Haiku Friday: Sex and a Man'Ku

Three friends and I are going to strap on our Manolos or Jimmy Choos, grab our Birkin bags and go out for cosmos and to watch Sex and the City. Okay, I’ll be strapping on my TJ Maxx shoes and using the same Kenneth Cole bag I’ve had for 10 years, and I don’t drink cosmos, or anything that is at all trendy, but the point is, we’re dressing up. And going out. Tonight. :-)

Haiku Friday's weekly theme is to write from a male perspective. Here goes.

SATC – male perspective
What is she doing?
Did she just buy that outfit
to watch a movie?

I'd just like to remind a certain someone that it’s not so crazy to want to dress for an occasion just to get into the spirit of things. After all, that certain someone has a buckeye necklace and a lucky buckeye that he wears or puts in his pocket on game day. The same, but different.















Here we are ready to go to the movie. Don't we look fab? Can you guess which is Pump Lady? If you said Samantha (the one on the right), you're a winner!

Thursday 13: The MEME edition

I've been tagged for my first meme. Oh, I've done a meme or two be joining in or tagging myself, but this time I was chosen. Hee. Thank you Earthy Birthy Mama Princess!

The Rules: Write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. Okay, I'm going to cheat and make things harder more interesting by combining it with my Thursday Thirteen.

13 weird, random facts, habits or goals about me:

1. I use to collect sporks. Yes, sporks. I'd save them from Taco Hell and/or KFC and paint them. Then I threw them out. I guess I wasn't a serious spork collector.

2. I sold my first poem in 7th grade for Jolly Ranchers. A guy named Jonathan asked me to write a poem for his girlfriend Becky. The Poem: "All my dreams are coming true/every moment I'm with you./All the time we spend together,/I will cherish now and forever."

3. I haven't written a poem in about 4 years. At the age of 25 I got terrible writers block, at the age of 30 I pretty much gave up. That is depressing. It was a love for me. I always felt that the poems chose me as much as I chose their words. I know that is corny. I miss the feeling of utter "oneness" I got when I wrote poetry.

4. I used to record all my dreams in a dream journal. It's true, the more you write them down, the more you remember. I had to stop as it became too time consuming. I was losing sleep.

5. I have several recurring dreams: teeth falling out, nuclear war, being in/living in the home I grew up in, my husband leaving me, and being back in high school because I realize that I missed a course so I need it to officially graduate.

6. I had a bird named Stickers as a childhood pet. We had him for 10 years. He was free to fly around the house, loved to hang out with all members of the family, would cuddle by nuzzling his head up to your nose, took a bath in your hands if you held them under the faucet, could talk --- wow, I could go on and on. I loved that bird. We all still miss him. :(

7. My bird ate my homework once. The teacher got a real kick out that.

8. I was a vegetarian through college. I went to a Paul McCartney concert and afterwards didn't touch meat for about 3 years. I am still a vegetarian at heart. I know that doesn't count.

9. I smoked cigarettes from the time I was a young teen until I was 26. I quit on Jan. 1, 2000. I figured I'd never have that opportunity again. Wow, I haven't been a smoker for eight years. Yah, me!

10. I just ate 4 rice cakes.

11. I started a blog partially so I'd have something to do while I pumped at work.

12. Inconsequential things that I can't do: burp on purpose, curl my tongue, trill my Rs, carry a tune.

13. Random weird fact: It bothers me to eat cereal without socks on. It makes my feet feel really dry and weird.

I'm tagging these four gals and any Thursday Thirteeners who are stumped for a topic or want to take this for a topic for a future TT. Remember, you only need to come up with 10 random facts about yourself (unless, of course, your doing it as a TT).
Muffin Cake
Mel at My World, My Words
Melissa at The World of Keith and Melissa
Vanessa at This is Me and My Hectic Life

Wordless Wednesday

The back yard in bloom

Back from a nice weekend

Finally, a nice weekend. I was so sick of damp and chilly and really sick of staying in the house. My husband, son, mom and I traveled to Syracuse for a long weekend The weather in Syracuse over the weekend was perfect and I don’t get the opportunity to say that often. They apparently have a weather phenomenon called “lake effect,” which ensures snow – and lots of it – for 90 percent of the year. We had a nice weekend to visit with my grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins.

