Archive | November, 2006

Visiting Albuturkey

29 Nov

We returned yesterday from five days in Albuquerque (better known as Albuqturkey during Thanksgiving). No time to write all the details now, but it was good. Little Miss was a lot more challenging to travel with, but once we got there, she was pretty happy. We took her to the zoo (loved the monkeys yet again, and the giraffes were definitely a favorite), on two hikes, and she got baptized in the church where I grew up.

I had wonderful pictures of all of this until my camera fell out of the camera bag in a parking lot and was subsequently run over. The camera and my $70 flash card are toast now, along with those very special pictures.

Put a bit of a bummer on the trip.

But we’re home. It’s winter here — highs in the mid 30s, and it is starting to feel like the holiday season. I’m planning on putting up the tree this weekend, making sure not to put ornaments on the bottom two feet of the tree, as Little Miss is a pro at crawling now, and is focusing on walking, which I anticipate she’ll be doing on her own by Christmas.

Anyway, more details later, and I’ll post some of the pics my mom captured.

Signed,

A sad, camera-less Momma

Did You Know the Shopping Season Started Early?!

22 Nov

On Saturday, JB and I went to the Summit Sierra, the new mall by our house to check out the new restaurants that recently opened. The place was packed. Most restaurants had a 1.5 hour waiting time. Ha! You just don’t wait that long for food when you have a baby in tow.

As we were walking around, we noticed Christmas Carolers. We finally chose a restaurant that could seat us immediately, and the server informed us that “the fireworks” would be starting any minute.

“What is the reason for celebration?” I asked.

“The holiday shopping season started early this year. It’s a kick off to the shopping season,” she eagerly responded.

And I just had to cringe. Wasn’t it bad enough that retailers are now taking down Halloween decorations and replacing them with Christmas decorations on Nov. 1? Now, evidently retailers can proclaim an “early” start to the season. It really makes me want to hurl.

When we left the restaurant, we noticed horse drawn carriage rides through the parking lot.

THROUGH THE PARKING LOT OF A MALL. I thought who would want a horse drawn carriage ride through the parking lot of a mall?!

That’s when I saw the line of at least 100 people waiting for horse drawn carriage rides. They must have been free. (PLEASE TELL ME THEY WERE FREE). It was mainly families with children taking the rides through the parking lot.

As we walked away, making fun of those people, I turned to JB, and said, “Just wait, in five years, we’re going to have a little girl begging to take the horse drawn carriage ride through the parking lot, and then we’ll become one of THEM.”

I shudder at the thought.

Baby On The Move

16 Nov

When I showed up at daycare today, I walked in the door to Little Miss’s room, and she turned and smiled.

Then, she got up on all fours and crawled a good four feet towards me.

She has been working on the crawling thing for quite a while, but today she finally put it all together with all four limbs and made considerable progress. It melted my heart.

My baby is growing up!

Pumping Goes Mainstream

16 Nov

Did anyone see The Office tonight where the woman started pumping out in the open? I had to cheer a bit, but come on, what woman would bust out the pump in the middle of her office without ANY privacy?!

Did I mention that my new office has a Mother’s Room? I had already quit pumping when it became available, but good to know for next time, eh?!

Vacationing in the Rain

15 Nov

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. We were out of town for the weekend in Seattle, where I managed to come down with a cold that turned into bronchitis. Add that on top of an Internet connection that has been less than reliable this week, and you get an overwhelming silence at my site.

So Seattle. JB had a business trip there last week, and Little Miss and I flew up to meet him on Friday. Yes, it was cold and rainy, which is to be expected there in November, but we had a great time. Little Miss was a great traveler. She slept on the plane (when she wasn’t petting the stranger seated next to her), napped in her stroller while we walked around the city, and was a perfect little angel when we went out to eat — three times a day (which is quite an accomplishment for her I’d say).

We ate some wonderful food, drank some really expensive wine, stayed in a pretty swanky hotel in downtown, and did up the tourist traps.

On Saturday, we took Little Miss to the zoo for the first time. We figured she is so amused by our two dogs that she’d surely be amused by the zoo. We weren’t disappointed. Hearing her giggles when she saw the monkeys was priceless. All four limbs waved around, she blew her lips together and let the drool fly as she cackled in between blows. She really liked the goats and the gorillas, too.

Here she is getting a big kick out of the wild dogs.

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And here she is practicing modeling for Gerber.

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Remember how well I said she napped in her stroller? Here’s proof:

mnaps.jpg

And finally, I include this picture just because I love this matching sweater and hat set so much.

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Here is one more picture while I’m uploading… Finally something to make my husband look short — a picture of him in front of a painting of the World’s Tallest Man.

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Anyway, on Sunday, we did the Seattle Underground tour, which was very interesting, but challenging keeping a 9 month old happy as you’re holding her and walking around underground for 1.5 hours. She kept reaching out to pet women’s hair, and tried to be the assistant tour guide, as she liked to start talking right as the tour guide was speaking.

That’s about all I have to report from the trip. I came back with a horrid cough, stayed home from work on Monday, and finally made it into the doctor today, where I was officially diagnosed with bronchitis. I left the doctor’s with five prescriptions, one being an inhaler and another being antibiotics (thank GOD), so I hope that I will be on the mend soon.

And in other news, last week, Little Miss turned nine months. She has now officially been outside of my body as long as she was inside of it. She gets cuter and more fun every day. I just can’t seem to hug or kiss her enough.

