... yet so easy in others.

I was reminded of this just this morning when we dropped him off in the toddler Sunday school room. We got to the door and within half a second, he had disappeared amidst a sea of other toddlers and toys without so much as a "bye bye mommy". I had to stand there awhile waiting to write up a name tag for his diaper bag and sign him in because there was a "cryer" in front of us. The poor little boy was screaming his head off and wouldn't let go of his daddy. Seeing as I WAS that kid when I was little and I am a parent now myself, I sympathized with both of them... a LOT. But gosh, if I were that little boy's mom, I would have an awful time leaving him like that. I'm not sure I could. (I know I know, care providers always swear the kids calm down within minutes after the parents leave... )

Finally the father just handed the little boy over to one of the teachers and walked away. Gah. I'm sure he calmed down eventually but ugh.

Meanwhile, I took one last peek before we left and Ben was happily chatting on the phone in the toy kitchen with a plastic hotdog in his other hand. At least "shy kid" is one toddler challenge I don't have to worry about. (I have plenty of others to deal with, so this is very fair... really.) Plus, he does have a small freakout issue with white haired men (thank you, mall Santa) and this one male cashier at the Superfresh, so I was not entirely spared.

Have you ever tried to teach someone to blow their nose? It's not easy!

I saw this at Target the other day out of the corner of my eye and actually turned the cart around to go make sure it was really starring who I thought it was.

Buy something!
I bought myself this adorable bag today. It was actually out of necessity since I don't have a purse of any kind other than my Mickey Mouse backpack and frankly, that looks a little ridiculous most of the time and it has seen better days. This bag (backpack, actually) will fit a diaper and some wipes, in addition to my wallet and as many chapsticks as I want! ;) And I can throw it in the washer!

I bought a dress today too -- also out of necessity, but felt good nevertheless. It's for my friend's wedding next month.


Ahhhh... between that and the bag of mini chocolate chips I'm polishing off right now, this day is looking better. (just in time for it to be over)

Dear Scott's Lawn Service,

It is NOT my problem that you lost my check. It was sent and the money was taken from my account BY YOU almost two months ago!). I have already gone through WAY more effort to get the payment information for you than I should have and if you don't credit my account soon, my severely PMS'ing self is going to rage on the next person from your company who calls here to ask me for more information. And then, after I finish yelling at you, I will hang up and switch my lawn service to TruGreen, since they keep sending me postcards with discounts anyway.

You've been warned.

-Erin

Dear Comcast High Speed Internet,

I see we have again started with the totally unfair deal where I pay you $45 a month for "always on" internet service and you disconnect it every 10.3 minutes. Are you just messing with my head? Do you think I need more exercise? (because I am getting it now that I have to run down two flights of stairs to reset the modem 450 times a day) I suggest you fix it or... well, I guess I won't do anything because I really have no other choice for my high speed cable internet service. Today though, I just might itemize the minutes and seconds that the internet is out and call and whine until you give me a credit. So there.

-Erin

Dear Lost (and all other shows I watch),

I am NOT going to waste my time watching your stupid annoying recap shows. I, along with the rest of country, have been watching faithfully all season AND sitting through the commercials since I always watch it live and never on Tivo. Therefore, I feel we deserve NEW EPISODES! This whole one new episode followed by four repeats/stupid recap crap is NOT going to be tolerated! I will stop watching and wait for the season DVD's to come out! (which I will not BUY and put more money in your pocket. I will Netflix them! So there!)

-Erin

Dear Home Depot,

WHERE ARE MY PATIO DOORS?! I would really like to be able to use my deck/grill sometime this season! Your kitchen sales associate June is really rude. But you window guys were pretty nice to us. I'm just getting a little impatient. Do I need to come in and hover around the windows and doors sales desk and let my two-year-old play with all of your displays? Because I will.

-Erin

Dear Cat,

STOP PEEING ON MY BASEMENT CARPET or I will SELL your hairy butt and use the money toward the berber I want down there but can't have because of your STUPID claws that I was merciful enough to NOT have removed when you were a kitten.

