Plech.

I've asked a bunch of friends how I'll know when the Pea gets sick. They have all assured me that I'll just know. (With the rotovirus, it was pretty much a no-brainer when I saw the pile of poopy diapers stacking up.) Well, I think the Pea is a little under the weather with a cold. He's just been fussy, ***clingy***, and not sleeping well during his naps for the past couple days (this morning, he actually went down for his 2nd nap at 10:15--not good for his schedule, but, hey, if he needs the sleep...). Then, this morning, I noticed his nose was a little runny and (to put it politely as my friend Rachel does) his stomach "released their contents" into his diaper. Thankfully, no fever. And, other than the rough diapers, I would probably just think he's teething, but I've never heard of teething causing diarrhea. Of course, I also started a new food yesterday...carrots...if he had a food allergy, would the gastrointestinal impact be immediate (i.e. yesterday)?

Onto a more pleasant topic...two separate people have recently told me about this slow cooker website. And I'm SO excited about it. I've already printed off a few recipes. I love using my slow cooker, and I like that she's really honest about whether a particular recipe is good or kind of lackluster or blatantly gross.

Oh, and Happy First Day of Spring!

Things I Like to Eat While Watching "The Biggest Loser"

-double stuff oreos
-Blue Bell mint chocolate chip ice cream bars
-anything with cheese on top
-chips and salsa I get the multigrain chips, so I guess that one's not so bad
-crescent rolls

I know this is horrible, but watching the Biggest Loser (and, boy, I'm addicted...I'm so torn between wanting Tara and Kristen to win), I always get cravings for horrible foods.  Bad me.  Bad, bad me.

And I can only tell myself that I'm breastfeeding so I can eat whatever I want for a very short while longer.

Spinoffs that SHOULD have been

A few pics from this weekend (and, yes, I put the Pea and Bill in matching outfits).

Also, a word of explanation on the Michael Jackson mitten thing going on...I cut the Pea finger while trimming his nails, and he was bleeding everywhere. What a mess.

Okay, Bill and I were discussing this last night...80's spinoff shows that should have been made but never were. I came up with Nick and Mallory from Family Ties getting married and starting a family. A-ay!  How funny would that have been? And then, this morning, I thought of following Ben Seaver to college. Not as funny, but there could have been some potentially moving "Very Special" episodes. I'd give both of those ideas a solid 10 episodes each before cancellation.

What about you? What spinoff would you have watched for half a season?

new favorite thing

blue bell mint chocolate chip ice cream.

sorry no caps.  typing one-handed for delicious reasons.

(Potential) Shark Jumpin' Friday

First off, for those of you who didn't know that I'm a big dorky Harry Potter fan, yes, yes I am.  I know...big surprise.

Second.  Oh,dear.  Bad e-a-r-l-y reviews on the upcoming movie.  (Of course, it was in The Sun, so...)  It's just that the HP books and movies are one of Bill's and my "things".  When we FIRST started dating, he hadn't read the books, and I made this offhand comment about, "Oh, you should read them...they're wonderful!"  And, of course, he ran right out and bought every one of them (it was right before Order of the Phoenix came out, I think) and devoured them in a week.  And he did indeed find them delightful.  And we've had fun HP date nights whenever the movies have come out ever since.  (That, and he knew that for the first 3 days after the books came out, he was not to expect me to cook, clean, or otherwise make eye contact lest I give away the plot.)  I feel a little better that the source for the rumor was The Sun. I mean, come on.

I would just be so sad if the series jumped the shark the SECOND TO THE LAST movie.

Can't be worse than the last two Pirates of the Carribean movies.

Wow.

They've found a pink dolphin in a Louisiana lake.  I'm not kidding.  It's for real.  Apparently, it's an albino.  And. it's. pink.

Plech.

You know you're having a rough day on the old mom-o-meter when after a blowout diaper, you don't just have to change your child's outfit...you have to change yours as well.