Little Miss Voted Electronically

7 Nov

Little Miss’s first trip to the polls:

Little Missvoted.jpg

I voted. I went after work and was done in less than fifteen minutes — very impressive. On my way out, a poll worker handed me a sticker for “my little boy”. She was dressed in PJs that had pink and purple fairies on them… Not sure who dresses their little boy like that…

I voted because of all of the women that fought so hard to give me that right. I voted for my daughter’s future. I hope you all did the same.

In other news, Little Miss got her first bite at daycare today. Lately, she has been exploring things with her index finger (including my mouth, nose and eyes). Today, she tried to explore another little kid with her index finger and that kiddo leaned forward and took a bite. I guess she got very upset by it, and after they calmed her down, she started trying to explore other kids with her index finger. Guess she didn’t learn. Makes me Brother Cle a bit, though, because she is always putting that finger in my mouth.

One other picture of her before I go to bed for the night.

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Oh, and happy birthday to my sister-in-law, SIL A! Hope you had a blast celebrating your 21st birthday! (wink, wink)

Continue reading →

She Voted Electronically

7 Nov

Little Miss’s first trip to the polls:

madelynnvoted.jpg

I voted. I went after work and was done in less than fifteen minutes — very impressive. On my way out, a poll worker handed me a sticker for “my little boy”. She was dressed in PJs that had pink and purple fairies on them… Not sure who dresses their little boy like that…

I voted because of all of the women that fought so hard to give me that right. I voted for my daughter’s future. I hope you all did the same.

In other news, Little Miss got her first bite at daycare today. Lately, she has been exploring things with her index finger (including my mouth, nose and eyes). Today, she tried to explore another little kid with her index finger and that kiddo leaned forward and took a bite. I guess she got very upset by it, and after they calmed her down, she started trying to explore other kids with her index finger. Guess she didn’t learn. Makes me chuckle a bit, though, because she is always putting that finger in my mouth.

One other picture of her before I go to bed for the night.

stripesweater.jpg

Where Was That Aggie Spirit

4 Nov

Last weekend, I was thrilled that my Alma Mater, New Mexico State University, was in Reno playing University of Nevada, Reno in football.

NMSU has always pretty much sucked at football, so I didn’t even think we’d win. I just wanted to go, hear the band sing the fight song and perhaps join the cheerleaders in a round or two of cheers. After all, it had been 9 years since I had been to my school’s football games.

Much to my dissappointment, there was no NMSU band or cheerleaders. I saw about 20 Aggie fans, who must have been parents, and that was it. I was definitely out of place sitting in the middle of the UNR section in my Aggies t-shirt.

They got slaughtered, which wasn’t a surprise. I have hopes that the basketball games will be different… I just want to hear the fight song one more time!

Go Aggies — I support my team through good and bad.

What Happened to Halloween?

2 Nov

Halloween in my neighborhood just plain sucks. I swear we’re known as THE place to trick-or-treat, as this one night a year, people swarm our neighborhood begging for candy.

I think there are probably five kids that live on my street. There were hundreds parading up and down the street on Halloween. The doorbell rang about every two minutes. It was to the point where I just sat next to the door because it didn’t make sense to go too far.

90% of the people that come to my door are rude high schoolers, many that aren’t even in costume. Almost all of the kids had pillow cases to gather candy — many of those king sized. What happened to the little plastic pumpkins of my childhood?

The other trend in our neighborhood is people driving their kids around to trick-or-treat. Our streets are literally jam packed with cars driving about two miles per hour because the parents are too plain lazy to walk along with their kids.

Both years I’ve lived here, there was a kid that really made me mad. Last year it was the kid that kicked my door when I didn’t answer immediately. (Forgive me for trying to cook dinner and hand out candy at the same time!)

This year, it was the kid that I gave candy to, and then he stood there with a pout on his face, asking for more. There were about ten kids lined up behind him, so I told him, “no, you already got two pieces.” And he had the gall to keep standing there pouting. I shut the door in his face. I didn’t slam it, but I just told him to move on.

Another shocker this year was the mother that was trick-or-treating. When I questioned her what she was doing, she said her son was in the car. Here’s my policy — if your kid is too tired or uninterested in trick-or-treating, GO HOME. Don’t go trick-or-treating for your kid. It’s just plain tacky.

I gave out six pounds of candy — $20 worth — and I ran out after about an hour (at 7:30). I shut off our lights and put a sign on the door saying we ran out of candy, and people were STILL ringing our doorbell.

When did trick-or-treaters get so darn rude? In my day, it was just common courtesy to be polite, thank people for candy, and not bother them if their lights are off. Period.

I vowed this year that I will never drive to take Little Miss trick-or-treating. I will also never trick-or-treat for her. She’s going to have to earn her candy the old fashioned way, gosh darnit.

Cripes, I’m getting old.

The fire department was in front of our house at about 8:30 that night. I kind of freaked out when I saw the red lights, thinking that someone had set fire to something in our front yard. But no, it was the fire department on their loud speakers telling people to stop walking in the middle of the street. Does that show how bad it is?!

Next year, I’m contemplating going out of town for Halloween. Grrrr….

Site Update

2 Nov

I know I haven’t been updating much lately. I got sick of trying to figure out how I screwed up the formatting on my site, and have been trying to import my blog entries into another publishing platform.

The company Six Apart made my current publishing platform. They also make TypePad, so I decided to try that out.

Would you believe that the export file from Movable Type won’t work on TypePad, and both were created by the same company?!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I have been working on this site, just behind the scenes.

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