-Cat Mommy

Are you kidding me?

This has been the world's longest week.month. Ben has been whining all day, every day and it's REALLY getting old. I don't know what the deal is. Two? teeth? Allergies? Combination of all of the above? All I know is I hope there is an end to it SOON.

I'm not even particularly looking forward to Gymboree today. He hasn't been enjoying it as much lately and just whines and cries and refuses to participate in any of the group stuff. It's really quite irritating seeing as I have paid for this all the way through JUNE, or possibly July, I can't remember. I think the problem is the class time. (coupled with the fact that he is just Mr. Whiny McWhiny Pants lately) But the class time falls right during his usual naptime and by the end he is begging to go home and get in his crib. :( I'm thinking I might put our membership on hold until he is old enough to move up to the next class in a few months. It meets at 10:15, which really works much better!

At the moment he is whining to go in the Nanny car. It's only 7a.m. Please send me all of your extra patience today. I'm going to need it.

The boy, although he did just happily pee pee on the potty once again, is currently throwing himself a knock-down, drag-out tantrum in his crib. I'm not entirely sure WHY. I think it stemmed from me taking him downstairs to give him lunch about ten minutes ago. Apparently this was a highly offensive suggestion. I exacerbated the problem by trying to give him a Claritin. :: sigh ::

My favorite part is when he screams until he gags and then complains that his throat hurts. Joy.

Would it at all possible to skip this year and just move on to the next one?

I was on the phone with my mom this morning when Ben headed up the stairs saying "Potty!" Not wanting to lose any of this potty momentum, off we went to the bathroom...

...where he proceeded to POOP ON THE POTTY.

We had not even really discussed anything beyond pee peeing on the potty.

We are now the proud owners of some Pull-ups. I was (still am) looking for cotton training pants but they are HARD to come by. Both of my Targets are out of them.

Gah.

Again, SO not pushing the potty training thing. In fact, I'm probably erring on the side of leaving him in diapers too long because I'm petrified of ending up with the toddler who rejects the potty after I've pushed it too hard. So I guess the boy is taking matters into his own hands.

We got home from running errands this morning and he said to me (while pointing to his diaper) "Mommy. Go potty. Pee pee." I said, "Um. Hrm. Okay!" So we rushed upstairs, I stripped him down, up onto the potty, and he went! He was very pleased with himself.

Seriously. I'm thinking this must be God's way of saying to me, "I know I gave you one of my more challenging models. Okay, so he's REALLY REALLY challenging. So as your reward, I'm going to give you a break and make at least this one part easy."

Dear God, thanks. You rock. ;)

He did it again! He pee peed on the potty! And even more exciting? He TOLD us he had to do it. Where did THAT come from?

He grabbed at his diaper and said "potty!" We said, "Do you want to pee pee on the potty?" and he shot upstairs like a bolt of lightning. In record time, we stripped him down, put him up there and he went! Afterward, I put him in his big boy underwear while Tom got his bath stuff ready. (just a few minutes) He thought that was way cool. I took a picture (all the while Tom yelling, "You can't take a picture of him in his underwear!!!")

I can and I did. I'm his mother! It's my job to document these things! First time in big boy underwear? C'mon! That's a huge deal.

Plus, it'll make a great embarassing photo to pull out for the future girlfriends. (insert evil laugh here)

Okay yeah, so the monthday updates are not over yet. I don't know when they will be!

This was a big month for us, anyway! Benjamin is TALKING. Not only is he talking, he uses sentences... two words, three words, four words!

He talks about the potty, sits on the potty, says "ew!" when he has a poopy diaper and is staying dry most nights and naps, so I'm taking all these as signs that it's time for the potty training to begin full-swing! Ben presided over opening ceremonies last night with the very first pee-pee on the potty and a flush!

Wish me luck. I have been dreading this since I found out I was pregnant with him. We have big-boy underwear (Elmo!) ready to go for motivation and a large bag of M&M's. I think the next rainy day we have we're going to spend in the big boy underwear and not more than three feet from a potty.

