Local

If you live in the Northwest Arkansas area, I wanted to point you over towards my friend Kristin's blog Another Gray Day.  She is helping out with a blanket/food drive for children in need in the area.  Spring Break can be a tough time for kids who depend on the school lunch program for meals.

Also, it's almost Rhea Lana time!  The sale starts this Thursday at the John Q. Hammonds Center in Rogers.  I am so excited!  I pretty much clothe the Pea with all Rhea Lana items, and I usually sell enough stuff on consignment to pay for at least half of his wardrobe.  Wa-hoo!

Really, PETA?! Really?!?

I realize that (a) I haven't posted anything over here in quite a while, (b) I haven't posted a "Jumped the Shark" Friday bit in even longer, and (c) it's not even Friday.

But it is Groundhog Day.

So all I have to say is...come on, PETA!!  Are they serious?  They want to replace Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog with a robotic animal.  And as far as I can tell, they're not kidding.

Aside from the fact that Phil is one of the most spoiled little marmots on the planet (which he has earned), I'm just not sure I could get behind celebrating "Groundhog-like Cyborg Day".

Okay, I'm done ranting.

I Really Want To Win This....

Really, really, really want.

Sunny is just so talented.  :)

The Princess & The Pea

The Pea was having a very good time with his cousin at Christmas if you can't tell.

And, yes, I realize that they're blurry.  I think I may have accidentally switched the setting on my camera to something it shouldn't be on because when we first got the camera, it took wonderful pictures, but lately, they've all been blurry.  Of course, the Pea wasn't walking when I first got the camera.

Quick Pea Pic

My friend Amy got this beautiful fall shot. I can't wait to see all her pictures! If you live in the area, she'll be doing photo sessions the afternoon of October 31st. Email me if you want details.

No Eggs for the Pea

Yep.  He's allergic.  I had a hunch after a whole lot of puking every time he ate anything with egg in it.  There's only so many times that you can say, "What a co-inky-dink!"  And yet again, I find myself thinking, "Trust your mom gut!"  The nurses and doctors brushed off my concerns the first couple times because there was no hives or anaphylaxis (thank you, God!).  But I just had this deep down feeling that he was allergic to eggs.

Looking over his list of "hidden egg items", I was a little surprised by a few of them...bologna?  Turkish delight?  (Not so much surprised that turkish delight has egg in it...although I didn't know that...as surprised that they would bother putting it on the list.)

The good news is that egg is an allergy that most kids grow out of.  The bad news is that an already overprotective mommy has now been given more reason to be.

Couple Pea pics:

Funny conversation in Chick-fil-A last Thursday:
Me:  Thank you so much!
Nice Lady Helping Me With The High Chair: Oh, you're so welcome!  You have a beautiful little boy.
Me:  Why, thank you.
NLHMWTHC: With those curls, he would make such a beautiful little girl.
Me:  We're getting them cut off tomorrow.

Cutest Video I've Seen In a Long Time

This single baby actually has talent.

Shout Out Friday

Check out my sister Ellen's Etsy shop!  Because she's kind of awesome.

She makes cartoon portraits, sculptures, kokeshi-esh peg dolls, and adoption-related what-nots.  I heard a rumor (okay, from our mother) that she's started making wedding toppers as well.  Also, she loves to do custom stuff (she did a custom painting of the Pea when he was born for his nursery, and for his birthday, she made him a little giraffe).

Also also, she's going to start making nesting dolls, and who doesn't love nesting dolls?  a curdmudgeon that no one likes, that's who.

A Bouquet of Freshly Sharpened Pencils

I love that image from "You've Got Mail".  I don't have a school-aged child yet.  It's been awhile since I've been a student (less time than you might think due to my oh-so-utilized graduate degree).  But there's just something about this time of year that sends my heart aflutter.

School supplies lined up ready to go, the smell of new textbooks (one of my favorite scents), crinkly backpacks that haven't been broken in.  I love it!  All of it!

My niece is starting pre-K tomorrow...I'm so excited for her!


On a side note, I've finally put my finger on who (what) my son's crawl reminds me of.  He crawls with both hands, one knee, and a foot.

Gollum.  (or, rather, Smeagol as he's so sweet, and I'm a geek)

Cuteness Strikes Back

It occurs to me that I promised a lightsaber pic and never delivered. I give you...the Pea-duan:


(note the lazy ton-ton in the background)

Wolverine!

The Pea seems to have an almost mutant superpower of rapid healing. He scratched his face yesterday, and by this afternoon, it was almost gone.

Cool T-shirt for a Great Cause

http://zachanderin.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-t-shirt-design.html

Some friends of friends are selling these way cool t-shirts to benefit an orphanage in Malawi.

