NaBloKickingMyAss-o

So, see that right there?  That clever little post title?  That’s about as creative as I’m about to get.  Because posting every day this month?  It ain’t easy.  Cue the violins as I share my sob story.

This is turning into the week from hell.  Jason’s sick.  Started out with a cold last week that made him lose his voice, now he feels like total ass and in total “man-fashion” is acting like he is going to die.  Seriously, people, what is with guys and their ability to revert to little babies when they are sick? 

Baby number 2, otherwise known as Aiden, is having some full-on separation anxiety and will scream when Mama is out of his line of vision.  This also includes screaming at night when you try to put him in his crib.  And to think, for a while he was doing quite well in his crib.  *Sigh.*

Ah yes, and I can’t stop the bitch-fest without mentioning Thanksgiving.  I’m having it at my house, like I do every year.  This may sound crazy since I have Aiden to worry about now, but I prefer being at home rather than dragging him somewhere else.  Also, my parents will come by early to help cook, so that is no biggie.  My issue is that my guest list just increased by SEVEN.  This happened today.  Yes, I just found out today. 

The deal is, I have a big family.  And somehow, my aunt and uncle (and their families) were sort of left out in the cold, so to speak, when it comes to Thanksgiving.  They could just hang at home, but our family is very close and I’d feel bad for them to just be home alone on Thursday.  So… they are now coming to my house.  To eat.  To eat what is, for me, the most time consuming and complicated meal of the year.

I’ve already warned them to make their own turkey or ham and bring it with them.  I’ll provide some sides, but Lord help me, Jebus, I cannot make 50 pounds of meat to feed all of us gluttons. 

But, shit.  I just realized I don’t even have enough PLATES!  Either we’re eating on paper ones or I need to buy some cheap-o white plates at good old Wal-Fart.  Can it please just be Friday so I can sit on my butt eating leftover turkey?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  So many damn people at my house means there may not be leftovers.  Now I’m pissed.

On that note, good night.  I’m off to try and wrestle a child into his bed.  And watch the Biggest Loser.  Yay.

Blah. Bullets.

Long day.  Very tired.  But I haven’t missed a day yet in NaBloPoMo so I gotta say something.

• First, thanks for the feeding suggestions!  I got this “self feeder” at Target today (great suggestion!) and Aiden enjoyed some fresh banana this afternoon:

 

• I went to the gym today and worked out pretty hard!  I’m already sore.  And Aiden was a very good boy at the gym’s kid’s club.  I actually enjoyed the “me time” and I’m gonna try to go again before Thanksgiving.
• I like the bangs I got at my last haircut, but unless I am styling my hair every day (HA!) I just find them to be an annoyance. I hate hair hanging in my eyes, and it won’t go back in my ponytail. Grr.
• I read The Road this weekend, and I need to cross it off my reading list.  VERY good book!  I’d definitely recommend it.
• Now reading Midwives.  Only a few pages into it.
• Am boring myself with this, so I am going to wrap it up!

Yum, yum, gimme some

Have I mentioned that we’re now eating solid foods around here?  Yep.  It’s a pureed party in these parts.

Aiden’s loving most foods, though his appetite seems to depend on the time of day and his overall attitude.  Note to self:  cranky babies are more likely to flip the food bowl and smear food everywhere, rather than actually ingest anything.  You live, you learn.

We’ve been trying all sorts of foods, and we’ve built up quite the menu.  Of course, the requisite rice cereal, which he really isn’t wild about.  We have a serious love for squash, carrots, and sweet potato.  Apples and pears are nice, but they have a little acidic kick which often results in much face-scrunching when any sourness is detected.  Peas are thoroughly despised.

You better not be thinking peas, woman.  Hell to the NO!

 We’re having fun introducing Aiden to all these flavors.  He’s nearly six months, and I’m wondering if I can give him some big crackers or any finger foods yet.  Is that a no-no until he gets a little older? 

I’m too sexy for my shirt. 

(And also too messy when I eat)

Saturday Snapshots

 

Meme Friday

Tootsie tagged me… so here you go!

Rules:
1- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
3- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 Weird Things About Me

1. I am a great speller but I usually spell wierd weird incorrectly.

2. I like to eat butter.  Not necessarily with anything else.  Just plain butter.

3. I have really wide feet.

4. I have a birthmark on my thigh that is shaped like a duck.  Quack!

5. I have a really hard time putting together “fashionable” outfits.

6. Matching the correct shoes with the aforementioned outfits is difficult, and almost always confusing to me.  I need help.

7. I used to bite my nails, up until my late teens, when I just quit the habit one day. 

So I’m randomly tagging:

1. Alyndabear

2. The Ambitious Mrs.

3. See Jane Blog

4. Lucky Gem

5. Just Charge It

6. Being Emily

7. Effected

Required Reading

You may have noticed my new page up there on the little navigation bar thingy… it’s my new Reading List.  I’ve started adding a bunch of titles there that I hope to make my way through.

I’m always looking for something great to read, and that’s where you come in!  Read something good lately?  Leave a recommendation in the comments.  I love lots of different genres… from classics, to chick-lit, to mysteries… so… start your suggestions now!

Secret Blogger Santa!

It’s official!  Christmas is a little over a month away, and we need to get into the holiday spirit!  That’s why I’m taking part in the 2007 Secret Blogger Santa!  This great idea comes from RA and Laurel!

