Happy Mother's Day

For various reasons, I'm reminded today how blessed I am. I love my family, and I love my little stink-pot-pie :)

Here's a shout out to all the moms out there

Silent Night

This commercial has been running for a couple of years, but it still makes me tear up every time...

I'll destroy the evidence later...

but in the meantime this game never gets old with me, lol.

One of these squares is not like the other.

Reese was a spider this year for Halloween. Unlike last year, she was totally excited to try on her costume, and she was quite excited to be a spider to go twick-o-tweating.

Over the course of the weekend up until Halloween, she went to four different carnivals, a party, and her school Halloween parade. It was a bit humorous seeing her amongst the other little girls. Of course I knew that a spider wasn't a "traditional" girl costume, but it was still a bit surprising to see that almost EVERY other girl her age and older was some variation of a princess or cheerleader. Luckily, it didn't phase her, and she loved showing everyone her extra appendages and crying out, EEE! I'm sure by next Halloween she'll be asking for a a tiara and all things pink, but for now, I love that she doesn't care that she's just a little bit different :)

As good as the originals

Mommy & Daddy Went on a Cruise and All I Got Was this Parrot Poo...

J and I just got back from a wonderful cruise. Not only did it mark the first week-long vacation J has had it in four years (workaholic!), but it was also the longest we'd been away from Weezie.

A few highlights from our trip:

• Winning 500 nickels after I put a quarter in the nickel slots
• Hitting the dealer in the head with a die the first time I tried playing craps (oopsie!)
• Renting scooters and getting lost in Honduras trying to find the beach
• J's phone not working and him actually being able to relax, YIPEE!!
• J surprising me with my birthday present a week early. He got me THE watch I have been lusting after for years.
• Getting to see our baby after being away for 7 days

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=aoarz81.8alkjg4h&x=0&y=j1qfg0

While we had a fabulous time, we found ourselves talking about her all the time. She stayed with J's sister and her family for the week. According to all accounts (including Weezie's), she had a blast. I knew she would - she ADORES her cousins and her "Aunt Monny" and "Uncle Bowing", but it was still great to hear all the Weezie stories. Thanks again, Monny!

Talk to me baby...

I was practicing colors with Reese and she correctly identified pink, yellow, red, purple, blue, green, and orange...

in VIETNAMESE!

This is a big milestone for her because she knows her colors in both languages now. If I ask her to name the color in English, she'll name the English words, but if I ask her in Vietnamese, she responds in Vietnamese! This really warms my heart because I often feel like I'm fighting a losing battle as far as her feeling part of "my" culture/background.

So she officially knows more than J does now, lol.

Lord, let this not be me one day

This woman is my idol:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D130144061675%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1

I'm a sucker

Reese loves to play in the toy kitchen at daycare, so I decided to buy one for home. Since we might have a second child, I decided to spend a little more and get one that was sturdy and could accommodate two. I think Aunt Chele would approve, no?

Cousin Weezie

Weeze has a new baby cousin! One of my best friends, R, had her baby yesterday. R called me , and I was so happy to hear mommy and baby are doing well. I am sooo thrilled for her (and admittedly a wee bit jealous, lol!)

I cannot wait to meet baby Elise, and I love the idea of of Weezie and Elise playing together one day.

Congrats, G's!

Creating memories at the farm

Ruh-roh, don't tell mommy

Saturdays are daddy-daughter day. It gives J a chance to bond with Weezie and me a respite from being bossed around and generally abused (and I'm not talking about work).

Earlier, I called J to see what they were up to since they had been gone a few hours.

"Oh, nothing. We just left the Urgent Care Center."

WHAT!!!!?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was on the verge of freaking out, but I stayed calm enough for him to explain. Deep breath...deep breath...must resist the urge to yell, "what did you let happen to my baby??!!!"....deep breath...

They had been in the grocery store parking lot in the car when Weezie suddenly whispered, "uh oh. rock in baby nose". J pulled over and saw that she was holding a small pebble in her hand. He looked, and sure enough, she had a rock lodged up her nose. Way up.