This is the standard face he makes when he sees the camera now. :

Guess who pee-peed on the potty a minute ago?!

Hint: It wasn't me, and it wasn't Tom. ;)

The latest press... one of our local papers.

We are down to the last two teeth to cut over here and I'm pretty sure they are what is causing Ben to have this 24/7 whinefest (over a week so far) that is making me want to just quit this mommy gig altogether, or at least take an extended vacation from it.

It's just awful. I managed to get my finger back there long enough to actually feel two tiny points of one of the top back two-year-molars, so at least we're making progress.

It's not helping matters that he refuses to take any medicine... but HA, I have come up with a solution I think will work. I discovered that there is a chewable Children's Motrin. He hearts his Flinstone vitamins, so I'm thinking this is the answer! I just have to get out to Walgreens and get some later today.

I should thank my lucky stars he is at least sleeping well through all of this and that I can look forward to a three hour plus nap later today.

Today's question: What kind of digital camera do you have? How much was/is it? How is the shutterlag? I'm looking for something with little to no shutter lag, but under $200. I have read good things about the Sony Cybershot 6MP (which I can get on Ebay for less than the Amazon price), but am continuing to research since I can't afford to buy anything new right now anyway.

It is GORGEOUS outside. Bright, sunny, cloudless, birds chirping and my cats are in heaven stalking said birds from the bedroom window sill. God help the birds if the cats ever get out (which they do on occasion) because they have been planning and scheming for years about how to get to the nest in the corner of the drainpipe.

We are sitting around watching Sesame Street waiting for it to be time to go to Gymboree. I guess we could go outside, but I'm really not ready to chase Ben up and down the hill in the backyard yet today or deal with the screaming when it's time to come in. Yeah, we'll save that for later, I think. So for now we're enjoying the pretty day from the bedroom.

Yesterday was busy... I knocked out some to-do's around the house, including hanging the dustbuster, which has been on that list for almost a year. (you'd think I was waiting around for Tom do to it or something... HAHAHAHA) ;)

I also went over to Home Depot and FINALLY got an estimate for all the stuff we need to order to redo the hall bathroom. Hooray! The estimate and the Ben-factor (I had to entertain him the whole time) were both surprisingly painless. However, the sales woman? RU-HUDE. I got the feeling it was the usual, "She looks 14, she CAN'T be serious." treatment. It was clear she did NOT want to help me. Finally she agreed to sit down with me and work up an estimate (this was after she tried twice to just send me off to flip through cabinet door samples). She huffed and puffed the whole time and was very short with me. At one point her co-worker came over to his desk and she actually MOUTHED something to him with an annoyed look on her face when she thought I was turned around talking to Ben. What is wrong with people? She'll probably be getting the sale because the price was really great, but after it's all said and done, I may have to write a letter. I really REALLY am sick and tired of getting that kind of treatment whenever I go to buy something like that. Give me the benefit of the doubt. Would a 14-year-old teen mom seriously be looking into purchasing basically an entire new bathroom? I'm guessing not.

So that was that. I did a lot of laundry and other boring things you don't want to hear about.

OH I also threw a bottle of Children's Motrin onto the bathroom floor last night out of frustration with my child who is on an "all medicine is made of acid... the burning! the burning! OH the burning!" streak. Yes. He acts like I'm trying to kill him. We had this problem solved awhile back and he was great about it. But then he encountered some Grape Dimeatapp that did not please his tastebuds so now we are back to square one, or perhaps worse. He won't even accept candy/cookies as bribes anymore. So yeah, I threw/broke/made of mess of an entire bottle of Motrin and then had to clean the mess up. Joke's on me, I guess. And no, I did NOT throw it at him, he was in the other room. Sheesh. I'm not going all "wiiiiiiire haaaaaangers!" on you.

On another topic, here's an informal poll:

How many of you like to take walks around your neighborhood on summer evenings partially because you can see right into other peoples' houses?

