mary, mary, why you bloggin'?

standing tall

2007-04-21T21:31:00.000-04:00

this weekend it is finally spring and we are out tending to the yard that will no doubt eat this former city girl alive. sticks aside, we are in trouble. i now see the importance of a thorough fall clean-up and fully intend on hiring the next door neighbor's son and his brother to come over with their big vacuum truck and take care of all of the helicopter things, evil chestnut pods, leaves and anything else they might find this fall. pine needles, can't forget those miserable things.

the funniest part of today was andrew standing. he's never really stood alone before for more than a few seconds. enter grass. apparently he was not at all interested in letting anything other than the soles of his shoes touch this strange stuff because we would put him down and he would stand. for minutes at a time with his little hands in the air and a very funny look on his face. scrunched up little nose face. he honestly didn't know what to do so he just stood there smiling. when he got tired he'd crouch down just enough to remember that he'd have to touch that crazy green stuff and up he'd go. it was really very cute.

and i'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that big sister bridget was off with her nana and boppa for the day not knocking him down. poor little guy.

minor head injury wednesday

2007-04-18T11:47:00.000-04:00

today didn't start off so well. since andrew has taken to waking up at 5:00 or so - which i might add is a HUGE improvement from 4 AM, his old standard - i will go and get him and sit him in our bed to play around while i take 5 minutes to get myself used to the idea of being awake. maybe 10. this process usually entails andrew kicking the crap out of me while i try to keep him on the bed. well, this morning i failed. i swear he was in the middle of the bed and i had my arm loosely draped around his middle but somehow he cleared half of the bed and about a foot next to the bed and leapt off. i still don't know how it happened it was all so fast. so he cried. i apologized. he forgave me and off we went downstairs to safer ground.

then at about 8 AM after i finished changing his diaper - on the floor because the changing table is just too miserable a place to contain him - he starts to crawl away. nothing out of the ordinary here except that he forgets to use his arms and face plants on the floor - the floor with no rug. i could tell he smashed his nose because he almost bounced up a little. so i pick him up and he is SCREAMING. then i look at his little nose and there is blood coming out of it. and there is a purplish line across the bridge of it. oh crap, i think, its broken. so i call the doctor's office - which isn't open until 8:30. then i call my mother to walk over to the pediatrics dept where she works and ask someone. then i call michael who tells me that he'd still be crying if it were broken. oh yeah, i forgot that i immediately gave him a bottle and he spit up a little. eek! then i go online. nothing much on babycenter for babies and broken noses - just call your doctor. gee thanks.

my mother calls back and tells me that even if it is broken, they can't do anything. so i decide to try and make sure that its straight and i pinch it a little. he doesn't even flinch so i'm pretty sure its not broken. but the line is still there.

time for a nap buddy before we really do some damage.

marathon monday

2007-04-16T20:58:00.000-04:00

we went downstairs today to find a 2 inch hole in our basement ceiling - on the finished side. its a dingy old dropped ceiling that we were going to get around to replacing eventually. e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y. but now there's a hole. dear liza a hole.

so the hole is annoying; but the real trouble is what caused the hole. some sort of animal, definitely. what kind of animal? don't know. did the animal actually fall in or have an indiana jones "that was a close one!" moment in which it was able to scramble to safety via its handy whip? michael spent his rainy patriots day off hunting - and cleaning (tee hee) - the entire basement trying to answer that very question. nothing doing though. no mouse. no chipmunk. no red squirrel (please god no). LOTS of very disgusting random things that have been here since around when the house was built. LOTS of dust animals - bunnies seem too innocent a term to cover the magnitude of these. it was so gross that i asked him to go and buy a shop-vac so as not to violate our lovable dyson. i think she will never love us like she used to. i don't blame her either.

on top of this, we are missing our first marathon in many many years. i am slightly depressed. we are out of the city for under a year and can't even manage to get in to the marathon. i love the marathon. i think i may have blathered on about it last year so i will spare you (good bloggers go back and find the old post and link to it here) i'm not sure if we would have gone to it this year even if we lived in boston because the weather was so horrible. but someone has to go cheer those crazy bastards on.

and the hole is still there. and we still don't know if we have a new family member living down there. now all we can do is plug it up, call an exterminator and hope that we don't wake to find 3 new holes.

but like agpie's mom said - country mice are nice. not like city mice.

let's hope so.

badooga

2007-04-15T22:01:00.000-04:00

the only person we know who is happy about the weather these days

buster

2007-04-15T21:58:00.000-04:00

my stair climbing, wipe stealing menace

well fed and alive

2007-04-05T21:59:00.000-04:00

i need someone to watch 2 wonderful children one day a week. it doesn't seem like such a tall order, does it? no. well, it is. most places have a two day a week minimum apparently. nannies don't want to work just one day a week - although truthfully, i haven't looked into this option all that much yet, but if i were a nanny, i wouldn't want such a gig.

when i finally found a place that had an opening on tuesdays, i really really wanted to love it. really really really. i even brought their immunization books to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. so in we went, the 4 of us. at first everything seemed normal enough. no screaming kids. no screaming adults. so far its better than home! we start on the tour - which is being led by a nice young - they were all young - girl who told me that the head honcho had to go because something came up. ok, whatever.

in the first room (b's room) there is a nice little circle of kids who are sitting around learning some thing important like what month this is and the teacher/whatever gets pissed at a kid. so she starts talking to him in this tone which could best be described as me at 5PM at my wits end arguing with a 2 year old for 5 minutes about how i will be the one to wipe her bottom after she goes to the potty. suffice to say, it was a really nasty tone and we'll leave it at that. but hello, we're pretty obviously on a tour here and this dimwit can't tell joshua to sit his ass down calmly through a clenched teeth smile?

a's room is next. infants through 2.5. is that normal? personally i don't want my little bruiser drewser ass-kicking cruiser in there with a sweet defenseless infant. they had a cage of sorts, to keep him in or out i don't know but if he had a partner in crime, that gate would be history. aside from this logistical nightmare, everything in the room was tired. i could spend $20 on a saturday morning at yard sales and get some better sh!te than the crapola they had in there. i think i'll be donating our old stuff to this place whether my kids go there or not.

i'll spare you the tales of snotty noses, needy children of employees getting the lions share of the attention, meeting some genuinely nice "teachers" and finally the owner and skip right to the straw that broke this camel's back (not that it would take much but, like i said, i REALLY wanted to love this place.) we are just about through when bridget tells me she has to go to the bathroom. do we want the big one or little one? so i say, we'll take the little one that she'd be using and get walked to a bleach-scented bathroom in the back of what would be her room. not bad, little cubbies with alternate outfits, little posters about cleaning your hands, a diaper-genie shitcan (i might hate those) and oh yeah, pee all over the seat. oh and what's that in the unflushed toilet? pee and toilet paper, thank god i suppose. but it was still there. so i clean up the toilet, bridget goes and then we go. michael is out there talking "yeah, we're looking to get them going as soon as we can...blah blah blah..." and i'm practically twitching to get his attention to make him STOP talking to the owner. finally its over and we leave.

back to square one.

ATTENTION PEEKAY THE PESTERER, I'VE POSTED!!!!

2007-04-04T13:12:00.000-04:00

oddly enough, when i have the most to blog about, i have no time to blog. or actually, i just don't feel like doing it. this defeats my purpose here since i am working on some sort of record for my kids. i realize this. i even waste my time feeling guilty about it when i know i have the time but not the energy. i need some voice recognition software so i can just say it and it is written. michael used to sell this software but the company died. where is virtuallyspeaking when i need it? although, it probably wouldn't work since it would have to filter out 3 voices. yes, i'm lazy.

so, let's see. the day after michael's birthday we bought a second car - FINALLY! - and i got a call from my old boss asking if i wanted to come back - for a 3rd tour of duty - part-time. it was a busy day.

with our new-found debt and 2 let's-just-call-them-energetic kids in hand, i agree to come in and talk about it. but i want to do it already. it was the gig they laughed at me for wanting when miss b was born. one day in the office. one day at home. 2.5 years ago it wasn't done, at this company anyway. it would come down to how much they were going to pay me for this weekly mini-vacation vs. how much it would cost to drive an hour each way once a week, how much it would cost to have someone watch the kids, how much my sanity was worth, etc. michael was expecting low numbers, so i was nervous. but somehow i knew that my old boss - who was my hands down favorite old boss - wouldn't waste my time. so we hash out the new position and then comes the money part - "so i took what you used to make, added in 2 merit increases and cut it in half." did i mention he was my favorite? sold.

all of a sudden, i'm envisioning all of the house/yard projects that we were doing ourselves being done by professionals. WOO HOO, we might have a finished patio by this summer! aah. i'm pretty sure that i've spent my first 2 paychecks at this point.

i started on march 26th and worked monday/wed/friday. i know, i know, what happened to 1 day a week? i had to train with the kid who was leaving. although at quarter end and the first week of a new quarter, i need to work more often.

now i just need to find someone to watch b and a, which is turning out to be more difficult than i thought.

happy birthday daddio!

2007-03-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

happy birthday to our favorite new 36 year old! he doesn't seem to like this age as he mentioned it at least 5 times over the course of the day. what is it? the backside of our 30s is upon us? i feel like 37, 38 might be harder. then we are officially no longer mid-30s and must start preparing for the big 4-O.

although i don't really care about an age - at least not yet - mostly because i still consider myself anywhere from 18 to 25 most of the time. (i'm sorry but high school could have been yesterday in my crazy head. i could still probably remember my schedule if i had to.) what i do care about - and despise - is the change that age brings to things like your metabolism - but that is a post for a darker day. especially since today was beautiful.

we went outside and picked up twigs for hours. or i should say I picked up twigs for hours. andrew was napping and bridget found a nice rock to sit on and eat her snack. let me tell you, i knew about the obvious maintenance a tree requires and planned on a lifetime of leaf raking misery. what i had no idea about were the twigs. the millions of little twigs that end up on the ground after every windy day, ice storm, snow storm, rain storm and "its just too f'ing cold to hang onto the tree anymore" day. they are everywhere. i can go out today for a few hours and they will still be everywhere. ah, but we have a yard now and we didn't when someone was 35. so i think 36 is pretty good.

woo hoo. happy birthday love!

back on the dating scene

2007-03-09T10:28:00.000-05:00

wednesday marked the start of the second session for miss b's music class. and here i am, as erotp put it, back on the dating circuit. the similarities are uncanny.

step 1 - go to a place that is conducive to meeting people. music together. check.

onto step 2 - checking out the other mothers - she looks normal. oh, but she's already dating that mother. hmmm, what about her? not bad. ooh, look what just walked in the door. nice!

next - making eye contact without appearing too interested or desperate. always easiest if your kid or their kid is doing something cute (the "aww" look) or embarassing (the "i've been there sister" look). yes, you can always hope for love at first sight - i first saw her during kookabura and the rest, as they say, is history. aah. good luck with that one - although its been known to happen.

step 4 - generally the hardest - actual conversation. this isn't easy in the music together environment where they take their music seriously. especially when you have a teacher who doesn't understand that you really aren't in the class for your child's musical development. its for ME, woman! don't you shoot me that "shut the hell up" look! if you are lucky you can squeeze in a "she/he's adorable" and hope for the best.

i've yet to get to the final step which is closing the deal. the playdate. i'm not asking anyone out just yet. its a little too scary for a big old wimp like me. we'll see... the thing is, i do realize that mothers love talking to other mothers. its fascinating and therapeutic and you can talk to a stranger for hours about being a parent. i know this. i'm just new to the scene.

there's more though. when you do finally get that first date, you need to proceed with caution. you run the risk of getting a bully's mother - or worse yet, a wimpy kids mother, a "friends too fast, ut-oh, i don't even like you" mother or even a stalker mother. its a scary angst-ridden world out there. you thought getting married was the end of it, didn't you?

depraved new world

2007-03-08T20:49:00.000-05:00

are you aware that there are porn blogs? its true. i was shocked. i feel like you are all laughing now - silly girl, of course there are porn blogs. anyway, let me tell you how i know this. i went to my friends new blog and every now and then i am compelled to hit the NEXT BLOG button, so i did.

hello pen!s in my face. and not only my face. lots of faces. in my happy little blogosphere. so my question is, are there porn blogs or is this a renegade spaniard who will be found out and shut down?

wallpaper removal 101

2007-03-06T20:45:00.000-05:00

sadly, we are at it again. michael confessed his hatred of the dining room wallpaper so it had to go. believe me, i despise the job so much that i was wondering if he had to go. i mean, the wallpaper wasn't so bad, but michael cooks, so he stays.

i suppose it wasn't so bad, at this point, we are experts. i specialize in the actual wallpaper removal and michael specializes in the glue removal. oh you'd think just taking the wallpaper off was enough but its not. there is a glue residue that has to be scrubbed off the wall. and i really hate that part. the wallpaper is easy sneezy. its all about saturation. complete and utter saturation. then, with the right angle to the scraper, it falls off the wall in cola smelling strips. ha! it does smell like cola though, bleck!

i have no idea why i am boring you with the details of wallpaper removal, most likely because that's ALL WE'VE BEEN DOING THE PAST FEW DAYS. aah, that felt good. okay, bye.

those covers

2007-03-05T20:45:00.000-05:00

every night when miss b goes to bed, i have to tuck her in under "these covers." i'm not sure when it started - most likely when she developed her terrifying fear of "heat coming" - but she insists on "these covers" for naps and bedtime. "these covers" are a 5 inch space between her pillows at the very top of her bed. the very top. there are water marks on the headboard from the times when her hair wasn't quite dry after a bath and she pressed her head as high as it would go, so i'm talking all the way up. then you need to "close them" which entails sliding over one of the pillows onto her face so that the only thing visible is her hand over her ear and a mess of hair.

this is weird enough but lately she has told me that she wants to be tucked into "those covers." what? where are those covers? i foolishly ask her, at which point she puts her feet up at the head of her bed and tries to jam them - and her legs - into the 2 inch slot between her headboard and her mattress.

i think she is trying to disappear into her bed. to hide. from the heat.

these scars aren't visible

2007-03-01T20:36:00.000-05:00

"are you spitting into your sink?"

b standing over her play kitchen set pretend spitting - "no, i barfing."

