Dillierama

Things I've been thinking about

1. When positioned just right, Alex looks exactly like Matt Damon in the rear view mirror in my car.
2. I don't know if it's just because I'm used to Alex Skinny-Bones, but whenever I'm out and about I see these gigantic chubby babys.  Their ankle fat flowing over their socks, hands almost hidden under rolls of arm fat.  Is this normal?  Have babies always been this chubby?  Some of them look like they're about to explode.
3. Every morning for several weeks there has been a songbird outside our bedroom window waking us up at 6AM with it's horrible awful screeching.  I've never heard a bird sound like that before.  It was terrible.  Well, the other night, we were woken up at 3:00 am by that same bird making an even more annoying noise.  Almost like a squawking.  We haven't heard it since.  We're thinking either it finally got laid and flew away, or a cat ate it.

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream

It's probably not a good idea to give a 20 month old kid an ice cream cone in his car seat while you're driving around town on a hot day.  It can make a wee bit of a mess.  You'd think this would be a no brainer, but apparently, for me, motherhood has a learning curve.

See, I didn't think he'd take it.  I bought the ice cream for myself.  Up until today Alex has hated ice cream with the fire of a thousand suns.  Nothing disgusts him more.  So when he was begging for my ice cream cone from the back seat, I gave it to him, thinking he'd take a lick, make the yucky face, and I could have it back.  No harm, no foul.  But today, after the initial lick and the requisite "Ewwww" face, he took another lick, and another, and another...  I was overjoyed.  My son was finally acting like he'd come from my gene pool after all.  You don't know how hard it is having a son who likes fruits and veggies and organic waffles when I'd happily take a naked swim in a vat of Ben & Jerry's.  I suspect it was the novelty of having the ice cream in a sugar cone rather than on a spoon.  Either way, he now likes vanilla ice cream, and my backseat is covered in vanilla sticky.

We went there, and did this... Weekend redux

We've had a pretty good weekend so far.  Being Memorial Day today, it's not even over yet.

Friday evening was our neighborhood's annual BBQ.  I went last year and had a wonderful time.  John, not much for socializing (like I am?) didn't want to go, but I begged and begged and he finally agreed.  We re-worked our weekend plans with some friends and attended the BBQ which, conveniently, was being held right in front of our house.

Turns out John had a good time, once he had a couple of beers (poured inconspicuously into a large plastic cup so as not to offend the our alcohol free neighbors).  He even engaged in a spirited game of Frisbee with a couple of twelve year old girls. 

Alex joined all of the neighborhood kids in the yard of the older gentleman who lives across the street.  He'd long left the BBQ to be at home with his wife and fluffy white dog, but for whatever reason, the neighborhood kids decided his yard was the place to be.  About 20 kids running through his flower beds and throwing balls over the fence into his back yard.  Alex was so thrilled to be playing with other kids (almost all of them older than him from 1 year to 13 years old) He didn't want me or John anywhere near him.  Parents are so uncool you know.  So for the duration of the party, we kept an eye on him from afar, only going to him after he fell down or got kicked in the head by a kid on a swing.  He was playing so rough and rowdy, by the end of the party, he was black and blue with scrapes on his knees and elbows. 

Saturday, John went golfing with his brother and Alex and I went to the park.  Then we got together with some friends and their three year old daughter and went to the zoo.  The zoo was packed, but we had fun anyway.  Alex really got a kick out of the meerkats while I found myself in awe of the giraffes.  They were being fed inside and you could go in the building and they were right there, huge and odd looking.  For a good half hour I couldn't seem to shut up about giraffe poop.  They poop like rabbits.  Little poo pellets.  I found that fascinating.

Yesterday John played with Alex downstairs while I layed on the couch and felt fat and ugly.  I get this way, usually one day every month, a couple days before my period starts, I lay around on the sofa and whine and moan about being fat.  The next day, I get up, still fat, but feeling better about it.  John took us out to dinner later that evening.  Which was lovely until Alex threw up his entire meal right there on the table.  This was one of those times where I really notice how motherhood has changed me.  I cleaned up the mess, washed my hands and then we stayed and ordered dessert.

