My Baby's Eight!!

Will, even as a baby, would ponder the mysteries of the universe...

So my baby turned 8 this week. I'm still not sure how exactly that happened. I feel like I just blinked and about 20 years of my life went on fast-forward. I have a son who is finishing second grade; who has developed a love of skulls, fantasy, history (we're currently debating the merits of the ancient Celts versus the Mongols), and video games. He plays in Little League, loves to ninja-attack his favorite uncles (hint - none of whom are related to him by blood), and at the same time, still crawls into my lap and hands me a book. Even if that means his legs are going from the edges of my lap and hanging over the couch legs, he still does it.

Happy Birthday, Baby. Mommy loves you.

Hey - It Was the 80s...

Little-known fact - Annie and I were up for replacing Vivian Campbell and Adrian VanDenburg in Whitesnake...

Hey, don't blame me - there is no product in this hair. Hormones caused this, and my well-known disdain for a hair dryer (I have better things to do with my time than spend an hour blowing my hair out straight, and it's dry enough, for Pete's sake) didn't help. But go ahead, suppress your giggles - or don't - and enjoy this little trip back to the late '80s.

Family Project...

So I've decided, after cleaning out my closet (see the post on Domestic Goddesses here), I've of course let my tangential mind wander again. I've decided that my copious photo albums - I'm not exaggerating here, I've got a lot - are in danger somehow of falling victim to some sort of natural disaster, so I'm scanning the photos and burning them to disc. (Yes, I know the discs can fall prey to a natural disaster or unnatural disaster too, but at least I'm doubly covered.) Of course, this will probably take me until the rest of my natural life, but hey - I need things to do, right?

Aside from alternately marveling and being mortified at some of my own hair and fashion choices (not to mention some of my family's), it's becoming a nice trip down memory lane. I haven't looked through many of these photos in a long time, and it's nice to see my Nana and my Aunt Do again. I miss them a lot. My Nana is probably laughing herself silly every time I ask my mom for advice on sewing a straight seam or show her proudly my latest knitting adventure. Nana tried to teach my mom all of this stuff years ago, only to have my mom stare blankly at her, then burst into giggles. So at least somehow, the gene got passed on. Kinda.

Seeing pictures of my cousin Tim still ache. He died way too young; I was newly pregnant with Alex when he died, so I pressed down a lot of the grief and anger because keeping my body healthy for my baby was the most important thing. It's been four years, and I notice it's starting to leak out in dribs and drabs every now and then. For some reason, I can't let myself just let go and grieve. Maybe I'm not done being angry yet. Maybe I'm just used to shoving something down until it doesn't show. Maybe it's a lot of things, an amalgamation of everything. But I find myself scanning through pictures with me and Timmy a lot more quickly than I do any other ones.

Love Office Fans...

Anyone counting unicorns or leprechauns? ;-)

Multimedia message

...and Goofball #2!

Multimedia message

Goofball #1 at Johnny Rockets...

To My Fellow Office-Fans Out There...

Gotta give a shout-out to the Snarkwife on this one. You know I immediately Googled "SchruteBuck" this morning, and her site came up. You ROCK, my friend. Now, if someone would just create a Stanley Nickel, I'd be thrilled.

It's gotten bad... just foraged and snarfed down some M&Ms left over from Valentine's Day. Anyone who knows me knows that unless they're peanut M&Ms, I don't bother. But I bothered. Grocery shopping this weekend, and I can finally get some healthy snacks back in the house. Gar!

I'm cleaning out closets today. Bleah. Gotta start getting rid of so much, I haven't done a proper spring cleaning in too long. Maybe if I feel better about dumping all the 'baggage', literally and figuratively, I'll get the reboot that I need.

I need to get back on track and get back to feeling good and taking care of myself. I'm tired of vacillating between self-destruct and barely maintaining. I've made such a major decision and it's taken so much crap off my shoulders, I guess I thought everything else would magically fall into place. But nothing really does that magically, does it? You have to work for everything you want. So now I just have to start working. Even if it's slow progress, it's progress.

And I really have to stop this mindset of eating all the crap in the house assures it won't be there to tempt me. Don't know how I fell into that trap, but it's got me. Yeesh.

Argh... Self Control, Please...