This site is going to have its 100,000th visitor sometime today or tomorrow! :) If you happen to be that lucky person, would you mind taking a screenshot and sending it to me?

Finally, captured on video, the Hakuna Matata dance. Please note when he stops to check himself out in the mirror. That is SO Tom.

Because of a baseball game, the episodes of 7th Heaven & Everwood that were scheduled to air on WNUV on 04/17/06 from 8 - 10 PM will air on Saturday, 04/22/06 from 6 - 8 PM.

Because of a baseball game, the episodes of Gilmore Girls & Pepper Dennis that were scheduled to air on WNUV on 04/18/06 from 8 - 10 PM will air on Saturday 4/22/06 from 8 - 10 PM.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! They did this to me last week too!

In other news, Ben can now say, "Go Orioles! Yay!" (sounds like "Goreo Yay!")
and it's very cute.

Ben's napping. I planted some geraniums in my planters and some herbs in my window box. Tra la la... yeah, I'm boring today. So what are you up to?

OH, and I have question for you all. (those of you who have ever taken prenatal vitamins) I started taking them (obviously) when I was pregnant with Ben and have just never stopped. I didn't even really give it any thought until it came up at dinner last night (there was a discussion about how yummy Flinstone viatmins are). Do you still take yours? There's really no reason to STOP taking them, right? I mean, they're just a really super-complete vitamin, no? Just checking.

Our neighborhood is fairly quiet. Very little action around here most of the time, really. But Saturday night, (er... Sunday morning), we were sleeping peacefully when around 2:30a.m., we started hearing yelling.

I laid there in bed for awhile listening... it sounded like a guy and a girl and the girl was REALLY ticked off.

More yelling revealed that it was our neighbors four doors down, Eddie and Melissa, a young, engaged 20-something couple. It became apparent that Melissa was VERY drunk and a mean drunk at that.

From what I could gather (the story was sort of disjointed and littered with eff this eff that), some girl named Kristin had called Melissa on her cell phone and called her a b****. This did not sit well with Melissa, who, for whatever reason, decided the incident was all Eddie's fault. Memorable quotes from the yelling that ensued...

"Kristin is SO not invited to the wedding now!" (Melissa)

"Kristin made a stupid mistake. It was a stupid mistake. It was just a stupid mistake." (repeated over and over my Eddie, who I'm gathering was also drunk, just much quieter about it)

"I am SO going to remember all this in the morning!" (Melissa)

"How old ARE we?" (Melissa... I wanted to yell "That's what we'd like to know!")

At some point, one of them got in a car and screeched off down the court. Then they came back and the yelling started again. Eventually, some guy named Aaron got involved. (I thought they were calling me, and I kept thinking, "What did I do? I'm just up here trying to sleep!") Aaron must live with them/be staying with them because Melissa started throwing his stuff out onto the front yard. Effity eff effing all the while about Eddie driving way too fast while intoxicated. Good to know these people were out driving around. Lovely. At any rate, Aaron was not pleased that his things were being tossed outside, and he was yelling back at her.

More cursing, more yelling. A lot of door slamming and cars screeching off and then coming back again. Everytime Melissa came back out of the house it got louder. At this point, Tom and I were hanging out the bedroom window trying to piece together the story. Tom said he wanted to yell, "Dude. If you guys are going to yell like this in the middle of the night, at LEAST give us some back story!"

Eventually, Melissa went inside (to go wash her mouth out with soap and maybe sober up?) and Eddie and Aaron continued their conversation for awhile, but not loud enough for us to hear much.

I was getting ready to go pop some popcorn while we waited for Melissa's next appearance when the cops showed up. Exciting! After that, everyone went inside and the action was over. But wow! What great middle of the night entertainment!