Today John and I slept in in shifts.  I got up with Alex at 7:00, let John sleep until 8:30, then I got to nap from 8:30 to 9:30 until John had to leave to go golfing with the guys.  Jen and Lily came over and made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, which were quite yummy.  We were going to go to IKEA, but Alex started acting like a brat, so I figured a couple of hours fighting with him to sit still in a shopping cart wouldn't be very enjoyable.  We took him to the park to play in the sandbox instead.  Now I'm just killing time until he gets up from his nap so I can go to JP's house to watch the Jazz game while everyone swims.  I likely won't be parading my white flabby thighs around my brother-in-law's pool.  But Alex will probably get in and splash with everyone.

IKEA, I think I love you

So I finally got into IKEA today.  Alex and I got there 30 minutes before they opened.  The employees were directing people (already several hundred of us) to the restaurant upstairs.   We got a yummy Cinnamon roll and coffee, Alex got an OJ (the meatballs weren't out for breakfast).

Once the store officially opened at 10:00, we began to wander around, Alex on his puppy leash.  The place was HUGE and I was in pure heaven. A lot of the stuff reminded me of department stores in Denmark.  Apparently Scandinavian style hasn't changed much in the last decade.

I think I showed tremendous restraint.  When we finally got to the checkout, I only had the following in my basket:

• 2 rugs (bathmat size)
• A posable wooden doll/statue
• a wooden rolling toy for Alex
• 2 wood magazine holders
• small table and two chairs (Alex sized)
• a bag of frozen meatballs
• reusable shopping bag

When John came home for lunch, he started noticing all the stuff I'd bought around the house.  I asked him to guess how much I spent.

"$200?"
"Are you serious?  You think I'd just drop $200 without asking you?"
"$100?"
"Lower"
"Well, if you spent less than $100, I'm happy"
"Would you believe me if I told you I spent $35?"
"No, I wouldn't"
"Well, it's true"
"Awesome"
"I LOVE IKEA!!!!!!!!"

One day, IKEA, one day I will know your meatbally goodness

I've been so excited about the new IKEA opening up.  All week, I've been saying to John "Guess how many days until IKEA opens?"  Of course, he doesn't care.  At all.  But me, oh, I've been DYING for Utah to get an IKEA.  All we need now is an In n Out Burger and I won't hate living in Utah nearly as much.

This morning while John, Alex and I were having breakfast and watching our morning TV (ESPN news and Aurthur if you were interested), I could barely contain my excitement.  IKEA opens TODAY!  TODAY!  I hadn't planned on going to the grand opening, but since Wednesday playgroup isn't until 11:00, Alex and I didn't have anything to do, so we got dressed and headed out to Draper to check out the place that could very easily become the catalyst for our financial ruin.  Oh how I love Swedish furniture and home accessories.  Specifically, CHEAP furniture and home accessories.  And if the store that sells such things also sells meatballs... well, my love for such a store could know no bounds.

Almost as soon as I got on the freeway, still two exits away from the store, I found myself in the line to the IKEA parking lot.  The line went quickly.  The parking lot attendants were surprisingly efficient.  We scored a spot fairly close to the front entrance and went to get in line to get into the store.  That's where I discovered that my love for IKEA did indeed have bounds.  We walked around and around the building looking for the end of the line only to discover after two laps that the line went around the entire building and doubled back to the front again.  And more people were arriving every second.  I realized that I do not love Swedish furniture and home accessories or meatballs nearly enough to wait in line for several hours with a toddler. 

Dejected, I trudged back to the car and drove home, vowing that I would soon return for a more intimate introduction to IKEA.  Someday when several thousand people didn't stand between me and my affordable home decor.

How did this kid, who is so obviously cool
 

Come from me, who is so obviously... a dork?

I've got nothin'

Jen came over this afternoon and put girly shoes on Alex and let him run around the backyard, breaking them in for Lily to wear in a year.  That was fun especially because they squeaked with every step he took making it feel like he was some strange she-boy squeaking cartoon character.  Aside from my son dressing in drag from the ankles down, nothing interesting is going on around here.