"oh"

spitting continues.

this is how we play now.

fine motor skills

2007-02-22T20:57:00.000-05:00

i had my proudest parenting moment thus far today. we had gone to the local montessori to check it out and while i was there i was scoping out all of the little things that the kids were doing. while we were talking bridget was semi-obsessed with these 2 little bowls of beads with a scoop in one. so the teacher tells her that you use the scoop to move the beads from one bowl to the other. then she tells us that it helps them with fine motor skills.

so we get home and i figure that i am seriously lacking in the educational activities at home so i bust out 2 little bowls filled with split peas and a scoop and give them to her to play with. wonderful. she can practice her fine motor skills and i can unload the dishwasher. or something.

i'm watching my budding little montessorian as she takes the scoop and fills it up twice and transfers the peas to the empty bowl. yay, fine motor skills! then she looks over at me as if to say "are you f'ing kidding me?", picks up the full bowl and dumps the whole thing into the emptier bowl and says - faster.

sorry montessori, we'll need to attend the school for the future type a, always rushing, impatient and anal. oh yeah, that's what i'm running here. oops. tomorrow, flower smelling!

tea leaves say - BIG PARTY

2007-02-17T14:35:00.000-05:00

today was going to be quite a day for us. 2 parties. a princess party in the AM and an adults only party in the PM. actually, that sounds a little more exciting than it is. but not really, it was that exciting for this aspiring adult.

long story short on the princess party - we don't go because of the potential germ warfare that we are capable of these days. the A number one princess' daddy is a pediatrician so i call and give him a rundown of the week and we agree that it just isn't a good idea. i'm pretty sad since i had been looking forward to my first princess party for some time now. it will have to wait. not to mention, A number 2 princess is one of my DC buddies and i won't get to see her. although, since we managed to infect her a month ago i'm sure she is happy to give us the heisman.

onto the adult party. all day long i was giddy. waiting. i was so excited , you would have thought that i was going to a princess party myself. grill 23. happy birthday to o and lo's dad. o and lo's mom got us a limo so we could drink and ride in together. it was decadent. it was great. i had the best time. i can't even explain how it felt to be out in the city with ADULTS having such a delicious meal. sorry posterity, its true. i love you, very much. i also love feeling like i used to. i didn't realize it at first. i thought i was just seriously missing boston. it took me a while to realize that it wasn't boston i missed, it was going out and relaxing. we used to do this all the time.

lucky for you, i love you more. but, i saw the future, and i am excited. actually, i saw what can be now with a little planning. now that we can trusted the little A with a sitter, we can go out NOW. woo. hoo.

i almost forgot, we finished off the night back at the birthday boy's house with a game of pictionary. i love that game. i had forgotten how much. i don't think i've played it since we used to have "games night" back when everyone lived in belmont. matter of time.

birth control...

2007-02-15T09:32:00.000-05:00

...is imagining having more than 4 of us to get demo'd by a stomach flu.

happy valentines day...

2007-02-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

...BLAAAH!

i've had it all day. michael has it right now.

i love you valentine.

PS - 8 party-goers have been stricken down to date...that we know of. i am surely not calling around to take a poll at this point.

black monday

2007-02-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

so after our scorcese inspired weekend, i figured the stressful events were behind us. not so. everything was actually going pretty well. i woke up, bought some thank you notes that i would start in the afternoon, a very productive morning for me.

until.

about an hour into her 2 hour minimum nap, the badooga is crying - or frying and frying as she says. so i go up to find her lunch on her pillow. as if it were never inside her. so i told her to put it back. ha! just kidding, that is gross. anyway, she proceeds to "muke" 4 times in the next hour and a half. we get pretty efficient at getting it into the bucket by the 3rd time.

enter boy. crying way too early in his nap. uh daddy, can you take this one? as i'm handling an excellent little puker i can hear that we have 2 of them on our hands. apparently, mister a is standing in a small pool of his own lunch with very wet socks.

so now we start the tag team and i've got my girl and he's got his boy. its all going well until the people at the garage call. oh yeah, did i forget to mention that our routine OIL CHANGE turned into a $1300 visit? happy monday suckers. so i tell michael to go get the car and i just sit down on the floor with both of them. yes, the floor might be a strange choice but at this point its the easiest thing to clean.

so there we sit, bridget falls asleep hugging my leg like a panda and wakes every 15 minutes to puke, or at this point, dry heave. andrew is draped over my opposite shoulder and periodically barfs and has terrible gas. terrible. it smells. very. bad.

michael finally walks in the door and i say - hey, i think andrew may have gone to the bathroom and leaked a bit. he looks down and says, uh yeah, he did. so off he goes to swap out some laundry or something, i don't even remember. i remain trapped on the floor for another excrutiating 10 minutes. he finally walks in again armed with paper towels, a diaper, clothes and wipes and removes andrew and i get a look at the "leak".

let's just say there was WAY more poop on my now hot, wet pants than in the diaper. let's also just say that it was the first time in my 2.5 parenting years that i almost gagged. bleck!

after the babes - and me! - are cleaned up, they both seem to fall asleep on our respective laps. we decide that we may as well put them in bed, fully expecting it not to work. so down they go, and down they stay. empty little babies.

it was madness.

finally...

2007-02-11T21:18:00.000-05:00

...the boy has been christened. whew! almost 10 months of feeling slightly stressed about it and its over. boy did we pick a weekend. we had my grandfather's funeral on saturday. and a big party on sunday. it felt very strange to throw a party, but everyone in my mother's family insisted. insisted. so we stayed the course, as my uncle put it, and i'm glad.

it was a great day. andrew did not follow in his sister's footsteps and was a good boy during the actual baptism. he had lots of fun at his first big party as the guest of honor. i've decided that its nicer to have the christening when they are older, then they can enjoy the party and the food. here's some pics of my little holy man...

poppa: 3/31/14 - 9/7/07

2007-02-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

my sister's eulogy...

He would have been 93 years old next month. So that's 93 years of life we are here celebrating today. And I am sure he is looking down with a big smile. Maybe even winking and pushing out his dentures for a giggle from his grandchildren..

Sixty years ago, Poppa left Ireland. And there's no doubt in my mind, he left Ireland with a heavy heart. He loved Ireland. But he came here anyway. He came here for a "better life." Maybe not for him, but for his ever growing family.

As long as I knew my grandfather, he spoke of the "Old Country", he'd listen to Irish music, and sometimes appeared wishful for the "old days."

But did he regret coming here? I don't think so.

Look around. His entire family, down to his great grandchildren, enjoy things in life that he only dreamed of.

And he knew it. He was so proud.

When he looked at us or spoke to us - you could feel his pride. "Did you get yourself a car yet?" And he'd look out the window to see what we drove up in. "Do you like it?" Or he'd ask "How's New York? You got an apartment there? What's it like?"

Remember the sparkle in his eye when he dancved at Mary and Ellens' weddings or when he escorted Abbey as the Holyoke Colleen. Boy, was he proud.

And deservedly so. He came here, he worked hard and saved his money (often in the most unconventional ways - like toothpick sized rolls of dollar bills.)

He watched his children grow, have families, and enjoy the luxuries his sacrifice afforded them. Whether it was the purchase of a house or a golf game, or the birth of a new great grandchild. He would smile knowingly.

Look at what he gave us. Look at all we could enjoy because of his hard work.

And he never stopped. He did not rest. It was not long ago that I stopped by to visit and he was on top of a ladder, cleaning the gutters. Why? I'd ask. But I knew. A proud man dresses himself everyday - to the nines - a proud man keeps his yard free of leaves, keeps his hedges trimmed perfectly - and he was proud.

So, as we sit here today, I hope that we remember Poppa for his hard work, his sacrifice, and most of all, for the joy that he took in his accomplishments and ours. We should be proud of him and ourselves and go forward continuing to make him proud. Because he'll be watching. And when we meet him again, he'll certainly want to know - "How's that car run? You like it?"

canine self-esteem

2007-02-07T20:51:00.000-05:00

michael's mother has been after him once again to get his crap out of her basement and this time he's actually doing it. i thought it had been done already, but no. no, no, no. so he shows me the Parade magazine from 12/29/96 which covered the "best and worst of everything" that year to point out madonna and carlos leon, ted kaczynski, the yankees first world series win in many, many years featuring the rookie derek jeter who received 200 fan letters a week (i wonder how many he gets now?)

so i'm looking through the best and worst of everything and i come across the "best canine self-improvement" category. its true, this is a category, or at least it was in 1996. the winner was "neuticles" - cosmetic canine genitals designed to make dogs and dog owners feel better about this life change. no joke. so i think this is hilarious and laugh about the existence of these implants back in 96 assuming that they don't exist in 2007. but i was wrong - neuticles are going strong.

i couldn't resist the sizing and pricing guide, which contains pictures i might add. the most fascinating part to me was the equine & bulls option. is that so rodeo dudes can make it beyond luke perry's 8 seconds? do the fake balls hurt when strung up by a rope that is twisted up and over their body? disturbing yes, but i smell a rat.

maybe even more disturbing is the fact that you can order these little orbs on the website. who is installing them? ok, i watch gray's anatomy too - who is implanting them? oy! check out "surgical procedures" and it could be you. wow.

word to the wise

2007-02-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

do not ever drop a baby food jar on tile - or anything hard enough to smash it. it will explode. at least mine did. it was crazy. there was glass EVERYwhere. one little earth's best jar. receycled too many times? i don't know.

it has always driven me nuts when either of my parents, and now my husband, would warn me to be careful while picking up glass that has broken. uh, yeah. i mean, are you kidding me? anyway, i've seen them all have a go at it and no one has any special technique. in fact, now that i am mentioning it, i'd venture to guess that everyone does it the same way. big pieces first, then put the little pieces into the big ones, yeah? yeah.

so this little jar breaks and there are very few big pieces. i grab them all and start to work on the little ones and i am holding the small shards in my hand. loosely, which i assume i don't need to mention. but despite holding them loosely, when i dumped them i had 3 separate little slices in the palm of my hand. which actually hurt considering their size. i started to get nervous about missing tiny little bits of glass that would make their way into, and ultimately move through, my hand because somewhere along the line, i was told that it is important to make sure you never miss a piece of glass that is stuck in your skin because glass never works its way out, it just travels inward. i don't know if this is true, but i believe it, and spent the next 5 minutes with my face in my hand carefully examining it from every angle. let's not talk about the quadruple cleaning the floor got for fear my new crawler would be cut.

so my point is, you can go ahead and pick up shattered wine glasses, broken mirrors and picture frames any old way you feel like, but if you break one of those tiny little jars, you had better be careful.

here's a somewhat related two-for-one word to the wise for you - don't ever put in or buy a house with any shade of white tile floor in the kitchen. every microscopic drop of water that you didn't see when you thought you wiped the floor will turn into a dirty spot. AND you can't see broken glass very well on it either.

gettin' nothing but static

2007-02-01T20:08:00.000-05:00

as of today, i have officially upgraded my laundry repertoire. yes, it is sad, this is blogworthy. i've decided that since i can shock my children before touching them and bridget shouts "boo-boo!" more often then not when i touch her, i need to do something about the growing static problem in this house. so, i decided to try those little dryer sheets that have been around for, oh, a million years. and guess what? they work! i have to say, i'm a little shocked. i don't know why i really didn't expect them to work, but i didn't.

i may be more shocked with myself though. i honestly don't understand what goes on in my brain that allows me to buy whatever little non-necessity i want but when it comes to a $6 box of static killers, oh no, too steep! what a freak.

i also broke down and bought a tub of oxiclean - it was a wild time in good old stop and shop.

of course, i am my mother's daughter and used the same sheet twice. 3 times is too many, in case you were wondering.

rub-a-dub-dub 2 happy kids in a tub

2007-01-31T21:29:00.000-05:00

so i finally did it. i scrubbed the living hell out of the tub and "made it mine." thank you to my cohorts in NH and VA for setting me straight. thank you from bridget and andrew as well. you would have thought it was a swimming pool.

for those of you out there who have no idea what i am talking about - everyone but 3 - i have/make that HAD a problem with used tubs. i did not want my kids or myself in a tub that had someone else's germs. so for the past 2+ years, bridget has taken a bath in a huge plastic tub inside our tub. when we lived in boston, this wasn't a big deal because there was no tub there so the big tub sat in the shower and we had no choice. but now. now that we are here in our house, i had a choice. the normal choice would have been to clean the tub and put them in it. i just couldn't do it.

but i've done it. i did it. they've bathed. and lived. tomorrow i will check for welts in their bottoms.

the best laid plans...

