Archive for the 'bling blog' Category
This is not really a new new development, but I feel like it needs to be remarked upon here. When Bear wakes up now, she is almost always sitting up in her crib. It is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. This may not seem amazing to those without child, or maybe not even to those with, but to me, it’s pretty amazeballs. [Thanks Guiliana Rancic for putting that word into my vocabulary. I can’t say I love it, but it has stuck.] It’s just incredible to me to think that a person would wake up and then sit up and start babbling. Though I suppose, why not? She obviously can’t get up yet, like the rest of us, so I guess this makes the most sense. Still, it’s a sight to behold.
Want to hear something even crazier? Of course you do. This morning, at 3 am, Bear woke up. I looked at the video monitor (a contender for best invention ever) and she was sitting up, half-babbling, half-moaning. Ugh. It was my night. She never does this anymore! Or, rather, she rarely does it and the last time she did she was way sick. I went upstairs. AO offered to change her (thank you) and I got a bottle. I fed her and she was smiley and happy and adorbs the whole time. When she finished the bottle, she just turned in my arm and appeared to be ready to go back to sleep. I put her down. She cried. She sat up. I told AO I think she’s just being weird. He thought she was still hungry. AO fed her another bottle. He put her down. She cried. She sat up. Then something very weird happened. And I know this because of the wonder of the video monitor. She stopped crying, babbled only occasionally, but continued to sit up and play with her hands. For awhile. I mean, a while. I dozed in and out of sleep as she did this. Then, at some point, she put herself down and back to sleep. People! Are you listening? She put herself down and back to sleep! She’s amazeballs, don’t you think?
My little baby is growing up.
AO & I took off the three work days in between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so that has meant we have had a nice, long break. AO will have had, in sum, two weeks off from work when he heads back because he stayed home with Bear the two days last week that her day care was closed due to the blizzard. Because we are bad parents, or maybe because we are good ones who know our limits, we sent Bear to day care today and the previous two days. Hey, we’re paying for it whether she goes or not. And we wouldn’t want her to forget what school was like and traumatize her when she inevitably returned in the new year. Anyway, it’s been a really, really nice break so far. So, I’ll keep you in suspense no longer. I bring you, in no particular order, the top ten things of my holiday break.
- Bear clapping when my mom opened her iPad, which is a gift from us & Severa, and is engraved “Grandma’s iPad.”
- Seeing a double feature yesterday: This Is 40 followed by Silver Linings Playbook.
- Drinking coffee & a Bloody Mary (made from AO’s own mix) & doing a deep conditioning treatment (thanks, GAOOG) on my hair as I type this.
- Using my savvily-bought $39 voucher for an awesome massage at Elevation.
- Finally using my $200 Groupon to get that awesome Maurice Sendak Magic Flute poster framed (though I didn’t enjoy the frame shop worker not knowing who Maurice Sendak was). The total was $210.
- Seeing Bear sleep in my mom’s arms on Christmas Day.
- Taking Bear to day care yesterday in my nightgown and leggings. No bra. Sometimes Wisconsin weather has its advantages. #wintercoat
- Eleven days off of work in which I have thought only a handful of times about the papers still left to grade and the petition for certiorari that I have to file upon my return to the grind.
- Time with my family, including a bizarre series of texts in which my aunt Terry insisted John Hughes’ glorious romantic comedy detailing the heartache of high school with just the right amount of class commentary is actually a horror movie; specifically that it is Carrie. How she confused Molly Ringwald with Sissy Spacek is one mystery that I don’t think can be solved.
- Wednesday’s nap and the nap that I see in my future for today.
Honorable mention: going to Green Bay to see the Packers rout Tennessee & watching Rodgers do a Lambeau leap.
Happy New Year, all!
To do or not to do: the cash bar version. I am not a fan of the cash bar. At both of my weddings (I know), it was very important to me that people enjoy themselves without having to pull out cash. When you invite folks to your wedding, you are often asking that they travel – meaning plane fare or gas money, as well as a hotel — that they wear fancy clothes and, perhaps, that take time off from work. They also frequently buy you a gift. That’s a lot. To ask them then to pay for their beer seems like too much to me. I wouldn’t ask them to pay for a drink at a barbecue in my backyard, how could I do so at my wedding? Now then, I acknowledge that not every one (a) sees things this way and/or (b) has the luxury of doing things this way. I will not argue that if you can afford to throw a wedding at all, you can afford to provide your guests with booze, but instead offer my thoughts on ways to manage your liquor bill reasonably. I have been to many a wedding where wine and beer is free, but cocktails cost some change. I have been to a wedding where the bride and groom have chosen a fun specialty cocktail to offer, as well as wine and beer. I think these are very reasonable ways to deal with alcohol expenses. I have been to the Miller Lite only wedding, which I think is really stretching things on the tack-factor scale. The worst, though, was the wedding I attended at a super out-of-the-way resort with a two-night minimum stay where, post-dinner, the bride & groom provided guests one barrel of beer and once that was empty, everyone was on their own.
But I guess that really isn’t the worst. The worst it seems is the latest (and only the second I think) Bachelorette wedding. Ashley Hebert & JP Rosenbaum wed December 1 in Pasadena. The big event was filmed and will air this week on ABC. Apparently, ABC paid for the event, but after production stopped, the bar went from free to cash. And, this being Pasadena, cocktails were in the $16 range. Holy tack-asaurus. Now, perhaps it was just bad planning, but if you’re going to get an essentially free wedding, the least you could do is pay for the booze. I do not recommend this approach.
I can tell from the stats that about the same number of people are still checking in with this blog, but comments are way down. Remember the days when we used to get comments in the double digits? Yeah, I don’t blame you if you don’t. It was a long time ago. I want to change that around, though. How can I do it? I need your help. I tried to reach out with the poll, but that didn’t get me very far. It also didn’t technically work all that well for me. Anyway, what should we talk about? TV? The Walking Dead? I’m pretty much hooked. Homeland? I’m completely hooked. Top Chef? I wasn’t feeling the first episodes so I deleted one without watching it. Yeah, I said that. Movies? I loved Argo. Loved it. I liked Skyfall; I thought it was pretty fun. Books? I’m reading The Scientist in the Crib and it’s truly fascinating. Babies? I have one who’s pretty great, but I wish she wouldn’t be so loud sometimes. Kristin’s sister just had twins – a boy and a girl. Yikes, but adorable. Pajamas? Baby pajamas have no business having snaps on them. Why would anyone do this? Are zippers that much more expensive? They’re certainly not measurably less cute, but they are immeasurably easier to deal with. Pajamas go on the baby, or come off the baby, at the time of day/night when that baby is at its worst. Bear gets crankasaurus before bed and if we don’t get those pajamas on early enough, it can be a long battle. Similarly, if Bear wakes up at 3 am or 5 am starving to death, she’s most likely soaked and needs to be changed. This means those pajamas with snaps have to be unsnapped and snapped back up again. For God’s sake. Put a zipper on it. Ok, sorry for that aside, but Terry sent me a cute Huff Po article about the 20 things some new mom wished she’d known about the first year of babyhood. And she mentioned the hierarchy: zippers then snaps then buttons. She’s right, but it’s even more serious, in my opinion, when we’re talking pajamas. Which I was. Now then, what do you want to talk about? And I mean it this time: tell me!
life and puppies 