Please Pay Attention

Jonny's mommy, left a comment on my last post, informing me that she tagged me for one of those blasted memes. So, I went to see which one I would have the pleasure of doing this time. She tagged me for the "List 6 Quirky Things About Yourself" Meme! Hey, Jonny's mommy, I JUST did it! I figured maybe she just didn't read that post, but then I went back, and saw that she had indeed COMMENTED on the post. Gee, Jonny's mommy, glad my writing is so memorable for you. (whimper, whimper, sniff, sniff) Apparently, you all think I'm quirky, but now you are giving me a complex.

But, since you are just dying to know more random facts about me, FINE, here you go... (Oh, and since I am quite certain I have absolutely no more quirks to share (Shoosh, Jim), these really are just random facts. Sorry.

1. I took piano lessons for 12 years. My parents had me start the lessons when I was 6, and I HATED it. I didn't do the exercises I was supposed to do in the book, so when my dad would take me, the teacher would yell at me. At first, my dad would stay during the lesson, but after a while, he would just drop me off, and go "run errands". Truth is, he just couldn't take the yelling, and the bad playing. I complained and complained, until he finally said if I kept at it until a certain point, then I could quit. Of course, by that point, I was enjoying it, and decided to keep playing. Although I play pretty well, I will not play in front of anyone, except Jim and Dylan. I blame this on all those D@!* piano recitals I was forced to participate in. I used to make myself physically ill, I was so nervous.

2. At this moment in time, I have never had a cavity, (knocking on wood, throwing salt over my shoulder, rubbing my rabbit's foot, crossing my fingers, and holding my breath). The dentist I went to as a child was so impressed with me, he told me if I could make it until I was 16 without a cavity, he would take me across the road and buy me a banana split. That jerk never did buy me my banana split, not that I need one these days.

3. Since turning 18, I have moved a total of 18 times! I just can't wait to box up all my crap once again. (Sigh).

4. I have the ability to make people (even random strangers) open up and tell me their life story. Sometimes, they tell me things they have "never told anyone". Sometimes it is cool - I get a lot of really interesting information(gossip). Sometimes it is a royal pain in the butt, like when I am just trying to enjoy a meal in a restaurant, or get my grocery shopping done. Also, some of the stuff I am told, I really, really didn't need to know. I probably should have been a reporter, and investigator, or a psychologist. I did think about being a psychologist, but when I realized I would have to go to college for 6 years, I changed my mind. I was only going for 4. Do you want to guess how many years I ended up going to college for my art/elementary education degrees that I am basically not using? Do you want to know how much money I could be making right now if I had gone for psychology? Let's talk about something else.

5. I like to try new things, and go new places. I have been jet skiing, parasailing, white water rafting, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, tubing, and spelunking(did not enjoy that one). I rode the thing at Kennywood that is like a bungee jump, but you don't go straight down. I have been to an indoor and outdoors shooting range. I have done improv in front of an audience (once), and people actually laughed, which was awesome! I learned to juggle at a camp, (I'm not as good as Jim). I've been to Paris, Milan, Florence, Rome, Venice, Cancun, Jamaica, Punta Cana, and various places in the U.S. If I had the money, I would travel all the time!

6. I hope you can handle this one. It's big. Really big...
My favorite color is blue. You okay? Do you need to sit down?

My Social Butterfly

Yesterday I was assaulted by so much rudeness, that this morning I was still reeling from it, so I started a blog ranting like a maniacal lunatic. The post started... "This is a test. This is just a test. Had this been an actual smackdown you would have received instructions of where to go run and hide, and a five second headstart....Maybe". But, you know what, I didn't have time to finish the post, because our friend Rachel came over for a few hours, and by the time she left, I was mostly over it. Too bad, it would have been a doosey(is that a word, and how do you spell it?). Anyway, since I am no longer emiting smoke out of the top of my head, I better just let it go. Don't worry, I'm sure someone will irritate me sometime again in the near future. Rachel cured me of my bad mood and put herself on the top of my "People I Love" list, by simply uttering one wonderful question..."Would you and Jim like to go on a date, while I babysit next Friday?" "Uh, is this a rhetorical question?"

