Boys, Boys

Daniel has sort of connected with a little boy named Edgar at our playgroup. Edgar's Mom and I were talking, when we started hearing some crashing noises from the next room. We investigated, only to see two little figures peering into the dollhouse, with the two of them taking turns sending each wooden piece of furniture crashing down the dollhouse stairs.

And all I could think was Aww, how cute! He's learning how to play with the other boys!

Just a Girl and her Allen Wrench

This was my project of the day... 115+ pieces. Nicely challenged / complicated by the two-year-old who wants to PLAY TRAIN!

We had a hectic weekend the past few days with the last bit of Daniel's "progressive birthday party" at my Mother-in-Law's house with Aunts and Uncles and at least one of the cousins. Daniel did extremely well what with his schedule being turned upside down yet again... He's really pretty adaptable. Tantrum Kid seems to come out nearly exclusively for Mama and Dada and Angel Kid is reserved for everyone else. As a result I've really been holding onto my patience today.

I am thinking of renaming this birthday: Trains, planes, and automobiles (and bikes and trucks and...) as Daniel's focus on anything with wheels has remained firmly in place. One of his birthday trucks actually came with a DVD showing trash trucks and explaining where all the trash and recycling goes. I found it surprisingly interesting!

A Poke in the Arm

Yesterday was Daniel's 2-year appointment. The 18-month appointment was a bit of a scream-fest, so I was uncertain how things would go... The actual visit with the pediatrician went well. We did the usual getting the stats, brief look-see in the ears, questions about how things are going with the eating, sleeping, etc. Then came the Hepatitis B shot. Traumatic, but quick. The topper was realizing that we needed to go upstairs to get blood drawn for a lead test.

I know it's important... especially given the scavenger hunt all us Moms and Dads have been doing recently due to The Great Toy Recall of 2007. But, um, yeah... the last time? It took my husband to hold him down. I decided to brave it out if I could, otherwise it would mean maneuvering another appointment around H's work schedule and so forth. I'm happy to say that we got through it OK. I was a little bit amazed when the doctors office called this morning to say that his blood workup was normal. I don't think I have ever seen such a fast turnaround.

My heart breaks a little bit every time my little guy looks at me and says in a small voice, "Doctor hurt." But I think all has been forgiven. Now if we can just work on the nightly scream-fests that come with the brushing of the teeth.

It was the strangest thing...

So, what is the strangest thing you ever saw while you were "on the road?" My brother was crossing the Mackinac Bridge on his way home from the visit to our parents' house when he caught this picture. Just like a scene out of Cops!

We had just crossed the border into Ohio, and had taken our first toll ticket when I saw 10-15 emergency vehicles on the other side of the road. As we started speeding up I noticed the FedEx truck that had "reared up" and was crumpled under the overpass like someone had used a can opener on it. H also noted that the cab looked burned. Also noted by us both was the 8-10 mile backup of cars we proceeded to pass. People had actually gotten out of their cars and were walking around talking to each other. As the traffic started to thin out, I wanted to wave a big sign at approaching cars and shout, "Turn Back!!!"

We were driving to playgroup yesterday when I rounded a corner and had to drive around what looked like a door flat on the road in the intersection with what looked like an industrial saw horse on top of it. This was reminiscent of the time I was driving to my summer job years ago and rounded a corner to find a desk and chair in my lane. They were perfectly set up, as though they were just waiting for a computer and office worker. A little way up the road was a pickup that had pulled over to get their errant desk.

What about you?

Tag Team Restauraunt-Going

Sigh. OK, so I know, I know, he's two... but any recommendations about how to get the kid to sit still in a restaurant?

We thought we would have a brief dinner out yesterday. Daniel is sort of getting a "birthday month" this year. We spent the 10 days leading up to his birthday with my family in Wisconsin (thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the bike!). And the actual day fell hard on the heels of the 1,200 mile trek home. Knowing we were all kinda tired and messed up schedule-wise we thought of a dinner out as a celebration, with getting together with H's family for another time. Dinner, unfortunately, became a tag-team event in controlling the toddler with one of us getting up from the table and even taking him outside if things were getting too unbearable. Any toys I brought were a distraction for about .2 seconds. Drinks were only good if he got to drink one of ours ("sip! SIP!"), and he was not content to just take a drink through the straw ("HOLD!").

We probably need to start enforcing more dinnertime rules at home, but it's hard. H and I are on wildly different schedules during the (6-day) work week, which makes sitting down all together at the table for meals difficult. Can someone please tell me that this is a phase? And when does it end? I don't want to not take him out places, but sheesh! Yesterday had me contemplating food delivery rather than eating out for the next few years.

Eeep!

There are some very nice friends of my parents in their neighborhood. We visited many of them recently, just to say "hi" (And who am I kidding, to show off Daniel a little...) One of these friends, Burt, collects and sometimes even races cars. Daniel took a shine to a yellow car in the garage that Burt and Teddi referred to as "the Dino." Come to find out from talking to my father later that car is a Dino Ferrari, much like the one pictured, and is quite expensive. Just the thing I want my two-year-old's hands all over!

We are home. Three sore behinds from 1,200 plus miles in the car with a toddler. A toddler who is now wildly off his schedule for little things like sleeping and eating. But hearts are all the richer for getting to spend relaxing and fun time with far away family.

Seventy Years Ago

My Mom likes to venture out to estate sales and auctions, and she seems to have the best luck: from small items on up to getting a kitchen table, an old steamer trunk that makes a great coffee table and a wonderful antique flip-top desk. Maybe I need to look further, but the antique shops I've found in New England were of the variety that bought the pieces, did the restoration for you and then charged far too much for you to acquire an item. Fun to look around, but goodness knows I wouldn't be buying anything.

I was nosing around my parents house and found an old Diary from 1937 that my Mother had picked up at an estate sale. It is strangely compelling... the writer is a woman whose husband Arthur owned a tavern in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. She doesn't have an entry every day - there are many blank pages. But what is here is an interesting snapshot of life 70 years ago. The daughter, Joan, gets sick several times. "I started to worry about her," laughed my Mom. They go to the theater many times, and the author notes received bowl, or received salt and pepper shakers: a common practice (I am told) in the thirties. It is noted who is on duty at the tavern on specific nights, and Joan's dancing lessons and purchases of dresses and sittings for photographs. Progress on the construction of a new tavern is noted, as well as the day that the Mayor visited to look around. The author's name is never mentioned, although she does note the deaths of various folks around town.

