the every day stuff

It’s funny how the memories that I want to bottle up and save so that in later years I can take the top off, take a little sniff and be transported back to that moment aren’t necessarily the ones that I can blog about, point to and have the whole world sigh with me in understanding.


Last night for example. Ethan is teething [and as a side note if you’re not a parent and want an idea of what living with a teething toddler would be like, just imagine putting something rather sharp in your shoe and walking around like that for several days. Then just when you’re getting used to the constant pain, go ahead and stick a fork in your eye for the grand finale. Then the next morning however, instead of being in even more pain, everyone wakes up feeling fine and life continues until the next little white enamel razor begins to erupt.]

So, back to my story, even though he wasn’t feeling well he went down for the night pretty easily around 7:45. It was a short-lived victory. A little after nine I was falling in and out of dream-land (mostly in) when he started crying. When I went in to get him, it took me 10 minutes of talking and rubbing his head to get him to slow his sobbing enough to crawl over where I could reach into the crib and get him. This is not typical. Normally his crying is more of a whiney thing and all he wants is to be in mommy’s arms.

If there was ever a disadvantage of having a child who sleeps through the night, it’s that on the rare occasion that he wakes up before morning, he is convinced that it IS morning and no amount of convincing or denying him the morning routine is going to change his mind. For Ethan, morning means heading straight to mommy and daddy’s room for some milk and cuddling, and usually falling back asleep for a few minutes or a few hours – depending on the day. He makes his wishes clear by repeating over and over “milk-milk….daddy…milk-milk” and if it’s taking too long “bed-bed”. I held out on him for a little while but finally the dad took pity on his little man, vacated his video game spot in the bedroom and sent us in to lay down.

With the Motrin kicking in and his world set back on its axis again, Ethan was asleep in a matter of minutes, sprawled across the middle of the bed with only his feet strategically touching my back. When Darrell came in an hour later I decided to risk moving him back to bed, and surprisingly we were successful. Darrell carried him and I followed to make sure he settled in okay. And right then, standing there in his room, listening to his breathing return to normal as he settled in, I knew this was one of the ones I wanted to save forever. Not because teething is so much fun or I felt like such a good mother at the moment (quite the opposite, really). There was just something indescribably awesome about standing there together with our helpless, hurting little man and knowing that we’d gotten him through, at least for the moment and we'd done it together.

I know I've been absent from the whole blogging scene. I’ve just looked back and realized just how much I have failed to write about and it feels weird to jump back in "in the middle" but if I try to catch up I'll never start again.

Two Little

We had our ultrasound this morning, and happily found out that Ethan is going to be a big brother. 

Here are the ultrasound pictures.  The first pictures is the one with the "goods" (they're circled) and the next is a view of the baby's face looking at you and waving.  It didn't scan as well as I would like.  The third is a close-up of a foot, and then the legs crossed kind of at the ankle.

I guess I haven't blogged much about this little guy yet. (I haven't blogged much at all though, have I?)  He was a slight surprise (though not an unwelcome one) so it took a while to figure out his due date --May 1-- and get the good news out.  We had to absorb it ourselves first!  I've been calling him squishy (think Finding Nemo).

Little Squishy's weight was estimated at 11 ounces today, which is exactly on for gestational age.  The tech said everything looked fine to her and we'll hear the doctor's final determination within a few weeks. I expect nothing but good news.

 

 

 

Salvation Army Pennies

Tonight I hurried through the walmart door to get Ethan out of the cold, passing the Salvation Army Bell Ringer with barely a glance.  And I felt guilty.  Especially when I realized that everyone around me was doing the same thing.  The thin, older gentleman with a scruffy face and worn clothes just kept ringing and smiling and greeting, but no one was greeting him back. 

I started wondering what must motivate the Salvation Army volunteers and I realized I have no idea, and want to find out.  But mostly I was thinking about what we're teaching our children when we have no time to stop and dig a few pennies out of our pockets for the less fortunate.  I looked down and my rosy cheeked, bundled, obvlivious little one-year old and knew that he had no idea.  I knew that he would have no idea what was going on if I had stopped.  But what stopped me, was the fear that next year I would be looking at my two year old and thinking same thing, and feeling but ignoring the same guilt.  And the year after that, a three year old and so on.

So, even though he had no idea what I was talking about, as we started our grocery shopping adventure, I had a little talk with Ethan.  I told him about the people who needed our help, and promised that on the way out of the store we would stop, dig some change of out mommy's wallet and I would show him how it all worked.

