Sir Sniffy Face

Aiden’s been doing this thing that we find hilarious.  He starts to sniff really loudly, and he scrunches up his nose, narrows his eyes, and pulls his mouth into a pout.  It makes him look slightly evil, but the sniffing cracks me up.  I call it his Sniffy face.

Here he is, Sir Sniffy himself:

Crazy kid.

black thumb

Anyone have any advice when it comes to gardening? I’m not really very good at it, and I’ve never tried to do much in the way of… um… plant rearing… before, because I never had time.

I want to start a small veggie/fruit garden that I can reasonably handle and hopefully not kill off too quickly. This may be damn near impossible, but I figure I might as well round out my Sally Homemaker image by giving it a try. If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you know how it goes:  one day she’s a news anchor career-girl, next day she’s a stay at home mom, and the next day she’s fashioning herself as fricking Martha Stewart.  Without the sweater sets and criminal record, of course.

So… ala Lol Catz… my future garden says:

Rhythm is gonna get you

Aiden’s dance debut.

My ABC’s

I borrowed this from Erika’s blog!

A - ADVOCATE FOR: Breastfeeding.  I’m all for a woman’s choice to feed her baby in whichever way works best for her family, be that formula or breastfeeding.  However, I’ve had a great experience nursing my son (after I got through those first couple of awful weeks, anyway!) and I love to talk it up to anyone who asks.  I’ve really enjoyed encouraging other new moms I know, to help them stick with it during those early weeks when nursing is sort of difficult.

B - BEST FEATURE: Um, I guess my eyes?  At least when I put mascara on!

C - COULD DO WITHOUT: The spare tire around my middle.  I really need to shed this last bit of baby weight.

D - DREAMS & DESIRES: To have at least one more child.  To figure out a new career plan to bring in money once my kids are in school, but also remain available to them whenever I’m needed.  To have the whole family stay healthy!  To eventually retire and travel with my husband.

E - ESSENTIAL ITEMS: I can’t live without ponytail holders and jeans.

F - FAVORITE PAST TIME: Reading.

G - GOOD AT: singing, public speaking.

H - HAVE NEVER TRIED: skydiving or any illegal drugs.  I am boring and sort of a fuddy-duddy, but I like it that way.

I - IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: Pay off my bills.  Buy a vacation home.  Buy a boat.  Travel.  Save $$ for kids education.  Help out my family.  Start an animal rescue.  Invest.

J - JUNKIE FOR:  Diet Dr. Pepper, Mint Chocolate Ice Cream, PASTA.

K - KINDRED SPIRIT: My sister Kasey, even though we aren’t exactly alike.  We just ‘get’ each other.

L - LITTLE KNOWN FACT: I have had way too many car accidents.  At least… 4?  I used to be an awful driver… but I’m better now and haven’t had an accident in years.

M - MEMORABLE MOMENT: Giving the dog I had trained to be a seeing eye dog over to his new blind owner.

N - NEVER AGAIN WILL I: move across the country for my job.  Family first, career second.

O - OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: A massage every once in a while.

Q - QUOTE: “We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” E.M. Forster

R - REASON TO SMILE: Watching Aiden and his daddy together… they’re in love with each other.

S - SORRY ABOUT: the fact that I am usually so tired by the end of the day, that I’m not being a very fun or enjoyable person for Jason to come home to.

T - TAG SOME FRIENDS: You!

U - UNINTERESTED IN: John McCain.  Snooze. 

V - VERY SCARED OF: something terrible happening to those I love.

W - WORST HABIT: I have a lot of hair, and it’s healthy, so you can always pull a few strands out each time you run your fingers through it.  I have this bad habit of running my fingers through and collecting a little pile of stray hair.  Isn’t that gross?  It’s just a nervous gesture, I guess!

X - X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: Ideal?  I have a few places I’d love to see one day.  Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, Africa (a safari would be so.cool.)

Y - YUMMIEST DESSERT: Creme brulee.

Z - ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius.

No news is…

good news? 

In my former job (maybe I should say former life, since things have changed so much since those days) I was a news junkie.  As a news anchor, you really have to be. 

I suppose a common misconception is that the producer/reporters write the entire newscast and the anchor just “reads” the news on-air.  In actuality, a good anchor will contribute to the writing of the newscast and read/edit every story prior to hitting the airwaves.  I used to spend part of my day as a reporter, too.  I’d go out and interview people, shoot video with my photographer, come back to the station and put my story together, and then turn my attention to the rest of the newscast.  Sort of switching hats, really, from reporter mode to anchor mode.

As an anchor, especially, I needed to be up to date on all the news out there… local, state, and national.  The biggest reason was to prevent factual errors.  I was generally the last set of eyes to check out a story before we went on-air, and if a producer made an error in a story, I needed to catch it.  Being familiar with the news helped me catch many a mistake.

The other issue is pronouncing crazy words.  If I didn’t keep myself up-to-date on the news and watch a lot of news myself, I may have had some huge issues with words.  Like the name of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.  Or Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr.  That was always a fun one. (Can you tell I had to know the Middle East issues inside and out?) 

