Orange sneakers
Jack is so funny in his orange (with blue lightening bolt!) sneakers! He’s been running around like a crazed weasel chasing dogs, grandma, me, mogie, shadows, balls and china. He is also being cheerful, not napping, eating pot pie, etc.
I think I am flaking on the peoples party! but i might ditch the fam and sneak over there later tonight. the party does run til midnight! THANK GOD the conference is in my town…
On that note i think i will post more pictures of Jack’s shoes.
These are too small!
These are too big!
These are just right!
Blow me Parenting Magazine
I continue to receive a free copy of Parenting Magazine in the mail and I continue to be annoyed and offended by it’s horrid repetitive, trivial crapola. How can that sort of magazine be sustainable? It’ all recycled bullshit.
When we were in our hotel room in Hawaii Jack figured out how to turn on the TV. Suddenly there on the tv was a show about… The Bermuda Triangle! Hitler! World War 2! And I thought about how I could be in a time warp and now even know it, it could have been 5 years ago or 5 years from now and the same old stupid ass shows would be recycling their stupid 5 minutes of content stretched out over 45 minutes. OVER AND OVER.
ELECTROLYTES! It’s what plants crave!
Speaking of time warps When ever I go over a bridge (especially bridges but other times too) I like to imagine that there might be a rift in time and that the bridge and the cars on it would be projected into the past or the future.
Whiney, clingy and sprinty
Jack dashes out the door now whenever we open it. On the phone just now my mom said, “oh like a dog?!” Yes Mom, exactly like a dog, complete with drool and barking.
This morning I realized that all Jack’s shoes are WAY too small but the one pair of bigger shoes we have a just a tad too big. I took him to the kids store that is near the grocery store and the good pizza place and had his feet measured. 5.5 or 21 shoes will fit him nicely with a bit of room to grow. I bought him some orange velcro sneakers on sale. CUTE.
Then we walked to get pizza and stuff for dinner. The number of strollers on that street is insane. We were almost killed by a cute woman pushing a double stroller. as the near collision happend all the kids just looked at each other with dumb open mouthed stares. Hey! don’t you kids see what is happening here and WHOSE FAULT IT IS?
I’m going to have to rethink my whole ‘go to the gym each morning and then nap jack afterwards and thusly get cheap childcare and some time to myself in the morning’ thing. Jack is going through a srsly WICKED stranger/separation anxiety shtick right now. And this morning he lasted 15 MINUTES. wtf! just enough time for me to warm up and then go pee and then go do 15 squats. Great.
It’s all good I suppose and while he is in this phase I won’t tae him to the gym but now I have to think up some other way to stay sane. Which btw, last week was finally my first full week of stay at home mom-ness. It was pretty okay and I have to say that I’m falling back into my slacker ways pretty easily. Sure, I have a loudy and sticky limpet attached to my leg but I will not let it slow me down! Although I did concider trading Jack in for a baby that would take his afternoon nap with out being impossible.
I hear that it is hard to be a baby these days what with the cute sneakers, poshs cribs and the generally wicked stares people give you.
On the street today a grandmotherly woman stopped me and said, “oh he looks so smart!” and i looked all confused and said , “erm thanks?!” and then walked away and realized that she must have meant SMARTLY DRESSED. oh ah! he had his new sneakers on and a drool covered non-matching shirt! He was still cute though.
fourth of july
He peed on the shuffleboard court
I think I just someone who can’t deal with a baby on a plane. I looked squinty eyed at all the people whose children were old enough for their own seat and to sit quietly watching a portable dvd player.
We’re back now and gearing up to eat and drink like the true fat ass americans we are. BOOZE! MEAT! WOO!
I’m happy to be home but also missing the beach and the lack of all my crap. I truly feel relaxed for the first time in a while. The PTSD from my job is finally receding.
Jack loved the beach and it was awesome. The first day we rushed in to the ocean and he had a grand time. The second day we dashed in to the ocean again and Jack was not happy. So we learned to set him on the sand first to let him acclimate and in a few minutes he would make a mad dash for the water on his own.