With Grandmom at Good Friday dinner


Cheesing at Good Friday dinner


Ben, Daddy and Uncles "Nonononono" and "Yesyesyes" (as he currently refers to them)


Thomas G. versions 1-4 (not in that order)


Forced Family Foto Fun: left to right in Bennish - Aunt Teenee/Tina, Uncle Yes Yes, Babby, No Name Yet, Mommy, Daddy, NaNee Car Go Beep Beep, Baby!, Papa No Car, Uncle Nonono


Found an egg! Hopefully this one has M&M's in it and isn't one of those stinky REAL eggs


This was BEFORE the tantrum that occurred just after Pap had to pry him off the neighbor's playset


Egg? Or strange new kind of flower?

Happy Easter, internet. :)

We are busy over here doing our Eastery things. So I'll be back tomorrow with bloggy goodness. Remind me to tell you the story of the drama a la Desperate Housewives meets Cops that happened outside of our house from 2:30 - 3:30 this morning. Really. It's a good one.

In the meantime, we are off to Nanny and Pap's to hunt eggs and have a yummy Easter dinner. TTYL! :)

It was SO gorgeous today. After a busy morning -- doctor's appointment for Ben (ear infection followup), grocery store and then out to lunch, we spent much of it outside, working on the yard and cleaning up the mess that winter makes. After Ben got up from his nap, we played in the cleaned up sandbox/water table and ran around the yard like we all ate an entire chocolate bunny. (when in reality, only one of us did... wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!)

Know what I hate about warm weather and being outside? BEES. They hate me. They seek me out and chase me. THey don't leave when I swat at them, so I have to run around like a crazy person, flailing me arms and talking to myself. While Tom was loading the groceries in the car this morning, I had to practically do a chinese fire drill three times around the van before I outsmarted a wasp that was chasing me when I dove in the car and shut all the doors. Then, I kid you not, it landed on the rear view mirror and attacked my reflection. ???!?!?! What's UP with that?!

Makes me itch just thinking about it... HATE bugs. REALLY hate stinging, buzzy bugs.
Other than that, summer rocks. :)

Tom is off of work today. Woohoo! This means I have help! This morning, I dragged him to his favorite place in the world (oh yes, that was sarcasm), the place with the tools. We needed three bags of mulch and some ant killer. The ants, they are taking over again. This time, they have switched things up and are coming in through the dining room window. Not for long, if I have anything to say about it. Die bugs die!

I want to plant some flowers, herbs and peppers in our window boxes on the deck, but I was completely overwhelmed by the mulch/ant killer expedition and am going to have to go back alone, sans toddler AND husband. Eventually I'll get around to planting out front too, but I'm trying to hold off until after the frost date. I've been burned by that before.

Currently, Tom is entertaining Ben/feeding him lunch. Then it will be naptime and WE are going to mulch the garden and clean the outside windows. Oh Tom is just going to LOVE that. muahahahhahahaha...

I was at Old Navy today picking up part of Tom's birthday present when I meandered into the maternity section. In all fairness, it's right next to the toddler clothes, which I can never resist stopping to look at. In the distance, I spotted the elusive maternity short-sleeved polo! Gah! Internal crisis! What to do?????

See, when I found out I was pregnant with Ben, it was July. By the time August rolled around, I already was busting out of my regular clothes. Then it was an unusually hot fall, with temperatures in the upper 80's until mid-November. Of course, there were no hot weather maternity clothes to be found by the time I realized I needed them. When we took our trip to Disney that November, I wore these awful elastic waistband shorts from the sporting goods store and the ONE maternity tee shirt I had been able to find... over and over and over.... I vowed not to be in that situation again. (both maternity tee-less and pregnant in Disneyworld)

Currently, I am NOT pregnant and have no idea when I will be/will want to be, but I don't want to be sweating it out in long sleeves again should it happen unexpectedly during the warm months. So I've been on the lookout for these shirts to stock up. Yep. I had to buy them. The checkout guy looked confused as I presented my purchases: two maternity polos, two pairs of regular shorts and two small t-shirts. He actually looked me up and down. Then he said, "Wow. These maternity polos sure are going fast." I replied, "Yeah! I know! I'm not even pregnant and decided to get them because I know from experience they won't be here when I actually need them!" Strangely enough, he acted like he'd heard that before... so maybe I'm not the only forward-thinking non-preg out there.