2007-01-29T22:13:00.000-05:00

any time i am missing-in-action, you can be reasonably sure that there is some sort of sh!te going down in the homestead. this little absence can be attributed to the good old stomach flu. our first. the sad thing is that it was going to be such a productive day. i woke up, showered (this makes today more productive than any in the past 60+ days - most showers don't occur until the afternoon nap, if at all) and was planning on heading over to the local montessori to get some info. not so.

before i even showered, bridget woke up and threw up a bit. there has been so much phlegm flowing here over the past week that i just assumed that she had swallowed too much and it upset her stomach. then i get out of the shower to hear some mild hysteria downstairs. miss b has a bloody nose, i am told. now i don't know what constitutes a bloody nose, but i envision blood pouring out of a nose and not just some blood mixed in with snot - which is what we have. no problem, we are still on for the day's events. until.

until miss b gets this look in her eye and seems to start gagging. then out it comes. whoa! no montessori today. the first outfit change of the day happens.

so we head downstairs to play. she seems to be alright and is drinking lots of fluids. i am sitting on the ground playing and she comes over to me and i manage to miss that same look in her eye until its too late. and she pukes. mostly on me. better than the new-ish rug. its the same m.o. - 3 heaves in the set. now that she's started, and i'm covered, we are stuck. so i decide that the best route is just to take it and i hold her so that she pukes on me instead of the rug. it was surprisingly no big deal - until she lifted her head, looked me in the eye and coughed. gee thanks. double outfit change.

what a laugh that i already showered.

after this incident, we became semi-professionals with the bucket. no major misses - 4 more outfit changes though due to some dripping. the kid's a champ though. she could have cared less. she'd finish, shout "tissue!", and start running around as though nothing happened. awesome!

101 posts

2007-01-19T15:19:00.000-05:00

i know, its hard to believe i made it to 101 posts. i'm as impressed as anyone given my long hiatus after birthing the big A. it could have gone either way really. but here i am. i couldn't let this important anniversary pass without any sort of celebration so in honor of this event, i am taking a driving tour down the east coast and personally thanking each and every one of my 3 readers.

posterity and i spent monday in nyc with agpie's mom and miss agpie herself. we had loads of fun and capped the evening off with a yo baby and first one-handed walk out of the kitchen. who knew the kitchen was off-limits? not me!

then, the tour continued down to virginia, where we invaded the very lovely home of peekay along with the OC boys for a week long soiree. 4 days to go! i'll let you know how it goes.

go PATS!!!! i'm in redskin country for sunday's game, wish me luck!

shock and awe

2007-01-12T20:08:00.000-05:00

i have dubbed friday night "pizza night" mostly because i love love love pizza but also because i like the thought of not having to worry about what's for dinner one night of the week. or more specifically not feel bad about the fact that i am not making dinner for michael - and myself - one night of the week because its a given that we are having pizza.

anyway, tonight we went to one of our 2 favorite places for pizza out here - enrico's. we get there at 5 because there's no line and we can get in and get out quickly. practically no one is there when we show up but it gradually fills up and a younger couple shows up and michael points out "oh look, another baby." so i turn and look. cute. then they are forgotten. so, off we go to the "potty" when miss B tells me - tinkle coming.

despite it being a false alarm, the first public potty experience wasn't too terrible. it was clean in there and just a big room with a toilet. i bought a DORA the EXPLORA - i'm sorry but i have to say this with a boston accent, much like my brother-in-law says "meet the fuckers", its just the way it should be - little seat to put on other seats when we are not at home so bridget is all jazzed up to use the dora seat. the only reason that i am getting into this detail is for you first-timers out there like me who don't completely think things like this through and forget that after you use the little dora seat and protect your little babies heiney from the filthy toilet seat germs out there, you have to put this cute little potty seat back in your diaper bag where all the filthy little germs on the underside of it will infest all of your toys, bottles, etc. the visit took an extra 5 minutes while i scrubbed it clean, wiped it dry and did my best to keep bridget's head out of the toilet and trash can.

back to the table, by the cute little boy who now sees us coming. bridget is walking first and of course slows to examine another of her kind in the wild. the little boy has a fork in his hand and points it out towards her. i say "whoa" and kind of gently push her along, waiting for either parent to tell the kid to get the fork out of her face. the boy follows her face with the fork as we go by and the dad grabs the kid by the shoulders and says "good boy! good boy!" i think that it is very strange but chalk it up to some "girls are bad, that's right little buddy" humor. i'm pretty shocked by the whole transaction, mostly the absolute lack of a reaction from the kid's parents, and i tell michael the story when i sit down. and then they are forgotten again.

until we leave. michael and andrew leave first, then someone else cuts in between us and bridget is walking ahead of me. i can see the kid waving the fork at everyone as they pass and the dad is saying "good boy!" every time so i am ready. bridget is up and i put my hand out to block the fork that is heading towards her face and i say "oh, we know about you guys!" as we pass by. ha ha. you're weird. see you f'ing later freaks. and after we are by, the kid's father says - "well, you better watch out!"

what?! i am so pissed and PISSED that i want to tell everyone in line about the animal at the first table. i am so PISSED that i would have completely supported michael fighting this little piece of crap. mind you (there it is again), i hate it when michael gets mad and honks at people in the car because i am afraid that some sort of road rage fight will ensue. i am so PISSED that i want to fight this little piece of crap myself.

i still can't even believe that it happened it was so shocking to me. i don't know if i am overreacting but i'm pretty sure i'm not. i really don't care when i see people and their crazy kids running around. i mostly just watch them and thank god that they are not mine. it was so strange. i am mostly upset because this happened in our small town and i can't help but think that my kids will go to school with their kid and how can that kid grow up and be a nice kid with encouragement like that. i am worried about any nice kid who comes into contact with that kid. it was sad. how can that kid grow up and be normal? he doesn't stand much of a chance with a small little meanie like that for a father.

holy CRAP!

2007-01-09T21:46:00.000-05:00

it all started so innocently. i went into b's room this morning when she woke up, pulled up the shades and said - hey bridgie, its a great day today. and she shouted "POTTY DAY!"

huh? i was over this but, whatever.

i ask her if she wants to use the potty and she says no. ok, that's what i thought. so we go downstairs, have breakfast and i change her diaper. i decided to just put sweatpants on her and i don't say a word about the potty. we go about our day and she "tinkles" four times before lunch. FOUR times. on her own.

so i start to wonder about poop. i'm not going to mention it because i am hip to her jive now, i'm just wondering.

lunch is over and i let her run around a bit instead of going straight in for her nap. and i see her. sitting there. either going or trying to. periodically peering between her legs to see if there's any action down there. she finishes, jumps up and turns around to invevstigate.

"MOMMY! POOP IN POTTY!

so we go crazy and scream and jump around about the poop in the potty. then she turns around and puts her hands on each side of the mini seat and practically puts her head in the bowl to examine the poop. i think she was as shocked as i was to see it there.

next she carries the potty to the toilet - which she has INSISTED on doing all day long. as part of her terms, she must be the one to dump her products into the real potty. and off it goes with a flick of the wrist and a bye bye!

at least we know who's the boss around here.

the deacon cometh

2007-01-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

we have finally joined a church out here so that we can finally have andrew christened. it took us forever to pick one. i don't know why. i guess i do know why. i wasn't crazy about any of them. they were all weird to me.

in all of them, everyone holds hands during the "our father" - or "lord's prayer" if you prefer. all 3. i don't understand the line of demarcation where this happens. i grew up in western mass and we didn't do it and i also went to every catholic church in the north end - 3 to be exact - and no one there did it. there were some pretty hardcore old school italians in there mind you.

mind you, what a weird thing to say and weirder thing to write.

anyway, in 2 of the 3, when you get communion there is someone else up there with a glass of wine to drink from. and everyone does it, except michael and i and the underaged kids. we don't do the hand holding thing either. i am sure that they all think that we are mental not partaking but i really don't care.

the other thing is that everyone sings. in one of them, they have photocopies of songs at the ends of the pews. we didn't notice them when we scrambled in by some regulars, who were surely not giving up their seats to slide over for us, and when it came time to sing, they handed the sheet down to us. and we sang. or i did anyway. i was so freaked that they were going to call me on it if i didn't, that i sang away.

the decision came down to wine and aesthetics - just in case my kids want to get married there. yes, i am that crazy. i scoped out the aisle, i could see the little gathering out in front after the ceremony. i was not the girl who had dreamed of her wedding day her entire life, i am apparently the girl who will dream up her kids' weddings. OY, let's hope not. most importantly, this is the one of the 3 that had no blood drinking option

so so so, onto the deacon. after joining and being connected to the head honcho priest to chit-chat - who, thankfully, did not quiz me - they informed me that in order to schedule a christening, the deacon comes to your house - yes, TO YOUR HOUSE - for a meeting. the meeting is tomorrow at 7. i might puke. michael went to catholic school so he will be in charge of fielding all quiz-type questions. i will be in charge of praying that bridget doesn't bust out too many "oh my god's" during the meeting since this happens to be her favorite phrase du jour.

one more thing - we went to church on sunday and we were officially welcomed in the church bulletin. they didn't include andrew's name with the rest of us. i am assuming its because he isn't baptized yet so they don't recognize him as a church member but i think that sucks. i may have picked the wrong church.

pressure vs. motivation

2007-01-07T17:12:00.000-05:00

after a good first day of p training, day 2 was a bust. she refused to sit on the potty today. completely. refused. so i said, great, take your time, its your potty. HA! actually, i begged her to sit on the potty, attempted to bribe her with m&ms and pretty much used every mental warfare weapon in my arsenal. as usual, i lost.

when it was finally clear that it wasn't going to happen, i decide to check out the book o's mom gave me last night. toilet training the brazelton way. according to the good doctor B, miss b isn't ready. in fact, she displayed 5 of the 7 signs your child is not ready. and one sign that wasn't a part of the 7, but ought to be. she didn't poop at all yesterday and she didn't until late this afternoon, that must be some sort of sign, right? the strange thing is that she is the one who always wants to sit on the potty.

i'm not sure what to do - so feel free to comment. i am most definitely not going at it full time but i can't decide if i should dabble in it. at this point, i told her that it was her potty and she could use it whenever she wanted - see? i wasn't lying in paragraph 1. we'll see. i'm pretty sure my very stubborn girl will inform me when its going to happen.

potty time

2007-01-06T13:55:00.000-05:00

somehow it is 64 degrees outside today. it is beautiful and has me excited about spring way too early in the year. obviously. but, i can't help it. that's how warm it is.

the other, much more important, news of the day is that today was day one of our first attempt at potty training miss b. she has gone on the potty a few times already but they were very flukey so, now that everyone appears to be on the mend for the string of colds and i actually can put andrew down without tears coming, we are giving it a go.

so far we are 3 for 5. not bad. we would have been 4 for 5 except that i missed the hour mark because i was busy getting potty training tips from o's mom on the phone. no, i didn't miss the irony there. what a dope i am. it won't happen again though, i felt terrible - although she didn't really care. we'll see how the rest of today goes...

back into the woods

2007-01-03T16:50:00.000-05:00

ok, just as i state that our tummy troubles are over, i give my little A some diced up sweet potatoes for dinner. they are very soft and cooked completely and are most definitely on the approved list of things to give your aspiring self-feeder. and, oh yes, he LOVES them. gobbles them right up, proud as a peacock.

then midnight rolls around.

screaming like we haven't heard in a while, inconsolable screaming crying, writhing around. and we're back, like we never left.

