Newsflash! An amazing giveaway is at your fingertips. First, a bit of business.The various online communities that have been growing at the 23andMe website the last few months are anything but dull. I have had the privilege of having my whole family’s genetic information at my fingertips and I cannot believe how it never ceases to amaze me. As a founding blogger hired by 23andMe for their pregnancy community I feel like I fell down the rabbit’s hole of ancestral information and my own personal genetic history. It has made me reflect on my past two pregnancies in-depth and communicate with others. One thing is abundantly clear, no matter how similar we may seem on the outside with our experiences and relations we are all unique due to our environment and genetic make-up. It has truly been a … [Read more...]
Quick! Call Nanny 911
Yesterday was one of those days. Desperate emails were sent out to my close friends with sentences along the lines of, "I love her but I don't like her." and "I no longer know what to do." TD is three and has turned from being the cheeky, lovable imp of a dictator, you know sort of like Mussolini in sprite form, if Mussolini would have ever considered sprites and fascism a wise political move, to all out Pol Pot mode. Seriously. The hell fire back talk that has begun in the last day or so is vicious. I would not be surprised if I found her using a grizzled bone to pick her teeth with as she squatted on her bed with a three-headed dog at her feet. I might have to start referring to her as Zuul. It's that bad. I am at a loss on how to discipline someone who in a split second goes … [Read more...]
Dial 911 to Get Rid of Unwanted Stuff
The other night I went in to check on TD as she lay sleeping. As I tucked her in I heard a loud rumbling engine in front of my house. Upon peering out the window I saw that an ambulance was parked out front and the driver was exiting the vehicle and walking up to my front steps. "What the..." I said to H and we both ran down the stairs. Everything seemed OK in our house. The alarm had not gone off. What the heck was going on? Did Lex the dog suddenly decide to go the way of the Chicken McNugget lady because we are out of dog treats?We opened the door, both standing there, surprising the ambulance driver as she hadn't even knocked on our door yet. "Oh! I'm here to pick up the puzzles?" She said. "Puzzles? What puzzles?" I asked. "The puzzles you are giving away on Freecycle? … [Read more...]
On Life, Death and Our Children
I have never felt so inadequate or so much like an adult as when I attended my friend's mothers funeral a few weeks ago. I was alone in attending and unlike other funerals I didn't have my grandmother, or my father or my husband to lean on. As I sat there listening to my friend and her sister eulogize their mother with such tremendous poise and grace I felt that we were passing into a new phase of our lives that needed plenty past life healing. Our parents are dying now. We have officially grown up. Then I thought back to my childhood and remembered a few of my school friends whose parents passed away due to long illnesses while we were still in grade school. In first grade I celebrated my birthday with cupcakes at 8 a.m. so that the whole class could attend a fellow classmates fathers … [Read more...]
The Only Child Syndrome?
What's up party people?! I'm on like no sleep. I think I might actually be undead today. If not for reals then I could probably win an Oscar for looking the part or at least a Golden Globe. When my kids are in their twenties and all cozy in their beds I swear I'm going to start calling them between the hours of 3 and 5 a.m. and just chat away on the phone with them for a minimum of thirty minutes at a time. I'll do it at least four times a week. What? Don't tell me you haven't vowed the same thing after being woken up for the eleventy-ith time in one night.I'm hearing a weird scritch-scritching noise in my house presently and I just realized it is TD rubbing two graham crackers together. Maybe she is trying to make a s'more. Ba dum dum!I wrote this post earlier this week about … [Read more...]
WTF Monday
In order to save you from further posts about my sleepless nights, annoyance at no induction date and pregnancy quirks I leave you with this-A 90-year-old woman, who seemed completely with it, is found to be living with the bodies of her siblings- possibly since the 1980s. Seriously. WTF?! My world is altered forever now. Gary Busey is considered "must watch" television. It goes beyond all sorts of crazy. My brain throws up on itself and then explodes each time I think of it much less view this show. I am willing to admit however that his "Buseyism" for the word sober is pretty brilliant. TD is way into the music on the pack 'n play we have set up in our living room now. I find myself continuously serenaded by staticky classical tunes that never seem to end. Tiny Gary Busey's dance … [Read more...]
Drinky,drinky please?!
Dude, I'm so pregnant.My face is like a giant melon all swollen and such. I might feel compelled to show you a pic. Though - ugh. (Trying so hard to not have a bad body image issue moment... hold on... OK done.)A perfect spiky-haired stranger hugged me last night while I was sitting in a restaurant booth inhaling some peanut butter chocolate smorgasbord with my GNO friends. Um.. I don't adore being hugged by even family half the time never mind someone I do not know. Who then wants to rub my belly and ask, "Oh you poor dear! Tell me you are almost done!?"My Dad called to ask if the turkey was done. I told him that each time someone said to me, "Done?! You still have so long to go I wanted to tell them to, "Kiss my ass!" Whitney Houston style.Seriously folks, this show needs to be over. … [Read more...]
Enter the Mermaid Room
Yup. So I cried. We spent this past Labor Day weekend actually laboring instead of lolling by the pool. We bought a mattress. We primed and painted furniture. We set up the big girl bed, the Mermaid Room, and now she's in. One night done and gone with no trouble. My little girl. My baby. Out of the nursery, now also known as the land of boxes, where any sort of baby paraphernalia can land in the next few weeks. I know she might return. Nap time has yet to go down in the Mermaid Room. But, when I saw her in her new twin bed with its grown up comforter and her shoes lined up in the closet I kind of lost it for a bit. H read her a good night story and I took some pictures. He told me she is still our little girl but it ached a bit and I wondered, "Does she really have to go to … [Read more...]
Strawberry Shortcake – The Nudist
As a kid, I grew up in the Ocean State. Ah, lil' Rhody with it's four hundred miles of beaches. Bet you didn't know that the smallest state in the country could boast so much coastline. We certainly had our pick of the beaches and of all those sandy strips my parents often chose the one that you actually had to strip at. That's right, a nude beach. Moonstone to be exact and I'm not trying to be funny.Now a nature reserve for the piping plover or some such bird, Moonstone was a nude beach into the early 80's. As a small kid I didn't notice much of anything in the way of awkwardness I rather liked the whole no sand in the bathing britches factor and I was literally free to run around and play all day. Minus the fact that there were often few other children to play with it wasn't a bad beach. … [Read more...]
Friday Roundup and the Vindicative B
So we have a bit of a situation here. Or we did last night. Our dog is a vindictive little B*tch. Hey, I can call her that. She's a girl! She peed on the bed. Truthfully, you could see it coming. H promised her a night of snuggling on the couch while he read and I went to hang with the girls. With TD tucked in for the night I'm sure that Lex was thinking she had H and the couch all wrapped up.Except she didn't.H decided to read alone. The dog? No comprende.So she pissed on the bed. Right in his spot. I came home to no mattress pad, new sheets and a pile of pee-soaked blankets on the bedroom floor. Oh and one dog in a crate in the nether regions of the basement. The laundry machine has been going for quite some time.I'm over here today blogging about shoes. If you haven't entered the … [Read more...]