And we did.

Freezing cold though it was, Ethan smiled, waved and watched as I poured a handful of change into the red bucket and exchanged holiday greetings.  But I think he understood the bell-ringer's enthusiasm, and the way the air seemed to change a little as he waved goodbye and we hurried to the car in the crisp wind, high on the feeling of holiday giving and the anticipation of the holidays.

I think we started a little tradition tonight.  I can't wait until he is old enough to proudly put his own pennies in the bucket all by himself, and can experience all of the joy that such a simple act can bring.  I hope that Salvation Army Pennies are only the beginning of developing him into a generous, caring and unselfish little man.

There's nothing like being a mommy...

Really.  There's nothing like:

• ...getting your nose quite forcefully wiped with the (formerly clean) sock that someone just noisily blew his own into.
• ...being fed goldfish after goldfish and watching his joyful smile as you crunch each one.
• ...sitting in the walmart aisle for 20 minutes playing with walk/ride toys trying to figure out which one he likes best.
• ...getting bopped in the head with a big roll of birthday wrapping paper that he insists on holding.
• ...getting a slightly slobbery but totally unexpected baby kiss.
• ...waking up 45 minutes before the alarm and not being allowed to go back to sleep until you're both fully dressed, sitting on the couch with baby and you both fall asleep while taking 'just a minute' to cuddle.
• ...hearing "Momom" come out of his mouth, whether he wants something or is just stating a fact.
• ...watching him head to the kitchen with a diaper and feeling your heart swell with pride that he's picking up on the correct use of the trash can.  And then following to find him dipping it in the dog water.

All of these snippets have ben brought to you from our day today... and it's not even over!

Teeny Baby Pancakes

It's such a well-known fact that it's become cliche: at some point, kids decide they're ashamed of their parents and want nothing to do with them.  Of course, I'm going to be an exception to the rule.  But, today while I was cooking Ethan breakfast and singing him a made-up song about 'Little Teeny Baby Pancakes' I started to get an inkling of why I too would be that parent someday.

For now I'm content to sing him silly songs and watch him bounce his little teeny baby bottom up and down on his little teeny baby legs while I do.

And, we're back - The obligatory Introduction

I'm not sure this blog needs a lot of explaination. It's my long-overdue way of continuing to blog after a semi-traumatic privacy invasion event over on The Diary Of A Bean. Although, expecting privacy on a semi-public blog is a bit odd, I just didn't expect it to be found. I irresponsibly placed the link in a location where it was found by someone who isn't invited into my personal life.

SO I don't know if this is the best solution but I've made a new account and imported the old one over here.  Like the old one, this blog is public but the link isn't published and it shouldn't be searchable. I do encourage my friends to share it with friends. I don't intend to post a lot of secrets here, and I'll try to refrain from posting anything that will upset the people who aren't my friends...

The matter of the name: The name of this blog will probably change again couple of times. I've put of starting it for so long because I didn't know what to call it. Maybe I'll should have a contest for the best name.

The Blog is Dead

Or so it seems, right?

I have been away for so long. The increased security has made it difficult for people to read, and thus discouraging for me to bother writing when I know no one may even read it anyway.

It's not that nothing has happened though. Oh no. So much has happened. So much that when I think about trying to catch up it gets discouraging, and I find even less motivation to write. So... the lazy Blogger's solution?

Lists. Again.

Florida.

Disney, Universal Orlando - the whole works.

It was awesome.

We'll go back.

Never again in July.

Summer is over.

Girls have gone back to their mom's.

The weather is changing (amazingly enough. Usually Fall doesn't arrive until Halloween.)

Ethan is 10 months old.

He is Amazing.

He has 4 teeth.

He crawls (Finally...the commando crawl has served him well all this time.)

He eats "table food" as much as we will let him.

He says "momomomom" and "dadadadada" more specifically each day.

He pulls up and cruises along everything.

He 'facebooks' almost as much as mom and dad do.

Can you believe this kid??