J took her to a nearby urgent care office and decided (grrr) that he'd spare me the panic (chicken!). They were placed in a room, and while waiting for the doctor, J started making balloons out of latex gloves for Weeze.

Well, the powder on the gloves made her sneeze and...you guessed it... she sneezed it out.

So all's well that end's well. J brought back the pebble for me to see. Definitely going in the baby book. Thanks for the Mother's Day gift, baby :)

You will be greatly missed...

Bit the bullet

In reference to my post from last summer: http://fear-and-trembling.blogspot.com/2006/06/away-from-little-fingers.html

Still the same problem, different apartment. Boy, I'm ready for our house to be completed. Well, make that, I'm ready to actually start a house that we will actually move into, and then actually move into it, actually.

Frustrated while cleaning today, I decided to look at the bookshelves again. They had raised the prices of the individual bookshelves since last summer (boo hiss!), but they still had a little byline "buy one tall and one short for $398". I added two to my cart and saw that the total did not reflect the discount pricing. I clicked on their online chat support, and they said that that pricing was supposed to have been removed, but that they would honor it. Woohoo! Better yet, they were running a promotion for free shipping (normally $60 for the two shelves). I'm very pleased with DWR and will shop there more often if I ever win the lottery, lol

Is this wrong?

As we were putting our shoes back on in gymnastics class, Weezie noticed that one of the other little girls had flower Jibbitz on her Crocs. As typical of Weeze (and probably any other 2-year old), she cried out "I want that!".

A few days later, J and I were at the store, and we saw a display of Jibbitz at the checkout. They didn't have any flowers left, so we got the next best things. I have to admit, even if there had been flowers, we probably still would have picked out the lizard and the skull-and-crossbones. They're just more Weezie to us.

I was a wee bit worried that she wouldn't like them, but after we put them on her shoes, she delightedly looked at her feet and said, in her best pirate voice, "Arggh!".

That's my girl :)

It's awfully hot in here

As I write this, I'm sitting on the floor of my walk-in closet. Why? Because it's 10:30 PM, and we have attempted for the third time to put Weezie to bed. She's screaming like a banshee, and I can't bear it. It's my inability to listen to her shrieking that's gotten us in this mess, because I inevitably go in, take her out, and let her play. I'm trying to break the cycle, hence the self-imposed exile.

She used to go to bed at 8 PM on the dot with usually no protest, but for the last several months she's been pushing and pushing to stay up later. She's learned that shrieking will result in extra playtime. While I can ignore it when she throws tantrums during the day, for some reason the bedtime screaming really kills me. I hate to admit it, but it bothers me not so much in a "my poor baby" kind of way, but more of a "please, someone poke me in the head with a sharp stick because it would be less grating" sort of way.

It's times like this where I feel like an utter failure as a mother. It was easier when she was younger. Granted, I still doubted myself often, but I could hang on to the fact that I was at least doing some things "right" like breastfeeding, feeding her home-made organic fruits and veggies, keeping her on a regular schedule... Now that she's two, she's suddenly become so much more stubborn. I can't get her to eat anything healthy, she watches TV regularly, and she often stays up until 10 o'clock or later. I feel like I'm completely letting her down by not being a good enough mother. Sigh.

My little Mynah Bird

Weeze is quite the Chatty Cathy now, and she's picking up words and phrases left and right. This isn't necessarily a good thing, as I learned when I was putting her hair in pigtails. I accidentally snagged her hair, and she looked up at me with her sweet little face and said, "Daaamn...It." Err, don't know where she got that one from.

Lately she's been saying, "aww, man!" quite frequently when she drops something or if something doesn't go her way. I'd been feeling guilty about that one - I didn't recall saying that, but she only has to hear a word/phrase once to pick it up. I was watching Dora the Explorer (oh, I remember the days when I didn't even know who that was!), and one of the characters exclaimed, "aww man!". I excitedly told J, "Yay! She didn't learn it from me! She learned it from TV!!!!"