Blogging has some interesting parallels. Some of my favorite blogs are just that - snapshots into the author's life. While I love this new medium and its ability to connect people across the country and across the globe... there is a certain excitement to holding this old volume in my hand and wondering at the author's life. There is something tangible in being able to press into the spine and turn the pages and peer at the faded ink... There are many reasons that people blog. Getting a chance to look at this old book makes me wonder: If I am writing this as a means to keep a record... Should I be making some provisions for what happens to "my little corner of cyberspace" when I am not around? It's hard to imagine someone 70 years from now stumbling across these words. The unknown author I have been reading would probably have said the same thing, I imagine. But it makes me sort of sad.

On Golden Pond...

There is something about these trips to Wisconsin to see family and friends... I have been very nostalgic about it recently. The passing of Grandma B, and sale of her house pretty much marked the last of the "houses of my childhood." It's a different perspective from H's family who still lives in the same house he grew up in.

Driving through town there are so many little tidbits that are familiar, liberally mixed with things that are new. Elkhart Lake is a resort town, familiar to many as the home of Road America. My parents have a great condo, and practically around the corner is the street where Grandma and Grandpa T used to live. The old house has been being renovated for quite some time. It's a refreshing change from the original purchasers who had been letting the place fall down around their ears... but it's hard not to feel a tad possessive even now about the place where I spent so many summers as a kid. At least these folks are taking care of it. On that same street's corner is the Gritzmacher place. You used to have to go up this long narrow set of stairs to their house. Beneath it (once upon a time) was a blacksmith shop. The whole shebang has now been turned into a bar/restaurant.

We had an early dinner this evening at Schulz's Restaurant in Sheboygan: charcoal grilled steak sandwiches with pickles and onions and real butter on the hard rolls that starts to drip down your hands. Yum! Daniel loved the french fries... It's a favorite stop when we journey into Wisconsin. Tomorrow we will have an Aunt and a few cousins and their assorted kids over for bratwurst and hamburgers and lots of chatter and we will work on making new memories.

Holy Cow

Um, yeah - the trip.

Item 1: The car. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a confrontation with the car rental agent who has held his reservation, but not actually held him a car? When they finally find him a car, he requests the insurance because,"I'm gonna beat the hell out of that thing." This was the scenario that kept running through my mind as we argued with the car rental agency... First they found us a vehicle, only for us to discover that it was reeking of smoke. By the time everything was straightened around we weren't on the road until nearly noon.

Item2: The toddler, day one. I will say this. All in all, for spending so much time pent up in a car Daniel did pretty well. There were tantrums, but we tried to keep up with the snacks and the toy cars to play with.

Item 3: The hotel. Or lack thereof. One of the first times I have had to check approximately 8 places before finding a room. Complicated by the cranky toddler who wailed every time Dada stepped out of the car.

Item 4: Yeah, the toddler? The one who spent most of his day strapped into a car seat when he usually spends most of his day on the move? He was the one running laps of the hotel room while his exhausted parents tried to get him to sleep.

Press repeat on the toddler, the time spent on snacks and cars and playing... at the end of all this was Grandma and Grandpa and Sophie the dog (Soapie!!!). Daniel was so excited to see everyone that he was grinning and practically vibrating in place. I'm looking forward to spending some time seeing relatives, sleeping in, getting some good "Mom-cooking" and just generally relaxing. And trying hard not to think about doing a repeat of this on the way home.

A Two-Fer

One two-year-old in the car for two days. I remember being in the airport to and from Chicago for BlogHer and seeing all the kids and thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice? It's only a two-hour trip by plane..." We tried it last time, and that was the LONGEST two hours I have spent in quite awhile. Serious contemplation was made of renting a car for the return trip home. Maybe in a year or two we can try that again.

Grandma and Grandpa and many assorted relatives and friends are tickled that we are coming. Truthfully, so are we. I don't get to see everyone as much as I would like.

Also truthfully: Send good wishes for the sanity of the two parents.

On My Mind

A dear friend contacted me recently... the day I left for Chicago in fact. She and I don't live near each other any longer, and as sometimes happens when people move we hadn't spoken in awhile. My friend has dealt with losing her mother to a recurrence of breast cancer, and has struggled with the idea of having genetic testing to determine her own risk of developing cancer.


The test results came back positive.


She has known this was a possibility. But now she is dealing with increased testing and monitoring and the doctors proposing some pretty radical ideas and treatment. I am being purposely vague on details here, as this is really my friend's story to tell and not mine. I wish I lived closer to be able to offer the concrete support of being there... a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold or a friend to provide a distraction by talking about music or movies or the craziness of life in general.


The older I get the more people I find who have been touched by this. I'm only heading out of my thirties and I have had a mammogram of my own (nothing, thank goodness!). Recently I've discovered Toddler Planet, and a young Mom who is going through inflammatory breast cancer, another aspect to this disease that I really knew nothing about. I've been spending some time trying to wrap my head and my feelings around all this. But my friend is on my mind and in my thoughts and prayers, and I felt a need to throw this "out into the Universe."

BlogHer in the City

Whoo! In many ways I am still processing my trip to BlogHer 07 in Chicago. There was: lack of sleep, plane delays, zippy shuttles to and from O'Hare, shuttle buses to and from the Chicago City Centre hotel and the Navy Pier (as well as absent shuttles for each). There was also an intense conference about blogging with everything from technical tracks to sessions about "The State of the Momosphere" and finding your passion and the art of storytelling. It was interesting to me to note that one of the sessions that resonated most for me was regarding "Small is Beautiful" - the art and craft of small, personal blogs. moderated by the beautiful artist Jen Lemen. I am wondering where that notion is going to take me and my writing.

There were also many vendors, and much "swag" - I think my suitcase was twice as full when I returned home. On the second day I sat down with a group for lunch with Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser fame - a lunch sponsored by AOL Body. There was a cocktail party each evening, the first on the Navy Pier rooftop with music by the fantastic Christine Kane... and the second at the Chicago Children's Museum. Oh, and the closing keynote speaker was none other than Elizabeth Edwards.

And there were many many bloggers. Estimated at 800 or so... I bumped into Valerie from Disorderly Conduct my first evening in Chicago. Roomed with the lovely Shawna... and giggled over pizza from Gino's East with Shawna, Kim and Marilyn the last evening before dragging off to bed as three of us had abominably early flights the next day.