A Day in the Life

Dear Ethan,

 

Your mommy is lousy.  For some reason, I just realized that I haven’t updated your baby book in quite a while.  Your first tooth, sitting up on your own and your first real big-boy food are as of yet undocumented on real paper.  Even the sticker from your six month checkup is still in (a very safe place in) my purse.  I mean, just yesterday I saw you pull yourself up to a semi-standing position for the first time, and I didn’t run home and write it down.  In fact, I didn’t even put it up on the little blog that I originally started just for you, to prevent this very thing from happening.  Instead as soon as I picked you up we had to go to the library, pick up the girls and get them a snow-cone (which you thought was awesome for a few minutes before it made your mouth cold and you started yelling at me).  When we got home we played together and watched the new Signing Time DVD we got at the library, I cooked dinner and mopped part of the kitchen floor (while you played in your jumper and yelled at me for leaving you alone), then we ate.  Then daddy got home and even though you played with him for a while you were already very tired (and started yelling at me again.)  So instead of giving you a bath like I planned, I put you to bed, which was still later and took much longer than I planned. Even though you could barely keep your eyes open you were intent on fighting sleep, (and did a bit more yelling.)  I’m sure you’re amazed that once you were finally asleep I still didn’t go straight for the baby book.  As much as I love hanging out with you, I was just relieved to have a minute of peace and quiet so I hung out with daddy for a little while before I realized how late it was and fixed your bottles so that I could go to sleep myself.

 

Today though I had this scary daydream about you bringing me your mostly empty baby book and asking me why I never bothered to fill it out, so I’m going to try really hard to make sure I get it done.  But maybe you could do your part and not yell at me while I’m doing it?  Thanks, that would be great.

 

Love,

 

Mommy 

 

 

Where Bailey Goes....

Because they are totally buds.

Two Words

Disney. World.

Okay. This is obviously going to be a post that's more than two words. But those are the most important two. For years we have discussed taking the girls to Disney but we've never been able to either come up with or justify the large chunk of cash it would take.

It all started during the superbowl when Darrell saw a commercial for the Universal Heros Sweepstakes. (I don't know if anyone remembers the one with the kid going through the streets in the superman cape.) Well, sometime around April I think he got an e-mail that he was a winner of a trip for four to Universal Studios in Orlando. Round trip airfare, hotel and park tickets. Well, after lots of waiting for news, we finally got a letter with details and Universal helped us set up our travel dates. They kindly gave us the dates we requested, even though they didn't fall in the 8 week notice they require and what's more, they set up our airfare so that we can stay in Orlando for an entire week. This will enable us to spend a few days at the Universal Parks and then head on over to Disney.

Now, I know that sounds a little wrong, but we fully intend to enjoy Universal Studios. We'll go to the parks and play in the pool and spend many, many dollars on their wonderful food, I'm sure. But it would be a travesty to be so close and not go see the wonderful world of Disney.

So, after we've soaked up all we can at Universal, we're going to get in a cab and head over to Disney World. We've booked our rooms and paid for our meal plan. We're slowly starting to map out our itinerary.

We're so stinkin' excited.

And so very, very blessed.

Tipping the pizza guy

So Saturday night we decided to order pizza, which is not so different than any other weekend.  We paid with a check card but I had a couple of bucks in my wallet so I got one out for the tip.  I distinctly remember it being a crisp, new bill because it was kind of thick and hard to separate from the others of its kind.  Sunday morning Darrell asked Bailey to run out and take the pizza boxes to the trash, and seconds later she was back in the house yelling ‘look what I found on the ground!’  It was a crispy new dollar bill that had been loosely crumpled and she was so excited about it that she’d dumped the pizza boxes on the ground and had to go back to retrieve them once she calmed herself. 

 

Darrell’s speculation is that the pizza guy, who apparently gave a bit of a dirty look when handed the dollar, crumpled it and tossed it away.  I hope that’s not the case and the poor guy just missed his pocket as he was putting it away.  But the fact remains that the dollar I gave him seems to have somehow ended up on the ground (either that or a really weird coincidence took place on our front porch.)  And the question is now on my mind.  How much is an appropriate pizza delivery tip?  We have always tipped a dollar usually plus the silver change.  (IE if it’s 18.75 we give the guy a $20 and tell him no change.)  I figure that since the pizza place is already tacking on a $2.00 delivery charge (Actually that’s the low end of the spectrum) they should be responsible for giving their delivery personnel a decent wage.  If we order pizza and it’s sleeting, or the guy has to brave a tornado to get it to us we gladly bump it up to at least $2 depending on the level of peril he had to endure during his journey. 

 

If I’m wrong, someone set me straight – please.

 

Honestly I could be stuck in a time-warp where a $1 delivery tip is parallel to leaving two pennies on the table for a bad waitress.  I’d be the first to admit that I’m still not really used to how much things cost these days – I get rudely jerked back to reality every time I ‘pick up a couple of things for dinner’ at the grocery store and make a $50 dent in my checking account. 