As he totalled my purchase, he leaned in and whispered, "I've heard a nasty little rumor about the maternity department."

"Oh say it ain't so..." I cried, knowing what he was going to say.

He continued, "They are getting rid of it next spring. It only accounts for 13% of our store sales."

"That's only because you all never have anything in stock back there!!! If it's there, the pregs will buy it! Trust me!"

He was amused and agreed.

Don't panic yet girls, apparently Old Navy will be keeping their maternity section online with the flat $5 shipping! Woohoo!

Ben has issues. This whole obsessive about one thing deal is really getting frustrating and frankly, a little concerning. Is it really normal for a kid to wake up and have the first words out of his mouth EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. be "Nanny car beep beep beep!" He talks about my car (which looks like my mil's car, hence the term "nanny car") all day long. He wants to open and close the doors, hold the keys, ride in it, look at it, touch it and talk about it. If he is not doing one of those things, he is throwing a tantrum about wanting to do one of those things. Seriously. This can not possibly be normal. Is it? At least, for the moment, he has given up his ceiling fan obsession and the light switch one from awhile back... I guess that's something.

**update** I'm testing something, so you, lucky LUCKY you, get to watch this lovely soundless :40 video of my kid playing at the park. ;)


Jen and I took the boys to the really cool playground this morning since the weather is so BEEEEEEEYUUUUUUTEEEFUL!

Mommy, I realize you think this is a great photo opportunity, me stuck here in this well. But um... GET ME OUT!


Ben doing his "I want what you are holding in MY hand right now!" sign and Ryan looking on quizzically, as if thinking, "Dude. What is his DEAL? We're at the playground! Go slide!"


Mommy trying to be arty with the funhouse mirror


I call this one: "Two boys. Too short"


This is Jen chasing Ryan AND carrying the infant seat AND Lily. We came to the realization taht it's going to be a really REALLY long time before we get to sun ourselves on the benches while the kids go off on their own. :: sigh ::


Playing "Let it Be" on the cool xylophone.


Playing "Let it Be" on the alligator drum. I tried to tell him that song doesn't really have any drum parts, but he didn't care.


Jen trying to levitate Ryan (?)


After about an hour, Ben asked to go home for a nap (oh yes, yes he did). So we had to go. Jen was off to a doctor's appointment. At least we all got out for a little while though on this beautiful day! :)

This was in the Village Voice a few days ago. Though wildly complimentary, the legal commentary in the last paragraphdoes not bode well for the Jimmy Kimmel show appearance, me thinks. Gah. Copyright law is really *really* annoying.

Today's Musical Monday selection comes to you courtesy of Mrs. Flinger. She sent me an amazing mix cd of cool kids' music and this song by Jessica Harper was on it. Of course, I liked it so much (and the other ones by the same artist that she included on the cd) that I went straight to Itunes and downloaded everything else by her I could get my hands on! Thanks for the great music, Mrs. F! :)



Jessica Harper - Stay Three

Jessica Harper has a bunch of other cds. I'll feature more of her stuff on future MM's because it's just AWESOME. :)

Sorry for the prolonged blogging absence. Beach weekend turned out to be busy busy busy! There was lots of eating, more eating, board game playing and outlet shopping. This was mixed in with some walking on the beach, reading (and watching of the Masters, but not by me) and blowing my nose.

We had fun but I am very, very glad to be home. The cold and the sinus mess that followed has wiped me out and I'm ready to just spend an evening in my jammies in my own house doing nothing and talking to no one, catching up on blogs and waiting for Desperate Housewives to come on.

In other news, I can no longer keep track of Ben's new words. I was writing them all down in the baby book up until about two weeks ago, but I've run out of room and they are now coming at such a fast pace that I can't keep up! This is so exciting (and is cutting down on his frustration and tantrums IMMENSELY)! He repeating anything and everyhting and also is speaking in complete sentences -- something which came literally OUT OF NOWHERE just in the past few days. So far we have heard utterances such as: "I go ka-boom!" "I go mommy's car?" "Mommy's car go beep beep?" and more, mostly revolving around my car and Tom's car keys, but we'll take what we can get.

