocked, that anyone was shocked about Helen Thomas’ views.  I was only surprised that a) she was that completely blatant about them — D.C. is a town of obfuscation, as we all know; and b) that she retired because of them.  It’s nice to know that open calls for ethnic cleansing are still frowned upon in high society.  One needs to be subtle about those things.
• Man, it’s such a raw deal that Israel gets.  North Korea can kill 46 South Koreans – a classic casus belli if I ever saw one – and China can kill a few hunded Uighers, but Israel and Teh Joooooos are Teh Ebil! *spit* Never mind the Russians’ actions about the Chechens, or the divided city of Nicosia, or the Turks’ suppression of the Kurds, or the crimes against humanity going on in Congo — it’s time to Blame the Jew again!
• Has anyone tried substituting mascarpone for cream cheese?  (Yes, I know that’s an abrupt shift, but there just wasn’t a good transition available.)  I made these over the weekend (and froze most of them for company this Sunday); I thought they were delicious, but Mike really hates cream cheese and couldn’t abide the frosting.  Think mascarpone would work as well?
• While I was getting my hair cut on Saturday I saw a guy get an honest-to-goodness Mohawk.  I wanted to pinch his cheek and tell him to get some pegged jeans.  God, I must be getting old.
• Actually, my birthday’s this Saturday.  Know how I’m celebrating?  Mike and I are going up to take our second class at the Sig Academy.  Awwww yeah 🙂

That’s all the randomness I can stand for today.  Off to go abuse treadmill.  Happy Tuesday!