 

And lastly, I have to say that if this alleged act did occur, I would find it despicable.  I think any person who is busy working for a living deserves a certain amount of my respect and I wouldn’t ever talk down to or in any way be purposely offensive to them based solely on their station.  However, I would find it incredibly offensive if a person holding the title of pizza delivery agent thought him or herself too good for my $1 tip.  =) 

 

PS - I know it’s all hypothetical because we don’t know what happened.  It just got me thinking, and when I think, I ramble.  What an unfortunate discovery for the suckers who have made it to the end of this post and are thinking they will never get that five minutes of their life back.  My apologies.  To the rest… how much do you tip?

Father's Day

Of course today is Father's day. I know it's all about Darrell but it's kind of a particularly cool day for me considering I now have the most precious gift, AKA Ethan, to thank him for. The girls and I shopped for an OU polo that he's been wanting, and I had also picked up a shirt and tie that he'd had his eye on (which he discovered on his own even before they leaked the secret to him. I was notorious in my family because of my knack for guessing/discovering gifts. I have nothing on Darrell.) I feel like that was a woefully small offering compared to what he deserves. However, to compensate I did pick up an ice cream cake (his request) and managed to successfully put a big breakfast on the table. He requested french toast which I had never made for him (and required an early morning trip to the store to find the right bread after I realized my misdirection yesterday) and all the regular breakfasty things like scrambled eggs and hashbrowns and bacon.

Darrell's Dad made an appearance after church and we cooked out. He's not always overly involved when it comes to family so we actually haven't seen him for a couple of months. I'd say it was a mostly pleasant visit but the coolest things that came out of it was him letting me scan a picture of Darrell as a baby that he carries in his wallet. It's probably one of the only pictures of him in existence now, at least as far as his dad knows. We need to ask some other relatives (Joe??) if they have any pictures of him as a baby or little kid and try to build a little history.

Anyway, take a look:

All day I've been looking for a picture to illustrate how much this looks like Ethan, but I can't find a good one. The thing is, it just does. He's my boy and I know him. The little smile, the slanty eyes and the cute, pookie little cheeks. I don't think I have any pictures of myself quite this young but I know the resemblance isn't nearly as strong.

So yeah, Boy looks like his daddy :)

Mr. Ethan's mobility is becoming an increasing problem around here. Despite the middle of the living room floor being a smorgasboard of toys he is constantly exploring the outer limits. His first destination is the stereo on the entertainment center (mommy having moved all of the small things up high.) After being repeatedly pulled away and smashing his face into the carpet screaming, he sets his sights on the opposite end of the room which opens to the kitchen. He power scoots accross the carpet and if he doesn't get distracted by any flip-flops lying randomly around he finds the dog's water waiting enticingly just past where the carpet meets the tile. He splashes around in it until he gets rudely interrupted by mom, dad or one of the sisters and repeats the crying screaming and crawling back routine.

Someone told me recently that babies don't have object permanence which means they don't keep the image of a person or object in their mind but regardless if Ethan has the exact object in his mind, he sure knows the locations he should head toward for some extra thrills.

So today, after spending a good hour crawling around on the floor and chasing Ethan around the living room, I moved the pack and play from its seldom used spot in our bedroom out in front of the fireplace. I really don't intend for him to spend his every waking moment there, but I need him to have a 'safe space' so that I can use the bathroom with a little peace of mind.

Speaking of peace of mind, the girls have been a tremendous help with the baby since they got here for the summer. They are big enough, and he is big enough that they can safely move him around, and he's so interactive now it's much more fun than when he was tiny. Of course we've had to have several safety centered talks about dos and don'ts, and from my observation it seems like they've absorbed at least most of what I've told them. I trust them to the point that I'm willing to leave him playing with them on the floor while I go take a shower, and they're careful not to get distracted and leave him alone. In fact, this morning, with Darrell still asleep they convinced me it was okay to leave them with him while I ran to the store so I didn't have to pack them all up and drag them into the store at 7:45. In truth I know they just wanted to play Super Smash Bros. in their PJs, but I went ahead and trusted them, knowing Darrell had already been awake and wasn't sleeping too heavily. When I got home, Ethan was cranky and they were both lovingly bent over the swing where they had put him. They were duly concerned but neither of them acted panicked or like anything was terribly out of the ordinary. Darrell was in the shower and had no idea I'd left. Oops. I figured for sure he'd hear the garage and didn't go in to tell him that I was leaving. They did a good job though, and it seems like they always do, despite the little jealous comments they have made to Darrell. I don't know what's up with that but I hope we can work through it soon...