So the beach was wonderful... the weather not so much for 3 out of 4 days, but it's okay, we had plenty to keep us busy.
Here are a few pictures from the one beautiful day we had.

Benjamin and Pap walking on the beach


Picking up a seashell, or some sand... or maybe just pointing to his shadow, I'm not sure


Hanging with Pap again


Hitching a ride with Uncle Taylor


And this one is from the night we went out to dinner and Ben handed me my camera and then "cheesed". So I guess he wanted me to take his picture.


Okay, so that was pretty much the entire contents of my memory card. I know, that's sad. I don't know what it is but whenever I'm on vacation with my husband's family, my picture taking frequency plummets. I just don't always feel comfortable pulling out my camera and snapping away... for some reason, it feels strangely intrusive to me... ? Maybe because it's not "my" family and I just don't know if/when the picture taking is unwanted/annoying... probably something I just need to get over because I am way too paranoid.

Not to worry, because there will be beaucoup beach pics coming in June though when we go back! :)

Sorry again for the silent blog weekend. It won't happen again, I swear! ;)

The weather is nice today. But I seem to have caught Ben's cold overnight. Argh.
We took a long walk earlier and are heading to the outlets later on, I think. Then out to eat. Which reminds me, I need to be working on getting Ben to nap, which is NOT an easy task when we are not at home. :\

Hrm. I think I crashed. I sat down for a minute and just do not feel like getting back up. Ben is still napping. Hooray! Our Realtor emailed me to ask if I'd walk down an open house he is having down the street (can't afford it, but would love to see it) but I'm shackled to the house until the boy wakes up. Who has an open house on a Wednesday afternoon? Also, it's a pretty house on the inside, I'm sure, it's almost brand new; but my *townhouse* has more bathrooms! And for $569,000, I better get more than 4 bedrooms too!

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Hey look! It's me again! Wow. Procrastination does a house good. I moved a shelf from Tom's office closet to the newly empty space under the basement stairs. Then I organized all of our board games on the shelf. (I had to go through them anyway to pick a couple to take to the beach, right? Sure!) After I stood back and admired my work, I thought about how much I would have loved to play in that crawlspace when I was little. Then I straightened the basement. Now I'm in Tom's office trying to figure out what to do with all the stuff I took off the bookshelf that is now in a pile in the floor. Hrm. Packing! Right! I'll get to it soon!
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Edited once again to add: Further proving I can procrastinate with the best of them, both of my upstairs bathrooms are clean now and there is laundry in the washer and dryer. While I did manage to bring the suitcase upstairs to the bedroom, I have yet to find the energy/will to put anything into it. Right now, my excuse is that Ben is napping and so I don't have access to his clothes. There is also my little obsessive quirk about having to have every piece of laundry in the house clean before I can begin packing. Nope. I'm not weird at ALL.
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Edited again to add: Back from the store where I couldn't find half the things I needed and, as per usual when I go that store, I got the scary cashier who looks like Boo Radley. Discovered a fairly large size grocery order will fit in one side of the stow-and-go in the van. Did a happy dance in the parking lot before having to chase down Ben's baseball hat that blew right off of his head. Returned home to find that we appear to have lost our trashcan again (third time this year) due to the 100mph winds that are going to pick my house up and move it to another zip code any minute now. Ben is down for nap attempt #2 and I'm dutifully crossing things off of my to do list. Though the blog, it keeps calling me.
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Edited again to add: The white apocolyptical looking hail stuff has ceased and given way to bright sunshine. Seriously. Has anyone checked to see if the world is ending?
Ben is currently in his crib, where he asked (read: whined incessantly) to be put. I was thinking early nap, but judging from the squealing I hear right now, maybe not. I still have not started packing, but I have updated my blog twice AND moved another load of junk to the attic. That would be my procrastation/ADD combo personality at work again.
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Edited to add: WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE WHITE THINGS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY?! (they look like salt pellets) Oh I can't WAIT to get out there and run errands. Joy! Also, the toddler, he has whined from the minute he woke up at 6:30 a.m. I'm about ready to go sit in the corner and cry.
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Benjamin has slept between us for the last two nights due to some mysterious "owie" that seems to flare up around midnight every night. :: sigh :: I'm such a softie. It's just that he's still on an antibiotic for yet another ear infection, so I don't want to enforce the whole staying in his bed thing and make him cry when I'm not entirely sure he *doesn't* have an owie of some kind going on. Ya know?