This is the design, available in different colors:

Get a shirt, you all everybody!

Chaos

If any of you know Bill and I personally, you know that we live a fairly quiet, peaceful lifestyle.  This is helped by the Pea going to bed at 6:30, our shared love of reading and movies, and our fat lump-of-a-dog sleeping almost as much as the baby.

This week, the nephews are visiting.  They are sweet, fun children (toddler and 5 year-old).  However...in the course of one afternoon, every toy in the house was spread out across our living room.  The toddler managed to set off the carbon monoxide detector during the Pea's nap. (youch!)  At one point, five different noise-producing toys were going off at once.  And 5 year-old decided to engage the Pea in a light saber battle.

Pea's first light saber pictures to follow!

Ode to a Dying Camera

This was the last picture taken by our old camera before it went kaput a few weeks ago. I was always the lady saying, "Could you take a picture of us? You have to hold down this button a l-o-o-o-ng time." And then the person would hit the on/off switch (located ever so conveniently next to the shutter button). Pictures at night were but a blur. Action shots? What do you think?

Our new camera has a "rapid fire" button that takes a bunch of pictures in succession to make sure everyone's eyes are open...not that we'd ever need that feature (***cough...Pea***). It even has a feature that detects when a person is smiling and automatically takes the picture. I AM NOT KIDDING. This camera could revolutionize my life. Until it breaks in four years.

It Starts Early

What is it with boys and technology?  The Pea is currently eschewing colorful blocks with boingy things inside, a light up ball with sing-along songs and the always-popular dog's collar in a furious attempt to reach and click the computer mouse.

(FYI:  It took me approximately 5 minutes to type the above two sentences one-handed.  The Pea is now down for a nap....ahhh)

There is going to be one thing I miss this first summer of momhood (okay, other than sleep):  movies.  Bill and I are both big movie buffs.  In years past, we would go to every summer blockbuster, sleeper hit, so-so matinee.  Everything.  Now, our movie schedule is limited to grandparent visits.  It's not even that we won't eventually see all the movies.  It's just that waiting in line at Redbox or Blockbuster isn't quite the same as munching popcorn and Coke in stadium seating.  We each have a list of a few non-negotiables this summer...must be seen in theater, preferrably in the first week of release.  Harry Potter, Star Trek (already pulled that one off), G.I. Joe (for Bill).  If I get really brave, I may attempt Up with the Pea.  Maybe.

 

First 2 of 3 teeth he's cut in the last 48 hours

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Crying

Things have been a little rough the past couple days at Chez Pea.  The Pea is almost exactly 9 months old, and several things are rocking his little world right now:

1. teething
2. working on crawling
3. frustration that he is not able to crawl wherever he wants right this moment with no one to stop him.  ever.
4. the dropping of his 3rd nap with his 2nd nap not adequately spaced late enough from the 1st nap to get him all the way to bedtime (naps have been my nemesis since day one).
5. simultaneous extreme emotions toward the dog.  LOVE!  ANGER!  "COME NEAR ME!  DON'T LICK ME!  EAT MY PUFFS!  DON'T DISTURB ME WHILST I'M EATING!" 
6.  horrible itchy eczema behind his knees and in the crooks of his arms.  yet when i try to put the Rx cream on it...treachery, woman!

As I said to my mom earlier this week...he's just got a lot of living to do right now.

And I must run.  He just got up from a very short nap, confirming my suspicions that this is going to continue to be the day from the Dark Bowels of Hades.

Love, love, love

I heart this website. I can't decide which is my favorite. Either the bladder ("urine for a treat") or the hypothalamus ("glandmaster flash"). I just want to cuddle them. Oh, wait! I can. And check out their blog. It's actually pretty educational.

The Accidental Thief

Well, this was one of those things that as soon as it happened, I said, "Well, there's a blog post right there."

I went shopping on Tuesday and tried on some tankinis at Old Navy. Unfortunately, with me nursing and not ACTUALLY being a 14 y/o girl, the styles they had there made me look like a hoochie mama. So I ended up getting a really cute one that I didn't have time to try on at Target later (I went to go find a picture of it online, but dang, there are a lot of tankinis at Target dot com, so just trust me, it was cute).

Okay, so I got home, changed my pants, and lo and behold, I'm still wearing some black Old Navy bikini bottoms. Yes, I felt very stupid, and yes, I did return them. The guy (yes, I had to explain this to a male cashier) was very friendly about it, but secretly, I'm sure he was thinking I was a lunatic.