And speaking of responsibility, I was pretty impressed with the girls ability to keep things together Friday night when Darrell and I were both hit with some sort of little bug. Probably the same thing that sent Ethan home from daycare Wed after having reportedly been throwing up. Ethan was fine with Darrell all of that day aside from some diarreah, but Friday Darrell woke up feeling bad, and it hit me a couple of hours later. We both worked a full day but by the time we got home we needed some sleep. Darrell got a nap in, then mowed the yard while I put the baby to sleep and then we both hit the hay around 8. Bailey had been doting on us, bringing us glasses of water and getting blankets when Darrell mentioned being cold, and after we went to bed she came in a couple of times to check on us -- interrupting my attempts at sleep but her intentions were good at least. For an 8 and 10 year old who have a hard time remembering to brush their own teeth or turn lights off when the leave a room, they came through beautifully. They bragged to us the next morning about how they had locked up all the doors and turned the TV and all the lights off before putting themselves to bed. I do remember them sneaking in for their hugs and kisses at some point.

Anyway, we were both nearly back to 100% by Saturday morning so it was thankfully very short-lived. The girls didn't get bothered by it at all, so that's a very good thing.

Okay, this post has become a novel, as often is the case, but what can I say. Sometimes I just have a lot to say...

PS - Liz since you borrowed a page out of my blog book recently I decided to borrow one from yours as well :)

Seven Months

It's hard to believe that my sweet boy will be seven months old in just less than a week. He's now an official member of the 'big babies' since he is sitting up and scooting around the room with pretty decent ease. It's almost a little sad, although when I see him chilling out on the floor with a bucket full of little toys dumped over in his lap I can't help but get all warm and fuzzy. Even better is the smile he breaks out in when he sees me.

I absolutely love my life.

Here is a picture I took a few weeks ago. Ethan is already taking lessons in the fine art of video game obsession.

And a couple of Ethan that I took yesterday.

Playing so hard is lots of work.

There is a reason why I never make decisions. Especially when it comes to "where do you want to eat." See, I live under this curse which causes my 'choice' to suddenly have a case of the worst service or quality ever. It happens all the time. It's like my own little Murphy's law. If I ever actually choose something, whatever can go wrong will.

Take Primos. I LOVE Primos d'italia. They have this great herb bread loaf that's all warm and soft and... well, herby. Perfect oil, good service and an absolutely amazing pasta dish: Asiago Spinach Pasta, which has spinchach and chicken and all sorts of goodness in it. I love this place but Darrell, who introduced me to in to begin with, is less into Italian than several other choices so I usually try to get my friends to go with me.

So, my rotation is ending and the office I'm working in wanted to take me and the other intern out to lunch and wanted us to pick the place. I tried to get out of it, I really did but when someone brought up Primos I just said "let's go there."

So yesterday was the lunch. It was awful. The bread was crusty, the service was slow (even though there was a table of 16 of us, the place was pretty empty otherwise), and the kitchen was out of Pineapple. They brought all the plates out at random different times so some of us were eating and some were watching others eat. The worst though was Stan, who is my cube-mate. He didn't get his food until the rest of us were nearly done eating. He ended up asking for it to go and thankfully they had the good sense not to even bring him a bill. But seriously.

Anyway, that's not the first time. Seems like every time I take someone to a place I enjoy I end up apologizing for it... what is up with that?

Anyway, having lunch away from the office with everyone was nice. Even our squadron director came, which I wasn't expecting. It's interesting to see how different personalities can be away from the pressure of work.

Now, on to the weekend! Ethan is feeling much better, having shared his cold or whatever it was with me. The girls want to have a cookout with Marty and Reanon and the kids so we'll probably give them a call and see if they are busy and then tonight we will probably go to the Drive-in Movie theater and see Night at the Museum. I'm a little nervous about how EJ will do since it doesn't start until 9 pm, but I'm hoping we can just get him to sleep through it. Other than that I think we'll be doing some housework, yardwork and general all around work. Have to get the girls ready for their day camp that starts on Monday. So, yay.

Six Month Portraits

Darrell took Ethan and got his pictures taken for my Mother's Day gift. I was appropriately thrilled, especially since Ethan had been sick. Here are a few of the shots I loved the most.

This one was the main shot that he picked out. Love the little sideways grin.