Hence, no one except Ben is getting any kind of decent sleep because he does karate chops while he is unconscious and also somehow, his little 32"-long, 24 pound body takes up half of a queen size bed.

My to do list today is a mile long. We are leaving for the beach tomorrow morning (thanks to the Yaya Joan for generously letting us use her beautiful beach house). I still haven't grocery shopped for the trip (for some things for Ben, the rest I'll get when we get to the beach), packed or done my basic "put the house in order so I don't have to come home to chaos and smelly trash cans" cleaning. So you can guess what I'll be doing all day.

But in a little over 24 hours, I will hopefully be relaxing on the sofa at the beach doing some knitting, or walking in the sand letting Ben run off some energy if the weather is nice.

Please send us nice weather vibes if you have any to spare because right now, the sky here is looking a little dark.... gah.

* My brother will not be on the JK show tonight. It won't be for a couple weeks since they are apparently still working out the rights to air movie reenactments (?) I'll keep you posted, but de-arm the TiVo's for now. ;)

* Check out this awesome recipe for Baked Eggplant Parmesan Subs on The Naptime Gourmet. I tried it last night and it was super easy and SOOoooo good.

* Leslie sent me the coolest kids' mix cd yesterday. I discovered my new favorite kids' artist, Jessica Harper. She's got rhythm, she's got music, who could ask for anything more? ;)

* The cat who is not my favorite spent the night at the vet last night since he wouldn't pee for them between the hours of 1:30p.m. and 6p.m. The weird thing? I actually missed him. I had to keep reminding myself it was a respite from having to clean up pee from the rug everywhere. The other cat, however, did not seem to care in the least that his brother was carried off in a cage and didn't return yesterday. In fact, I think I heard him cackle, "The house is mine, it's mine. It's ALL mine." Tom likened it to the way the Munchkins must have felt when the house fell on the Wicked Witch. (except of course, our other cat will be back sometime today)

I think that's all for now... don't forget to download/listen to yesterday's Musical Monday selection. I promise more of you will like it than my last selection. ;) (which I still love so :P )

Okay, let's try this again.



Today's MM selection is.... Don't Blink
by Parachute Express.
This is one of my favorite kids' songs at the moment. It was playing when we walked into our very first Gymboree class and has been stuck in my head every since.

Parachute Express has some great stuff! I'm sure I'll post more of their music on future Musical Mondays. ;)

p.s. I passworded the directory. It's the same as the username and p/w for my blog.

... my brother and his videos are going to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night.

Apparently, the producer called today and is going to FLY HIM OUT TO HOLLYWOOD, put him up in a hotel and pay him to be on the show. (my dad is going too)

That's not all. He also got a call from a radio show in Washington State. He has to call in at 3p.m. on Monday and they are going to interview him.

Is this crazy or what?

It's 12:45 and already we have:

- been to the VW dealership across town to turn in the money pit on wheels (woohoo!),
- been to Tom's parents' house to pick up the-car-that-will-run-forever
- been back to our house
- been to the vet (hey! guess what!? It's the OTHER cat that has been peeing everywhere!)

And now I have to run BACK out to go the grocery store while Ben is napping.

THEN...
We are dropping Ben off with Tom's parents so we can go have our anniversary dinner.

T-I-R-E-D.