"what did he eat today?"
"oatmeal and pears with a little bit of banana, mixed grains cereal with carrots, and mixed grain with peas and some prunes for dinner. i don't understand."
"that's weird."
"yes. oh yeah, i gave him some of the sweet potato that B wouldn't eat."
"um yeah, a little too much fiber in those."

oh shite. so since i caused this and feel pretty much horrible about it, i take him downstairs to watch permanent midnight. it was awful awful. he was so tired that his eyes were shut but his little body would/could not stop moving around. after 2+ hours, he finally fell asleep and stopped crying.

no sweet potatoes.

btw - if i thought ben stiller was nasty after dodgeball, permanent midnight sealed the deal.

two thousand seven

2007-01-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

happy new year! we spent new year's eve at m's sister's house and had a great time eating and drinking. margarita's and i have an agreement. since i don't drink them often, i can drink a ridiculous amount of them without getting out of control and have virtually no ill effects the next day. its very strange. very strange considering 2 glasses of wine will give me a horrible headache the next morning.

although it could be that i ate as much as i drank and the food intake was so large that it soaked up all of the tequila. either way, who cares, as long as it keeps happening, yes?

as for 2007, i'm sure it won't be as eventful as 2006. who can compete with buying a MAJOR fixer-upper, not buying a major fixer-upper, moving to chicago, not moving to chicago, having a son, finally buying a house, then stripping, sanding, caulking, priming and painting 6 areas/rooms of it, all the while investigating poop and worrying about general GI problems with our new son. maybe eventful is the wrong word, stressful is more accurate.

yes, during my lengthy absence from this here blog, our lives were filled with complete stress about andrew's apparent allergy to my milk. i really don't have the energy to relive it for history's sake just like i really didn't have the energy to explain it as it was happening. suffice to say, it was very sad and frustrating and yes, stressful.

but its over now, as is 2006. here's to 2007!

all caught up

2006-12-29T08:17:00.000-05:00

ok, so a lot has happened since "the dirtiest job ever". for starters, i now believe the dirtiest job ever to be wallpaper removal. that's right. 3 rooms, 2 hallways and 1 stairwell. the sad thing is that there are still 2.5 bathrooms, 1 bedroom, 1 stairwell and 1 dining room remaining. we are taking a much needed break for now though.

i actually tried to upload photos on 2 separate occasions and got so irritated that i said blog be damned, i don't have time for this. i'm going to go back and at least put some pics in so that when posterity comes a calling, we haven't lost 4 months. or 8, or whatever.

so, let's see. i have a 2.3 year old and an 8 month old. they love each other so much that it cracks us up. bridget hugs and kisses andrew - doo, or doober, or buddy - practically non-stop. this may seem great but its actually terrifying as her latest technique is to put him in a headlock and squeeze. she is great at making him laugh and getting him to stop crying. she is his favorite toy - actually, i suppose that he is hers as well.

bridget talks and sings and dances like a fiend now. her favorite christmas song this year was "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells..." you get the picture? luckily, she's cute. her favorite phrase is "I do it." for everything. tying her shoes is especially fun. she is still a daredevil and loves jumping off of a big rock in the backyard. she loves her fake hairdryer and make-up , her stroller and her purse. yes, she's my kid. what can i say, it must be innate.

andrew has 2 teeth, a devious smile and holds on to you when you pick him up - very tightly. he just figured out how to move forward on the ground yesterday. the belly is still controlled by gravity but he's getting there. he loves food and hates having his face wiped. he laughs like crazy when you pull his socks off or open up a dirty diaper or say "poop" - which i just realized means that he is definitely a man in training.

we just had our 3rd wedding anniversary the other day and are very excited about having more years under our belt than kids. what a concept!

christmas card bust

2006-12-28T17:46:00.000-05:00

bridget and andrew were spotted leaving a local hot spot after hours

the siblings claim only to have had some bottles of formula and juice

but the scene turned ugly when andrew confronted the paparazzi

and the pair were arrested

but they were up to their old tricks the following night

in case any of you were wondering why you got a picture from 5 months ago on our christmas card...

the oc boys visit

2006-11-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

happy halloween!

2006-10-31T09:07:00.000-05:00

22222222222222222222222222222

2006-09-18T10:05:00.000-04:00

the dirtiest job ever

2006-08-08T07:57:00.000-04:00

its official. the house is ours. it had better be since we spent the day ripping up 6 rooms of carpet and one vicious stairway. talk about the dirtiest job ever. we were badasses though and got it all done and rolled up. it felt very good to finally be able to get started on getting the house ready. we were super productive.

the walk through went well. she left the pagoda in the garden but took this big ass mirror over the fireplace that she was supposed to leave. ah well. sadly, the mystery shed that we never got into was empty. it may be foolish, but we were sincerely hoping there would be a riding mower in there. no dice.

bridgie spent the day with her great aunt nell and auntie patti and had the best time playing while we filled her new house with dust. andrew was with us napping the day away in the fresh air of the screened in porch.

close close close

2006-08-07T07:47:00.000-04:00

today we signed - and signed - our lives away. the house is almost ours. of course the transaction had to be a little bit "non-standard" and we don't officially close until tomorrow morning. this means that the walk-through will happen after signing everything. yes, we know could be bad news but, we are doing some sort of holdback on the funds until the walk-through that will cover any problems. hopefully.

we'll see. eek!

country bumpkin

2006-07-31T20:48:00.000-04:00

so it seems as though my new(er) little cherub is not a city kid. in fact, i think that he hates the city. he has not been one to sleep during the first 3 months of his life, but seemed to find his inner peace up in OP, maine. truthfully, it would be hard not to find your chi up there, but the transformation was insane. he took 2.5 hour naps twice a day and was incredibly happy when he was awake. it was unbelievable. then we came back and my skittish little boy returned. it is very sad. i feel very guilty about subjecting him to the noise of the streets and the crappy air that he apparently hates and i can not wait to move out of here.

so, one week from now we close. what luck, not a second too soon. my little guy will have quiet. when miss b is napping, that is. it will be really great to go outside without it being a major ordeal complete with snacks, drinks and strollers. and 2 flights of stairs. see you later apartamente.

although, i talked to my landlord last night and he has rented this place out. can you even believe that someone else is going to live here? i can't quite get over the fact that it isn't going to remain empty as a shrine to us. as much as i am dying to get out of here, i will be a mess when we leave the place that both of my babies came home to for the last time.

oh yeah, despite hating the city, drew bug slept until 6 AM last night. most likely a fluke that i shouldn't be speaking of, but hey, what the heck. it was nuts, i woke up and felt that something was not quite right because it was light outside and then it hit me. i slapped michael awake - not nice, i know, but i was shocked - and said - he slept through the night! and then i realized that i am not that reliable these days so i followed it up with - right? did i get up last night? i don't think i did. did i? he said no but i'm pretty sure that he wouldn't know if i got up or he just shot out an answer to shut me up. so i should really say - i think he slept through the night. we'll see what happens tonight. every 2 hours no doubt.

3 months!!!

2006-07-26T21:09:00.000-04:00

the best porch swing ever!

2006-07-25T21:14:00.000-04:00

trani

2006-07-18T21:38:00.000-04:00

just when i thought i'd seen everything a person could do with dessert, along comes trani. michael and i have long been fascinated by the storefront in the north end that seemed destined to never open. we knew it was a dessert type place and assumed that it was normal dessert type place. oh no.

so here's the deal. trani has shelves of baked goods and you pick something (michael got cupcakes.) then they take a gun of sorts and infuse the cupcake with the ice cream of your choice. the cupcakes get put into a little styrofoam container and it is put on a conveyor belt (still open) where it rolls under a hot fudge machine. no joke. can you even imagine? the even crazier part of this is that it was really really good.

this will certainly help my burgeoning post-partem butt...

now this here's a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down

2006-07-14T21:16:00.000-04:00

my late night feedings have resurrected my love of cheesy sitcoms thanks to nick at night and tvland. i believe that i have seen every fresh prince of bel air episode that ever was made at this point, but i still can't get enough. there's something about watching these shows in the middle of the night though that has taken me to a new level of clarity. for example -

DJ on Roseanne stands for Dan Jr.

all the kids on Everbody Loves Raymond are actually siblings - last name sweeten

the middle child on Full House - jodie sweeten - is not a member of this family (i had to go to imdb for that one. i thought i was a rock star for figuring this connection out, but her last name is actually sweetin. bummer)

BOTH haley joel osmont and jonathan lipnicki (jerry maguire kid) were the kids on The Jeff Foxworthy show. and i think that the teacher in the one episode that i saw was jake's girlfriend in 16 candles. i could have been hallucinating for that one though.

i have NO idea what DJ on Full House stands for

actually, this reminds me that i have always wondered what DH stands for. i've seen people blog it and i know that it refers to the partner in the relationship but what is it? designated hitter? dick head? dumb husband? dear husband? let me know.

i can't think of anything else i've learned right now.

ole, ole, ole, ole

2006-07-09T22:58:00.000-04:00

oh yes. it happened. i have to laugh when i look at the picture from my last post. the pitiful little crowd. so we went away for a week and came back today just in time for the madness. it was loads of fun to empty the very large bag on our roof amidst the diehard italia fans that showed up 4 hours before gametime. you really can't fault them since the cafe across the street - featured in the previous photos - had a DJ blasting europop already. when good synthesizers go bad. anyway, i taped this celebration as well so the babes can see what they surely will never remember. i think it will take many weeks before i stop hearing EE-tal-YA being chanted in my head.

i almost forgot, its summer in the north end so there surely is a feast. to make the whole scenario even more surreal, the crowds parted for the saint to march through. pazzo.

la copa mondial

2006-06-30T22:57:00.000-04:00

world cup fever has officially hit the north end. not too surprising i suppose. the games were pretty popular for the locals from the beginning but now that they are into the later rounds, its insane. they have added firecrackers to their repertoire (i'm not doing a spell check on that one so cut me some slack. i think its close) of yelling, singing, chanting and honking. its great fun if you don't have a BABY sleeping. i'm over it right now but the other day, i was near tears. pregame firecrackers woke him up, then i finally get him asleep again and halftime firecrackers woke him up, asleep again for the end of the game firecrackers. it was painful.

but today is a new day. the game is over. the italians won. andrew has slept through all of the firecrackers today. so i love the massive celebration. i guess he's pretty tired. anyway, i can't get over the sheer volume of the crowd. there aren't THAT many of them but i feel like i'm in a stadium in italy. it makes me wonder what being in a stadium in italy could possibly be like. deafening.

i don't know that i could accurately describe what it was like outside while doing it justice. i actually taped it this time so everyone could check it out. i've seen that people can download videos for their blog but i'm just not ready for that yet. here is a still shot from during the game. sadly, i got none of the post game madness when everyone came out of wherever they were watching the game and filled the street for a block. my block. the 50 yard line of insanity. i will miss it a little.

post-partem auditory dementia...

2006-06-29T15:38:00.000-04:00

...is what i am naming the phenomenon of hearing babies crying while standing in or near running water. i am unable to take a shower without hearing one or both of my kids screaming crying. what's the story? it is really the only daily - ok, every other day - occurrence when i am allowed to be ALONE and it isn't even relaxing!

the joke is on me though, absolutely every time i turn off the water i am greeted by silence. foolish girl.

2 months and 22 months

2006-06-28T15:01:00.000-04:00

ok. i have come to realize that i am never going to backfill all of the days/weeks i've missed - and its just getting worse because i am dreading it - so i am just going to get started from today. and by the way, we are going on vacation tomorrow for a week with no online access so this is just a bit ridiculous. but anyway, here's a quick update on the posterity...

andrew smiles at us - and especially at his big sister. it is crazy. he loves her and she loves it. she is very proud of herself when he smiles at her. its pretty cute if i do say so myself. he gurgles and coos like a wildman in the morning and at night. he still hates the car - more than a bit terrifying given the fact that we are driving 6 hours to canada tomorrow. we are worried, to say the least - the one blessing is that bridget can sleep through hours of wailing and doesn't seem to mind it when she's awake. i wish i could say the same thing for myself. he does give us a 5 hour chunk of sleep every night and 2 decent size naps during the day. still swaddled as tight as i can manage because he gets himself crazy with his flailing arms.

bridget has just about mastered the spoon when eating and can handle little spplesauces and yo babys without making a mess. she's spitting out new words every day - although she doesn't feel that the end of most words are worth her effort and leaves them off. "gucky" is the word she uses for things that she doesn't know the word for. she runs and jumps around non-stop and copies everything we do (i.e. puts on deodorant, lotion, hair products). she is very good with her brother and hasn't tried to kill him yet. we did put up some very attractive bars across our windows since she is a climber.

in addition to all of the changes that our two little cherubs have gone through, we are buying a house. i'm a little gunshy about calling it a done deal until the actual closing but everything seems to be going smoothly. the inspection went well, we are signing the P&S on friday and close date is 8/8. we'll see what happens although i'm getting pretty excited about a driveway, yard and dishwasher whose name isn't mary.

a bug in a rug

2006-05-10T21:08:00.000-04:00

the key to my sleeping happiness...

although, sometimes he manages to squirm his way out

and sometimes he manages to BUST his way out

but i am persistent

cinco de mayo

2006-05-05T20:54:00.000-04:00

in honor of cinco de mayo, we went to the pediatrician for andrew's one week appointment. 10 day appointment technically. anyway, i am anxiously awaiting this appointment because i will find out if he is gaining enough. as a nursing mother, who already had one kid that didn't gain enough weight at first, this is a big BIG deal. i am completely psycho about bridget - and now andrew - eating well. or at least "enough". those early weeks with bridgie bear are to blame and now i get to feel the same angst all over again.

this time around it's different though. andrew definitely has wet diapers - which is the test. the test that's hard to administer the first time around since diapers are so freaking absorbent. with bridget, we'd hold the diaper up to the window and ask each other - does that look wet to you? the reply was invariably - it looks a little yellow. right? um, no parents. those were not wet OR yellow. o's mom gave me the best method to tell if the diapers were wet - you squeeze the front of the diaper and if its squishy, its wet. you see, the way they make those diapers so absorbent is to have the pee turn into gel once it hits the diaper. clever diaper people.

so, you will be happy to know, that andrew had gained enough weight in the first week. he was a few ounces over his birth weight. PHEW! i'm not over the trauma enough to stop tracking all of his nursing sessions, wet and dirty diapers though. maybe after the one month...

mama scrooge

2006-04-30T22:15:00.000-04:00

today i am once again confronted with the fact that i am a miser. and not with money. with things that i love. it took me a long time to become conscious of the fact that i would burn my yankee candle beach plum candle down only so far, or indulge in my see's toffee bar candy to a certain point, or smear my body shop mango body butter on my dry skin until there was just enough left - but i do. these aren't expensive things. these aren't even irreplaceable things. i have no idea what my problem is, but i do it. over and over. the sad thing is that the candle gets filled up with sticky dust, the toffee goes bad and the mango butter dries up. i am saving it for nothing.

so, this time i caught myself. and this time it might be one of my most irrational items ever - the pre-soaked witch hazel pads from the hospital. or tucks pads as the rest of the world knows them. as a sidenote, i did not know that this is what tucks medicated pads were, my husband had to point that one out to me. the hospital stuff that you get is all generic so i never really consider it something that i can get up the street.

anyway, i realized that i was not using these little pads - even though i really wanted to - because my supply was getting low. can you even imagine that? i can't and i'm the one doing it. at any rate, once i caught myself - and confessed to my laughing husband and mother - i started using them with impunity.

i've moved on to nursing pads now. they are $7 a box which i keep reminding myself every time i consider re-using a thrush covered pad. what's thrush you ask? oh that's another post for another day. when i have the energy.

home sweet home?