All in all - a whirlwind of a trip for my first time away from Daniel. I missed both Daniel and H terribly... Phone pictures were enough to make me teary-eyed. But wow. What a ride.

Hiccup

Even before he was born, Daniel would get hiccups: a little popping sensation usually near my left hip that never failed to amaze me. I've lost the link, or I would include it here but there was recently a news story about a poor woman who had hiccups for months. Whoo - can you imagine?

I once had hiccups for an entire weekend. Let me tell you, after a few days I was clamoring at my doctor for something to Make it STOP! There are medications to try. The Iowa woman who went for months turned out to have some sort of allergy.

This blog will have a little hiccup soon as I run off to play at Blogher in Chicago. It's a wonderful chance to meet some of these fantastic bloggers I've been reading for awhile and learn tons of new things and just have fun.

Geeked

OK, so I know the major topic of conversation these days is Harry Potter. But for me - I am so jazzed to hear that they are making a new Indiana Jones movie! Star Wars had instilled in me a serious crush on Harrison Ford. When Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981 I had somehow managed to hear nothing about the movie. Of course these were the pre-Internet days where I would simply show up at the local movie theater with family and/or friends and say: OK. What are we going to see tonight?

Raiders promptly blew me away. It still holds the record (8) for the number of times I have seen a single movie in the movie theater. Perhaps not surprising given today's ticket prices, but still...

In a previous post I commented on the series of books The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Given the fantasy movies that have been filmed of late, I had wondered if anyone had considered making movie versions of these. Turns out they are... These books were my Harry Potter as a kid, so I am pretty jazzed about this too. They are making some changes that are stirring up some of the fans: main character Will Stanton is now an American in Europe, as opposed to being a British boy. Perhaps they are trying to distance themselves from Mr. Potter? There are five books total in the series, so I am sure they are hoping for a franchise here. I'll reserve judgement. I'm just excited to see this on screen!

Eating Habits of the North American Toddler

I imagine that I gave my Mother similar palpitations as a child, but what do you feed kids? Previously good things like yogurt have dropped off Daniel's list as well as old favorites like grilled cheese that aren't being enjoyed so much. He does pretty well with fruits: bananas and apples and oranges he will eat pretty much nonstop. Nary a vegetable will get past his lips, however.

We rejoiced when he actually asked for a piece of broccoli from a dish that H had cooked up. He chewed and chewed and we suddenly realized about 20 minutes later that he really hadn't opened his mouth to respond to anything that we had said to him. Sure enough, green mush.

Just in case there is any doubt that this is my kid, he will eat pickles. "Pick-ow! Pick-ow!" He cried. "Har-har," thought I. "You sure aren't going to like this kid," and I cut him off a small piece. Little did I know... And these aren't just any pickles mind you. These are hearty garlic dill sandwich slices. He just puckers up his little mouth and waves his hands for more.

Sigh. Now that my own eating habits are somewhat back on track after the gallbladder incident I'd really like to know what to do with the kid. Any ideas?

Open Season

OK. You know the times they have changed, when the local farm stand not only has a website but emails me when they have started selling their corn. I love, love LOVE fresh corn on the cob. Growing up it used to crack me up to be in restaurants (or even eating over at someones house) and there was this demure little cob to accompany each dinner plate. My Mom, meanwhile was shopping and getting a dozen or fourteen for our family of four. There might be some other items to the meal, but the centerpiece was this huge platter of corn with each of us diving in for three or four apiece. And squabbling over any remainders...

There is a push in the media about getting everyone to return to the "family table." What sort of meals or food items are your favorite memories from childhood? Taco night? Make your own pizza? What mealtime traditions would you like to encourage in your family?

It was a treat because, well, we grew up in the Midwest... but my brother and I used to beg my parents for crab legs on trips to Florida. Something fun about having to work for your dinner. There were Fourth of July bonfires with toasted marshmallows and making s'mores. Or bananaboats - ever tried those? Peel off a strip of banana peel, and cut slightly into the banana. Fill the opening with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Wrap the whole thing in tinfoil and rest it in the bonfire coals. After a certain amount of time (usually however long you could wait) open and eat the whole mess with a spoon.

There was fondue too. Not the cheese or chocolate kind, but a vat of hot oil. We each got skewers and cubes of meat, onion, green pepper, etc. You popped them in and cooked to your desired doneness. And this time of year, don't forget the picnics. Hot dogs and hamburgers and if we were at the grandparents in Wisconsin there were beer brats on the grill along with every sort of side dish you can think of. And just to throw an outing into the mix, to this day we have to head for Schulz's in Sheboygan, WI when we visit Mom and Dad. Best steak sandwiches anywhere, with real butter on the hard rolls.

Must run now. I'm hungry... how about you?

Beach Blanket Babes

Well... not really... Sunday: Take one Mommy and one Daddy with ambitions to head for York Beach, Maine. Add one toddler who still needs a nap a day. Mix liberally with the stuff needed for said travels: sand toys, diapers, changes of clothes, towels, chairs, beach umbrella... add in one late start due to said nap, and the requisite stop for seafood to quell the rumbling tummies and what do you get?

A rainstorm on the beach, that's what. We got down to the beach before the deluge, and actually had a pretty good time for the amount of time we could spend down there. Daniel was hysterical as I think he had this astonished look on his face like: "What? You mean I can dig in all this dirt? And splash in all this water?? COOL!" I trailed along as he and H splashed in the tide pools and H carried him out to where the waves were starting to roll in and we took turns snapping pictures. We bailed as the heavens opened up... I think H would have stayed out with the kid, but he knows the "thing" I have about storms. This was followed by much wiggling and fussing about the car as we tried to get Daniel into a fresh diaper that wasn't puffed out like a snowball due to sea/rain water and a relatively dry pair of shorts and shirt.

Throw in a damp car ride home, and you pretty much have yesterday around our house! In keeping with my "Dirt Makes Fat" philosophy I would declare it a pretty fine day. I can't wait to sit on the beach in the sun with my family, however.

A flirty flirt of the most flirtatious order...