One good thing did happen yesterday. Dylan had a playdate! One of the mom's from the Mom's Club I belong to came over with her daughter who is 3 months older than Dylan, and her son, who is 3, I believe. It was amazing! Dylan has been around this little girl a few other times, but always in groups, and he never paid any attention to her at all. Yesterday, he decided he LOVES her. The looks my little flirt was giving her! Then he walked over and hugged her! This, from a kid who, at least up to this point, was never affectionate. He hugged her again, and again, and then with such force he knocked the poor kid over. "Okay, Whoa, Mister Love, calm yourself down a bit. I know she's pretty and hip with that princess backpack, but chill". At one point, the other mom and I were talking and realized the kids were no longer in the room. Yikes! We found the 3 of them in the kitchen, sitting spread out on the floor, rolling a ball to each other. They had initiated and were playing a game together - amazing! It was then that I realized I have got to get this kid around some other children more often. He is social, and I definately want to encourage that quality.

So, we have another playdate planned with his 2nd cousins tomorrow. Another older woman - I hope he can control himself. She is related, after all.

Seriously?!

I every so bravely made the trip today to that place I hate, but somehow keep ending up at, Giant Eagle, to do some desperately needed grocery shopping. I have been known to say that I will NOT shop at Walmart, because the people there scare me. I might have to add Giant Eagle to that list. Did you ever have a day that you are convinced that alien life form does exist and is alive and living smack dab in your neighborhood? Then again, if the aliens were in Giant Eagle today, they would all be like, "Meep, Beepity, Beep. Humans are freakin' wierd! I'm outta here!"

First I came around an aisle and almost ran smack dab into an extremely well endowed woman, whose boobs were hanging almost completely out of her skin tight t-shirt (Uh, it's winter, lady). As I stared (it was impossible not to), I read her shirt. It said, "Yes, they're real, and they're fabulous". Seriously?! That amazed me on so many levels. First, that she thinks they are fabulous - trust me, in a few years she's going to need a crane to hoist those babies up to an acceptable level. Secondly, I would think she would be so sick of people looking there, that she would want to avoid attention to that area. Thirdly, she was shopping somewhere, saw that shirt, and said to herself, "I have to have that!" Amazing.

If that wasn't enough to scar me for life, what I saw on the way out, definately was. As I was walking towards a guy, he sneezed. He didn't put his hand up to cover the sneeze. He just let it rip. A huge gob of snot shot out of his nose, towards me! I am not kidding! He still had a huge snot trail hanging off his nose, and he put a finger to the other side of his nose, and BLEW it onto the sidewalk! I couldn't help myself...I went "OhmyGod! Are you kidding me?" What do you think he did? Did he stop? Apologize profusely? Turn red and rush into the store in total embarassment? Nope. He grinned at me!
Some days I wonder why I leave the house.

It's Not Easy Being Cheesy

Yesterday, I took Dylan to a party for a friend of mine. We had a good time, and Jim got some time alone to work on fixing the drawers in our bathroom. He is completely rebuilding the drawers from scratch, and it is involved, so when we got home he wanted to show me the progress he made. We were standing in the bathroom with Dylan, who was drinking from his sippy cup, while listening to our conversation.

After discussing the drawer progress, I mentioned that I would like to replace the faucet. Jim said, "You don't like it?", and I replied, "No, I think it is cheesy". The minute I said the word CHEESY, my crazy cheese loving kid released the sippy cup, dropping it on the floor, to frantically and excitedly make the sign for "Cheese". "Did someone say something about cheese?! I'm in! Let's go get some!" He kills me!

House Hunting 101

Yes, we are hoping to move soon. For anyone else who plans to move in the future, here are a few tips...

1. Start looking at houses, when your own house is not even close to the vicinity of being ready to be put on the market. Make sure walls are falling down, there are leak marks on the walls of the basement, the dust in your husband's workshop has dust on it, the studio has become a junk room/toy factory/exercise equipment mockery, the garage is a tool shed, and each and every available nook and cranny is stuffed as full as humanly possible.

2. Fall madly in love with perusing house sites, such as pittsburghmoves.com, that not only give you all the details of the house, but pretty pictures to look at of the houses.

3. Constantly add more houses to your saved list, so that by the time you get around to seeing them all, they will most definately all be sold.

4. Actually believe that the pictures on those sites truly show you the house as it appears in real life. (At one house we looked at they had conveniently cropped out the huge electrical tower in the side yard! Can you say "kid-friendly"?)

5. Keep thinking about a house after seeing it, and deciding it is not right for you. Get sad when you see that it has been sold. (We saw a house with an amazing studio/office with huge windows looking out into the yard with a pond, and a kitchen that almost brought me to tears and I don't even cook. I am still dreaming about those 2 rooms. I should mention the one car garage was detached, and after spending months at my own home, standing in the cold/snow/rain trying to buckle Dylan in his carseat as the cold air/snow/rain goes down the gap at the back of my pants, I WANT a 2 car integral garage. Oh, and also, that pond came with 3 ducks that had lived in that back yard all their lives. The owner said if we didn't want the ducks she could give them to a farm but they would most likely die. Yea, I already have a cat I don't want, let's add 3 ducks to the mix).

