1.30.2007

Things you don't want to hear from the backseat

The other day Judah and I drove home from somewhere and pulled into our garage. I got out and then opened the door to the backseat to get Judah. He was touching his nose, and as I reached for him he held out his hands, which looked suspiciously shiny. Then he looked me straight in the eye and said:
"Nose. Fingers. Sticky."
GROSS!

But also exciting, because that's the closest he's come to forming a sentence on his own. He talks in sentences sometimes, but they're only ones that we say all the time, like Where'd it go? and Who is it? But he's starting to be pretty funny, so get ready, y'all. The stories are coming. Today Judah was watching a DVD and sitting on the couch, and he suddenly waved at the screen and said, "Bye bye train! I love you, train!" Aww.

1.23.2007

More new music love


If any of you knew about Bloc Party and didn't tell me, you're so dead. I just heard them for the first time today, a clip of a song that Cat played on KROQ. Which is weird in itself, because I almost never listen to the radio. But today I heard a little part of "I Still Remember," and I loved it. Go to iTunes right now and buy it. It's worth your buck. A little bit Angels and Airwaves, a little U2, a little Smiths and a little Psychedelic Furs.

That's all I've got for now. More later....

1.14.2007

Brr!

I'm typing mostly to keep my hands warm. For those of you that aren't here, it's freezing! Literally. When I drove to church this morning my car's thermometer read 31 degrees. I've never known it to be that cold here. And apparently my car has an ice warning system! I had no idea. It's supposed to get down to freezing again tonight. Two days ago it was snowing in Corona. Weird.

Well, Christmas finally came to an end for us tonight. The very last event of the season was a get-together at my parents' with some life-long friends, and it got pretty crazy since we all have kids now. Judah was the youngest, at just under two, and Cameron was the oldest, at eight. There were seven kids total, and the highlight of their night was when Judah stuck his hand in the toilet. Nice!

Christmas was fun, and crazy as usual. Christmas Eve was church in the morning, Nathan's parents' for lunch, my cousin's place for a mid-afternoon snack-type-thing, then the traditional Christmas Eve trip to the Old Ship for Nathan and me and Judah, where we ate tomato soup and wore our paper crowns from our Christmas crackers. Then it was home to celebrate Christmas for the three of us. Nathan gave me a really cool digital camera, so I'll soon be posting actual personal pictures here. I was supposed to sing with the choir in the 11:00 service at church, but I came down with a bad cold and ended up not going, which is the first time I ever missed a Christmas Eve service that I can remember. :(

Christmas morning we headed over to Ken and Elly's to open presents with Nathan's family and have lunch (gorging session number one). Later we went to my parents' for more presents and more good food for dinner (gorging session number two). Judah had a great time unwrapping things this year, finally getting the hang of ripping off the paper, then wanting to open ALL the presents, and being upset when there were none left to open. His favorite things this year were all the cars he got, which I think eventually totalled 20.

A few days after Christmas my mom and dad and Heather and I went up to Pasadena to help decorate Rose Parade floats. I'd never done it, and Heather was the one that came up with the idea. I'm so glad we did it. We ended up working with the Petal Pushers, and we decorated the Lutheran League float, which was titled God's Great Nature. It was a really cute little float, just a church with stained glass windows, a walkway leading up to it, a couple of lamposts, and some trees. We spent part of the day wiring daisies and roses, and the rest of the day gluing chrysanthemums to the undersides of the trees. It was a lot of fun.

New Year's Eve was spent with Jeff and Heather and Barbara at Santa Monica, having dinner at Trastavere and wandering around Third Street and the pier. Some of Barbara's friends met up with us around 10:30 and we all went on the ferris wheel. We were on the Promenade when midnight came, and it was exciting, but there weren't too many people there. It was kind of sad. When I first started going to Third Street for New Year's Eve, in 1995, there were so many people there that we could hardly walk, and the party went on until at least two in the morning. This year we left right after midnight and the place was pretty empty.

We got back to my parents' (where Judah was) around 1:00 and Heather and Barbara and I stayed there while Jeff and Nathan went home. We (the girls) slept for a few hours and got up around 4:30 to drive back to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. After paying $20 for parking we took our blankets and began to wander Colorado Boulevard looking for a place to set up. We finally found a group willing to share their curb space with us. We settled in, all bundled up, and had a good time watching all the floats and bands go by. It was a good parade this year and we cheered loudly for "our" float.

Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas again with the part of my family that was in Peru for the holidays, and then tonight we celebrated once more, and now we're finally done! Phew!

And now you're all updated.

1.10.2007

Bad Mommy Award

I'm having one of those days. My child is completely unreasonable and disobedient, and also he's almost two. Could you tell? Everyone at Chili's today could. Judah and I went to meet Sarah there for lunch today. We'd had a pretty good morning, going grocery shopping and then to Borders so that I could pick up the brand new fourth book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series (and no, I'm not ashamed to admit that I still get excited about the teen lit section). Then we spent a while sitting on the floor in the children's section reading about trains and motorcycles, which was fun. So I thought lunch would be fine, like it usually is. No way. Judah started off okay, hanging out pretty quietly and eating goldfish. But then I ran out of goldfish, and the universe went horribly wrong. Jude was whining and throwing things and being totally impossible until I finally had to take him out and have Sarah stay in there to pay the bill and then meet us outside. When she came out Judah was still being crazy, so I had to say goodbye to her over his wails.

On the way to my car we passed a girl who was probably about 23. She had on a cute black skirt and pink shirt, nice shoes, and she smelled good. And then I thought sadly: that used to be me. I used to have time and will to coordinate outfits, wash my hair, put on nylons, do my makeup while standing still, and then carefully select a perfume or a nice-smelling lotion for the day. All on the same day! Now there are some days when I get to do one or two of those things, but NEVER all. I sat in my car on the way home and realized I'd become HER. The mom lady I never wanted to be, the one who always has frazzled messy hair, an outfit at least three years out of date, and never stops sweating. The one who just wiped her baby's snotty nose with a spare diaper because she forgot (again) to grab any kleenex on her way out. The one who wears her stress all over her face. The one whose child hasn't taken a real nap in three days and even now is upstairs screaming.

I always wanted to be the mom who was patient and took everything in stride, who understood that he's just a baby and can't control much in his world so he acts out. I wanted to be so calm and in control and so wise, always assigning the right consequences to every action so that the child learns a lesson and still understands that I love him so much. Does that mom exist? Because today I'm failing at every single one of those things and I feel like I'm facing an impossible task. What are you supposed to do with two-year-olds?