The Baby had a particularly good time exploring a new house. A split level with THREE staircases (and no safety gates). The Baby loves to climb. He probably thought he fell asleep in his car seat Friday night and woke up in heaven. He spent the first morning making a loop around the first floor. First, he went down two steps to the family room, through the foyer, up two steps into the living room and back to the kitchen. There were stops along the way to shake floor lamps, grab candles in glass holders, try to climb the stairs to the second level, open the freezer, open the kitchen drawers. I’m getting tired just thinking about it! But he had fun. His great grandparents enjoyed his company and he was, in general, in a really good mood.

This was the first trip that I’ve made where I didn’t have to pump. No hassling with pump horns in the car, no flashing unsuspecting travelers and relatives, no hiding out every three hours to pump. Woot!

From the bottle to the sippy
Speaking of milk, The Baby is in transition again. We have eliminated his daytime bottles. He is down to one a day. He has four ounces of milk in a bottle at night to help calm him down. The only thing is, he isn’t really doing great with sippy cup. I doubt if he is getting more than 7-8 ounces of fluid a day. The doctor said that since he isn’t getting his bottle, he will make it up with the sippy cup, even if it takes a few days for the idea to resonate. It’s been a week. He doesn’t seem at all dehydrated, but it still bothers me! Anyone have advice on making the switch? Or making the sippy cup a more attractive option?

Haiku Friday: Week in Review

I feel so bad that I haven’t been able to update in awhile. In fact, only a good ‘ku can assuage my guilt.

Friday
Oh so excited
to have an entire day off
to spend with my son.

What to do? Playground?
It figures, It rained buckets!
Chik-Fil-A instead.


Saturday
He wakes so early.
Please, please, please go back to bed.
We went yard sale-ing.


Sunday
Uh, the rain is back.
Plus, it is gray and chilly.
Hey, Spring, where are you??


Monday
The three-day weekend.
Only Monday could rob thee
of thy perfectness.


Tuesday
Busy, busy week!
No time to blog or read blogs.
Makes the day go fast.


Wednesday
Watching The Baby
try to put on shoes himself
is cute and funny.

His mind is bigger
than the task at hand. He smiles
when daddy helps him.


Thursday
Going to Syracuse
to visit great grandparents.
The Baby’s, not mine! :-)


Friday
Have a great weekend.
Three days off is like heaven.
Ha! Take that Monday.

Thursday Thirteen: The Office Predictions

Tonight is the season finale of The Office. Anyone else excited?

It’s hard not to like this show. The characters are so familiar, even if they are totally exaggerated, and it is refreshing that this office has real people working in it. I would never get job with Ugly Betty. I don’t rate high enough on the skinny-o-meter and my clothes aren’t that expensive.

Is it just me, or is Jim adorable? All those little fake proposals. Such good fun. You know something is going to happen. Something bad and heartbreaking. Something that will make me mad. But, hey, after tonight, I have my Thursday nights back! Yah!

Here are 13 possibilities. Some are my own, some are other people’s guesses.

1. Toby leaves (it’s the title of the show)
2. Jim will propose.
3. Pam will apply and get accepted into graphic design school.
4. Pam will quit job and go to school (but come back in the fall, of course)
5. She will say no to Jim because people on TV can’t go to school, work and get married at the same time.
6. Michael will make a HUGE deal over the engagement making the non-engagement an awkward mess. Probably at Toby’s party.
7. Michael will offend someone. (duh.) Probably the new HR person.
8. An impromptu meeting involving the entire staff could ensue.
9. Ryan’s drug problem will bring him back to Scranton or off the show entirely.
10. Jim will get Ryan’s job.
11. Dwight and Angela get engaged instead of Pam and Jim.
12. Jan will come back into the picture, possibly pregnant.
13. I am horrible at TV predictions. I’ve only been a fan for a season and a half, so please disregard the previous season finale possibilities.


Join the Thursday Thirteen fun!

Wordless Wednesday

Little Wizard and his Magic Cat
(aka The Baby in Dad's coat with The Cat in the background)

Birthday twins

After I gave birth to The Baby, my husband and I were walking the halls of the hospital (okay, I was totally hobbling) and we ran into a couple that we were acquainted with through a mutual friend. I knew she was pregnant, but I had no idea that our due dates were close. At first I was confused. Were they here visiting someone? Why was she in pajamas? Then it dawned on me, oh, she had her baby! How cool is that? Same day, too.