I really want to start writing more interesting stuff on this blog.  So far it's a blog that even I'm not interested in reading and I write the damn thing.  Maybe I'll order Mighty Girl's book (and while I'm at it, maybe I'll get the shirt too) and see if it can spark some new ideas and maybe some better writing.  After all, that's why I started the blog in the first place, to become a better writer.  All I've done so far is create an online baby blog for Alex.  While valuable in that way, it's not quite what I want this blog to be.  So, I'm going to take the weekend off, think about my writing goals, and see if I can't come back next week with some better content.

Wish me luck!

DVR dillemma

Today we had the cable guy out to fix our DVR.  Oh DVR, why have you forsaken us?  And why now?  Now when all of the shows we watch are airing their season finales. YOU BASTARD DVR!   We've missed two episodes of The Riches!  We missed the entire ballroom portion of Dancing with The Stars this week.  Because you are broken we now have to watch The Office, Scrubs and My Name is Earl in real time with commercials.  We've only had DVR for about a year now and already we're completely dependent. 

The cable guy wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow afternoon, but at 9am sharp this morning a cute little Mexican guy showed up at my doorstep saying he had an order to add cable boxes to two more TV's.  Problem is, we only have two TV's and both already have cable boxes hooked up. I don't know where that came from, but since he was already here, he went ahead and replaced our DVR.  He was here for three hours and still didn't get it fixed, apparently Comcast has some problems with their DVR service right now.  So now New DVR is sitting atop our big HD TV doing a whole lotta nothing.  At least Old DVR had an episode of The Riches saved.  Gah.

The Daddy/Daughter Connection

I am not a spiritual person.

I don't believe in ghosts.

That said, I really want to write about the fact that my newfound hobby, photography, has brought me closer to my father.  My dead father.  I don't really know how to write about it.

My dad was a photographer, a professional even, long before I came along.  I remember as a child squeezing between stacks of dusty boxes in the garage to get to his old prints.  I'd thumb through them, pick out my favorites and pin them to my bedroom wall (at one point, I had an artsy black and white print of some hills pinned above my hot pink stereo.  Imagine how embarrassing that conversation was when he told me that it wasn't a landscape, it was actually a pair of women's breasts.  Needless to say, the picture was quickly replaced by one of my older sister as a child).  I loved his pictures.  My love for my dad's photos turned into a love of photography in general as I got older.  Until recently, I never really tried to take better photographs myself, but have always been an lover and appreciator of other people's work.   

The last month or so that I've been taking these photography classes and attending the seminars for photo week, I've been thinking of my dad a lot.  At first it was a sad feeling that would come over me.  Wishing he were here because he would have loved this kind of thing.  But during the "Inspirational Photography" seminar this weekend with Bill Fortney, the feeling changed from a feeling of loss to a feeling of closeness.  I sat there watching the presentation and thinking how lucky I am that I get to share this hobby with my dad even though he is gone.  Almost like the part of him that is in me was bubbling up to the top and I felt like I understood a bit better what he was all about.  By understanding, appreciating and doing something that he always loved, in a way, enables me to share that with him.   

Not having a faith, not believing that I will one day see my dad again, makes for a very difficult grieving process.  Five and a half years gone and I still miss him terribly.  Now I feel hopeful more than sad.  Inspired even, to continue taking classes and get out there and try to take beautiful pictures.  Pictures he would have been proud to frame and display on his wall like I do of his. 

Days 6 & 7 of the Budget Challenge - Weekend damage & summary

All the typical weekend stuff:

Saturday
John's golf and lunch: $47
John bought me a Mother's day plant and card: It was a gift, so I'm not asking what he spent
I grabbed a Jamocha shake and a diet pepsi while at my "Inspirational Photography" seminar: $3
Grocery shopping: $47
Dinner out:  $30
Movie rental:  Free at the RedBox

Sunday
Mother's day McGriddles: $8
Misc Target purchases (a couple of groceries I forgot to buy Sat, yard tools, sprinkler toy for Alex and a shirt that I HATE and will be returning): $104
Contributions to various mother's day gifts: Still need the final total, but it should be <$100

Budget Challenge Summary
Well, we definately spent more than I'd hoped we would, however, we were very aware of how much we spent and what we spent it on, which is an inprovement.  All in all I think this was a worthwhile exercise and I want to continue (though I probably won't post about it because I'm sure it's pretty boring to read about).