And, on a cuter note, I give you...Sweet Potatoes!

Dang, Blogger's being stupid with the photo. I'll have to post it later.

(He really liked them.)

Double Oi.

Okay, again I'm sorry for the lackluster post frequency.  The Pea has come down with a stomach virus (hopefully, we're hitting the tail end of it...no pun intended).  He actually had the rotovirus vaccine, so I'm hoping that it will be a mild case.  So far, it hasn't been too bad.

On a completely unrelated side note, my friend Holley has written a book!  It's a devotional for women.  You can read about it here.  She has a link where you can purchase it.  I got a little sneak peek at it on Saturday, and it looks really good!!

Oi.

Ever have one of those weeks?

Okay, more like two weeks?

I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say that it's been a bit of a rough month so far. The Pea is well (although we've been going through a rough patch in the ol' sleep department). He just started rice cereal and LOVES it. As in, yell-at-me-when-the-spoon-is-not-full-and-headed-towards-his-mouth loves it. We'll see how his introduction to veggies goes. I'll keep a camera nearby just in case it's hilarious. It's funny, but there's this little part of me that's sad that he's started solids. It's kind of the first step of independence, so while the biggest part of me is cheering, "yay!", there's a little part of me that's sighing, "aww..."

Any help here would actually be appreciated: what's a good veggie to start out with. My friend Ashley was going to lend me a book on it, but I'm always curious about others' opinions. Perhaps peas...it would seem appropriate.

And the Pea's waking up from a (two hour!!!) nap. Gotta run and get the oil changed and tires rotated on Bill's car.

Karen out.

Shark Jumpin' Friday

Okay, before I get to the Jump Rant, I had to share this for all my fellow math geek friends out there (courtesy of my sister Sara):

It makes me happy.

I think Facebook Notes may have jumped the shark. I'm getting upwards of 10 a day (and I'm guilty of circulating them myself). It was fun coming up with 25 Random Things about myself and reading others' lists. And the Memories one has been a fun walk down nostalgia lane with some of my old friends. But then came the "First Born" meme--do all my 200-something facebook friends really need to know how long it took me to get pregnant with The Pea and whether I had pain medication during labor? Much less whether it was "natural" or a c-section. (Congrats to all my friends who had to have c-sections and therefore, apparently, had "fake" deliveries.) And what about the second born? Third? What if your first child was adopted? Sigh.

Okay, Seriously, How Cute is This Kid?

A Peek Into My Bedtime Routine

Time/Setting--last night, later than I should have been up, bathroom vanity


Me (staring intently in the bathroom mirror at my nose, moving head slowly from side to side): [silence of intense staring]

Bill (walks in, sees me staring intently at my nose): Ummm, hey, what are you doing?

Me: Staring at my nose. Is it sparkling?

Bill (sensing a possible trap): Is it...what?

Me: Sparkling. I think it's sparkling.

Bill (looking intently at my nose): I...yes. Actually, it is.

Me: ???

Bill: I think it's glitter. Were you touching something with glitter today?

Me: ??? no.


Yeah, I've thought it through, and I've got nothing. It did remind me of the time when Bill and I were dating, and I asked him if I had something on my face. Without skipping a beat, he replied, "Only beauty." See, that's why I love my snarky husband. That, and he isn't bothered by my inherent sparkliness.


Oh, ALSO, if this comes to fruition, I won't have words to express my joy. But I will have a dance to express it, and it will be Corky St. Clair's (a dance which my roommate Jenny and I perfected in grad school)...and it will probably involve a stool.

Shark Jumpin' Friday

Okay...public health and safety has officially jumped the shark when ferret poop is declared an "effective weapon against drug abuse". I should clarify that I called the pharmacist yesterday to ask about safely disposing of some old pills because I know you're not supposed to flush them anymore, and he said to put old coffee grounds in the container with them and just toss it. So I thought...hmmm, perhaps the acidity of the grounds dissolves the pills. I googled it. Nope. It's just gross. That's the point.