But the reason why I’m writing about all this now… is this:  Since I quit my job to stay home with Aiden, I’m not a news hound anymore.  I’ll check out cnn.com or my local news websites, but…. (looks around to see if anyone’s listening)…  I hardly ever watch the local news on TV anymore.  Gasp!

What’s more, I’m finding local news to be more and more irrelevant.  It’s more about quantity than quality these days.  In the average newscast, I’ll see a couple of stories that are interesting or important.  But the rest?  It’s all just filler.  Too bad local news couldn’t just come on the air for as long as it takes to tell us the important stuff.  Give me the weather and a couple of big local stories.  If it takes 10 minutes, great.  If it takes 25, that’s fine too.  But don’t make me waste my time with a bunch of crap stories just because it’s a slow news day.  So I find myself tuning out the TV and hitting the internet, where I can find what I want.

I never would have thought that I, a former news anchor, would go from living and breathing TV news… to a SAHM who can go a week or more without turning on the local news.  But it happens around here, and it happens frequently.  My, how times change.

warning sticker

This kid should have arrived with a warning sticker:  “Do not leave alone, even for one minute.”

The other day, I needed to run outside and drag our trashcans back into the garage.  I left Aiden playing on the floor surrounded by a pile of toys.  I was only outside for a minute or so, and as I came in the front door, I saw this:

The child opened the dishwasher, climbed onto it,  and pulled out the top basket.  What was he looking for, you ask?

A sippy cup, apparently.  Cuz he was sucking on this lid with a vengeance.

I, being a good mother, promptly removed him from the dishwasher (well, after I took a picture, anyway) and gave him a cup of water.  And then I had a drink myself.  It was most definitely not water, and it was not served in a sippy cup.

He’s walking all over me.

Walking all over me~ the actual walking version:

Guess who took his first steps a couple of days ago?  Yep, Aiden’s officially toddling, and I can’t believe he did it before hitting the 10-month mark!  He’s able to take about 4 or 5 steps at most, before falling on his butt or throwing himself at the closest parent nearby in a “catch me!” fashion.   He’s growing up so fast! 

~~~~~

Walking all over me~  the “why won’t you *&%$(^# sleep??” version:

In other baby news, we continue to have issues with sleeping through the night.  I’ve been trying to put him to bed at night while he’s still awake but drowsy.  Some nights it works… other nights he has a meltdown.  He cannot stand to be alone in his crib when he is awake.  And once he’s upset, he won’t stand for you comforting him by the side of the crib. Noooo, he insists that you pick him up to cuddle and comfort him before you can continue on with the business of getting to sleep.

Last night, he threw the biggest bedtime tantrum we’ve ever seen.  He was exhausted, but when I put him down (slightly awake) his eyes popped open and he tried to sit up and grab at me.  I kept saying, ”night, night… lie down.”  Leaving the room doesn’t do anything but make him more angry, so we stay in the room and try to soothe him without picking him up.  Well last night, he got so.pissed.off that he was literally trowing himself at the bars on the crib.  Jason and I tried for more than an hour to stand by the crib, shushing him and providing a little comfort while he worked out the tears and gave up and slept.  Needless to say, that didn’t happen.  He got more and more worked up until he was flinging himself at the bars so hard that I got worried about his head!  It was the biggest tantrum I have ever seen.  Finally, we conceded that this method wasn’t working the way it is supposed to and Jason picked him up.  We totally lost that battle of wills.

Aside from some sniffling, Aiden was thrilled to be back in our arms, and I think he realized that he won.  Sigh.  What’s worse, he was still tired but whenever I took him toward the crib he would start freaking out before I even put him in it.  I eventually got in the crib with him and guess what?  He was asleep in 30 seconds flat. 

It’s obvious to me that he just hates falling asleep alone in his crib, and I feel awful forcing him to do it.  I also don’t think he would respond well to “crying it out,” because he can’t even settle down when we’re there to soothe him.  Imagine what he’d do to himself if we left him alone in there to throw his fits… I could see him giving himself a concussion!  So we’re back at square one, and I’m debating trying another method or just waiting to see if he grows out of this on his own someday.  Surely he’ll sleep well by the time he goes to college?

~~~~~

Walking all over me~ the pissing all over the floor version:

Aiden had a little diaper rash the other day, and thanks to sleeping in a pee filled diaper all night, it was a little red in the morning.  I took off the diaper and put him on the floor to give his butt a little fresh air before putting a new diaper on.  You would think he wouldn’t need to pee after depositing a gallon’s worth in his overnight diaper, right?  Wrong.

Within seconds, I hear “psssssss.”  He’s crouching on the floor, whizzing in a big puddle on the carpet.  He laughs and darts off to the other side of the room, while I run for an old towel.  And wouldn’t you know that, as I’m mopping up the mess, I hear “pssss” again.  The little rugrat decided to mark his territory on the other side of the room, too.  Arrgh.  I should buy stock in carpet cleaner.