A Month of Gratitude: Day 2

I am grateful for so many modern conveniences, including hot and cold running water, electric heat, washing machines, smart phones and the internet. Without those last two it would be so much harder for me to keep in touch (or reconnect) with family and friends spread across the country.

With my smart phone, I'm able to text pictures and send messages to family and friends without having to wait days for a reply. With the internet, I'm able to post to Facebook or my blog and keep everyone up to date on Milo's progress and other things going on in our lives without having to write and send dozens of letters.

Some may argue that smart phones have made us less connected. It's true sometimes we're more likely to bury our faces in our phones instead of talking to those people standing right in front of us. I'm still grateful for mine and others' smart phones. Without them, I might not be able to keep in touch with so many people I love and miss.

A Month of Gratitude

Halloween's behind us, and regardless of what the stores and television would have us believe, Christmas is still almost two months away. I won't go on about how commercialized Christmas has become. Charlie Brown bemoaned that fact 48 years ago, so it's not a new thing. And never mind that some retailers are starting "Black Friday" on Thanksgiving ("We're so thankful for all we have, we need to rush out and buy more!").

But I do think we sometimes forget Thanksgiving comes first, and it's kind of a big deal of a holiday. I firmly believe we should count our blessings daily. Sometimes we forget though, and a holiday all about being thankful for what we have is a good reminder.

In that spirit, I plan to fill my blog with a month of gratitude.

Today, I am expressing my thanks for the people in my life that make me feel needed and useful. They keep me grounded. I know I am loved.

Happy Halloween

My boy is getting to be really independent. This is probably the last Halloween I'll be able to dress him in a costume of my choosing. I suspect next year he'll want to dress up as a superhero or Thomas the train or something worse. And it won't be long before he won't want Mom and Dad dressing up with him.

Until then, I will enjoy how cute he looks for his first three Halloweens.

First Halloween: Baby Spock

Second Halloween: Raccoon (or My Neighbor Totoro)

This Halloween: Robot

Have a spooky but safe Halloween, everybody!

5 Scary Things

With Halloween just around the corner, thoughts often turn to the spooky an the scary. I'm not afraid of ghosts or goblins or even zombies (OK. Maybe a little, cuz they want to eat my brains!) I'm more afraid of real things (and sometimes just reality in general). Some are silly, some not.

That said, here are the top 5 things that scare the bejeebers out of me:

1. Spiders -- Not all spiders, but brown recluse, black widows and others that can do real damage with their bites. And the harmless, but aggressive ones who will coming running right at you. It's just not right for something to think it can take on a human thousands of times its size.

2. Miller moths -- This is a totally irrational fear, again of something many, many, many times smaller than I am.

3. Small spaces -- As I've gotten older, I've become more and more claustrophobic. I can barely read an account of someone being trapped in a small space without feeling a tiny bit panicked. Maybe I'm turning into Edgar Allan Poe.

It's scary how much I love this little guy.

4. Road ragers -- And there are so many of them on the road. Where is everyone going in such a hurry that they're risking their lives to get there? I'm usually driving with my son. Which takes us to ...

5. Something terrible happening to my son -- This is the scariest of them all, and probably the most realistic. Terrible things happen all the time. The best I can do is protect him when I can and try not to dwell too much on it.

4 Things I Say ...

too much, if how often Milo says them is any indication.

1.  That was crazy!
2. I don't think so. (As in, no way, mister, not going to happen.)
3. If you say so.
4. Shut up (not to Milo but I need to stop saying it nonetheless).

I could never say, "I love you" to this kid too much.

By the way, let's all just pretend it hasn't been three months since I last posted here and just move on.

Time flies

I'm so often amazed by the changes I see in my son that I sometimes forget that the rest of the world is changing too. Case in point, every summer for the past five years, my niece has come to visit. This year was no exception.

The first year she came, we did all the typical touristy stuff. She was 13 and looked like this:

The two summers after Milo was born were a little less exciting for her. The first summer, I had a 3-month-old and was exhausted from the every-two-hours 24/7 breastfeeding. But we still had some fun. And my then-15-year-old niece looked like this:

This summer, her visit was shorter (mostly due to our living arrangements at the moment) but it was probably the most fun since that first visit. She and I went to Paint the Town for some girl time without Milo or the S.O. We also did some shopping and made our annual trip to the zoo.

My little niece has grown into a young woman. She's smart and confident and totally opinionated. She's also beautiful. And loves her little cousin so much.

He loves her too, though you can't tell from this photo

I love this kid like she were my own. Her dad should be one proud papa. (I'm sure he is.) Too soon, she'll be all grown up, out in the wide world on her own. And she'll do great.

Mommy Time Movie Review

Because I don't really get out to the movies much, I watch a lot of Netflix. And because I have a 2-year-old, I don't watch a lot of grown-up movies. But last night I watched "The Switch," starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston.

I hate to admit that I really kind of liked it. Nevermind that it's a romantic comedy and we're supposed to hate those. Nevermind that it only gets a 5.9 rating on IMDb and a "rotten" 51% on RottenTomatoes.com. Nevermind that I feel like Jennifer Aniston is always reprising her role as Rachel from "Friends." She's pretty and relatable, and I also kind of feel like we'd actually be friends. Nevermind that Jason Bateman's character is a bit of a neurotic jerk. We all know we'd choose him over the other guy. (At least those of us of a certain age, anyway.)

Nevermind that the story -- while "based on" a short story by Jeffery Eugenides, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Middlesex" -- is silly and ultimately predictable. What romantic comedy isn't?

Nevermind all that. The little boy in the movie really is a mini version of Jason Bateman and is Adorable (yes, with a capital A). The story might be silly and predictable, but it's also sweet and cute. This isn't a great film. It certainly didn't win any awards. And I don't recommend it for the truly cynical. But for light-hearted fun that doesn't tax your brain or make you worry about the economy or war, this is a good movie.

It's guilty pleasure fare for sure. You might want to watch it alone some place no one will see you watching. Pair it with some dark chocolate, red wine and your most comfy jammies, and you've got some good old fashioned Mommy Time for yourself.

It's streaming on Netflix, so you don't even have to leave your house. No one has to know you liked a bad romantic comedy. Unless you blog about it, of course.