At the end of the cove there was a great baby pool guarded from the waves by a bunch of rocks. He loved to just go apeshit in there!
At some point he made up some games for himself. The first one was that he would pick up a medium sized rock and throw it to make a splash and then would point for me to retrieve it or pick it up himself. Then he found several more rocks and started placing them carefully on the larger rock formations. He would place a rock and then consider it and then maybe move it or maybe place another rock. I tried dragging him away from this game but met with much screaming.
After like 6 nights at the lovely small hotel we removed to the south maui big hotel. I like a fancy hotel… but compared to the small hotel the big one sucked it. First off, they didn’t actually have cribs, all they had were pack and plays. A pack and play IS NOT a crib. it’s a fucking playpen. And Jack won’t sleep in one without like 45 minutes of screaming but with a full sized crib he goes right down.
I called the concierge and freaked out threatening to leave and demand all my money back and they did the right thing by calling baby’s away and getting us a crib in about 45 minutes. Speaking of baby’s away… they were great! at the first place they delivered a full sized crib, a high chair, baby hiking backpack and a kickass bucketr of indoor and outdoor toys. I have no clue how much they charged me but it was most certainly worth it.
Anyway, the big hotel, once we had a crib, was fine. But I don’t need to do that again on Maui. I’m sticking with my small place from now on. The beach by the big place was pretty good tho! the sand was super fine and felt oddly like baking soda. the waves were good and the beach was a more normal sloping beach that I am used to. The beach by the small hotel is nice but has a sharp drop off that kind of perturbs me.
Blahblahblah.
Etiquette question:
I forgot to tip the maids at the small hotel. what should I do? call and ask if I can send them some money? Forget about it? :( I’m sad that I forgot and now am getting hives thinking about it.
It has just been bothering me!
Someone told me that when you are born your eyeballs are as big as they ever will be. Did I blog already about how disturbing I found that? Anyway, it isn’t true. THANK GOD!
Gross meat products
Why did I buy this?! I think I’m going to have to throw it out as I can’t bear to see the pale flesh colored fingers of processed meat bobbing around in the jar never mind opening it and feeding it to my kid.
I bought it because we went camping three weeks ago and I wanted to just have the ease of grocery store jar food that didn’t need to be refrigerated and as I was picking out the food I thought that maybe I should make sure I had things he can feed to himself. Turns out he didn’t really like a lot of the food I bought. All of it seemed TOO pureed, watery even and I could barely get enough onto the tiny baby spoon anyway.
He ended up eating much of the things we were eating plus cereal and milk and grapes cut in half.
The place we went camping was pretty cool. I will def. go back there next year. There were tent cabins, 3 prepared meals a day, playgrounds, a river with swimming hole, beach and beach toys and a bunch of short close hikes. Did I already blog this?! I can’t remember.
We only stayed one night instead of two. Rather than endure another middle of the night realization that the baby was way too cold we ate dinner and stuffed him into the car seat right at his bed time and then took off.
I think that this was the first time that I ever slept outdoors for reals. I didn’t sleep well but I loved it anyway. Next year we will be able to say, “cuddle up in your blanket!” to Jack and he will know what the hell we are talking about.
Vote of no confidence from Vim
Yesterday… or was it the day before… Vim claimed that I was screwed and would not be able to snorkel. Man! a few tears and freak outs and my own husband writes me off as a useless case. humph!
The noodle people, I love the noodle and it is the only thing that has allowed me to snorkel. So far I haven’t really seen shit. Some raccoon fish, a box fish, yellow and black stripy fish, an eely thing, other small black fish, a fish that had an electric blue top stripe… but visibility is kinda crappy right here.
We did attempt to go to the turtle town that is like a 10 minute walk from here. Vim got in and told me that he saw a dead turtle and there was no way I was getting in there with a dead turtle and probably whales and sharks and shit. NO WAY. Plus, looming rocky underwater things that might grab me or bump into me.
The noodle makes it better because when I panic I don’t have to flail about trying to swim, I simply lift my head out of the water all casual and pretend that I am not imagining dead things and sharks and vicious sea turtles that bite your hand off.