I think my son is developing some crushes. Not on some of the pigtailed little girls we've seen in playgroups, mind you... but the Moms. Multiple times (and at least twice now with one rather nice Mom) he has marched over to them smiling, and practically draping himself over their laps, proudly displaying his latest car or truck and putting his head on their shoulder. If they happen to be standing, he parks himself practically on their feet with arms held high in the air and all but demanding,"Pick me up!" All of them have been terrifically nice about it, but really. It's getting a little embarrassing. I mean they are there with their own kids to wrangle, not having to cart around mine!

In not-so-terrific-toddler-news... I'm sure many of you have heard by now of the Mom and toddler who were kicked off a plane after a flight attendant suggested medicating the boy when he wouldn't quiet down and stop saying, "Bye-bye plane."

Speaking as a Mom who has had to help deal with a crying baby on a two hour flight, stories like these just make me shudder. Children have just as much right to be there as any passenger, and I have certainly heard worse than this on many a flight. There can be such - dare I use the word - discrimination surrounding issues such as this. Breastfeeding is touted as the best thing for your child, but women who choose to breastfeed, and do so in public, are often made to feel embarrassed or even told to go use the public restroom (yuck!). And children on a plane should apparently be seen and not heard. It wasn't even a tantrum! Was it just the luck of the draw that the only reaction my crying child got was sympathetic looks? (OK, perhaps some weren't so sympathetic, but I think they at least recognized that we were trying everything we could...) That and the loan of a portable DVD player and a Baby Einstein DVD from the Dad traveling behind us.

Meme-ing my way to a new profession?

I was tagged today by the lovely Sara at My Happily Ever After with a "career meme." I surprised myself by needing to take some time to ponder my answers. The question is: if you had the opportunity to do a 1-year internship at a company or in a field different from your current company or field or specialty - what would be your top 5 choices? Here goes:

1. Director of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Here I could wildly indulge my love of all things fantastical.

2. Director of the Rodin Museum. I love Rodin's sculpture as well as that of Camille Claudel. I think it started when I saw the wonderful movie on Camille Claudel's life starring Isabelle Adjani. It only continued when I got to visit the museum during my time living in France. Breathtaking pieces... and one can only mourn the work that Camille is reported to have destroyed.

3. Ben & Jerry's ice cream taster. I am borrowing this one from Sara. Especially during this time of year, how can your thoughts not turn to ice cream? I am always tickled by their creative flavors... And that noise you hear is H stomping his feet in the background and screaming BRIGHAMS!

4. Beekeeper with my own line of honey and honey products. This one would probably surprise those who know my "ick" factor for bugs. My Grandpa T was a beekeeper for many years, and we always had gallons of honey around the house... so I have fond associations. We even used small pots of honey as our wedding favors in 2000.

5. Bakery Owner. I lived in a tiny studio apartment in the 20th in Paris, and the ground floor was a bakery. It was heavenly! Most people giggle at the thought of my making actual meals, although there have been some improvements since the birth of Daniel. But I am a baker from way back...

And there you have it! I believe the rule is that I should tag 5 people for continuing this meme... I am going to depart from this and just say that anyone out there reading who feels so inclined - join in! Have fun with it! You may discover some interesting things about yourself!

Clutter

Like many people, life has increasingly become an exercise in managing the clutter - Especially now that there is "baby clutter" to go with the "mommy and daddy clutter!" Receipts and bills of all kinds, entertainment mags, articles and recipes have morphed their piles to include baby scribbles and parenting mags... among other things. Enter the NeatReceipts Scanalizer... A handy little device that looks like it has a million uses: receipts, recipes, kids artwork... suddenly you can scan and store all these items, and have the ability to use the computer to search for something. This would be quite a boon for someone like me who is known for pulling magazine articles, only to have them swallowed whole by the amorphous mess that has become my bookcase.

Also: H's genealogy project on both the family and the G.A.R. could take an interesting turn if we suddenly had the portable ability to scan both old photos and documents. Much less labor intensive than all the writing in a library that has been going on. The website 5 Minutes for Mom is sponsoring a giveaway of ten NeatReceipts Scanalizers. Check them out!

Pregnant, huh?

The Parent Bloggers Network has posed the question: What's the most annoying preggo or new mom question you've ever been asked -- AND -- what's your best, snarky "wish-you-could-have-said-it" answer. I've been mulling this over the past few days, and - whew - it's a hard one. I've come to the conclusion that I must have had a pretty respectful pregnancy. Not even much of a run-in with those "touchy feely" types who just have to rub a pregnant belly when they spot one.

But... and I think I have a tie...

It used to drive me outta my head when I was in the late stages of pregnancy, and doing my best hippo imitation, and I would run across people who just didn't know what to say. Rather than a question, they were usually declarations in the vein of: Pregnant, huh? Poor thing, carrying that around... Must be almost time? Must be twins in there! And on, and on.... Usually as I puffed my way to the employee cafeteria, or out to my car. These would earn the commenter a small smile, and not much snark as I was usually trying to catch my breath. Honestly... I am not much known for snark, even in my private life. Just not in my nature. But... I used to fantasize a re-enactment of a scene straight out of Seinfeld where Kramer stops to talk to a woman on the street and says: "Oh! Congratulations!"

Woman: "For what?"

Kramer: "You're pregnant."

Woman: "I am not!"

And leaving the culprit to squirm...

In a close tie, I am getting more than irritated with the folks who stop on the street, in the grocery store or in a restaurant or elsewhere to talk to me/comment on Daniel and I come to realize they are using the pronoun "she." A haircut is certainly in the works for the little guy, but we currently have wrestling/screaming matches involving getting in his general vicinity with a toothbrush or cutting his fingernails. Until that calms down somewhat there ain't nobody getting near him with a pair of scissors. And - I confess - I get to enjoy the baby curls awhile longer. But honestly... the kid could be wearing his shirt with the digger emblazoned across the front, his Thomas the Tank Engine sunglasses, dirt encrusted under his fingernails from his own latest digging expedition and screaming at the top of his lungs about climbing up the slide at the playground and I hear how cute "she" is. Thank you, but the next time I will be sorely tempted to drop the kid's diaper and in the words of Austin Powers show off the "twig and berries" just to prove a point.

I am a reader. I always have been, as my overflowing bookshelves can attest. Don't you wish sometimes that you could just hand someone a book and say,"Quit bugging me. Read this." Or in cases like above don't you wish you could have just handed them this? I know I do.