The Scooter

Ethan has finally picked up the art of scooting. It's hilarious, he looks kind of like a seal, arching his back and relying mostly on his arms and body movement to propel him along. After a couple of days he is now beginning to get his feet into the action, but just barely. I've got to get a video before he reall picks up the technique.
His first instinct when he sees something he wants is still to roll, which of course puts him farther away, but really he's getting better.

Said child just spit up on my leg and then took off accross the living room floor after something that interested. ...one minute while I investigate a noise coming from a spot beside the couch which I can't see... Oh joy. He scooted to the kitchen and discovered the dog water in the time it took me to write a couple of sentences.

Redirect, redirect, redirect..... My mantra for the days and weeks to come is already playing in my head like an annoying song.

So, the blog...

has quite obviously gone private. It makes me a little sad because I feel like people won't be as likely to read it now, but it had to be done. Someday maybe I'll be able to be one of those cool bloggers who doesn't have to worry about it but now is not the time.

So, I've been a little discouraged, but I know if I don't keep up the writing my poor little bloggy will die a quick death. I certainly don't want that, so here I am!

Anyway -- I had to take off work early today because Ethan was inconsolable at daycare and they called me to come get him. I haven't really figured out what was wrong though, because Darrell took him to the Dr. and it isn't his ears. He seems to be feeling okay now, though he's still kind of cranky so we'll see how he does tomorrow. Darrell has a class this weekend so it's me and the boy for the weekend. Then on Monday evening we're picking up the girls and we'll be a family of 4 for some part of the summer at least. :)

Something to smile about

I've been informed that I've become a Sap. It's true, and I don't mind. So, in that vein... a new list.

Things that made me smile this week, in no particular order:

• Darrell going out to get chinese, even though he didn't want it.
• A military mom at the daycare, obviously tired from working a full day, taking time to skip up and down the sidewalk a few times with her son before putting him in the car.
• An older couple exchanging a quick parting kiss in the parking lot.
• The smell of sugar cookies.
• Ethan cooing and giggling at Ty every time he sets eyes on him, and then recoiling when Ty licks him in the face.
• Hearing from an old friend and finding out that she is also doing the mommy thing these days.
• The "It's a girl!" text message from Kevin after Jaime's appt. today
• Seeing my husband recognized for a job well-done and knowing that I am married to a good man.
• Ethan's horrified face when I offered him another taste of big-boy food. (Apparently the first time was a fluke, or he's changed his mind between now and then, because he was SO disgusted with me tonight.)

lately

There has been a whole heck of a lot going on in my head lately. Somehow though, I’ve had a hard time sitting down in front of the computer to blog it. I still find ways to compulsively show my life, in the form of tweets and facebook status updates --the subject of another blog post that has been brewing in my head—but am rarely in the frame of mind to crank out more than those 140 characters in any given moment.

So, here I sit, with one million new things to tell the blog world, but no idea where to begin. I know that if I write, in detail, about every little occurrence that I think should be shared no one will still be reading by the end. Enter, the Twitter inspired blog-list. I don't promise to strickly adhere to the character limit though, since I'm too lazy to count and blogger doesn't do it for me.

• Ethan: had another double ear infection that put him out of commission for three days, still travels only by rolling and tried big-boy food for the first time on Monday.
• Mother’s Day: Darrell bravely took the ailing baby for portraits, and happily, even got into a couple of the shots. I’m totally the luckiest mommy in the world.
• Darrell: Finished the semester from H-E-doublehockeysticks with A’s and B’s. I’m so proud, and feel like we both deserve a round of strong alcoholic beverage. We’d settle for a night out together though.
• Random: I can never spell the word ‘alcohol’ right the first time. Same with ‘Restaurant.’ This is why we have spell-check.
• Work: Some of the challenges are making me want to crawl under a rock, but I’m just so grateful that there are challenges.
• Girls: Will be here for the summer on the 24th. So happy about that but we’re scrambling to make plans for them during the day while we work.
• Sports: For some reason we watch basketball now.

Water Baby

Ethan, I have discovered, loves the shower. Sometimes instead of giving him a bath (which he also loves) I just bring him into the shower with me after I've washed my hair. He reaches over my shoulder to put his hand in the water, and when I turn so that the full force of the shower is on his back, he is completely content. He even lets me lean him back into the water to rinse his head off and doesn't seem to mind a little water getting on his face. Hopefully this means we can get him started early and he'll be the swimmer that Darrell and I definitely aren't.