But then, I thought about it, and children are not deterred from gross things like coffee grounds or ferret poop. Quite the opposite. Many children (boys in particular) are drawn to said gross objects. So I'm wondering if maybe Coke would dissolve the pills. It dissolves nails overnight.

Diaper Dilemma

Okay, moms, aunts, and grandmas out there...here's my question of the hour:

The Pea is currently in-between sizes in his diapers. The 1-2's are a smidge too small (we've been having leakage, especially at night...I'll leave it at that). The 2's are too big swallowing him whole. My current strategy is to put him in the smaller size during the day when he doesn't get as wet and then just wrap the bigger ones around him as tight as I can at night. But there's still a little gappage, especially if he squirms around a lot. And then, there's the bummer that you can't buy size 2 at Sam's. They jump from 1-2 to 3. The "3" package says 16-28 pounds. Pbuhh!

So my question is...what did you do during the "in-between" times? What I'm doing or something else?

Love/Hate

There are so many things in life that I realize I have a strong love/hate relationship with. For instance, my table top grill (I'd call it a George Foreman, but it's not actually that brand). Love that it cooks food quickly and well. Hate the cleanup. Biggest Loser...love to see healthy life transformations. Hate that they stretch out people-stepping-onto-a-scale into an epic 45 minute-long drama.

Baby products have added a whole new dimension to this:

Pampers....love, love, love that they don't leak. Hate that they are so dang expensive.

Another big example is the Pea's baby monitor. I got an Angelcare monitor that detects movement in his crib and an alert goes off if after 20 seconds if no movement is detected. Normally, it works great, but if he squirms into a corner of his crib and is in a really deep sleep state, occasionally the alarm goes off, and I wake up in a panic. Usually, the beeping itself will wake him up a little, and the alarm turns off by itself. But it just drives me crazy that the device that is supposed to help me sleep better with peace of mind ends up sending my pulse racing and my adrenaline pumping, keeping me from falling back asleep. Still, 98% of the time, it's great, hence the "love" part of the relationship.

And, oh, the toys. Love that the Pea is entertained by the mirror that has a mouse that runs around the edge and is inexplicably shaped like an elephant. Hate the annoying songs that it plays.

DO NOT WANT!!

Ergghhh.  We are being hit by "the ice storm of the decade".  I'm going to go curl up in bed and pray that the electricity doesn't go out.

Random Cravings

So this is odd, but I am currently (like, for the last week or so) experiencing this overwhelming craving for brown sugar.  What on earth?  It reminded me of making cookies growing up--my dad always used to wander in and "help" by picking the lumps out of the brown sugar bag.  I was probably 12 before I realized that he just likes eating brown sugar.  So at least I know where I get it.

Why...why can't I crave something like broccoli or carrots?  Though, to be fair, when I first got pregnant, I craved brussels sprouts.

I'm curious...what random things do you find yourself occasionally craving?

Shark Jumpin' Friday

Okay, this post has been brewin' in the old noggin for quite a while now. I need to address the Twilight shark jump issue. I realize that most of my readers are probably not Twilight fans (and let me clarify that I consider myself a lolfan as, yes, I do recognize the complete and utter WRONGNESS of the whole "high school girl falls for vegetarian, mind-reading, slightly controlling vampire and wants to join his uber-cool family by becoming a vampire herself to the chagrin of her werewolf best friend" plot. But, oh, the sparkling and the fursploding, and yeah, I pretty much think Cleolinda's recaps of the books are as good, nay, better than the actual Twilight series).

Which is why my jaw dropped in horror when I saw that Dakota Fanning is in talks to play a minor (but key) character in the upcoming New Moon movie. All I can do is just shake my head and say, "no, no, no." I don't know what it is that irks me about that chick, but I just don't like her acting. I guess that I'm just bothered by all those child actors that are 12 going on 27. And I always cringe when the younger sibling gets in on the game because that just seems like a huge red flag that mommy and daddy are obsessed with fame.