2006-04-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

today we got to leave the hospital and head home. eek! we haven't forgotten our first night home with bridget, which was absolute pandemonium, so we are a little bit nervous. it is strange because you want nothing more than to leave the hospital, but there's such security there that you wouldn't mind moving in for a month or so. like i said - eek!

so, since we are leaving, we got to stock up on all the post partem goodies we could fit into the nice new diaper bag they gave us.

first and foremost, the little squeeze bottle that is mandatory for the survival of anyone who has given birth - save you c-section chicks.

second - and almost as equally important - is the container of witch hazel soaked pads and diflucan to soothe the, er, stitches.

next - colase

fourth - special gauzy underwear. i loved it the first time and realized why this time during the cramping period. these are the greatest things in the world because you need underwear but these put NO pressure on your stomach at all. this is important because any pressure whatsoever can result in the return of the wickedly vicious "afterpains."

fifth and so on - all the diapers, pads, wipes, alcohol prep pads and onesies that we had left.

no room at the holiday inn

2006-04-28T21:46:00.000-04:00

i've decided that i don't have due date, i have a capacity. once a baby hits 7 and a half pounds, there is no more room. bridget was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 20.5 inches and andrew was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 21 inches. he expanded the space by 1 ounce and a half an inch but that's that.

the funny thing is that i can feel it. its always right around the time where i start to think that my stomach is going to explode and that it couldn't possibly get any bigger. apparently, i am right.

day #1

2006-04-27T22:10:00.000-04:00

the second thing i was dreading was the day after cramps. i shouldn't even call them cramps because you think that you are dying, but i guess that's what they are. basically, your uterus contracts to reduce back to a normal size and this hurts. so, there they were ripping through me as expected.

a little discussed fact is that these contractions hurt much more with your second child than they did with your first. since they hurt enough the first time, i didn't like this bit of info that every nurse told me as i took the percocets. it was too late now though however, the main reason that i don't think i will have any more kids are these "afterpains." they really freaking hurt.

other than these, i felt great.

its a BOY!!!

2006-04-26T21:47:00.000-04:00

Andrew Vincent was born at 2:00 AM on the nose weighing in at 7.5 pounds. 21 inches long.

the second time around was WAY easier. the pushing lasted for about 15 minutes and was hard to do because the epidural was stronger this time and i could feel NOTHING. which is good in a lot of ways, but bad for effective pushing.

we had great nurses and a great doctor - who has a daughter named bridget - so it went by pretty fast. once i got the epidural that is. that is actually one of the 2 things i was dreading the most - getting the epidural. it terrifies me and i'm sure that my blood pressure shoots up during the whole procedure because i am totally freaked out. that being said, i can't imagine not having one. they don't scare me as much as natural childbirth.

i could totally have a silent birth BTW. i can't imagine screaming and yelling.

it WAS the night

2006-04-25T21:22:00.000-04:00

but not for puking. last night was the night for water breaking. so, twice now i have had my water break but not really. its a very strange thing. something happens. and i am aware of it but its not the sort of blow out that comes to mind when you think about water breaking. in fact, both times the water break was so non-existent that they do this test to see if it has broken - it had - and then end up breaking my water for real - and there ain't no mistaking that break - about 24 hours later. so odd.

by the by, i am cheating and writing this one month later. i am going to do my best to recreate the first few days/weeks way after the fact. i just haven't been in the mood - and i'm still not - but i don't want pk all over my arse.

anyway, tuesday - ahem, today - was a strange day. i called the doctor in the morning to tell them that something had gone down at about 3 AM but i wasn't sure if it was the real deal. i felt like a fool because i had been through this before and should know what is going on, right? wrong. so they tell me to see if i'm still "crampy" at 10 or 11. and i wasn't. then at noon, the cramping started up again. it seemed pretty random so i wasn't that worried. by the time 3 PM rolled around, i was getting a little worried. but i still wasn't sure that i was in labor. it seemed like it should have been worse.

oh, a minor addition to the day is that michael showed up at work - after his first sick day ever - to find out that his boss and several others had been fired and that we were no longer going to chicago (can you even believe this?) because they were giving him new england as his territory. just a little bit of information to digest between contractions.

thankfully i was on the phone with agpie's mom - i should really have these references as links but i don't remember how to do it - telling her that we weren't moving who took it upon herself to track when i had to stop conversation because my stomach hurt. after about 20(?) minutes, she says 'alright, that's 3 times in 20 minutes. call your doctor. i'm calling mom and telling her to get out there now.

good thing she was on top of things. the doctor told me to come in immediately. ut oh. my mother was 1.5 hours away and michael was working away. i tell him to get home IMMEDIATELY. immediately seems like and eternity and i try to clean up a bit and get everything ready for my mother's stay here with bridget. it didn't go so well since the contractions now made me stop in my tracks. a little late for nesting but what can i say.

we finally head out - in traffic, thank you very much - and my mother ends up beating us to the hospital. they admit us and off we go to have baby #2.

tonight's the night

2006-04-24T08:43:00.000-04:00

if we make it through tonight without getting sick, then i think that bridget and i will remain unscathed. you see, our wonderful, hard-working husband/daddy came home - whew! - on saturday afternoon and got very sick on saturday night. the kind of nasty sick that seems to hit in the middle of the night when you are innocently sleeping and leaves you laying half-dead on the bathroom floor.

as it turns out, this guy that he works with had a "virus" on thursday night and passed it on to michael at their phone-filled - and therefore germ-filled - booth. they initially thought it was food poisoning but now it appears differently. i for one, i am terrified. i can only imagine that being violently ill hunched up over a toilet will induce labor - and forget about the pushing and all that jazz. i'm sure its happened to some poor people but really, how horrible?

so, please, say your prayers for me tonight.

oops, i did it again

2006-04-21T13:28:00.000-04:00

no, i didn't drop bridget on her head and take her in for stitches. the babysitter did and then i drove with her on my lap to get stitches. ha! no i didn't do that either. i just realized that we are bringing another little person into the world that we are completely responsible for and i can't believe the nerve of us.

do you know how hilarious it is that i am a parent in the first place? my husband and i talk about this all the time - and if my kids ever do read this down the line, they will realize that we aren't the all-knowing people we have led them to believe we are. look away bridget and ???, i'm just joking!

anyway, as baby #2's arrival is imminent, i am thinking about it even more. who do we think we are? half the time i still feel like i am a kid and we have the nerve to have kids? this concept initially hit home when we told one of michael's best buddies that we were having a baby (baby #1) and his reply was - wow. so you've got it all figured out.

uh, no. and if we'd had this conversation before we decided to have a baby, maybe we'd have waited. we don't have anything figured out. except that we want to have kids and think that we have a good shot of raising happy, hopefully healthy, nice and normal people - which seem to be in short supply these days. we don't have college all saved up for yet or even a house - through some sick, sick twists of fate. do you think that some people do have this figured out? i walk down the street and see other couples with kids and i assume that they know what they're doing but they're probably just like us. winging it. although, there must be some people out there who know exactly what they're doing, it just isn't us. i wonder if we're fooling any of them? that would be something.

i have no idea why i am mentioning this. probably because i am about to be reminded daily - and nightly - for at least 6 months that i haven't done much in the "figuring out" business since miss b was born and i am just realizing it.

oh yeah, my husband's buddy and his wife took our cue and are expecting their first in july. or maybe they did end up figuring it all out and didn't tell us. they'll know the truth in july though!

and the oscar goes to...

2006-04-20T19:52:00.000-04:00

okay okay, so i was a little dramatic yesterday. sorry about that. i made it through last night and today and i suppose the truth of the matter is that i don't think this baby is coming before may. if michael were home, then i wouldn't even begin to think that it might happen. i've just decided a la murphy's law that it would be my luck that this baby is going to bust out of me while he's half way across the country.

the good part of this is that i am so worked up about michael missing the big event that i haven't even begun to worry about the pain of it all. its all logistics at this point.

also, today i was thinking that a far worse worst case scenario would be not making it to a hospital and having to deliver the baby myself. the sick part is that i have a gigantic bookmark in one of my books that explains what to do if this happens. THAT is how paranoid i am.

incidently, i parked on moon street again.

The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook to Childbirth: Mano a Mano

2006-04-19T19:52:00.000-04:00

3 weeks - technically - to go and my husband is in chicago. not good. i had my doctor's appointment today and she told me that i shouldn't worry and i should make it to saturday. should? can we get a little more concrete here? oh yes, and i should NOT go to the gym until michael is back in town. i could've done without that should.

so now i am paralyzed with every kick - and there are a LOT of kicks - and movement i feel. i just tried to wash the dishes and when i was standing there the pressure was so crazy that i canned it and decided to come in here. dishes be damned. i am terrified that this is going to go down while michael is away.

i suppose i should just start thinking of the worst case scenario and deal with it. because the worst case scenario isn't THAT bad, right? i mean, let's face it, i'm doing the bulk of the work here. michael's job is to hold my leg and count to ten 3 times per contraction. other than that, i've got labor covered - assuming i'm in a hospital. and assuming there are two people available to hold my legs. the post-natal responsibilities are pretty important though so i'm not going to think about that just yet.

alright, Worst Case Scenario. here's the game plan

1. i call michael and tell him to get his butt home.
2. i call my mother to come and take care of bridget.
3. i get dropped off at the hospital by ?my mother? my father? stacey? hard to say but you aren't supposed to drive yourself so someone else needs to handle this.
4. get an epidural and take a nap until its time to push
5. have the baby

no problem. i have no idea what i was so worried about.

things i need to remember...
to tell my mother where i parked the car (moon street)
to have someone get michael from the airport and shuttle him to the hospital (his parents)

there are lots more but if i actually wrote down the level of detail of my back-up plans you would all know just how crazy i am at this point in time. i'm going to go and officially pack the hospital bags now.

head trauma - take 2

2006-04-18T21:10:00.000-04:00

as luck would have it the dissolving stitches didn't dissolve and i had the pleasure of bringing miss b to the doctor's office today for a little suture removal. it seems that she has a pretty good memory of being pinned down by her mother while a nurse holds her head and someone else comes at her with metal instruments. it was very sad to witness all over again - although thankfully it was quicker - and she was very pissed off. very pissed.

now when you say the word "boo boo" - oh its a word - this is the face you get.

marathon monday

2006-04-17T20:57:00.000-04:00

woo hoo! the boston marathon was run today. an american came in 3rd - and maybe 4th. we aren't quite sure because a german guy was on his tail as they turned onto boylston street. i have a feeling he may have ended up in 5th. anyway, i'm impressed. i'm actually impressed with the person who comes in 1,367th and 5,452nd and last for that matter. anyone who can run that far is a bad ass. and let's face it, the boston marathon is the best marathon, right? of course i am completely partial but what others have a heartbreak hill?

patriot's day is one of my favorite days in boston - now that i'm thinking about it, its probably my one favorite day here. you start off in the north end with paul revere galloping - fast - the entire route of his ride shouting "the regulars are coming" at the top of his lungs. i've lived here for 9 years so far and he's run by my window every year. as you can imagine, the first year was the craziest since i didn't even know about this little event and i was getting ready for work and heard a horse running up the road.

if you're lucky, you then go to the red sox game at 11. unfortunately, i've only been that lucky twice, but its really great to go to a game so early in the day. its even better because the game is timed almost perfectly to end with the arrival of the runners in kenmore square and you can spend an hour or so cheering them on. its the best. everyone is happy and friendly for an entire day.

blood suckers

2006-04-14T14:59:00.000-04:00

there is a rogue mosquito loose in this apartment. it feasted on me last night. better me than the badooga i suppose, but it sucks. my feet and ankles and forearms have a nice little smattering of bites. the worst part is that i saw it the other day buzzing around my head and tried to get her half-heartedly. now its war. i can only hope that the fact that we will be gone for a couple of days will cause her to starve.

the question is, where in the world did it come from? its too early for this. not to mention, i haven't opened any windows that don't have a good solid screen on them - sadly only 3 of the 8 windows in this place can boast a secure screen. have i mentioned that i can't wait to get out of here? anyway, i can't figure it out. also, there are about 10 mosquitoes in the city, so why is one in here?

on another note, welcome new sister blogger - blawgermom.blogspot.com - i will add the link once i figure it all out again. but - PK - your wish has been granted. she's on!

buon appetito bambini!

2006-04-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

last night bridget had her first date. it was quite an event. the little chap had good taste and chose il panino. the couple dined on ziti in a red sauce, bread and water while their mommies had some caprese salad, prosciutto di parma, cheese ravioli and gnocchi. yum yum.

once PK gets home and sends me some of the pics, i will post them because there are some cute ones!

the date ended with some chocolate gelato for miss b and breast milk for mr steven. oh yes, and a hug and a kiss.