Mike, bless his heart, bought me three - count 'em, three - different bars of Lindt chocolate for Mother's Day. The first two - pistachio and toffee nut crunch - I was fairly judicious in my consumption of. But the third, Stracciatella - basically, cookies 'n' cream in a chocolate bar - well, I just sat down to work at my computer (I'm pulling together MQP's booth for Book Expo, baby! Whoo hoo!!) and now there aren't even crumbs to show this bar once existed. Wow.

I needs me some self-control. I was doing so well, too! Okay, no guilt. Back to square one. Ish.

At least there are no more Lindt bars in the house to tempt me, right?

Next Up... Lost

Tomorrow's the season finale, right? Something tells me there will be rage... on my part, that is. Last episode was so good - the past few episodes have really been very good, thankfully - so the fact that another season is coming to a close makes me nuts.

They've been wrapping up a lot of little things here and there, too, which is nice; it's like the first season and beginning of the second, where they would give answers to some things while presenting other things to think about. Hallelujah!

But one thing I haven't seen them get back to much is the numbers. Are they ever going to throw us that bone and tell us how the heck the numbers come into play? I need to know what the numbers mean, and how some guy in a mental institution knew what they were (remember, that's how Hurley got them).

And weren't we supposed to get more Libby flashbacks (I'm guessing via Desmond)? Hmm.

The big question, naturally, is what the heck happens to Locke. This is going to be soooo good...

Heroes Tonight!!

I am SO psyched. Every episode has been better than the one before.

BTW, I've started posting on Domestic Goddesses again, so click on over and read about my newest manic decision to redo my kitchen. Har, har, har...

The Best Part of Being a Mom

I was on CafeMom yesterday, and one of the questions posed was "What's the best part of being a mom?" As usual, I couldn't pick just one thing, so here's my response.

What's the best part about being a mom? Oh, that's easy. It's all about the hugs. You know which ones I'm talking about, those full body (literally - when they wrap their arms around your neck and their legs around your waist), squeeze you 'til you're both of out breath, giggly hugs. Or the sleepy hugs, the ones where they just sling an arm around your neck when you come in to kiss them goodnight just one more time. Usually accompanied with a crooked, sleepy smile and a murmured, "Love you, Mommmmm....zzzz..."

Or is it the gummy smiles of a new baby? Those are really good, too. Those first smiles, when you just roll your eyes at everyone who tries to burst your motherhood bubble by telling you that it's "just gas" and think, "What do you know about my kid? I just carried him/her inside my body for nine months, I think I know a real smile when I see it, thanks very much." I particularly love the ones that start out slowly, just like sunrise. A little smirk, slowly parting into a half-moon of lips, and ending with a full-on, toothless expression of pure joy just because you're standing there. That's the best part.

Or is it when you and your kids love the same things? When I sit next to my all-too-rapidly-approaching-8-year-old son, who wants me to sit with him and watch Star Wars: Episode 3 with him again because he knows that's the only one I consider even worth my time outside of the original Star Wars trilogy; the ones George Lucas originally conceived before a plethora of money apparently made him insane (Will disagrees, but what does he know? He's been tainted by CGI technology...) Or when we love the same parts of Lord of the Rings, and we scream at Gandalf together to watch out, that Balrog isn't really dead... Yeah, that's it. That rocks.

Oh, but wait... how about when your preschooler comes to you with a book, curls up in your lap, presents you with your favorite - Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus - and says, "Reading time is cuddle time, Mommy!" And proceeds to sit back in your lap like an easy chair, waiting for you to begin in your best Pigeon voice, and tell him the story about the Pigeon's meltdown. That's the best.

Um... but then there's when you're helping out at your kid's school book fair on your birthday, and he has his entire class wish you "Happy Birthday, William's Mommy," as they pass by the library on their way down to lunch. That's a tough one to beat...

Okay, just give me a while to think this through... I'll come up with the one thing, honest. Just give me a sec...

Garrrr!

Looks like Captain Jack Sparrow's crew has invaded my living room!

Bean Bag Fun

Alex finds a way to amuse himself while my mom and I shop yesterday...

Those giant Lands' End bean bags rock; I would totally outfit my living room with a bunch of them...

Multimedia message

One of the better things about freelancing... Spending time with Mommy friends and getting shots like this.

Multimedia message

Will and Alex kill time waiting for the photographer. I'm shocked they sat this still!

What the Hell?


Find out your Spider-Man personality at LiquidGeneration!

Um... dunno how accurate this one is...