So there Vim! I totally CAN do it!
In other news Jack HATES his rental car seat and every time we put him in there it’s a scream fest from hell. Piecing gurgling strangled shrieking with no end. Thusly, we have not strayed far from our watering hole. Which is fine with me as it is gorgeous and fun here.
The first day jack seemed to love the beach and the water so on the second day we raced him into the water and he freaked out. We have learned to let him approach the water on his own and the he has a great time splashing and shrieking (the happy kind).
It sucks to not be able to go snorkeling with Vim. We have to take turns. I am making reservations for us and my parents for next year. And I am doing it for BEFORE school lets out as the million teenagers on the phone and kids playing soccer are making me feel old and crusty.
RolyPoly, Steamroller and Tickle Monster.
There is a certain type of ‘roughhousing’ that adults do with kids that makes me VERY uncomfortable, angry even. It’s when the kids laughter or screaming ceases to be playful and borders on hysterical that I get bothered. Physical play, being thrown around, rolled and spun is fun (and good for a kids vestibular system) and can be done in a way that is fun for all and still respects a kids boundaries.
Moomin and Jack and I had a good romping tickle session when Moomin was visiting. When Jack woke up from his nap I made Moomin come help me get him up. This is when Jack is at his bounciest best. So Moomin and I put things on Jack’s head while he bounced and then we all played steamroller on the floor and then Jack and Moomin rolled around giggling and tickling each other on the fluffy chair. It was fun without crossing the line into intrusive.
Vim and I like to play steamroller with Jack. That’s when one person lies down and the other person rolls the baby over them repeatedly all the while saying “Steamroller!”. And now, when I say “steamroller!” jack flips his leg up and starts rolling over. It’s so cute!
I will now stifle the urge to gush about how cute and fun it is to cuddle and play with my baby. It is though!!
Jack is walking like a champ and seems really pleased with himself. He now walks four or five steps to go pick up a toy or to get to me or Vim.
We got one of those noodle floats at the drug store and jack has been walking around the kitchen holding it.
Working hard to put food on my family.
Jack definitely has a better diet than I do as my diet continues to be mostly cheese based while Jack luxuriates in yummy veggies and spices.
I just made a ton of baby food in order to use up all the veggies in the fridge. We’re off to Maui tomorrow so they would just go bad otherwise. thank goodness I have some use for them! I’ll miss making baby food for Jack. It’s kinda fun to make up weird food combinations and make him eat them. What does he know? I just made carrot with ginger, tumeric and basil and yellow pepper, celery, ginger and summer squash, zucchini, cheese, basil. Ha!
I swear when I get back I am going back to my ‘use everything up in the pantry’ mode because I feela sinking feeling in my gut that I spent WAY too much money this month.
I bought an expensive sewing machine. My car crapped out, the alignment problem again, so I bought two new front tires and some tie rods. I bouht some too big sale clothes for future Jack and I went to Whul paycheck too many times. and we ate out too many times.
So when we get back it’s brown rice, chicken from the freezer and frozen veggies for us for a week.
I feel a mad craving for a fad diet.Sometimes I just want to believe the stupid shit out there about ‘detoxing’ or whatever. Yesterday I picked up ‘dr. weil’s 8 weeks to optimum health’ book from our bookshelf. TOO COMPLICATED! Damn. He wants you to fart around with water filters and shit. I swear his chapter about water is 45 pages long and requires you to have phone sex with the municipal water company.
I’ll try it anyway but it requires you give up coffee. Is anyone willing to do it? I mean, besides the lovely spastic feeling coffee gives you it TASTES GOOD and is comforting. Health can’t be worth it.
Jack is fine, btw. For his afternoon nap we gave him some benadryl to see if it would make him sleepy or if it would make him spastic. Don’t worry! We calculated the dosage correctly!
There are like a million Canadian message boards touting the brand name med of Gravol as a baby airplane sleep aid. It’s just Dramamine and I find it interesting that there wasn’t much about using it for baby travel.