Sunday, November 25, 2012

Daddy Talk: Road Trip

Having a Thanksgiving celebration on the road can be tough on the participants involved.
Thinking about the details, you have something like a 1 in 140 chance of dying in a car accident on America's roads. Add to that a screaming baby and the whole idea of a road trip seems like a bad idea. But it wasn't.

The boy is still pretty unreasonable when he gets cranky, but mostly you know what's coming down. It's food or he needs to take a friggin' nap and won't. The nap is the killer as you can't spoon up a nap. Seeing family after driving 8 hours on the road really has its own fun and sense of relief when you reach your destination. In this case, mostly relief as the boy went to sleep. Surprisingly enough he didn't wear down quite enough and was up bright and early the next day.

Add the stress of travel to and from the location as well as cooking Thanksgiving dinner and you have the makings of at least one or two blowups. I am proud to say with all that we had only one and a really tasty turkey and a pretty good Thanksgiving celebration.








Friday, November 23, 2012

Week of Gratitude: Black Friday

Today, I am thankful that most of my Christmas shopping is already done! Be careful out there.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Week of Gratitude: Thanksgiving Day

I am grateful for my wonderful Aunt Dianna. I'm also thankful my family and I get to spend this holiday with her. While no one can ever replace my mom -- or replace Milo's grandma -- Aunt D is as generous and kind as her older sister and reminds me so much of Mom. My aunt and I lost touch for a while but have seen a lot of each other since Milo was born. And for that, I am especially thankful.

Aunt D holding baby me

Aunt D holding Baby Milo
I wasn't as grateful as a baby as Milo was. Check out that smile for his Auntie!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Week of Gratitude: Wednesday

I am thankful for Albert -- significant other, partner in crime, friend, companion, father of my child, winner of bread, killer of spiders and other creepy crawlies.

I don't say it often enough, but I love him and am really glad we found each other.

And we make a pretty cute damn family, if I do say so myself.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Week of Gratitude: Tuesday

I am thankful for my healthy and (mostly) happy little boy. He makes me laugh every day.

Goofy faces + Mommy's slippers = Laughs

Monday, November 19, 2012

Week of Gratitude: Monday

This week many of us will travel to see family or host a holiday gathering. Many others won't, for whatever reason, do anything out of the ordinary. No matter what our situation, we all have something to be grateful for. (If you're reading this, you at least have access to technology. So there's that.)

Who isn't grateful for cheesy grins?

Today, I am grateful for the everyday things I don't normally think about -- like running water that's safe and clean, central heating that comes on automatically, access to the world at the touch of a button (whether on the TV, the computer or my phone -- how amazing is that?!), the ability to clean my clothes without getting my hands wet and many other things I take for granted. I am grateful for a roof over my head and the guys I share it with.

What are you grateful for at this time of giving thanks?

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Daddy Talk: Time's running out

I am definitely in some kind of rut. I keep getting the feeling that time is running out. Knowing that, I still can't seem to break out of this routine. For many reasons I feel like I am not keeping up or getting ahead. I'm just spinning my wheels. So much to do and so little time.

I worry about the future and my career. I keep saving and saving, hoping there will be enough money for retirement and for Milo's college. Yet, even though both are at least 20 years away, I'm afraid I won't have enough saved. I want to change careers but stay where I am for some reason.

I feel like I'll blink and Milo will be 5. I blink again and he's an adult, again and he has his own kids. My fears and issues travel from one end of the spectrum to the other -- from my personal life to my work life. Unfortunately I have no clue how to bump out of it.

Despite -- or because of -- his worries, he's a great, supportive daddy. -- Pam

Friday, November 16, 2012

19 months

Dear Milo,

Am I ever going to stop being surprised by how fast time passes? Probably not. Before I know it, I'll be writing, "Dear Milo, you're 19 years old today." And I will faint at how quickly it went.


You're 19 months old today. [Fainting.] The past month has been filled with so much fun. You got to go trick or treating this year and actually sort of got what it was about. You are doing somersaults all by yourself -- even at The Little Gym where your teacher can see you doing them.

You are saying -- or trying to say -- lots of new words. You're mimicking Daddy and me a lot. Although, you still don't call me Mommy or Mama or anything, except possibly Dada sometimes. You seem to think your name is Mama. Or maybe you just think Milo and Mama are the same word. Or -- and this is not beyond the realm of possibility based on your growing sense of humor -- you're just screwing with me. One day you said Mama while babbling about the dog and Dada. You looked at me with an oops sort of grin that made me think you know exactly who Mama is. Lucky you're so damn cute.


