Newest Arrival

Superbaby has arrived over at the Dada house. Go get your cute baby pictures here. No gross c-section pictures yet, so even the squeamish can take a peek and say hooray.

Looky Here

Look what Steve found when he took out the trash this evening...





looks mighty pissed off to me! he just better not be there in the morning. tomorrow is trash day.


in other news, one of my sons has a boo boo on his penis (i will not elaborate), and the other son is home puking. woohoo! motherhood rocks!

actually it does. my dear friend and neighbor just had her third little muffin. everyone is fine, but i can't visit yet because i have cooties! she is so in love with the baby -- i forgot how overpowering that initial bonding is. it is just the most treasured and precious experience known to humanity.

These are a few of my favorite things...

ok, don't burst into song and start skipping around the room fa la la-ing about whiskers on kittens and so forth. i am rather bummed. i seem to be the only person on my side of the family who is not crazy, suffering trauma, or both. i am not accustomed to being the sane and stable one. ok, maybe i'm boring and reliable, but i have my truamas, too.

anyway, i can't bitch about it all publicly, but people i love are suffering. so, here are some things that make me happy to cheer me up a bit.

This ALWAYS makes me laugh. i say sexy thangs to myself when i'm... daaaaancing! (ok, now you can sing.) apparently, you can even get the kitty cat ringtone now.

in addition to the ridiculous look on my face, i think this shirt is totally freaking hysterical. i suppose the only people who will get it are politically active parents of potty-training toddlers (the shirt is a parody of this book, for those of you who are not in the midst of potty training). and hey, do you like the way the little turds line up perfectly with my nipples? i thought so. i just wish i got the shirt in a smaller girly size since steve will have nothing to do with it. he's such a party pooper. HA! party pooper! well, as long as i think i'm funny, it's all good.



sam's first upending of the cereal box. he said, uh oh. fucking-A yes, uh oh is right!


and he thinks, but i'm cute, so it's ok, right? yes, dear, it's ok. we still thought it was cute enough to grab the camera. see how much we love you? i'll even get out the dustpan for ya.


last friday i took the day off work to run errands and take ethan to the eye doctor in the middle of the day. afterwards we wanted to do something special together, so i took him to the arcade and let him dump 5 bucks into the machines, and then took him out for ice cream. he has me wrapped around his little finger! boy was he happy. he ordered rainbow sherbet with gummy bears on top, which actually turned out to be a yummy combination.


my mom, her husband, and my gramma came to visit on saturday. mom has three huge file boxes full of family memorabilia. she gave one to me and one to each of my sisters. let me tell you, it was like finding buried treasure. i found the sesame street plate i used to eat off of when i was 4. it now hangs in my kitchen. pictured below are my sisters and me in our only ever professional (kind of) portrait. of course that morning i had to take a pair of scissors to my bangs. Also that envelope on the right contains mine and my sisters; baby teeth and the dates they fell out. now really, what am i supposed to do with that? i don't really want my baby teeth, but i can't exactly throw them away either. also pictured below is one of many stunningly sexy pictures i found of my mom when she was young. she and her sisters would make these elaborate beaded and satin dresses by hand and then take runway pictures of themselves in full 60's glamor garb. amazing talent, amazing beauty.


so, these things make me happy. no matter how bummed out or overwhelmed i feel, i can still say "i only have one mortgage" and it makes me feel better.

Woohoo!

somebody's having a baby and I get to hold him, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah! sorry, i'm evil, i know. i'm not having any more babies of my own, so i'm channeling my breeding impulses in the direction of my younger and stronger fertile friends.

DadaMama is scheduled to have SuperBaby this Wednesday! go give her some love, and stay tuned over there for cute baby pictures and gross c-section pictures coming soon. hooray!

Ma-ni-pu-la-ted

"ya wouldn't wanna send a kid to bed hungry, would ya?"

"well, yes, if that kid CHOSE not to eat after a yummy and kid-friendly meal was placed before him for the umpteenth time in a row and met with refusal, yes, i would send that child to bed hungry if that were his choice."

... she said while feeding moony-eyed child yogurt and grapes (i.e., dessert) and giving him undivided attention for his troubles.

the boy has amazing moping and emo skills. after an hour and a half of him crying into his pillow, i scooped him up and hugged him. one last, "my stomach hurts," and i caved. somewhere super nanny is snickering.

Avoiding Work

anybody have a good definition for a variable-order polynomial? eh? nope? i blocked out those painful memories after 11th grade.

tonight steve and i are going out on a date. a real and actual date without children. woohoo! we are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary, and valentines day, along with probably a gazillion other v-day couples, which makes our non-existant restaurant reservations very necessary. doesn't matter, we'll eat somewhere and be happy! then we are going to see Sweet Honey in the Rock. i can't wait. woohoo! the kids are sleeping over at grandma susan's house, and they are very excited about it.

ethan has had a hard week this week, and it will be good to spend some time with him this weekend. he needs some extra love and attention. i always wish there were at least three of me: one to be a good mom, one to work, and one to sit on a beach in tahiti. oh, and one more to clean my house. everyone's needs are important, but there's never enough time for everything.

last night when steve and i tucked sam into bed, we were staring at him in a gushy lovey way. he noticed us watching and stood up in his crib and kissed both of us back and forth and hugged us both in a group hug. it was just about the sweetest valentines day present we could get.

of course both kids came home with wonderful keepsake crafts that i adore and have already hung up in my office -- those teachers are just the best.

can you tell i don't want to do my work right now? i'm ready to be dressed up and out on the town! ok, back to polynomials...