ER

2006-04-08T21:40:00.000-04:00

today we got to experience our first - and hopefully last - trip to the emergency room with bridget. after witnessing a very uncomfortable scene with michael's sister and brother-in-law, we had agreed that when this day came we wouldn't bother being annoyed at the accompanying parent's potential temporary incompetence since they would feel bad enough. anyway, i mention it because i was really happy about our deal since she suffered the stich-worthy injury at my hands.

so here's the scoop, saturday was going to be an all-business errand day. we were actually ahead of schedule to get to costco at 9:30 and therefore out of the evil plaza by 11 or 11:30 at the latest. so as part of the plan, bridget was going to shower with me. this has been the mode of washing her these days since i can no longer bend and give her an actual bath with the basketball baby in utero. the crazy thing is that i almost didn't do it. i even asked michael when he brought her in if we should just fill up the tub and he could give her a bath. no, we decided, let's just get going. then, we finish and i almost call in michael to grab her and take her to her room to get dried off and dressed. no, i decided, i may as well do it. STOOPID.

so as i'm holding her hand so she can step out of the shower and over the 6 inch high step that is topped with a marble slab, her foot slips and she hits her head on the marble slab. truly, i couldn't possibly pick out a worse place for anyone to hit their head in this apartment. michael runs in because i am pretty sure i say OH MY GOD loudly - and maybe repeatedly - enough to scare him and i tell him - she hit her head on that thing - as i pull her off of my shoulder to look at the inevitable bump there is blood everywhere. i can't even tell where the source is. and the fact that we are both wet is only diluting the blood and making it seem worse. so i'm standing there freaking out and i start barking orders. how annoying.

i need a wet washcloth.
the poor guy gives me a purplish one soaked with seemingly scalding hot water.

i need a COLD, WHITE, WET WASHCLOTH.
as if this were covered in chapter one of required reading to become a parent. for all i know, i made it up.

i need ICE.
he gets it.

you need to call the doctor's office and tell them that bridget hit her head, she has a gash on her forehead that is 1/2 an inch long and might need stitches. the number is 617-xxx-6000.
i am fairly certain that i was really annoying, but i was all business. did i really just know the number? i can't imagine what i would have done if i were home alone. wet and naked and 9 months pregnant - sorry for the visual, but thats the facts. it would have been very ugly. it was ugly enough as it were.

so they send us to children's hospital and off we went. we got right in and didn't have to wait at all. the stitching part was rough. even though they promised me that the cotton ball that was on her head was soaked with numbing stuff and she couldn't feel anything, i didn't believe them. i think it hurt and she screamed bloody murder the entire time. it was horrible.

although, she actually didn't cry at all aside from when it initially happened (until i stopped trying to apply pressure to the wound) and during the stitching. she is a toughie. i still can't get over the fact that this happened even though i was holding her hand the whole time. i have finally stopped seeing it happen over and over though. poor little bella boo.

i have to say though, a trip to the children's hospital puts things in perspective. not to minimize bridget's ordeal, but 2 stitches is a bump on the head when you see some of the very sad stuff there. even though someone might be heading home, you still want to cry when you see that they are leaving with 2 suitcases because you can only imagine how long the kid was there to require 2 suitcases of stuff. like i said, i hope it was our last trip there.

to market, to market to buy a fat pig

2006-03-31T13:17:00.000-05:00

some days i love the market at haymarket. fridays specifically. saturday mornings are a madhouse, not to mention, the produce has been ravaged by god knows what on friday night. right? can all those fruits and veggies sit out overnight with a blue tarp tied over them and not have rats munching on them? i really don't know but it freaks me out. although, we have gone on many a saturday morning and lived to tell the tale.

anyway, it is the best simply because i just bought 9 enormous red peppers for $3. if you are good, then you can load up weekly for practically nothing. we used to be really good at this. we'd get up at the crack of dawn on saturday morning - see, i told you we did it - and we'd wheel our little granny cart down there and fill it. then we'd get back here and have a little food processing factory. the key to the market is to do whatever it is your planning to do with your goods immediately because the stuff doesn't last very long. i used to make fruit smoothies after running - running, HA! imagine that! - so we'd clean containers of blueberries and raspberries, dry them off and package them into single serving ziplock baggies and load up the fridge.

now i pretty much only have it in me to roast peppers. so i get what seems to be an insane amount of red peppers and roast them up. not that impressive but i'm feeling pretty good that i got motivated enough to brave the masses. now i need a nap.

i forgot to mention that the WORST time to go near the market is saturday night and sunday morning when they are bulldozing the rotted crap into piles of the smelliest sludge you've ever seen. the ground is coated with a slick layer of this crap so you have to be very careful when walking through. i have never walked through on this slippery slime and not had the very vivid and detailed image of slipping and falling and then just laying there too paralyzed to move. its one of those things that i am certain will happen to me someday. it terrifies me.

has spring sprung?

2006-03-30T19:38:00.000-05:00

i really want to know. can i really get excited about being warm? i think i can but i'm really not in the mood for another thirty-something degree spirit breaking day at this point. i am cautiously optomistic. what is that from anyway? cautiously optomistic. i can't remember but i know i didn't come up with it.

anyway, today bridgie badooga and i went out for a nice long walk and touched flowers and dogs and a whole lot of dirt. we ended the walk with a cupcake for moi at the new north end magnolia bakery rip off. i don't mean rip off in a bad way because i really love the fact that a cupcake with an overdose of buttercream frosting is within 3 minutes walking distance, its just not quite as good. their cupcake is like a magnolia cupcake on day #3. and i know that they are using the magnolia bakery cookbook so what gives?

the first time i went in i asked them if they were somehow affiliated with the nyc bakery because i saw that they had red velvet cake on the menu and one of the owners said - no way. and then he told me that there was a scandal down there when a disgruntled employee let it leak that they used shortening - gasp! - in their recipes, but not to worry, they don't use it up here. just butter and good old fashioned ingredients. i'm really not thinking of my health when i'm eating these cupcakes. i'm thinking, how many of these can i eat before i actually throw up?

i say - go get youself some shortening and i will justify coming here every day for some moist sugary love. trust me, i will.

bridget 2 mommy NOTHING

2006-03-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

i have begun to realize that i am losing the battle of wills with bridget. i am hoping that i just feel a little tired and worn down because of the baby in my belly - and that will be all gone in 7 weeks after the baby is born so no worries. HA!

she just kicked my ass in the bedtime wars and got me in there twice. the first time was legit - i think. she started crying her "i'm hurt" cry so i ran in to find her leg stuck between the bars of her crib. i come to the rescue and give her some hugs and kisses and go back to my post here at the desk outside her room. btw - we are still doing this ridiculous bit where we put her to bed and sit outside her room, ignoring her endless pleas for attention that range from laughing to crying to saying hi one thousand times to god knows what else, just so that she knows that we are "here."

so anyway, now i am watching her out of the corner of my eye manuevering her leg out through the bars on purpose so that she can start yelping to get me in there. but i'm hip to her jive and i'm not biting. i will win this round. she is resilient though. more resilient than her mother it seems. the whining and whimpering continue until i decide that she may actually be stuck again since her leg is out up to her kneecap at this point. in i go, to an instant smile. she's so pleased with herself that she can't even hide her happiness. and she is so cute that i can't take playing it tough and give her five thousand hugs and kisses as her reward.

i need to start watching the super nanny again.

evil museum

2006-03-27T20:46:00.000-05:00

word to the wise. don't bring your kid to the children's museum a few days before a big weekend. it was a rookie mistake, i know this. bridget was full of snot and poo - literally and figuratively - for her cousin's baptism. either that or she really has a problem with christenings in general and is making her feelings on the catholic church known at the ripe old age of 1.5. anyway, i've learned my lesson, we are NEVER going to a children's museum again. learning and fun be damned. not really, but i will make damn sure that there will be nothing going on in the near future when we do go again.

so, the christening was very nice. i am a godmother! luckily for my sister - and the guests - miss agnes was the anti-bridget during her catholic debut. she was the perfect little angel. she is so freaking cute.

as luck would have it, miss b is back to her happy and healthy self today. i am going to sneak into her room now and eat her up!

museum

2006-03-22T15:15:00.000-05:00

today we went to the children's museum with stacey, olivia and lola and i for one am exhausted. bridget loved it and ran around for hours. we didn't even cover half of the place so we will have to be going back to check it all out. hopefully with michael. although that would most likely require a weekend visit and i just don't think i'm ready for that just yet. miss b is too prone to running off on a whim to add hundreds of kids to the mix.

i was pretty proud though. the first thing she saw, ran over to and climbed on was an old vespa. that's my kid. :)

i think you'll find i start to stink after 3 days

2006-03-21T20:05:00.000-05:00

did you know that my brother had dinner with whit stillman on friday night? its true. i can't even believe it. his boss is friends with whit, who was in town, and knows that my brother is a big fan, so she invited them both over for dinner. LA is such a weird place. somehow these things can come together and it seems normal that whit stillman is picking up indian takeout for you, your boss and her husband and giving you relationship advice.

on another note, what is the story with the TV guide channel? i usually am so completely entranced by their little snippets that i miss the beginning of the scrolling channels. i realize that those of you with digital cable - that could very well be all of you - have no idea what i am talking about. anyway, i'm just there to find out what is on, not to be entertained. or distracted. trust me, its annoying. and embarassing.

the devil's food

2006-03-20T14:55:00.000-05:00

i have finally figured out the problem with ben and jerry's - the problem to the consumer that is. literally. it took pints of research but i've finally figured it out. they have managed to perfect the amount of - in my case - heath bar per pint in addition to having figured out how to distribute the heath bar perfectly throughout so that you always are confronted with an irresistable chunk at every level. this makes it impossible to stop before eating an entire pint. i've tried. its just not fair. in fact, i need to go and get some now just thinking about it.

a special thanks to stop and shop for their ben and jerry's $2.50/pint sale.

happy st patrick's day

2006-03-17T19:55:00.000-05:00

top o' the mornin' to ya

mama mia!

2006-03-15T19:30:00.000-05:00

so i finally went to the playtime in the north end with miss b after music class today and met lots of other mothers. there are a lot of them in the north end. and they weren't "north enders" either, just normal chicks like me. i'm glad i went. bridget had fun running around this enormous gym and playing with all sorts of new toys. and i got to chit chat.

i found out that they have this every tuesday through thursday; then on mondays and fridays they have arts and crafts. who knew the nazzaro center was so great? not me. i can't believe i missed a year and a half - well, lets just call it a year - and there was something to do with other kids every day all along! oops, i guess i should have been a little more proactive.

AND they have an adult volleyball league every tuesday. i'll have to tell michael about it - although, he's still grendel's bound at this point on tuesdays. not for long though...

now can you remove the babies jacket also?

2006-03-13T19:49:00.000-05:00

as you can see, we survived a week in chicago - and more importantly, the flights to and from chicago. bridget was so perfectly good that i couldn't have asked for anything more. i think that she somehow knew that i was at my breaking point and even the slightest protest from her would have brought me to tears. okay, that's a bit dramatic. it really wasn't bad at all. it was very tiring though.

i am normally really efficient at the check-in/security process and it just isn't possible to be efficient with a 17 month old - or more specifically, with a stroller and a car seat, one pair of hands and a curious 17 month old. when she started crawling for the conveyor belt everyone got a little panicked. i figured it might be the quickest way through but reigned her in anyway. oh yeah, and that basketball in the belly bit again.

i can't begin to tell you how many comments i got on the homemade carseat backpack. people LOVED it. if the pacbak (sp?) didn't exist, i'd be all over it. although that guy needs to get his product into babies r'us or some retail locations. no one has seen it or heard of it and i'm sure its easier to load and unload than the one that we fashioned. i highly recommend it though, they aren't at all heavy or cumbersome when attached to your back.

okay, that's it. dinner is ready. i'm over what was ailing me yesterday - it could have been the 3 hour nap i took today. unheard of.

happy birthday husband!

2006-03-12T19:16:00.000-05:00

we are back. i am too tired to tell you about chicago and the suburbs because i slept for about a total of 3 hours last night due to the fact that i was nauseous - how could you do it to me casa romero? - only to get out of bed at 8 AM for a pukefest. trust me when i tell you that barfing profusely for 15 minutes sucks when you have a larger than standard sized basketball under your skin.

but but but, i pulled it together for a few hours and went to a baby shower and a christening. this is why i have no guilt about my mini blog. what i do have guilt about is that today is michael's birthday - and what a crappy day for him. i am officially moving his birthday to next weekend to make up for this though.

hit and run

2006-03-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

i fell off the wagon again. and i'm actually only back for today because tomorrow i leave for western mass and then chicago. i spent last week out at my parent's house with my very cute niece and sister while michael was out in st louis for work. it was very nice to have a playmate while my usual playmate was away. not to mention, bridget got to try out her big sister chops on her cousin. she was pretty good at it and full of kisses - neverending kisses actually - for miss agnes. although it was just as stressful making sure that she wasn't cutting off her oxygen while smothering her with these kisses as it would have been if she were beating on her. she sure does love her though.

so here i am squeezing in a blog for you before i start to pack for the week in chicago. i am very excited to go and check out the towns that we are interested in. i'm wondering if i'll be able to resist seeing a few houses while i'm there. it will be just bridget and i since michael will be working so it might not be as fun. we'll see if i give into temptation.

since michael is going for work and we are going because southwest had ridiculously cheap fares ($50 each way!), we are flying separately and i have bridget alone. 7.5 months pregnant to boot. i'd be lying if i said i wasn't nervous. i threw my back out earlier this week and its better, but i will be toting a 17 month old, a stroller, a carseat and a backpack. michael is taking all of the clothes for us, so i have no suitcase to deal with but still. the carseat is stressful. we bought a new one today for the trip. it goes up to 100 pounds so its the last one we will need to buy. i dug up this old backpack i've had for years and i'm planning on rigging the carseat to the back of it. finally it will get some use since i never became that sort of hardcore hiker or annoying college kid touring through europe after graduating (yes, i'm jealous.) if that doesn't work out then i'm going to try and be one of those people on the golf cart hitching a ride to the gate. i'll let you know how it turns out. in a week or so.

how's it feel to be frozen?