Update

H called yesterday, frantically plugging change into a pay phone. Verizon cut off his international phone. (Uh, thanks guys.) He can't get out until Tuesday (tomorrow). The only other option was a $1,200 flight on Iceland Air which was earlier. (Yeah, right.) These complications are certainly not his fault... but all told I will have been "single parenting" for nearly two weeks.

I have this mental picture of each of us standing on separate continents yelling help.

There are no words...

On September 11th my former company lost two executives on one of the planes that crashed into the twin towers in NYC.

My husband has been vacationing with friends in Scotland. He was due to return today, but someone crashed a flaming SUV into the terminal building in Glasgow. I was just beginning my freakout when he called. He's OK, although his phone battery was low and he couldn't talk long. I'm betting that the first chance he will have to return home will be tomorrow. I'm still shaky, but.... thank God he's OK. As happens with these incidents, more news is breaking...

Nostalgia

This is a favorite photo of me. A great big pile of leaves just sort of speaks to the way childhood should be, don't you think? I need to ask my parents for a copy of another favorite... I'm Daniel's age, maybe even a bit younger, wearing nothing but a diaper and sitting on a red pedal car at Grandma and Grandpa T's place in Wisconsin. I wonder what ever happened to that pedal car? My brother would probably remember too of many adventures frantically pedaling that thing up and down the sidewalks. A quick internet search found me Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles so that you can see what I mean... Although many of these are too "glam" for what I am talking about. I remember our pedal car as being a frame, seat, four wheels, pedals and a steering wheel. It was red, and I think there was some white writing on it... perhaps it was even a Radio Flyer, but I would have to ask if someone remembers.

My sister in law and I were lamenting the "fear factor" (for lack of a better word) we have for our children these days. Pedaling a car up and down the sidewalks for hours. Slamming out the back door to go play in the yard, or with/over at the neighbors and not coming home until dinnertime, are just a few of the things that I remember... There was an attempted abduction of a nine year old in my sister in law's neighborhood. Even before this incident, she confessed that if she leaves her little guy in the backyard (fenced) even for a brief moment, say to go wash her hands, she gets nervous. I certainly can't imagine leaving Daniel. Starting school is going to be difficult, I think...

Hug

The HR department at my former job published a calendar one year that included all the oddball holidays that are out there. You know the kind: International Smile Day, National Pork Grilling Day, etc.

Who knew it was Screaming Toddler Week?

And how is it that Screaming Toddler Week has coincided with said screaming toddler deciding to start giving out real "honest to goodness" hugs? Don't get me wrong, Daniel has been affectionate and a cuddler - well, on his terms. He is a boy with lots of places to go and things to do after all. But after a screaming, hair pulling, howler-monkey kind of day this week Daniel looked up at me and said, "Hug?" and wrapped his little arms around my neck. Thereby melting me into my socks for the rest of the evening. Just for good measure one of these was bestowed upon Dada as well.

TVLand Purgatory

Tired of the reruns already? Visit 5 Minutes for Mom and leave a comment on this post for a chance to win free Netflix.

My New Merit Badge

(Deep breath). Hi! My name is Susan, and I am a worrier.

(Hi Susan!)

Yes, I admit it. A worrier. I've earned my merit badge in worry many times over. It seems to be hardwired, however as I can recall childhood worries as varied as:

Do those dark clouds on the horizon mean another tornado warning?

Is Mom lost? We've driven by this store before...

What do I wear to school tomorrow? And is there any possible way to get myself out of gym class again?

Flash forward into adulthood, and the worries are still there. From paying the bills to the war in Iraq to is my child still breathing once I put him to sleep at night... I try hard not to be consumed.

One of the blessings of children is their ability to be in the moment. Glee or tears are both ripe fruit for the picking... savoring a banana, dancing to Elmo, and screaming in frustration as Mom tries to brush your teeth all carry equal weight. I try to borrow these tidbits from my son's life. To be a more "in the moment Mom" and less "worry Mom". To enjoy the sticky fingers and squishy mud puddles because the laundry will always be there later... these are the memories I want for Daniel as he grows up.

Marching to my own beat

Otherwise known as: How did I get here again?

If you'd asked me growing up, I would have said that I was the type of person who would be living in the hometown she grew up in, having gone to the local university, married a classmate and be managing my 3.2 kids and life quite nicely.

I went instead to the humongus state university an hour and a half from my hometown in Michigan. A university where I knew no-one going in...

Upon graduation lived for 6 months in Paris, France. A stint that included selling muffins from a shop near the Pompidou Centre, and fond memories of my little studio sublet apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

A move to Sacramento, California for a few years. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but ultimately not for me.

New England beckoned. Rich in history, and someplace I had never been, I moved in with a friend from high school who had arrived a few years earlier for grad school. In what feels like the blink of an eye I fell for H and we are now chasing nearly 2 year old Daniel past the slate headstones and through the old New England Cemeteries we previously traveled as "just the two of us." Who woulda thought it?

(My Grandpa B was a sign painter and a glass blower (neon sign tubing) by trade. A superb craftsman, he made intricate models of ships and cars, a doll house and many other woodcrafts. I can recall a Nativity scene one Christmas season. A gruff ol' Grandpa, he was a fisherman and a golfer, and even when his eyesight was going he loved to play cards. It was only years later that I learned that while I knew he played the trumpet, he also did so in a clown band. Marching to his own beat on big floppy feet. He's on the far left in the above photo...)

For my next trick...

Subtitled: One of those days?

I ambitiously thought I might make muffins this morning for breakfast. Can't explain how they wound up upside down in the oven...

This is going to be an interesting cleanup job.

Hello, Sigmund?

OK. So I know it's a phase, but man oh man Daniel. Do we need to start getting up at crack-of-dawn, peel-the-eyelids open 5 ayem? And combine it with wailing for "Da-Da!" at earsplitting levels? Mama is developing a complex here.

At least it wasn't a cuss...

Driving in New England has turned me into an aggressive driver. It's survival of the fittest, really. The commute to my former job included a traffic rotary of epically asinine proportions. Large numbers of lanes shrinking to one only to expand again, while at the same time offering four-plus choices of destinations with everyone jockeying for position to get where they needed to go. Needless to say, the pre-Daniel commute started to include much colorful language.

We've now been blessed with construction in our much-smaller town, which happens to be nearly outside our front door. Needless to say, leaving our street has become trickier. Daniel and I sat in the car yesterday, hoping for the tiniest window in traffic. Exasperated, I finally said," Come ON people, get a move on!"