TGIF

I was travelling all last week to visit Bill's family (baby + 4 hour delay on plane ride - naps = NOOOOOOOO!!!), hence my absence. Whenever I go too long without blogging, everything starts to seem like a good potential blog post. Then, I sit down in front of the computer and ((blank stare)). We got some really good pictures. I also downloaded all Bill's parents' pictures from their camera from the hospital and our visit last fall. It was so neat to see pictures from those first few weeks that I'd never seen before.

While sitting at the airport (and by "sitting", I mean "pacing in front of Gate D32 for 4 hours while Delta repeatedly promised it would be 'another 20 minutes or so' looking for a spot where I could feed my son without becoming an exhibitionist"), I started thinking about things that I've never done. Not like "go to Paris" things. Just things that I've never done, whether I have any real interest in doing them in the future or not. The thing that got me started thinking about it when I realized, riding to the airport, that I've been with my husband for 6 years, and I've never driven in Atlanta (where his family lives) nor do I really have a desire to. On the drive, we passed two wrecks and a recliner sitting in the middle of I-75 that had just fallen off someone's truck. I'm sure it was about to cause a third accident.

Things I've Never Done:

1. Driven in Atlanta

2. Watched "Tommy Boy"

3. Mowed the Lawn
4. Given Sonny a bath

5. Swum out further than waist deep in the ocean

6. Pulled an all-nighter

7. Juggled

8. Bought anything from the Swann's man

9. Run more than a mile

This is really one of those infinite lists, so I'm just going to stop.

Bragging on my Hubby

So how wonderful is Bill? I just feel so blessed that God brought us together and blessed by his love for me. A short list of examples from the last few days:

1. He's willing to play Tetris with me even though he knows I'm going to skunk him 9 times out of 10. (We have a pretty strict "no letting the other person win" rule in our household)

2. He encourages me in creative pursuits even though he knows that, as a result, my desk is just going to get messier and messier.

3. He didn't get mad at me this morning when I woke up super-cranky because our jerkwad dog woke the Pea up early by barking...instead...

4. He went and got me Chick-fil-A chicken minis and picked up the Twilight DVD at Target ("Wow...there were a lot of teenage girls there." His only other later comment, after downloading the special online features was, "Please don't make me watch this." And I won't. That's a promise.)


On a side note (when do I ever blog and not have a side note?), this meme is making the rounds, and though he's not quite verbal yet, I thought it would be fun to have a little imaginary conversation with the Pea:

1. What is something mom always says to you?

The Pea: "Are you hungry?"


2. What makes mom happy?

P: Feeding me.


3. What makes mom sad?

P: Going too long without feeding me.


4. How does your mom make you laugh?

P: Pretty much anything that involves me seeing her one minute...and then disappearing...and then reappearing as if by magic!


5. What was your mom like as a child?

P: Right now, she seems to only exist in my presence.


6. How old is your mom?

P: Old enough to make milk, thank goodness.


7. How tall is your mom?

P: About 3 times as tall as me.


8. What is her favorite thing to do?

P: Feed me.


9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

P: Pump so that Daddy can feed me.


10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

P: Do people become famous for feeding other, smaller people?


11. What is your mom really good at?

P: Producing milk.


12. What is your mom not very good at?

P: Getting me to like green beans


13. What does your mom do for a job?

P: I'm pretty sure it involves milk in some way...perhaps producing it?


14.What is your mom's favorite food?

P: She seems to put a lot of brown, sweet stuff in her mouth that smells like the nectar of the gods. I heard her refer to it as...what was it? Oh, yes, chocolate.


15.What makes you proud of your mom?

P: She's really a champion milk-producer in my opinion.


16. If your mom were a Cartoon character, who would she be?

P: ???
me: Cartoon characters are those thing on the "classical baby" DVD that Aunt Julie and Uncle Mark gave you for Christmas.
P: Okay. The dancing sheep then.


17. What do you and your mom do together?

P: Pretty much everything at this point.


18. How are you and your mom the same?

P: We're both at the top of a bell-shaped distribution of height for our age.
me: You know what a bell-shaped distribution is?
P: Of course. I am a genius.
me: Well, I know, but still...


19. How are you and your mom different?

P: Well, only one of us can produce milk...three guesses as to who and the first two don't count.


20. How do you know your mom loves you?

P: She tells me so. And she produces milk for me.


21. What does your mom like most about your dad?

P: Seeing what a good daddy he is to me.
me: Okay, yes, I do like that a lot.


22. Where does your mom like to go?

P: Bed seems to be a favorite of hers.


23. What does your mom really want?

P: She's got me and Daddy, what more could she ask for?
me: I couldn't agree more.