2006-02-27T12:59:00.000-05:00

i've just returned from the dentist on the coldest day of 2006 so far. let me tell you, its freaking freezing out there. there is no way chicago is this cold, miss ellie. i turned one corner and the wind was whipping in my face so hard that it may have been the coldest i have ever been. for the record, the coldest i have ever been prior to this was at the top of sunday river getting off a chairlift and turning without stopping to get down the mountain as quickly as possible. only to find at the bottom that they weren't running any more lifts to the top of the mountain because it was too cold.

whenever i get that familiar wind in my face that is so cold that it hurts, i always think about mountain climbers - mount everest and the like climbers. how can they take it? i know that it is so much colder than what seems unbearable to me here at sea level, and i just can't imagine it. they have icicles in their beards for god's sake. anyway, i don't know why i am talking about mountain climbers. suffice to say, i think they are nuts.

the dentist was great. no outbursts and there was a very nice woman who hung out while i was getting my teeth cleaned and played with bridget. it was the best. i need to floss regularly though - especially while pregnant. ouch!

super troupers

2006-02-26T19:46:00.000-05:00

this morning we decided to go and check out the fairly new ikea in stoughton. since our move has been postponed until after may at the very least, we couldn't take the clutter in bridget's room any longer and headed out for some cheap storage. michael and i have a rule about enormous, human-filled stores (costco/target/etc) on weekends which is that we want to get there when they open - usually 10 - get our stuff and get the hell out. we weren't that sure where stoughton was but thought it was pretty far so we left at 9. we showed up at 9:30 and were thinking that we should drive around a bit and check out the area until we noticed tons of people streaming in the place. it was amazing. a non-stop line of people a half an hour before the store opens, nowhere near the christmas season.

since everyone is getting inside the place we decide that maybe the 10 AM opening is just a guideline and not necessarily the law. we were wrong, but those swedes are pretty damn smart. the cafeteria is open and they have scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon for 99 cents. yum yum.

we managed to make it through the place and keep the spending to a minimum. although once we finally move, we decided that bridget will get one of their fun little kid rooms and michael will get his office stuff there at the very least. i can hardly wait now. i'm sure when its time to actually go and there is a 1 to 2 month old in the picture, i won't be that excited about it but we'll see.

anyway, that's the scoop on today. not too much excitement but we will finally have order in the red room on hanover street.

clambake

2006-02-25T20:30:00.000-05:00

there is nothing better on a cold and wet february day than a good old new england clam bake. alright, maybe its a little bit better on a hot and sandy july day but that's what we had today and it was so great. clam chowder - not necessary but good - mussels, steamers, corn on the cob and a 1.5 pound steamed lobster, all courtesy of legal sea food - my new favorite restaurant. and all for $34.95! you can't imagine the amount of mussels and steamers that were on the plate, it was completely insane.

sadly michael couldn't finish his. even more sadly, i could. our waiter came over and told him it was a valiant effort (as i was still going strong but nearing the end) so i told him that i wasn't that impressed. then he tells us that it is rare for people to eat all of the food. oh well, i guess being prego has its advantages. i swear to you that i could have eaten another tail. i wasn't even close to being full when we were done. so strange.

i've realized that when i was pregnant with bridget i exercised so that i could bust through labor quickly and have a quick recovery. this time i am going to the gym so i can eat like an animal. i have a serious candy issue this time around. i can't stop. this morning i went to cvs (on my way home from the gym) to buy michael some cough drops and as i'm paying i grabbed a hershey bar. not to eat right then. just so i had chocolate. for when i needed it.

mother of the year

2006-02-24T19:37:00.000-05:00

this morning i found my little cherub standing in the running shower with her purple fuzzy PJs on laughing and saying "wowwowwow." i seriously walked out of the bathroom and into her room to get her towel and back - gone for 30 seconds tops.

its true what they say. ack!

master pimp

2006-02-22T19:58:00.000-05:00

its true. i pimped my entire family tonight. including an unsuspecting niece. poor thing thought she was coming to stay in boston for some good old beantown fun. HA! it actually started out that way. we went out for dinner, we had plotted the hit on mike's pastry to be followed up at home by a movie. fun fun fun.

but then we chose the wrong street to walk down on the way home. the one that goes by the church. i noticed that there were people coming in and out of the church, which is fairly strange to see on a wednesday night. a WEDNESDAY NIGHT! oh crap, is ash wednesday. but is it? i had meat for dinner! i can't quite believe it so i ask this older north end woman who was coming out of church - is it ash wednesday? and she says - yeah, you can still go. just go in. i noticed that she really didn't get clobbered with ashes but hey, it happens. so, i look down at my watch and see that its 7 and figure that a mass must be starting and i inform the group of innocents that we're going.

so we're sitting there going through a full mass, thank you very much. bridget is hanging tough for the first half hour but then gets a little restless. and a lot tired. the priest kept referring to the "mass of saint peter's chair" and i'm thinking that this is a little strange but whatever, i guess i never knew that ash wed was also the mass of st peter's chair.

there is another little girl at the mass who is behaving perfectly. and she's dressed to the freaking nines. a dark velvet dress, patent leather shoes, the whole nine yards. i'm busy thinking that some italians sure are crazy about their holy days - at the same time as i'm hoping her whole family (of 12) doesn't notice my kid in her levi's, chuck taylors and football jersey. she and bridget were about the same size but she was talking so i decided that she was older. which is why - of course - she was so well-behaved. mmm hmmm. anyway, this little girl looks over at bridget who is getting a little excited, practically shouting wowwowwow nonstop - um, yeah, we go to church every week - and notices that i am saying "shhh" to her and decides to help and shushes her too. a few times.

so i'm a little annoyed at this point and thinking thoughts that you aren't supposed to think in church. i'm also starting to wonder if this little girl is none other than francesca - of bridget's christening fame. long story short on that one, bridget cried nonstop for the first time ever during the entire christening while francesca didn't make a peep. i really wouldn't have cared except that this was a major undertaking for francesca's family and they had hired a professional photographer and videographer. i cringe at the thought of the tortelli's watching francesca's big day on film to the soundtrack of bridget screaming bloody murder. back to today, finally bridget has had enough. rightfully so. michael takes her out into the entrance to hang until its ash time. at this point, the mother and one of the kid's grandmothers look over at me and smile - its too bad about your kid is the smile i get (in my paranoid and sensitive mind). but then my paranoia is confirmed as the mother's smile and gaze is turned towards her own kid and then to her husband as they share a little "we're so lucky" moment. i can't even begin to explain how pissed off this makes me and i spend the rest of the mass envisioning walking over, getting right in her face and asking how old her daughter is and explaining that bridget is only 17 months old and a VERY good girl. she is TALL for her age people! my location has no effect on my daydream.

anyway, the mass ends. no ashes. strange. okay, they're giving them after its "officially" over. then the priest says something about petitions to st anthony and how you can stay if you want or leave. clarissa and i look at each other - very confused - but we stay because GD it, i am getting my ashes! as i'm sitting there petitioning to st anthony that he help me find my lost mind, i look at the priest and see that he has NO ASHES. neither does the old school widow dressed literally from head to toe in black. i'm sorry but there is no way this is her first mass of the day. that's when it hits me. its not ash wednesday. its st peter's chair day.

now NEXT wednesday, that's ash wednesday. see you then francesca!

september spawned a...cher fan?

2006-02-21T20:01:00.000-05:00

its true, its true. and i never would have known had it not been for weight watchers. you see they have this commercial. they play it about 50 times a day at my estimation and it is my favorite commercial out there because as it starts...

"you're standing on the edge of nowhere"
...bridget stops whatever she is doing, wherever in the apartment she is and runs to the TV

"there's only one wayee out, but your heart's gotta go there"
...she stands and stares. riveted by the sound coming from the TV.

now the beat comes in and the kid can't control herself. she's dancing a sort of axl rose meets george jefferson kind of dance and it is the best. it is so funny. and her face is deadly serious with her mouth open making a little O. i must find out the name of this song and buy the CD.

who knew i loved cher so much? and weight watchers.

oh jell-o

2006-02-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

have you tried jell-o lately? i got some for bridget to try. fat and sugar free - since her nutritive (?) intake is much more important than michael's and mine. not to mention, she has this habit of sucking on her food rather than chewing it, so i thought it would be really funny to watch her as the jell-o exploded into little bits once she started the sucking. fyi - it was - although the best part was putting the jell-o in her mouth only to have her keep her mouth open with the jell-o just behind her little bottom teeth as she laughed hysterically at it jiggling around not knowing what to do. word to the wise mothers - have a video camera ready when you introduce jell-o to your kidd-o, you never know what kind of footage your going to get.

anyway, i had some myself and LOVED it. it is so freaking good. damn all you frat boys and girls that put vodka in the mix and destroyed my love of this tasty little treat. as a beer hater i would always be pretty excited about the idea of jell-o shots at a party. but i would always be disappointed, and actually struggled when it came time to shoot the jell-o. but i'm back. thank you bridgie bear.

the year of the curler

2006-02-17T20:25:00.000-05:00

okay, okay, i screwed up. i didn't know that CNBC had officially become the Curling National Broadcasting Company. i also didn't know that NBC owned USA, and didn't think to check out CNBC and MSNBC. i was wrong wrong wrong and nbc is wonderful for giving me options. thank you to my 2 readers for helping me find my way to olympic happiness.

on a bizarrely related note, michael was out in saint louis for work and post-dinner one of his customers took him out for drinks to none other than the saint louis curling club where he got to watch curling LIVE. there is more to the sweeping than meets the eye. the ice has little pebble-type bits on it and they sweep to steer "the rock" and change its speed. i'm ready to give it a shot. i think i'll be a natural since i am such a good homemaker. HA!

the best part is that he didn't even know about my little ranting blog but bought me a t-shirt from the club because he said it was so awesome. apparently curling is all the rage in st louis. not only that, it is an elitist sport. basically, the people who belong to the super swank golf and tennis clubs in the summer belong to the curling club for some winter entertainment. who knew that brooms, a rock and ice were hard to come by in middle america?

happy v'day kids

2006-02-14T09:18:00.000-05:00

michael and i had our traditional valentine's day dinner last night. steak steak steak. its been too long. it was so freaking good. we had some polenta with spinach and butternut squash as well and i have to say, it may be my favorite meal. now if i could just add a half of a bottle of a big fat red wine, it would be perfect. next year it will happen.

tonight we are heading out to grendel's with bridget for a big old family v'day celebration. i will definitely be having some garlic bread with red sauce, i might need my own. yum yum yum.

i'll see if i can manage to dress bridget in some red and snap a few photos of her for your viewing pleasure.

here you go...what can i say? she isn't into posing for me. or sitting still for that matter.

why god, whyyyyyyy?