The time change messed with your sleep schedule for a bit. Mostly it made you -- and me -- cranky. Plus, you seem to be getting all your teeth right now. Those little buggers are sure slow in coming. You've had a constantly running nose. So, along with the fun stuff this month, there have been plenty of tears. But mostly fun.

We got our family portraits done by a very nice lady, Courtney at CKE Photography. Not only was it a good time, but we got a whole bunch of really great pictures. Look out, family, you're getting pics for Christmas.

Photo by CKE Photography. Costume by Carter's. Cute by Milo.

Lately, you've been saying/singing, "Doopah doopah da." It's a little like a jazz scat, and I'm not sure where it came from. It's totally cute though, and Daddy and I sing it back to you. So much so that the other night when I checked on you before I went to bed, you said, "Doopah da" to me in your sleep. It was so freaking cute, I had to call your daddy, who was out of town, and tell him about it. In fact, you're saying it right now -- while you're supposed to be napping.


It's OK, though because you're playing happily by yourself in your crib. Even when you don't nap now, you usually have some quiet time. I really appreciate that, sweetie. I have been trying to take more time for myself and I think that helps us both. You're awesome and all, but mommies need breaks and so do little boys.

The next month is going to be another whirlwind month, with visiting Auntie for Thanksgiving and prepping for the big holiday. It'll be fun though, just like every day with you is filled with fun.

I love you, sweetness. So much.

Love,
Mommy

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Daddy Talk: The world still turns

Three cheers for the elections being over.  I had hoped that with the election being over the BS of people yelling over each other would end -- but nope. I have to dial back the crazy on Facebook still four days after the election. Spirited discussion is one thing but I really don't get the non-stop anger. It just keeps building and building.

This is his "No" face.

The part that is so hard to understand is the irrational, uneducated parts that you can't explain away. You can't reason with an idea that somebody started that has no basis in fact, only in opinion. It gets me angry and I have to check my attitude because I get irrational back. I think ever since I have had Milo around it has gotten better though. The angry certainly doesn't come out as easily and I find myself trying to better articulate how I feel.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

In which I talk politics -- sort of

I don't like to discuss politics (or religion, for that matter) here on my blog. It is so divisive. But today, I want to say a little something about the presidential race.

First, it was exhausting. All the ads, all the time? Even during "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." But what was amazing about the race was the fact that we had our first black president running against our potential first Mormon president. Talk about your melting pot.

Not running for president, just running

With Barack Obama in the White House, I can easily tell my own mixed race child he can grow up to be president. If he wants to work too hard, get paid too little and be reviled by many people -- even those who elected him.

And maybe one day, he will see a woman leading our country. (We're already used to working too hard and making too little money.)

Monday, November 5, 2012

You can't change time

Time changes make me grumpy -- or grumpier than usual if you ask the S.O. I think changing our clocks twice a year is outdated and serves no real purpose. I'm sure it did once. And there are experts who will say it still does. Maybe.
"One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it reportedly saves electricity. Newer studies, however, are challenging long-held reason."
Whatever the reason may be, the people who make this happen do not live with a toddler. Small people who can't tell time have their own schedules to begin with. Why would you want to screw it up just when you've either (a) gotten used to it or (b) gotten them into a schedule you can work with?

I once read that it takes us up to a week to adjust to one hour difference -- like when we travel to a different time zone. I think it takes a toddler much longer to adjust. I tried keeping Milo up to his normal bedtime last night (an hour later than the night before). He was grumpy and tired and still woke up at 5:45 a.m. instead of 6:45 a.m. He doesn't care what the clock says.

I know how you feel, buddy.

The dark mornings come so gradually, I think we're used to them by this time of year. Then we shock our systems by having the sun come up an hour earlier. Ugh. Sure we get an extra hour that day. And once upon a time, I appreciated the extra sleep. But with an 18-month-old in the house, there is no extra sleep.

Did I mention the time change makes me grumpy?

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Daddy Talk: Tinkle Think

Trying to figure out the whole potty training thing is a bit confusing for me. I don't really know how to encourage my son to pee in the potty, let alone poo in it.

I think at this point he isn't quite ready, and it's mostly up to us to keep him from getting scared of it. Which so far hasn't been a problem. He sees it, sits on it and is good with it as an accessory piece. Outside of that I'm not really too worried about it.


There are plenty of books on the subject and plenty of different ideas. Our neighbors took their boy out to a farm, stripped him naked and, poof, he was done. Our experience with having our boy walk around naked has been that he pees on the carpet -- and sometimes, in the tub.

Potty training is definitely one of those things with many paths to the same endpoint. The best way seems to be anything with patience involved.