But it got me thinking about the EW review of Breaking Dawn (the final book). ***spoiler alert if you haven't read it yet and think you may at some point*** The reviewer wrote the following..."And it's when Bella, suffering from morning sickness and gestating a vampire, starts vomiting 'a fountain' of blood, that Meyer jumps the shark." Really, EW reviewer? Really?? Not when the teenage girl fell for the sparkly, gorgeous, mind-reading, controlling, vegetarian vampire much to the chagrin of her hunky, brooding, equally controlling werewolf best friend? Because women actually do vomit in labor. But I don't know any who are in love with vampires.

It just really reminded me of the time in college when I was watching "Face/Off" with a group of friends (a movie about people removing and switching their faces and bodies), and during a scene at the end, one of them falls off the side of a boat, grabs a chain hanging off said boat and starts to barefoot waterski alongside the boat. My friend Chris scoffed and said, "Now THAT couldn't happen". Body switching? Sure! Barefoot waterskiing? NEVER!

Random Thoughts

Just a few random ramblings that have crossed my mind over the past few days:

Okay, I'm not much of a brand snob, especially when it comes to clothing.  And especially especially when it comes to baby clothing that the Pea is going to grow out of in a few months anyway.  But I have discovered that I am a sucker for Ralph Lauren Baby.  It's just sooooo soft, and I love how simple the designs are.  I just get so sick of otherwise cute baby clothing that the makers then inexplicably feel the need to applique some bizarre animal participating in a random sport on... like a platypus playing badminton or something.  I can't count the number of little boy outfits have a bear driving a car on them.  And I really didn't get the whole baby layette decorations.  Each of his little gowns and jammies was like the start of a corny joke (so a pig, a dog, and a duck get on a tractor...)  It's nice to have clothing with just one animal on it, a tasteful little polo pony.  Okay, enough ranting about that.

Words I never thought would cross my mouth, spoken less than 15 minutes ago:  "Was that a toot-toot or a poop-poop?"

AND...the world's most traumatic giving-up-the-pacifier story I have ever heard:
I was discussing the topic with one of my friends yesterday.  Some friends of ours came up with a very creative ceremony to send the pacifier away via balloon for babies to use (only the balloon got stuck in the tree across the road, but their daughter never noticed...ha ha!).  My friend mentioned that another friend of hers had her daughter give her paci to my friend's son who is a little older than the Pea.  Effective and the little girl gets to feel good about herself.  BUT...apparently, another friend of hers at work had a rough Christmas because she and her husband told their child that "baby Jesus needed her pacifier so she needed to give it up".  So the little girl spent the whole of the holidays angry with baby Jesus.  And Merry Christmas to you, too.

That's just wrong on so many levels that I don't even know where to start.

How Much is That Doggy in the Window?

Well, despite the fact that the Pea and Sonny are starting to interact a little more (if by interaction, you count Sonny licking the Pea while the Pea tries to grab Sonny's tongue), the dog is driving me crazy.

It's not that he's acting that much differently than he always has (albeit, a little more high-strung). It's just that right now, anything that comes between me and a little more sleep is the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. Dog-licking his paws in bed...erghhh. Dog opening the Pea's nursery door and waking him in the middle of naps/just after he's gone to sleep for the night...arghhh. Dog scratching holes in the carpet at random odd times....aigghhhh!!! Dog peeing in the hallway as I'm getting ready to finally crawl into bed...ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

So we're medicating him. He's had problems with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive behaviors for awhile. It's just finally gotten bad enough lately to warrant a discussion with his vet. And I realize that the Dog Whisperer would be shaking his alpha dog head at me right now in disappointment, but y'know what? I'm not a dog trainer. I never will be. I don't want to get rid of our dog because he's sweet and wonderful in so many other ways. But something's gotta give.