2006-02-13T13:09:00.000-05:00

why is it that you can not watch the olympics live? it drives me insane. i can't stand that we are subjected to nbc's interpretation of what the public wants. i can assure you that i DO NOT want to watch figure skating. not singles. not doubles - oh excuse me, pairs. not during knee breaking years. not during michelle kwan heart breaking years. tell me about it tomorrow. show me the triple axels and the make-up and the falls then.

i understand that they bought the rights and all that crap but couldn't they have sold off other sports to other networks so that we could see it if we wanted to? i'd like to check out the biathalon and maybe even a little curling. okay, maybe not curling but i should have the option. infuriating.

nap wars

2006-02-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

in an effort to break the habit of putting bridget to sleep while sitting IN her room, i've started sitting at the desk that is just outside of her room so that i can try and get something done. she can still check and see that i am here while she dozes off which was the general idea behind sitting and reading in her room. i actually loved sitting in there while she went to sleep. i got to read - a lot - and i got to watch her settle herself down.

the settling down is priceless. it ranges anywhere from kissing all of her animals and having conversations with them, to jumping up and down while holding onto the rail, to banging her head against the wall because she likes the sound, to twirling and ricocheting off of each side of the crib a thousand times, to saying MAMA over and over until she is gradually shouting the word only to drop it back down to her tiny little voice saying 'hi' when i finally give in and say 'yes?' she loves me the most at the end of the day and will give me loads of hugs and kisses from the crib because she knows that i am a sucker for them.

anyway, my point in mentioning this is that i am currently sitting at the desk outside her door sending her off to nap land. she has noticed that her diaper bag is now accessible inside her crib because the door is open so she is rifling through it pulling out diapers and anything else she can get her hands on and holding them high above her head while jumping up and down to proudly show me the contraband. she's good.

my tea's gone cold

2006-02-08T20:13:00.000-05:00

bridget had her 3rd music shakers class today. she loves these classes. she kisses all the other kids and shakes her booty like its her job. she really is crazy cute dancing around. she's all business.

its grammy night. i used to be very excited for the grammies. do you remember when the moonwalk was unveiled? i do. i distinctly remembering needing to see it again because i wasn't quite sure of what i saw. somehow i don't think we're going to get anything quite so earth-shattering tonight, although they are certainly pushing the "what future great grammy moment will happen tonight?" and the "first there was elton john and eminem, then there was..." duet thing. i will hand it to the grammy people. eminem and elton was something else. i missed last year but i know that melissa etheridge was the talk of the town. will it be madonna in her olivia newton john "let's get physical" video tryout get-up? alicia and stevie duet? kelly clarkson squeaking - and i mean squeaking - out an acceptance speech? we're 30 minutes in and this is the best i can come up with - maybe i'll watch that george lopez show instead.

rule # 2153

2006-02-07T20:11:00.000-05:00

the check that was cut and mailed on friday containing about half of our savings was NOT in today's mail. why should i be surprised? its not as if they have been honest and up front about anything with the house of horrors in bolton, so why start now when our money is at stake? i do not like these people. oh no i don't.

actually, today bridget and i took a road trip with stacey and lola to west hartford to look at many houses. not for us, no, we are chicago bound at this point still. but, it was interesting. west hartford is super cute and the houses seem to be priced reasonably. sidebar - reasonable to a person from eastern massachusetts may be slightly skewed. i still think they were worth what they were asking for the most part. anyway, we had the luxury of working with another of the undead. okay, maybe a little harsh, but i think these realtors handed over their souls when they got their little business cards. it really isn't nice to mess with people making such an emotional decision such as where they see growing old happily.

i made a new rule today - do not work with a real estate agent that is older than 30. they spend their wednesdays praying at the temple of the brilliant mofo who concocted the notion of the "buyers broker." these old cupcakes who were bored at home once the kids went off to school (which i shamelessly aspire to experience) and therefore decided to go into real estate for a little extra dough are reaping the benefits of this phenomena. they do nothing - not even a little research - and expect to get a half-commission for driving people around and showing them houses. and what do the buyer's care? they aren't paying the commission anyway. its ingenious. and in connecticut it is mandatory that you have a buyer's broker. the mofo must be from connecticut to get such a special tribute.

papa don't preach

2006-02-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

so i am watching danny aiello out the window. they are filming a movie in the north end and have been down in front all day. its pretty funny to watch. everyone - seemingly - sits around for 20 minutes, someone yells action and they do this 2 minute scene. 2 minutes might actually be a stretch. then they sit around again. its amazing. danny aiello seems like a nice guy though, he gets his picture taken will all of the north end crazies. and there are plenty.

on the other side of the fence, you would be amazed at the massive amounts of people who apparently do not work and can sit and watch danny a and crew do nothing for hours. as i write this, i realize that by default i am one of them. HA! i've learned not to judge mothers over the past year, does this mean i am not supposed to judge people now too?! what is this world coming to? anyway, i don't know if that one is possible, although it would be nice.

ACTION! you can't believe how loudly they yell that word, i can hear it back in the kitchen.

december 2005

2006-02-05T14:45:00.000-05:00

wow, nothing since 12/1 - its worse than i thought. i don't know what happened but i lost the ability to stay up past 10, which more often than not, happened to be when i wrote this thing. so, sorry posterity, i know that this is for you and i've been a bum. here's a summary of the past 2 months...

12/2 - planned on blogging, but didn't
12/3 - planned on blogging, but didn't
12/4 - planned on... haha, just kidding.

actually, i don't remember much of december's first half beyond christmas shopping, making the conscious decision to wish everyone a Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, getting everything ready to close on the house we bought, feeling tired after days of playing with bridget and providing housing for baby #2. if i remember anything else, i'll throw it in.

12/15 - auntie ellen has a BABY GIRL. agnes camille is born via C-section (ouch!) at 6:41 PM. it is very sad because i wake up at about 1 AM with the tell-tale scratchy throat and head rapidly filling up with goo and am not allowed to go and meet my new niece. for TEN DAYS! she is very very cute in the pics though.
12/19 - received a call from our attorney - which we now have as a result of buying a house (so weird) - telling us that about 1/3 of the garage and the driveway were not technically on our property. oops. and by the way, the bank won't be giving us any money until the title is fixed.
12/20 - michael and i do not sleep much and both decide that the house in bolton might be a bit much for us to handle. we want out.
12/21 - happy birthday mom and mom-in-law
12/22 - no word from the other house camp and our lawyer is getting PISSED at the non-response. as are we. we tell him that we aren't interested in the house anymore and want to get out of the deal if possible.
12/25 - merry christmas! bridget has a fun time ripping open her new presents and enjoying her last christmas as the sole heir to the family fortune. she is so good and cute that i want to eat her up. that's most days though, not just christmas
12/26 - we all drive down to NYC to meet bridget's new cousin. she is a little cutie pie and bridget gives her lots of kisses and only a few paws to the head - eek!
12/27 - our second anniversary - the kid to years married one to one ratio WILL end here. we get my brother to come and hang out with us in boston and go to grendel's for our old tuesday night out ritual. it was loads of fun.

the last week of the month goes by pretty quickly. we continue to hear nothing from the seller of the house and are seriously sweating it out until thursday night when we are told that they are opting to use the 30 days that the P&S agreement allows to fix the title problem. so now we get to sweat out another 30 days. great.

the other bit of news that happens this week is that michael gets a big fat promotion that involves us moving to CHICAGO. now we are desperate to get out of the house in bolton. talk about things happening for a reason. anyway, as i mentioned, we've got 30 days to sweat it out.

more tomorrow. i promise? the super bowl just ended and i am tired. i didn't think i cared who won but we did. michael picked the right little square on the big grid and we are $200 richer. woo hoo.

reality blows

2005-12-01T22:11:00.000-05:00

should someone tell kiera knightley that going the way of winona ryder doesn't necessarily end well? have you seen the trailer for pride and prejudice. holy crap. take your pick - little women or the crucible. up next miss kiera, teenage angst without a soccer ball.

don't get me wrong, i like her, that's why i'm worried about her.

country bumpkins

2005-11-22T09:35:00.000-05:00

okay, okay, i'm back. let's be realistic though, its 2 days before thanksgiving and i'm doubtful that i will be running to the computer to write. you never know though.

so, a lot has happened since i was a good blogger. i'm pregnant again - due date may 10th - and we are buying a house out in the country. bolton, ma. i'm pretty sure that it can't be called the suburbs because the really is no "urb" around so i'm sticking with the country classification. we are very anxious to get in there and get working because its a FIXER UPPER. please note the caps, they are intentional to get across the magnitude of the fixing up. its a little scary but i am very excited to do the work. the pregnancy will put a damper on what i can do until may though.

that's it for now.

we the jury

2005-11-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

jury duty. dorchester, ma. the real deal jury duty. dorchester is a different world - and i'm not talking whitley and duane wayne's different world either - and the court rooms of dorchester are a different planet. although, none of us actually even saw the inside of a court room since everyone (20 cases) either settled or made some sort of deal. thank god we are innocent until proven guilty.

the day starts out pretty badly since i got lost on my way to dorchestah and my little jury duty card said to be there at 8. i decided that since dorchester is technically part of boston - because otherwise, why would they send me there? - that the washington street of the south end is the very same washington street of dorchester. who needs directions? right-o jackass. so, its 7:55 and i realize that my washington street is heading out towards newton and i take a random left into jamaica plain. i am completely lost and frantic about being late as i somehow find my way to a street name that is on the very nice and clear map that the jury people have put on my reminder notice. after a few 3 point and U turns i somehow make it to the dorchester district courthouse, find parking on the street and scramble inside at about 8:15. "jury duty?" says the nice man at the x-ray machine. "yes, i'm sorry. i'm late." he looks at me as if i have five heads and says - you're not late. nothing happens until 9 at the earliest. what? so now i'm not only not late, i'm ridiculously early?

up i go to the jury pool room. come 9 we get locked in a room and are forbidden to leave - they have 2 bathrooms and 2 vending machines - until 10:30 for a coffee break. 2 people showed up at around 9:15. did they not see the 8:00 on the damn sheet? i don't get who these people are. anyway, 10:30 rolls around and out we go onto the courthouse steps where i enter the scene in the movie where someone gets gunned down on the courthouse steps. its swarming with people. cars are driving by. others are double parked to get some of the roach coach's fine food. i don't even care about being an innocent victim because i have to get my sustinance for the day. they warned us in their speech that this is our only shot at food. and my pregnant self is starving. i got my old stand-by from my days at LSC. 2 drake's - not hostess - coffee cakes and a large coffee. i was very tempted to get an egg, bacon and cheese sandwich but the term "roach coach" kept running through my head and i chickened out. i also bought a whole bunch of RC health food (smart food, gatorade, etc) to last me the rest of the day.

that was about the extent of the excitement for the day. i unfortunately didn't write this soon enough to remember some of the gems that i heard outside on the break. you will have to trust me that it was unbelievably fascinating stuff. at about 1:30 we were dismissed. there was cheering.

that was the 4th time i have been to jury duty and stayed in the same room until we were all told to go home. crazy.

pics pics pics

2005-10-11T21:41:00.000-04:00

okay, i finally posted the birthday pics. see september 18th if you are interested.

that's about it. i am trying to recover from my day with this strange baby who turned on me. it was exhausting. actually, she is exhausted because she no longer naps more than ONE hour a day. poor little baby doesn't know what to do with herself. and neither do i.

i love the office. it is insane. i told you i'm an addict.

how i met your new extreme wife

2005-10-10T20:23:00.000-04:00

i am officially a tv addict. i suppose i knew this already so its just official to you. anyway, its at low points like this when it hits home. i am sitting here watching wife swap because i like how i met your mother at 8:30. the more troubling part is that i am riveted. one of these mothers is a pageant mother and the other is a health food non-make-up wearing artist.

in case you don't know the premise of the horrible show that i might love, the mothers switch houses and live by the original mother's rules for one week and then the new mother gets to institute her rules. its insane. i am sure that they always pick extremes. i am also sure that every week the mothers and families learn valuable lessons about how their extreme lifestyle can use a little of the opposing family's extremes.

so, week one, over. switch it up and now little haley can't do pageants, brush her hair or watch tv and little lucy gets a big screen tv in her room and has to do a pageant for a little "healthy competition" - ever hear of sports? crying ensues. except when the big screen tv comes.

its insane. it makes me feel like i might not be a bad parent after all.

i thought i was done but i just cut over during a commercial to see little lucy in the pageant. she really liked it and it made me sad. oh, maybe pageants aren't evil after all.

let's not get crazy.

sono stanca

2005-10-06T22:31:00.000-04:00

so i know i mentioned that bridget and the breast were through as of this past monday, but i need to mention the fact that i am still in PAIN! it is insane. the right, shall we say, side is rock hard and noticeably larger than the left. there is no end in sight and we're talking 3 days already. i almost broke down and bought a head of cabbage. this is what helps apparently. cabbage leaves over the breasteses. if its no better tomorrow, believe me, we'll be having cabbage soup for dinner all next week.

tomorrow morning bridget is getting her flu shot. i am very nervous about this whole thing. i had a flu shot once and felt horrible for days and now i am subjecting her to this. after the shot, we are going to help my sister register though. i am very excited for it. i love baby stuff. its very sad but i could go crazy in babies r'us.

i am tired. this is why i have been too lazy to get the birthday shots up and running. my child refuses to nap for me. aah!

the irish invasion

2005-10-04T21:48:00.000-04:00

michael just reminded me of the strangest thing that happened last night. we were in the throes of bed/dinner time. oddly enough, i was handling dinner and michael was handling bed for bridget. neither scenario was going well since we weren't in our areas of expertise. bridget was screaming bloody murder one sentence into "the going to bed book" (because she has become way too attached to me at bedtime) and the rice was boiling over on the stove. and then there was a knock on the door. i think that this is maybe the 6th knock on the door ever. so i open it half-expecting to be attacked (yes, these are the thoughts that run through my paranoid brain) by a north end heroin addict, only to be greeted by an older couple from ireland. not elderly, just older and they are looking for margaret. my mother? now i'm even more afraid than i was of the attack. my mother will be thrilled when she hears about the screaming baby and seemingly out-of-control pot on the stove and my usual cooking mess in the general kitchen area. despite all this, i do the proper irish thing and offer them tea. which i have - phew! they say no - phew! then i ask them if they've eaten dinner. they have. what about coffee and dessert? can i take you out for coffee and dessert? key word - OUT? no, they are all set. they just wanted to come by and say hello. they are the best friends of my mother's cousin. they were very nice but i can't imagine what they were thinking. they were in the hallway - too scared to come in - for 5 minutes tops. oy! isn't that strange?

so anyway, despite the early game time for the sox today, it was a total waste of time. i'm just happy i didn't dress bridget in her little dress for the massacre.