A small voice echoed me from the back seat," Pee-pow. Pee-pow!" I was still hearing this as we prepared for bed last night.

C is for Chatterbox

Since having Daniel, I've noticed my parents like to mention that I talked alot as a child. H wants to know what happened, as I am now known as a person who considers her words carefully before speaking. It sometimes must give me the appearance of being a bit shy, but it served me in good stead as an executive assistant at my former company in my former life.

Daniel's 18 month appointment was marked by the pediatrician suggesting that he might need to be evaluated for speech delay. No sooner did I panic, and begin making appointments than Daniel seemed to decide: "OK, time to talk."

He's been making up for lost time ever since. I'm not sure that I can even give an accurate count of words at this point, as his vocabulary has exploded. Mama, Dada, car, ga-ga (this has meant dog from day one, don't ask!), kitty, pig, cow, apple, milk, cookie, cracker, cheese, walk, shoes, bag, box... the list goes on.

Last night we sat in the rocking chair, for a little pre-bedtime cuddle as we usually do... he looked up at me clutching his blankie in one hand, and his "ga-ga" in the other and said, "Bed?" So I kissed him, put him in the crib and he promptly rolled over and was asleep in about 0.2 seconds. (Please don't be under the illusion that bedtime is this easy every night!).

It is an awesome, amazing and at times totally weird transition to go from being the caregiver and trying to figure them out: Is he hungry, tired, bored, need to be changed? To having them start to request things from you like "Milk?" And last night's "Bed?"

Wow.

Just because I really need to see the sun...

This is me. I think I am roughly Daniel's age in this photo. I am hoping to do this with him soon. Or even take him up to the beaches in Maine. Grandma and Grandpa have a wonderful lake in Wisconsin as well.

New England is just getting dumped on with rain. It has also hovered around 50 degrees (or less) which has had me increasingly depressed. As a nearly-two-year-old Daniel is more on the move than ever, and the weather makes it hard. Would it surprise you to hear that his most recent favorite word is "Walk, Walk, Walk, Walk...?"

To Infinity and Beyond...

In the category of odd things you must see, I present... The House on the Rock. Located in Spring Green, Wisconsin, H and I took the tour with my mother a few years ago. Designed and built (begun in the early 1940s) by Alex Jordan of Madison, WI this is actually a complex of rooms, streets, buildings and gardens covering acres of land. I did not realize at the time, but discovered in checking out their web presence that there is actually an Inn and resort to stay at as well.

The top photo is an outdoor shot of "The Infinity Room"... truly a sight to see as it juts out 218 feet over the valley (unsupported) and has 3,264 windows for walls. Much of the rest of the house contains the various collections of Mr. Jordan, including items such as the world's largest carousel, antique guns, dolls, mechanical banks, areas devoted to aviation, nostalgia, a nautical theme (including a Titanic display, and this creature below...) and much more. It is an attraction that at times defies description. But if you find yourself in Wisconsin, I encourage you to swing through!

Eeewww!!!

Any tips about how to clean out the inside of tub toys? Things are getting a bit icky in there...

The Wheels on the bus...

(Boo on Blogger... no matter which way I type, insert picture or publish this post Blogger is deleting all my line spaces. Sorry about the hard-to-read format. Hopefully this will wear off by the next post...)

Do we have a boy in the house, or what? Our house is starting to resemble a parking lot, as Daniel is in the midst of a full-fledged obsession with anything wheeled. Car, truck, tractor - you name it. He heads out to the driveway during our walks and marches around cars like a little inspector, patting the tires and touching the emblems on the front and back.

Trash day has suddenly become an event, as Daniel must head for our deck to watch the huge truck rumble through, lifting bins overhead to dump bags into the back.

I have a class scheduled for him once a week at 9:30am. This week, at quarter to nine, the boy was still snoozing. Ordinarily I subscribe to the philosophy "let sleeping babies lie..." But we had places to go! So I walked into his room, opened the blinds, started rustling around saying, "Hey sleepyhead..." His little head popped up, sleepy eyes opened, and he looked at me and said, "Car???" So I suspect that there are even a few motorized dreams creeping in there...

Recovery Mission

I finished out my pregnancy with the usual litany of "pregnancy woes" one hears about. Not being able to see my swollen feet, peeing approximately every 2 minutes, unable to sleep at night for the aching in my hips and other joints. Daniel arrived 5 days before his anticipated due date, and needless to say at that point I was ready...

Unanticipated were the symptoms that plagued me even after all the requisite recovery from labor and childbirth. Without getting into all the gory details, I was left wondering if I was suffering the onset of Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS. There were whole stretches of time where I was fine, but these would be followed by painful flare-ups of other symptoms that were gradually starting to affect how I lived my life. Much testing and "wait-and-seeing" followed, only to find out mid-April that I have/had gallstones! I am now recovering from gallbladder surgery, and the surgeon is pretty convinced this has been my problem all along. Why this took 1 1/2-2 years to diagnose is beyond me. I am starting a campaign where I am telling anyone with gastrointestinal distress to have their gallbladders looked at... The test is a simple ultrasound!

In any case, I am looking forward to being more in the swing of things where this blog and other projects are concerned. And especially looking forward to a Spring/Summer/future as a much happier Mom, friend and person now that this problem has been identified and tackled.

I been watching you Dad, ain't that cool?

Would you believe we are raising a country music lover? It's actually pretty cute. Daniel has chosen certain songs on the country music channels that he just LOVES. There is one called Watching You by Rodney Atkins that talks of a little boy watching his Dad and learning things as varied as picking up cuss words, and how to pray. Check it out for a tug at the heartstrings. Last night H referred to this as "Hey! It's our song!" And Daniel grabbed his blankie and came running to sit on his lap and watch.

It's never what you expect...

In an effort to embrace my Grandma's "dirt makes fat" philosophy... (it sounds much more exotic in German)... I try not to be a "hovermom" at least around our house. One of Grandma's last little nuggets of wisdom, I was fretting over Daniel's trying to eat something he shouldn't when she rattled off a German phrase. "It means 'dirt makes fat'," she smiled. Sort of a German version of "eating a little dirt never hurt anybody" - and not to worry because kids get into everything.