I'm a great mom, aren't I ;-)

Bliss

Weezie woke up crying about an hour into her nap this afternoon. I went into her room, and she was standing in her crib calling out, "mommy, momma". Awwww... I scooped her up, and she rested her head on my shoulder. She seemed still tired so I snuggled with her on the couch. As I lay there with her, it struck me how incredibly lucky I am. How many moms get to do this? Granted, it's not always like this (sometimes I joke I'm going back to work because it's easier), but I know that I should be counting my blessings. We ended up napping together for another hour. It doesn't get much better than that!

Help, there's a bird on my head!

Halloween was a blast despite Weezie's initial very physical protestations against wearing her costume. Like any good mother, I wrestled her to the ground and wrangled the outfit onto her. Just a few tears and scratches later (oh, and Weezie cried, too), voila - my perfect little peacock!

We went to my SIL's house so Weeze could go trick-or-treating with her cousins. She adores her cousins, and it's hilarious watching them play. It's as if she doesn't realize they're older than her (and sizeably larger seeing that their parents are 6' and 6'5", respectively). They live in a much more kid friendly neighborhood than we do (read: no crackhouses to avoid, bums that Weeze might trip over). She had also organized a hayride to take the children from house to house - each home is on a several acre lots, so it's a lot of walking for short little legs.

I was a bit apprehensive about how Weezie would do, but she had a wonderful time. She wasn't frightened by all the costumed kids and she quickly got the hang of trick-or-treating (at first she was taking candy out of her basket and putting it into others' - J quickly corrected that, lol). Every time the hayride stopped, she'd pop up, grab her basket, and yell "all right!". She hung with the big kids all night, too.

I can't wait until next year, and I'm thinking I have one more year before I hear "I want to be a princess!". Hmmm, shark, peacock, what embarrassing costume can I put her in next???

Enron, Wal-Mart, and Fisher-Price

If you're a parent of a child under 5, then I won't have to explain. Several months ago, Fisher Price started sending out teasers about the 10th anniversary Tickle Me Elmo. Except they didn't call him that - they just put ads with a shadowy image with "TMX Elmo" across the body. "What will TMX Elmo do? Find out September 19th!"

Weezie loves Elmo, so in August I considered pre-ordering the TMX Elmo (retail price $39.99) to make sure I had one for Christmas. Even though I didn't have a child at the time, I remember the huge demand for the Tickle Me Elmo when they came out 10 years ago. J said I was being silly, so I decided not to pre-order.

Well, when they were released Sept. 19, they sold out of the stores immediately, and people started selling them on ebay for $200-$300. I consoled myself with the fact that Weeze is too young to not know that she's "the only kid that doesn't have one" and that daddy ruined Christmas, but when she started squealing with delight when she saw a commercial for TMX Elmo, my heart broke! I know, I know, I'm being suckered in just like "they" planned!

So last week, my girlfriend showed me a flyer from Wal-Mart - TMX Elmo's advertised for 34.98 beginning October 1. She said they also had signs all over the stores - TMX Elmo's coming October 1! My girlfriend spoke to a lady in the toy department, and she said they'd be putting them out at 7AM today with a limit of 2 per person.

Now I hate Wal-Mart and avoid going there. For my baby, however, I'm willing to trek to Wal-Mart at 6 in the morning. When we arrive, we find out that they had put them out at midnight! And get this - they had only 5 for the whole store! If we had gotten there at midnight, we probably wouldn't have gotten one anyway. They said that Wal-Marts all over town were getting just a few, and some didn't even get any.

I'm not really mad about not getting Elmo - was just taking a chance that we'd get one, but I think it's terrible that they would advertise so much about having them when in reality they only had a few for each store, and some stores didn't even get any!

So, I'm boycotting Wal-Mart. Predatory pricing didn't move me. Unfair treatment of workers? Eh, not my problem. But playing on a momma's need to get her baby the "It" toy of the year? I'm never stepping foot in Wal-Mart again!

Yes, I realize Fisher-Price is playing games with us well. My guess is that they're purposely only releasing limited quantities and will flood the market right before Christmas. Unfortunately, Fisher-Price is a little more difficult to boycott when you have a 2-year old.