Before we left the hospital, we vowed that we would keep in touch and make a play date. True to our words, albeit 13 months later, we got together for a barbecue. Note to self: Don’t have barbecue get-togethers on a weeknight. There isn’t enough time to catch up, let alone do the dishes. That being said, it was really nice.

It’s true that all babies develop at their own rate. Allow me to compare our kids just to illustrate that you can’t really compare kids.

The Baby practically ran up to greet them, while The Other Baby walked with assistance. While the husbands were preparing dinner (have I mentioned how glad I am that I live in this century?), The Other Baby picked out books and actually listened as her mom read one. She discriminately chose another book and flipped through a few pages. One-hundred percent oblivious to the literary genius of Dr. Seuss, my baby was climbing the rocking chair. And then standing on the rocking chair. *sigh*

At dinner, The Other Baby ate with gusto – and a spoon! She gleefully ate everything that we ate: hamburger, hot dog, pasta salad. She used a sippy cup to perfection. If her little pinky would have been sticking out while she sipped, I would not have been surprised. She was a little lady through and through. Did she want more? Yes, she’d communicate with a nod of her head. Out of sheer desperation, we fed our kiddo applesauce. He wouldn’t touch anything else. He too had a sippy cup, but instead of swallowing his milk, he let it pour right back out of his mouth. Did he want more? No, he’d communicate by touching the spout of the sippy cup to his head and rubbing milk in his hair.

So, though they are the exact same age, they have totally different sets of skills. One baby’s large motor skills is developed more than the other. The other communicates much better (and has better table manners). But, both get bored sitting at the table, both totally loved playing in the floor-length curtains, both sat contentedly on our after-dinner walk, simultaneous squeals of joy erupted upon passing dogs, and both our kids are happy and healthy.

Did I mention they are both cute as heck? See…?

Lost in translation

Meet Coco the fish. He is not Nemo. He is “amusive.” He is my son’s new favorite toy.

The Baby’s uncle Steve and aunt Bibi got this gem for him from a street vendor in Thailand. As you can see by the packaging, no one was really checking the translation closely. I looked it up, just in case, but amusive is not a word. At least not in English.

This is one funky fish (hey, now that would have been a better name!). It rolls around the floor with “real fish motion,” plays “dulcet” music and “immediately change direction when hitting.” In other words, it rolls around the floor blaring a 10-second loop of techno music, crashes into furniture and toys and turns around. Its tail has strobe lights. It makes The Cat nervous and engrosses The Baby. Did I mention that you can’t turn off the sound?

Aside from the wacky name, oddball adjectives and poor phrasing, there are also sentences on the package that make no sense whatsoever. My favorite? The very top of the package, which exclaims, “Let we play go!”

Tee-hee.

Haiku Friday: My Family Vice

Every family, and every person, has that one product or thing that they MUST.HAVE.OR.ELSE. just can't resist. Here are The Baby's, my husband's and my own. Happy Friday!

Family Vices

Dependable meal,
when nothing else will suffice.
Blueberry is best.




Dear Brutus Buckeye:
Find someone else’s husband
to bug this season.




Mocha, I love you!
Give me my frappucino
and no one gets hurt.

Oral Fixation

Sometimes I go back and re-read my old posts (can you stalk your own blog?). It occurred to me that I obsess write about what The Baby eats, how he eats, how much he eats, when he eats poop or his first mud pie, and what he won’t eat, a lot. When I pumped and bottle fed I drove myself nuts. I hopefully didn’t drive you nuts too. If so, I apologize.

When a child is so young, I guess one thing you have complete control over is what goes in their mouths. Except poo and mud, of course. Oh, and cat food, phone antennas, newspaper… well, you know what I mean! I think that is why it’s so easy for pumping moms to freak about their supply – it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to influence (boy, am I glad I'm done!) Anyway, when I find a gem, whether it’s a product that might help pumping moms or a recipe that worked well for our toddler (13 months is toddler, right?) I like to pass it on.

The Baby really likes meatloaf and meatballs. They are easy for him to eat. While I do buy 93% lean beef, I still don’t like to let him eat read meat more than once or twice a week. These Thai Chicken balls were flavorful, would be super easy to modify (we didn’t have green onions so I added two tablespoons of finely chopped onion and some chives), and extra balls freeze well for future meals. We made them as a meal, but they’d be a great appetizer for a party. They were easy for The Baby to eat with his fingers. Here is an easy recipe that all three of us enjoyed from a member of Allrecipes.