Anyway, our place is mostly babyproof... and I can usually tell what Daniel might be into just by listening. I was getting ready to go out with him the other day, when things got awfully quiet. I poked my head into the other bedroom, to find Daniel wiggling his tongue. He reached into his mouth, and calmly handed me... a live ladybug.

It's never what you expect...

Friday's Feast

A nifty little website to help spark your imagination/blog entries.

Appetizer: Have you ever changed a flat tire by yourself?

I wouldn't even know how.

Soup: Do you have an "innie" or an "outie" belly button?

An innie now. It was doing it's best imitation of an outie while I was pregnant!

Salad: Name a new paint color and describe it.

The first thing that comes to mind is Fluff. I grew up with a wonderful cat named Nick (for St. Nicholas as we got him around Christmastime.). Sort of a Sylvester-looking black and white cat. He had the best fluffy fur... if you ran your fingers through the layers you would often find black on the outside, shifting to grey tones around the middle layer and sometimes even white underneath. It was like he had many coats...

Main Course: What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Impossible to pick just one. Christmas music, turkey on the table (my cousins and I raiding the pickle/olive/relish plate), driving or flying to see family, the traditional stop at Schultz's for the best steak sandwiches (all the while hoping that they haven't closed for deer season)... it's been a long time, but sledding, ice skating and cross country skiing. Must revive at least the sledding for Daniel...

Dessert: If you were a cookie, what kind of cookie would you be, and why?

A chocolate-covered oreo. Many layers to my chocolatey goodness!

Storytime

Reading and books have always had a big place in my life. From a pretty young age I devoured everything I could get my hands on. I remember that in first grade they started sending me up to second grade for reading because I had already done everything they were working on. This wasn't without difficulties... I had many a bleary-eyed morning after I had spent the evening reading in bed (just one more chapter!) and found myself still awake at one am. And despite my love of books it was difficult to get them for me as presents because even if I didn't own something I had invariably checked it out of the library and read it already.

A childhood favorite of mine is The Dark is Rising series of books by Susan Cooper. I checked each book in the series out of the library many times over... They were a fascinating blend of (then) present-day England and Wales and English/Welsh mythology (and Arthurian legend). I won't go into great detail here except to say that these were my "Harry Potter." And to highly recommend them still. This person here at The Lost Land has done a pretty extensive examination of the series and of Susan Cooper's other works as well. And I also will say that these books are responsible for my wish to see Wales (and I will get there someday!).

I hope to instill a love of reading in Daniel, but we have yet to move out of the "book destruction phase." Meaning books are good for bashing, throwing about, ripping and pretty much chewing on until they are very soggy with bits falling off of them. I will keep trying!

I Love to Count!

Children's programming. Having a kid gets you quite an education in what's out there for kids entertainment. (And no, I'm not even going to veer into "no TV under 2 years old" territory. I don't need the guilt.) Personally, I grew up with TV and I like sticking with tried and true favorites like Sesame Street.

Recently I had to wonder how much of children's programming is a nod and a wink to the parents... I caught the last half of a totally new (to me) Sesame Street sketch. Count von Count was settling into bed to watch his favorite program... 24 (Seconds). He proceeded to count down 24 seconds, utilizing the split screen technique favored by the actual show 24... and the last thing you see is a rather blond, spiky-haired muppet striding off the screen a la Jack Bauer. I cracked up!

Did I mention that my mousepad has the Conjunction Junction (Schoolhouse Rock) engineer?

Blankie

I'm trying to remember if I ever had what the baby books would term a "lovey"... a toy or something that goes everywhere, and gets lotsa lovin' a la Linus and his blanket. Maybe Baby Beans, which Mom and Dad sent to me a few years ago... she's a pink-suited doll, with a bean bag body. I can remember being quite put out at one point when I was supposed to share her with my little brother...

We have a Linus in our house. Daniel LOVES the blankie my Aunt Anne made for him. It's fleece, and she crocheted the fringe which is perfect for poking fingers through, or dragging through baby teeth, or just rubbing between cute baby fingers. Blankie doesn't quite go everywhere... it usually doesn't make it out of the house except for special occasions. But I believe it is a big reason that we have him sleeping in his own room now. How about you? Did you have a special toy?

The best little SciFi Show you’ve never seen...

(Just a side note: I have had this post in the queue, and for some unknown reason blogger has refused to add any of the pictures that I want to put with it... in the interest of getting it out there, and off my mind, here 'tis! Hopefully edited later to add a neat photo...)

I have a love/hate relationship with the "SciFi" Channel. It may be surprising, since most people know that I love, love, LOVE all things science fiction (and by association fantasy, even some horror, etc.). (The discussion about just what constitutes science fiction is fodder for another entry...).

In any case, the SciFi Channel, along with airing "genre" programming is quite capable of creating wonderful shows. Tops on my list of must-see TV is their re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, easily one of the best shows on television. And they have done wonderful miniseries of Dune, Children of Dune and even presented Sam Neil as the magician himself in Merlin. That said, SciFi is also capable of programming some of the worst dreck around... one need look no further than the title of Mansquito... Don’t get me wrong... I am a great fan of "B" movies... Perhaps just what constitutes a good "B" movie is also a topic for another entry...

From 2000 to 2002, they ran one of my favorite genre shows... their take on The Invisible Man. Darien Fawkes (Vincent Ventresca), is a small-time thief about to go down for the count on California’s "Third Strike" rule. He agrees to experimental surgery to have a gland implanted in his head that secretes a substance termed "quicksilver" which has the ability to bend light. Mastery of this allows him to render himself "invisible". Much action ensues, the scientists are killed and Darien is stuck with the gland in his head. Also with the unfortunate side-effect that the quicksilver building up in his system has the ability to drive him insane, requiring timely shots of a "counter-agent" to shake off the effects. His dependence on the counter-agent ties him to the "agency", helping them solve cases while they look for a cure.

This show had it all! Stellar cast, humor, danger, action, a touch of romance, cool special effects, snappy writing (Darien is paired with another agent for a partner - Bobby Hobbes - who has been bounced from other agencies for his paranoia problems. Imagine pairing someone who is paranoid with someone who can turn invisible at will...!). The show was unceremoniously canceled. And SciFi, who will produce and / or repeat just about anything (Sasquatch Mountain? Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?) steadfastly refuses to re-air or release the show on DVD. So, while I can’t recommend the show enough... I guess we will all be twiddling our thumbs until SciFi gets its’ act together.

On the run...

