Dillierama

Halloweenie

Yesterday, he dressed up as a good Jedi

But today, he went to the Dark Side:
(Wisely, I switched out the white socks for black later in the day)

He learned that suckers, they're yummy.

He met his evil twin.

It was a good day.

Oh, and John's a dork

This morning was Alex's weight check.  Last month at his 12 month well baby visit he had a pretty steep decline in his weight percentile, that they asked me to bring him back in a month to make sure he's actually gaining weight.  I've been nervous about this appointment all month.  Especially since he got Rota virus, stopped eating and has had diarrhea off and on all month.  But it turns out, I needn't have wasted so much energy on worrying because my boy gained 1/2 a pound and went up a percentile to 7%  He's becoming quite the butterball.

While we were there, I took the opportunity to talk to the doctor about one of my other concerns.  Alex is a ball grabber.  He doesn't do it gently either.  As soon as the diaper comes off he grabs handfuls of flesh and pulls.  HARD.  Consequently, his nether regions are always red and puffy.  There is no sign of rash or eczema in the area, so I can't for the life of me figure out why he does it.  Every day I slather diaper rash cream, his eczema ointments, Vaseline, talcum powder, jock itch cream.. to no avail.  Still yanking at his ball sack in a less than affectionate manner.  Doc agreed to take a look, so I removed his diaper and as if on cue, Alex reached right down there and clawed at his testicles, he even grabbed his foreskin and gave it a good yank with his other hand, just for good measure.  The doctor starting giggling. 

"Boys do that"  she told me.  "And it's just going to get worse the older he gets"
"But doesn't it hurt him?  I'm afraid he's going to just pull his penis right off one day"
"Trust me, he'll stop before he hurts himself.  Boys just like to play with their equipment"

I should have known.

SpongeMom TVPants

We watch our fair share of cartoons, Alex and I.  There are only a few that I can stand: Caillou, Aurthur, Curious George and SpongeBob SquarePants to name a few.  We watch a lot of SpongeBob.  Mostly because it's always on.  At any given time during the day, there is an episode of SpngeBob playing.  The other afternoon, Alex and I were watching SpongeBob when John came in

"Why do gay people like Squidward?" 
"Huh?"
"Well, I'd heard that Squidward is supposed to be based on some real gay celebrity and SpongeBob has a big gay following because of it"

I'd never heard that, but it got me thinking, who could Squidward be?  The only gay celebrity I could think of Squidward reminding me of was Charles Nelson Reilly.  So I did some searching online, and found out that Squidward wasn't based on Charles Nelson Reilly, but coincidentally, Charles Nelson Reilly did the voice for The Dirty Bubble.  I'm still at a loss as to why gay people in particular would be drawn to SpongeBob.  I suspect it's not Squidward at all, but the fact that Spongebob is such a snappy dresser.

Oh shit

For reasons I can't begin to remember at the moment, we did not have an escrow acount setup with our mortgage, so the other day we got a bill for our property tax in the mail.  $1800!  This is not good considering we haven't been nearly as frugal as we should have been since I quit my job (and consequently lost 1/2 our income).  This comes inconveniently right before the holidays and just prior to when we want to renew our season tickets for RSL. We've absentmindedly blown through a big chunk of our savings in the last two months and now with property tax and season tickets, we won't likely replace it any time soon.  Gah.

It's not all bad though, like I said, we haven't really been living on a tight budget lately, so it shouldn't be too hard to find ways to cinch up our belts and scrape together what we need.  It is quite the slap upside the head though.  I mean, WHAT WERE WE THINKING?  We weren't thinking at all apparently, and luckily we got a reality check before things got really out of hand.

Five things one or the other of us has said recently

1. "I'm going to kill that goddamned cat, I'm not joking"
2. "Is this dried poop on my sleeve?"
3. "How much do you think a good Vegas hooker might cost?"
4. "How many boobs do you think you've had in your mouth? Not including your mother of course."
5. "Did you just fart a corndog?"