Nay, Fear Thee Not

'Twas not the flu shot.

I am the lucky 1 in 3000 recipient of a severe allergic reaction to the pneumonia vaccine. my arm got swollen and hot and infected where they gave me the shot, and that's what was making me so very sick, not the flu. I got a script for another round of steroids and antibiotics, and i already see and feel improvement.

I do so appreciate the ability to breathe. (and being able to move my arm is nice, too)

So do you give your kids the flu shot? I pretty much follow doctors' orders, although I take a poll first. I have had a flu shot for the past several years and so have both my kids with nary a reaction in sight. I guess i'll get a flu shot again next year, but no pneumovax. pneumovax bad. (at least for me)

Now, for something that is not about my body being dysfunctional... I'm sure you've all seen the Yes We Can music video with Barack Obama. well, at least 3 million people have seen it. but if you haven't yet, click here. It's worth the bandwidth. What i really want you to see is the John McCain response parody here. It is just as funny as the first video is inspiring. I love that viral internet stuff.

and if that still doesn't float yer boat, here's some pictures of my kids.


what are you lookin' at?


sidewalk chalk makes the best mud.


it's blurry, but whoa, did you see that? he dumped that water right out of the dump truck! cool!

so, to sum up: 1. too much medical info that you didn't really want to know, 2. politics, 3. kids. maybe next week we can talk about religion and death and even swap some casserole recipes! woohoo!

Still Sick

man, am i ever grouchy. still sick. nasty fever and chills. i can't get an appointment until 4 pm today. fucking doctor. i even got up and took a shower. daytime t.v. sucks. i watched an episode of golden girls that reminded me of college when i watched it every day. then i saw something on discovery channel about how panty hose are made in a factory. now i'm watching a baby delivery show, which i haven't done since i was pregnant. probably not a good idea.

i'm going to take some alka seltzer and go back to bed.

it still makes me cry to see a baby being born. i guess it wasn't the pregnancy hormones after all.

struck down for hubris

friday, our team at work finished a big milestone in a big project. we had been working extra hours all week, and working fast and furious at that. so by friday we were a little punchy. we finished early and left early as a reward. i planned on stopping to get a flu shot on the way home, and mentioned it to the woman i work with. i said i was so tired and worn out, i half hoped the shot would make me sick so i could stay in bed all weekend.

well... be mighty careful what you wish for!

i was fine this morning, but after playing with the kids in the mud and giving them baths, i had an asthma attack that left me laying on the floor panting. an hour later i had a 102 degree fever and chills and thought i was going to just fall over dead. i got a pneumonia vaccine and a flu shot, but i think it was the flu shot that did me in.

so now, with tylenol, motrin, and phenergan in me, my fever broke and left me lying awake in a puddle of my own sweat and unable to sleep. nice. i'm so over this not-having-a-body-that-functions-at-full-capacity thing. done. with. it.

hopefully tomorrow i'll feel better and i can play more with the kids. it scared ethan to see me so sick. he brought me pictures he drew and said he would take good care of me. he felt my forehead and said, "it's quite warm." steve worked 10 hours of overtime today, came home, took care of me and the kids. he is good.

i will go browse online for kitchen curtains now. clearly i'll never get time to actually GO to the store. bitch, bitch, bitch...

WooHoo!

yesterday was mine and steve's 6 year anniversary. and i haven't stabbed him yet! we went out to lunch together, but i was distracted and bummed by work. still, i am so proud of our accomplishment. we have made it through some tough times together. even though i consider it a "work in progress," we can still be sweet and loving to each other and work together as a team. he has his faults (ahem) but he is a good guy, and totally worth the effort. i am glad that i married him. and i'm happy with the life we've built together.

now if i could just get him to do dishes...

i have a big deadline at work tomorrow. i am stressing a bit. i like to be prepared and know what i'm doing. i am figuring it out as i go along this time, and it's not very comfortable. i can do it, it just hurts a bit!

i miss my kids. i've been working late. ethan is such an incredible little guy. he went for a hike with his dad the other day. everyone they passed on the trail, ethan stopped them and said, "we're looking for clues from the Spanish soldiers!" how cool is that?

every night i read sam The Big Truck Book. there is nothing more precious and entertaining than hearing a two year old try to say "arial ladder truck". it sounds like elmer fudd. ewial wadduh twuck.

i love them oh so much.

Boy Child Says

If you're happy and you know it, smell your butt.
if you're happy and you know it, smell your butt.
if you're happy and you know it then your butt will surely show it, if you're happy and you know it, smell your butt.