Daniel turned 13 months, and decided that it was time to start walking unassisted. He has been steadily increasing his number of steps each day, and there seems to be a direct (and opposite) correlation to the decrease in frequency and duration of naps he is taking. Thank goodness this means that he is pretty wiped by the end of the day, and the struggle to get him to sleep has lessened to a degree. Once he's down, he sleeps well through the night... it's just getting him there that has been the challenge!

This also means that in the last three days he has done the following:

Thursday: fallen and bashed his eye on the wooden Deacon's bench in the living room. This one resulted in a trip to the pediatrician for a look-see, as I was nervous because it was his eye. Of course by the time we got there, the swelling had gone down considerably.

Friday: pulled a picture frame off a table, falling on it resulting in a purple welt on one temple with a cut, and a cut across the cheek on the same side.

Saturday: giggling and zipping around the house away from Mommy on his "sea-legs". I have no idea what he fell on, as this time around he didn't even cry. But there is a purple bruise blossoming on the opposite temple from Friday's welt/cut.

Yeesh.

Monumental

My fascination with cemetaries has been long-standing. There is a family story of my disappearing from the backyard of the house when I was small, only to be discovered in the cemetary that backed up to the property.

Imagine my delight years later, when I discovered that the tiny little sublet apartment that I was living in in Paris was in the 20th Arondissement, very close to Pere Lachaise Cemetary... yes, final resting place of Jim Morrison among many others. (I will find those French accents on this keyboard one of these days...) Pere Lachaise is truly a city all its own, and is beautiful. Try the following link for a "virtual tour." www.pere-lachaise.com

New England cemetaries hold a similar allure. Slate stones arrayed at odd angles, large and small "headboards" and "footboards." Some are so old that time is gently wearing away the information, and certain details are being lost. There are graveyards that hold the famous like Thoreau and Emerson, or Louisa May Alcott. But it is the "everyday" stones that hold some of the most poignant tales... Like the extra-wide piece of slate that contains names and ages sadly young, and death dates all within weeks or months of each other.... leaving me to wonder at the epidemic that must have swept the area at that time, taking away an entire family.

H and I share this interest... for him it was probably picked up from his younger days trailing his genealogist mother on her various hunting expeditions. A cemetary in Nova Scotia made us smile when we discovered the last name "Mailman" on a headstone. And also the name "Whynot" and it's variation "Wynacht". And we felt the icy chill of history when in the same graveyard we came upon rows of headstones that marked the final resting places of some of the victims of the Titanic.

Fall presents a wonderful graveyard-trailing time. There's the smell of woodsmoke in the air, and the trees in our local cemetary turn a blazing orange. I'll see if I can post some pictures as it happens, it is truly spectacular. Daniel has some bundled-up walks in store for him this season!

In Random News...

Someone seems to have stolen my baby and replaced him with a small boy. When did this happen?



I like this photo because it makes me think of summer, even though there is now a fall tinge to the air in the evenings. And it is also one of the few times the kid left the sunglasses on his face rather than in his mouth!

Etcetera...

Pamela and I caught up recently for a dinner without the kidlets and some shopping therapy. She also introduced me to the upcoming Battlestar Galactica comic series... I may actually wind up picking these up as some serious withdrawal has been going on lately. Alias is no more. Battlestar Galactica and Lost are between seasons. And The Dead Zone is swinging into it's season finale, but seems to have lost it's spark this year. I mean we still have Anthony Michael Hall looking all hunky... (Seriously, who would have thought the nerdy kid from 16 Candles and The Breakfast Club would look like that???). But story is everything, and a show that started out very strong has been struggling in it's storylines this year.

Watching: The previously mentioned The Dead Zone. Also still feeding the 24 addiction by renting Season 2 from the library. H and I are on the hunt for Season 3, but we aren't the only ones...

Reading: The Battlestar Galactica comic seems to only have "Issue 0" out so far. Pretty much a teaser to get us fans to buy the rest. Mom loaned me The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. A fun easy read. I may have to try out the movie to see if it lives up to the book.

Favorite Web Site of the Week: I am into the Mommyblogs myself. Been a frequent visitor to All & Sundry lately. Maybe because Linda's son Riley was born in August 05, just like Daniel.

Enjoying: I was always on the lookout for the dark chocolate M&Ms. They have finally surfaced in my local Stop & Shop. Yummy! Must get my antioxidants, right?

The Banana Peel Incident

Do you ever lose the wish to just wrap your kid in bubble wrap and protect him from all the hurts of the world? Daniel took the biggest pratfall I have ever seen today... if he had been auditioning for a Marx Brothers movie he couldn't have done it better. Thank goodness he was on the carpet, and somehow managed to miss all the table and chair legs. This joins the ranks of all the usual bumps and bruises an 11-month-old can accumulate. As well as the odd assortment of things that Mommy or Daddy can perpetrate... although I am told that making them bleed the first time you try to cut their fingernails is pretty standard fare. We still can't trim his nails unless he is pretty soundly asleep. Sigh. I think I better get used to this.

The cuteness factor jumped to a Plus-Ten later today at CVS, however. Daniel has picked up something that sounds remarkably like hello ("Hew-oh"). So much so, that as I was paying at the register he looked up at the clerk, said hello, and she smiled and said hello right back to him. And I heard all the Pharmacy techs in the back chuckling and saying "how cute." I may have an 11-month-old flirt on my hands...

Nuff Said...

So, I have discovered that as the Mom of an 11-month-old it looks as though it may be years before I get to go to the bathroom alone again.

Did I mention that the baby has discovered the toilet paper???

I Love a Parade

Despite being rained on, the baby got treated to his first Fourth of July parade this year. He did beautifully... I personally could have done without the "Get out of Iraq" protesters or even the elected representatives who rolled by with big signs on their cars and shaking hands with the crowd.

But there were fire engines, and a horse drawn stagecoach and tractors from the local farm stands. The area chinese restaurant had one of those dragons that take sixty-eleven people to hold up on poles and they ran by swishing it about and throwing fortune cookies to the crowd. The Highland band with the bagpipes spiced up the assortment of marching bands as well. It was hard to get the baby to even crack a smile because he was so mesmerized by all the strange goings on. All in all a fun start to the Fourth! At this time last year, I was hugely pregnant and not doing a whole lot of anything. Now there is a nearly 11-month-old running around the place, soaking it all in. How a little bit of time can change things, eh?