Shaking his groove thing

Download the rump shaker: alex12_months_086.mov

Five things I REALLY want

Sorry about the late five lists lately...

1. A new stainless steel kitchen sink
2. Tile floors in my kitchen and bathrooms
3. Laser corrective eye surgery
4. A digital SLR camera (I took John to see a Nikon D50 this weekend, oh, it's so pretty. I WANT ONE!!!)
5. Someone to come and landscape my yard

Better

I'm feeling much better today.  I'm not sure why, maybe I just needed to vent.  Anyhow, life is quite peachy again in the Dillier world, well, except John's sick. AGAIN.  I swear, if someone sneezes within a four mile radius of my husband, he catches a cold.

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. I'd been growing it out, thinking I could get it long enough to be able to donate to an organization like Locks of Love, but they need a minimum of 10 inches.  I've been growing this mop for a year now and I'll be lucky to get four inches cut off.  My hair hasn't grown at all in the last three months or so, so I've given it up.  I've got all these little wispy bits around my face that poke out everywhere, so I'm hoping I can get some kind of style that can work with these odd chunks of hair that don't grow.  Maybe I'll get bangs...  I'm sick of looking all frumpy.  Granted, I've always been kind of frumpy, but since I've been home full time, it's been all sweats all the time, and I haven't actually DONE my hair in weeks, and I'm not even going to mention the state of my leg hair (I wonder if Locks of love would take leg hair?). 

Whine, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, bitch, moan, moan, moan

What the hell is my problem?  Here I have the best life in the world and yesterday I end up giving my poor husband the business because he *gasp* went golfing.  Something I TOLD him to do.  While I was arguing with him on the phone, I kept thinking "why the hell am I mad at him?"  But of course, I kept on arguing all the same. 

By the end of the evening, I think I figured out what my stupid issue was.  I was jealous.  John gets to just up and go golfing if he wants to.  He gets to just up and go hunting for the weekend with his dad and brother if he wants to.  He gets to spend time just surfing the Internet if he wants to.  He gets to poop without an audience.  Me?  Not so much.  For me to do something, I have to arrange for someone to watch the child.  I have to make sure everything is in order (he's fed, clean, napped and happy...etc.).  And then when I do go out, the entire time, all I think about is Alex.  Is he OK? Is he hungry? Did I make sure I left him with enough diapers? Maybe I should call and make sure he hasn't fallen down the stairs or poked his eye out, or got a raisin stuck in his ear...  I seem to be completely incapable of turning off Mom, even for the shortest period of time to enjoy something on my own.  John, however, doesn't have that weight of responsibility sitting square on his shoulders 24/7.  He's able to go to work and think about work.  He's able to go golfing and think about golfing.  He's able to get on line without googling ear infections and diaper rash. 

John tells me to just leave the baby with him.  Take some time for myself.  He can watch the baby. I should get out.  And I desperately want to.  I so want to just go get my hair cut, or sit and read a book, or go to a movie...anything and actually be able to let go, just enjoy it.  But it always seems like more stress than it's worth.  So I don't and then, when John takes his breaks, I get resentful.  How come he can just shuck all of his parental responsibilities and be gone all weekend?  What about me?  It's a stupid cycle that I can't seem to short circuit.  But I need to.  I can't fault John for needing a break from all of his responsibilities once in a while.  And it's certainly not his fault that I can't seem to ever break from "mom mode".  And I'm no good to Alex if I'm all wound up and snippy.  Mommy's no fun that way. So I'm going to work on that.  I'm going to try to steal some "me time" once in a while and really make an effort to just relax and know that Alex is perfectly fine if I'm not around. 

Parrot

Alex is becoming a little parrot.  Almost anything you say, he'll try to say.  John and I went on a date tonight while his sister Heidi babysat.  We came home to Alex walking around saying "Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Heidi,Heidi, Heidi...."  At one point I think he actually said "Heidi Ho"  Oh, this phase is going to be SO. MUCH. FUN!