Here’s how it works (info taken from RA’s blog):

Timeline

• Friday, November 16: Deadline to sign up
• Monday, November 26: Find out who your lucky recipient is and receive contact information
• Week of December 3: Send along a small, low-priced/free gift
• Week of December 10: Send along another one!
• Between December 17-25: Arrange for a gift (around $10) to arrive at the doorstep and reveal your identity

Signing up
Send a message to Secret Blogger Santa HQ with the following information, which will be forwarded to your giver:

• Name/Alias
• Blog URL
• E-mail address
• Postal address (Street, City, State, Zip Code)
• Personal tidbits that might be helpful to the giver (optional)

Clarifying a “small, low-priced/free gift”
In the grand tradition of Secret Santa exchanges, we’re attempting to recreate the series of gifts in an online way. Share something fun or interesting, say something nice or encouraging, and/or suggest something you love. Here are a few ideas to get started:

• Fun blog accessories: badges, banners
• Links: new blogs to read, articles, retailers, YouTube videos
• Recommendations: books, movies, clothing, recipes
• Kudos: “things I love about you/your blog,” “favorite photos on your Flickr stream,” “why I loved this post”
• E-cards

Keeping the secret
It would be great if people didn’t know who was responsible for their awesome gifts, so if you are sending something that requires an e-mail address (say, an iTunes certificate or an e-card), go ahead and enter the Secret Blogger Santa address. If you want to send along something via e-mail (like recipes or a cool blog button), send your message to the same address and we will forward it to your recipient.

Doesn’t this sound like fun?  I signed up today!  Why dontcha join me?  Come on, all the cool kids are doing it!

Do pictures count as a post?

I had a busy day today, so I am just now getting around to posting (and it’s 10:30 pm!)

I visited with two good friends from my Miss Maryland days this afternoon.  Actually, they were Miss Maryland in the two years prior to when I won the title, so we have a lot in common.  Now, we have even more to share, since we all had babies within a month and a half of each other!

Aiden’s the youngest of the bunch, and the only boy.  He had such a great time with the other babies today.  I call them his two “girlfriends.”  I hope we can get together again soon and the kids can be buddies as they grow up.

So, that’s about all I can type for tonight.  Here are two cute pics to hold you over until I can come up with something a little more substantive!

Sitting up!

Snuggling with his puppy Sophie (they adore each other!)

Time [moving on]

Today, I visited my grandmother’s grave.  It has been exactly one year since she passed away.  So much has happened in the 365 days since MomMom’s death, yet I can’t believe that it has been a year already.  Time used to move so slowly when I was a kid.  Now, it just seems to be moving so quickly.  So quickly.  All I need to do is look at Aiden to see how fast the hands on the clock are turning.  Hard to believe that he’s been here for nearly six months already! 

Visiting MomMom’s grave was very tough, especially because she was so very excited about her first great grandchild.  She told my mom, just a short time before her heart attack, that she only hoped she would live long enough to meet her great grandbaby.  Sadly, she never did.

So, today, I took a photo of Aiden with me to add to the flowers that cover her grave.  I’d like to think that somewhere, she’s able to see what a little miracle he is.  And, that, I suppose, is the circle of life.  Though her passing left us grieving, Aiden’s birth has brought so much joy to our family.

 This… this is what it’s all about:

Ambition

When Jason and I were discussing the possibility of my quitting my job and staying at home with Aiden, we honestly didn’t start out on the same page.  My husband really didn’t want me to quit.  I was feeling a very strong pull to be home with my baby.  So we agreed that, for the time being, I would continue to work, but only if we found a schedule that would allow me to be home with Aiden for a large amount of time each day.  As it worked out… well, it didn’t work out.

There were a number of reasons why.  First, my managers would not agree to the hours that we, um… had just agreed upon a few weeks earlier.  Second, my new shift required me to be at work by 3am.  In the morning.  Insert exhaustion here.  And finally, Aiden didn’t like this new schedule.  At all.  He made this painfully apparent by screaming and waking up multiple times in the night, which was torture for Jason, who was dealing with some serious medical issues. (By the way, since his surgery more than two weeks ago, he has not had any pain!  Hallelujah, and knock on wood!)

So, based on all that, I resigned my position.  But, truth be told, it is still hard for my husband.  An adjustment, if you will.  He is thrilled that Aiden is cared for by his mommy, and acknowledges how special that is for our son.  He enjoyed having me be the CEO of our home, and likes coming home to a freshly cooked meal on most nights.  But something has changed… something that he didn’t realize.

Jas was telling me this morning that he never realized how much he respected and loved me for my ambition.  I’ve always been ambitious.  If I have a goal, I go for it.  At every TV station I ever worked at, I started near the bottom of the totem pole and worked my way up to main news anchor.  I am tenacious and hard-working, and when it came to my career, I wanted to be the best.  And, well, since Aiden came along, I guess my ambition went by the wayside.  Or, more to the point, my ambition changed.  All of a sudden, my ambition was to be with my son as much as possible and help shape his life and happiness.

“I just always thought that you could do anything,” Jas said this morning.  “If you wanted to be an anchor for the national network news, I believed you could do it.  So, it’s hard to see you give that up.”

It’s true; by quitting my job I may have given that up.  But, I’m not sure if I would have really wanted that in the first place.  And I appreciate my husband for still valuing my career success and personal achievement.  For believing in my abilities and thinking that I’m something special.  He says he always believed that, between the two of us, I’d have been the most successful.  He never had a problem saying he’d likely be the stay at home dad, while I went off to my fancy-pants anchoring gig.  But life just didn’t turn out that way.  Jason’s career has exploded and he’s seen promotion after promotion.  I never knew what a strong pull I would feel to stay home with our son.  Life, it seems, is unpredictable like that.

So here we are, now.  Acknowledging that things don’t always turn out the way you anticipate.  Realizing that your own partner’s dreams and ambitions can change right before your eyes.  And caring enough for each other to roll with the punches, just taking each day and each change as it comes.