6. When you go to look at houses, be sure to take along a very active toddler who loves to climb up and down stairs, over and over, and over. Your realtor will love toddler wrangling while you stroll through the homes.

Seriously, it might be a while before we move! I honestly believe in the power of writing things down that you want and putting your wishes out there for the universe to sort out, so I'm going to do that here.

-3 or more bedrooms
-at least 2 bathrooms (we only have one now, which creates some "situations" quite often)
-2 car integral garage
-a room for Jim's workshop & tools, that I never have to step foot in
-a room to use as a studio/office where we can house the ridiculous amount of artistic supplies we both have, I can have a desk to write at, pay bills, etc., and there is no other junk in it
-a decent flat yard (fenced in would be awesome) for Dylan to play
-a deck would also be awesome (since we have a front and back deck now, we are spoiled in that area)
- a kitchen that we don't need to remodel (you have no idea how hard that actually is to come by!)
-a neighborhood with nice people, who actually wave hello, know our names, and maybe even become some of our closest friends!
- a good school system (one of the main reasons we are moving)
-a view of the beach (Oh, sorry, that will be the next house)

Wish us luck!

Just Another Bragging Mommy

It has been a while since I wrote about all of Dylan's adventures. I have to say, he has been amazing me daily, and some of this stuff simply has to be documented! This past month, from age 14-15 months, he has done the following...

When I go in to get him out of the crib EVERY morning, he immediately points to the flash cards. Yes, my one year old son wants to look at flash cards! Right now, you are thinking that I am one of THOSE mommies - the psychotic, overzealous, push their kids too hard kind of mommy. Let me explain. When he first discovered his love of books, the only kind of book he would show interest in was one with photographs. I had these animal flash cards that were beautiful photos, from when I taught preschool, so I figured maybe he would like looking at them. He loved those so much, that when I saw a package with 4 different flash card boxes, (Colors & Shapes, First Words, Numbers, & The Alphabet), that also had photographs along with the words, I bought those. Now, he is obsessed. If that wasn't shocking enough, when I do the First Words flash cards, he does a lot of the signs as I show him the cards! Something else I found amazing was a couple days ago, when I was preoccupied and didn't get to those darn flash cards quick enough, he opened two of the boxes himself! Later that same day, at work, the four year old girl I work with, was trying to open a box of cards and ripped it in half, and I just had to laugh.

I am so glad that I have decided to teach Dylan signs, and I have to pause to thank Burgh Baby's Mom, and especially Alexis, for inspiring me to do so. At this point, he does the sign for eat, more, please (EAT MORE PLEASE!!), milk, dog, hat, car, banana, cheese, apple, book, shoes, socks, fish, baby, plane, ball, all done, and occasionally, thank you.
When we were all sick, as Jim was leaving for work one morning, we looked at Dylan and he was signing "hat" and pointing at Jim, to tell him to wear his hat. Too cute! If I told him to wear his hat, no way, but when Dylan does, on goes the hat. If I hadn't taught him signs, I wouldn't realize just how much he understands at this point. He is often signing words we are using in our conversations, when we didn't even realize he was listening!

He still isn't saying much, though. He finally started saying mama! Before, I really think he was just messing with me. I would say, "Say Ma-Ma!", and he would grin and shout "DA-DA!" every time. So, he says dada, mama, buh(for ball), daah(for down), yes, and un (for cars or trucks). One day we were sitting on the couch, and he kept pointing, saying "Unnn!" I said "Onion?" I was going batty trying to figure out what he wanted, until I finally said "Dylan, go get the Unnnn!" He brought his blue truck over to the couch, and then I got it. Whenever we play with a car or truck, I would go "Ruunnnn"(like the cars motor revving). He can't make the "r" sound, so he says "Unnn". He went and got his dump truck, and bulldozer, and lined those up next to the blue truck, all the while saying "Unnn". I said, "Yes, those are all the Unnn's you have". Then he got up, went over to his bin of books, and took out two books that have wheels attached to them, and lined those up as well. Corrected by a one year old. Wow, it is starting early.