Thai Chicken Balls
2 pounds ground chicken
1 cup dry bread crumbs
4 green onions, sliced
1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
oil for frying

In a large bowl, mix together the chicken and bread crumbs. Season with green onion, ground coriander, cilantro, chili sauce and lemon juice; mix well.

Using damp hands, form mixture into evenly shaped balls that are either small enough to eat with your fingers, or large enough to use as burgers.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry the chicken balls in batches until well browned all over.

NOTE: I halved the recipe and baked them at 400 in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn (or roll) the balls around halfway through. We just happened to have coriander seed. I didn’t even taste it. Could be that it went stale since it just sits in my spice rack. Also, the sweet chili sauce was in with ethnic foods at the store. It made yummy dipping sauce too.

Magic Moments

We had a moment Saturday night, The Baby and I. One of those sweet moments that naïve people like me imagined would happen all the time once life included children.

Long ago my husband and I decided that we were going to continue our weekly ritual of dining out. You can read about our downward dining spiral here. Dinner ran a little late on Saturday as we had a few errands to run. Since The Baby had YoBaby in his hair and had rubbed roasted Peruvian chicken into his eye sockets, skipping a bath wasn’t an option. Because of the time, our almost-13-month old was fast asleep when we got home.

Sticky situation (pun intended), should we wake The Baby to give him a bath and bottle or leave him sleep and chance that A) he’ll go blind from the aforementioned Peruvian chicken spices or B) he might wake up at 3 a.m. and want the bottle we put him down without. We weren’t taking any chances.

After the quickest bath ever (partially due to tub poop, but this is a story about a special moment, so I’m omitting this dirty little detail), and a quick bottle, I carried my half-sleeping child to his room.

I held him in my arms and stared at his tiny face marveling at how much he’s grown and changed in the last year and trying desperately to absorb the moment because I know they are fleeting. I kissed his cheek and whispered, “I love you.” He opened his eyes. I blinked back a few tears. When I re-focused, he was smiling the sweetest smile I think I’ve ever seen. He reached up and touched my face – my lips, my eyes. And then he quietly said, “Dada.”

hhmmmffff. I know what he meant to say. :-)

Haiku Friday: Gardeners of doom

Where good plants go to die

Dry and dead, they sit
in a makeshift plant graveyard.
Green thumbs we are not.

We do try our best.
Our thumbs are brown and busy,
our plants, sparse of bloom.

Look at the new guy.
This poor plant must be thinking,
“Get me out of here!”

Thursday 13: ZZZZZZ...... ZZZZZZZZZZ

Over the past couple of weeks my husband and I have been trying to ween The Baby off of falling asleep on his nightly bottle and in our arms. We feel that it's really important that he learn to fall asleep on his own and in his crib. It's been a slow, but steady process. We still want rocking or cuddling to be a part of his bedtime routine, just not what makes him sleep. We're at the point now were we give him a little bottle and rock him until he is content and sleepy (usually just a few minutes), then we put him in his crib. He cried a few times for short periods, fussed a little for a day or two, and has been drifting off on his own for about a week.

It's no wonder some babies and toddlers cry so much at the prospect of going to sleep. It can be a tough job -- even when you have a whole bunch of tricks up your sleeve.

13 things that help me fall asleep
1. Advil PM
2. Naming all the Native American tribes that I can think of
3. Naming all the bird/plants/snakes/fish that I can think of
4. “Flipping” our house mentally. I will think of walls to knock out, rooms to create and other ways to improve our house — in pretty intense detail.
5. Read a book. Currently I am reading Maeve Binchy’s “Evening Class.” So far, so good.
6. Read a magazine. We subscribe to Fast Company and Readers’ Digest (boo to RD for taking the art off of the back cover and selling it, btw!)
7. Watch TV. Either Sex in the City re-runs on TBS or Adult Swim on Cartoon Network — I know, way different ends of the spectrum.
8. Eat. Whoa, I don’t recommend this one to anyone.
9. Stumble on the Internet.
10. Assemble outfit combinations in my head. I never remember them in the morning, which is why it seems like I wear the same five outfits over and over and over.
11. Think of things to feed The Baby. Besides Cheerios and Puffs.
12. Think of different menus for me and my husband. Sometimes it seems like we have chicken every.single.night. Blah.
13. Tylenol PM (I’m not brand specific, it depends on what is on sale!)

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