His newest love is playing the piano. He doesn't just sit on our lap and plunk around in one area. NO! He half stands, to get the optimum amount of oommpph when striking each and every key all the way up and down the piano! He lives for praise, so as he is playing, he is often looking at the spectators, waiting for applause.



Another thing he loves to do now is to walk in circles until he gets dizzy. I'll try to post a video of that soon. He also loves his hat. He sometimes wants to wear it in the house!

We are still working on leaving the bottle behind. He really loves his bottle, so it has been a struggle. At this point, I am only giving him one when he first wakes up, and then he gets the sippy cup the rest of the day. He is still throwing tantrums when I give it to him, but if I walk away, he usually gives in, and starts drinking. I try really hard not to laugh while he is throwing the tantrum, but it is pretty funny, so walking away is really serving two purposes!

I also have to thank Nicole, because looking at her photographs (which are awesome!), made me realize I hadn't done a photo shoot in a long time. Wow, it was tough! But, here are a couple of those, and also some snapshots I've taken recently I like..




(This last one is of my men watching the Super Bowl. Notice Dylan has his feet up, and a beverage in hand? Boys will be boys.)

Quirky But Excellent

Well, a while ago Marie tagged me to do the "Quirky Meme". When I read that I was supposed to come up with 6 quirky things about myself, I thought, "I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm totally normal. I don't have any weird quirks". But, just in case, I figured I would ask Jim. Unfortunately, I asked him during dinner, and as usual, our conversation was steered off course by a certain 15 month old. Two or three days later, I brought it up again, when Dylan was asleep in the car, and we were on our way to look at houses. Strangest thing happened... Jim started spouting off quirks like a fountain! So, whatever, apparently I'm a little quirky. Here are just the first 6 he thought of...

1. I don't untie my shoes to take them off. I always just step on the back with the toe of the other foot, and slip them off. That usually results in the heels of my shoes being pressed down. Maybe it is sheer laziness. Maybe it is hereditary - my dad does the same thing. All I know is, it drives Jim CRAZY. As unluck would have it, I can wear the same shoes as my husband, and if I do, he finds them with the backs pressed down. I bought a pair of men's slippers for myself, since I rarely find my stupid size, but Jim thinks they are his, so when he finds them with the back pressed down he gives me "the look".

2. When I watch tv, and get really into a show, I go into some sort of trance, and my mouth hangs open. When someone tries to talk to me, I often take a while to answer, because I am so In The Zone. It is a right brain thing. When I am totally using the right side of my brain, I go into The Zone, and lose track of time and place. It used to happen all the time in my art classes. I had a class right before dinner one day of the week, and my roommate used to tell people, "Don't even bother trying to talk to Jen for at least 10 minutes. She is still In The Zone." If you don't know what I'm talking about, really that sucks for you.

3. I sometimes twirl my hair around my finger. That little quirk used to drive my dad insane! I did it a lot more often then. I think I mostly just do it when I'm bored. Luckily now, I have a hand to hold, (right Jim?), so that occupies my crazy, fidgety hand with a mind of its own.

4. This one, Jim didn't even know about - wow, did that intrigue him! I had to tell him to get his mind out of the gutter, of course. When I go to a movie, I sometimes act out the parts later, when I'm alone in my car. I really don't think I have a secret desire to be an actress, so why do I do it? Who the heck knows? Cuz, I'm quirky, I guess.

5. Along that same vein, I talk to myself all the time. (They're coming to take me away, Hee, Hee, Haw, Haw.) I find that it helps me think things through. Like if I lose something, I'll say, "Okay, I remember having it when I was eating breakfast. After breakfast I..." Or, "Now, why did I walk in this room again? I came in here to get something. I was looking through my mail, and that made me think of X, which made me realize I need to X..." I often grumble aloud about stupid people, also. This one could really get me in trouble if I grumbled just a bit louder. Luckily, now that I have Dylan with me most of the time, I can pretend like I am talking to him, instead of my loony self.

6. This is another one that drives Jim nuts. I really don't know why. Doesn't everybody put their silverware they are using to eat with, back on their napkin, instead of on the table, and then steal their spouses clean napkin?

So, that's me. I'm a freak with a bunch of quirks. But, much more importantly, I am also Excellent. Sparx, Jonny's Mommy, and Pam all say so. Thanks, you guys! I live for compliments, but I'm just quirky that way.


(I'm not going to tag anyone, because everytime I do, it stresses people out, and everyone has enough stress right now!) I'm also not passing the bloggy bling along, because I think everyone I would give it to, already has it. But, hey, if you don't, feel free to grab it.)