musings of Mother Hood

Or maybe I'm starting to believe it, too.

So the World Series is over. And today is your lucky day. You get a peek behind the curtain into my world.

  

 

 If you had told me 5 years ago that one day I would not only be able to distinguish between the various anchors and commentators on ESPN, but also to PREFER one over another – or that I would be intimately familiar with the sizing of men’s clothing – or that I would develop the patience required to live with living room furniture and kitchen appliances that are older than I am because “they still work!” - I would not have believed you. Just this week, I was talking recent television ads with some (female) coworkers and I brought up the series of ads that Sony has been doing for HDTV -- featuring Peyton Manning explaining that since most major sporting events are recorded with high-definiton Sony cameras that they should be enjoyed on high-definiton Sony televisions. When I got a room full of blank stares, I realized that those ads probably only run on ESPN...

  

My sweet husband has enriched my life with such things.

  

 

And the trend has continued this week with the culmination of “The Conspiracy Theory”. Jeff has always insisted that “TV” decides which teams go to playoffs for various professional sports and “TV” decides how many games are played in a series and “TV” decides if a game needs to go into overtime. It’s all about ratings and it’s all about money. And while I don’t disagree with the notion that pro sports is all about money – I am a little uncomfortable agreeing to the idea that “TV” determines the participants and duration of important sporting events.

  

 

The most recent evidence of said conspiracy is an article in the NY Daily News following the finalizing of the teams participating in the World Series this year. First, let me be clear that I probably couldn’t care less about professional baseball and only notice that it is baseball season when a show I want to watch is preempted by extra innings or playoffs or some such thing. The Daily News suggests that “TV” is not pleased with the teams in the World Series this year – because they aren’t in big enough markets to matter. And that they’d prefer a “West Coast” team and an “East Coast” team. So not only are there two “East Coast” teams in the Series, but who in the world cares about Tampa Bay??

 

So Jeff is using this article as validation for his crazy theory about professional sports. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard him say during a game – “TV has it set up so that the game will go into overtime” or “TV has it set up so that the series goes at least 6 games” or “TV has it set up so the [team name] will lose”. He is convinced that somewhere there is a room full of TV execs, heads thrown back in a maniacal cackle, moving teams around on a giant chess board. I actually picture it kinda like the big scary crystal ball that the Wicked Witch of the West uses to spy on Dorothy. All those poor, unsuspecting little athletes and coaches – running around thinking they are actually EARNING those millions of dollars.

 

He maintains that unless there is a New York team, a Boston team, a Chicago team, or a California team -- that they might as well not even play.

 

I wonder – does “TV” also control the weather? Did TV plan to postpone the series with rain to spice things up a little? Or was TV testing the waters to see if anyone was really watching?  Did anyone even notice that the games had been postponed?  And now that the series is over - in 5 games - I am starting to believe maybe TV was so bored with the match-up and advertisers were peeved enough about their seemingly wasted advertising dollars that TV let the series be over already. Fine. Phillies win. Who cares?

 

 

Jeff does make concessions for college sports - those games are legit. Which is a good thing or else I'd wonder what in the world "TV" has against the Razorbacks this year!

No one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one.

We had quite a weekend! Jeff's childhood friend Valerie and her husband Louis drove down from Bloomington, Illinois and Debra drove up from Smackover to stay with us for the weekend and go to the game. Grandma and Grandpa Martin also came to visit and stayed with Becky and Keebler. It was a full house, but so much fun!

Grandma and Grandpa got to town late Thursday (my birthday!) and got to visit with a very sleepy munchkin before settling in at Becky's for the night. We all needed to rest up for the weekend of festivities --

Friday: Jeff had to work, but I took off to spend the day with Grandma, Grandpa, Becky and the little one. My friend Teresa had showed me pictures of her family at the pumpkin patch and said they had so much fun -- so we packed into my car and drove out to Pea Ridge to visit the Pumpkin Patch...

We were really disappointed as I was hoping we'd get to see the Great Pumpkin -- or at least pick out a pumpkin or two for carving. But I suppose next year we'll have to make reservations!

We got home in time to get dressed for dinner. My parents took us to one of our favorite restaurants -- PF Chang's. Yum!

We came home from dinner and had the cutest birthday cake I've ever seen! Grandma didn't even want to cut into it!

 Happy Birthday Mom & Dad! 

Grandma and Grandpa volunteered to stay with the munchkin and put him to bed so Jeff and I could hit the town with friends. Of course, we had to meet up with Keith and the gang at Z330 and it was nice to be out and see friends we don't see so often these days.

         

When we got home, the Smackover crew stayed up nearly all night catching up and telling stories -- and there was a 5am You, Me and Dupree incident, but everyone finally made it to bed and got some sleep in anticipation of Saturday!

Saturday: Game Day! Everyone finally got up and around and started getting ready for the game. I think at one point on Saturday there were 15 people in our house! I didn't think our little house was capable of all that! Grandma and Grandpa, Becky, Valerie and Louis and their two youngest kids, Valerie's Mom and sister, Debra, Josh and David. We had lunch and then headed out for some tailgating.

 

 

And it just wouldn't have been the same if I didn't forget something at home... The last time we went to a game in Fayetteville - I forgot our tickets at home. This time we had parked my car at our tailgating spot the night before so we could get dropped off for the game and then drive ourselves home that night -- and I forgot my keys at home... The game was heartbreaking, but the day was a blast.

Sunday: Sunday morning everyone packed up and got ready to hit the road. And Jeff and I prepared for the changing of the guard. Grandmother, Pop and Aunt Lucille arrived Sunday afternoon to spend the day.  Grandmother brought dinner and a Pumpkin Birthday Cake. Colt was a little out of sorts from his long weekend of visitors - but had fun hanging out with Pop and Granny and meeting his Great Aunt Lucille!     

       

As usual, we had about 10 days worth of plans for a few days worth of weekend -- but we packed most of it in and had such a good time. I took tons more photos and most of them are in the Colt photo album along the right-hand side of the page. Thanks everybody for coming to visit!

       

(Today is 19 weeks for the little guy -- and an undisclosed number of years for his Daddy. Happy Birthday Dad!)

Happy 18 weeks!

These weeks are flying by - by the way. And I'm not quite sure how I got off on my updates - but if you missed the 4-month update this weekend you can check it out HERE.

And in celebration of the 18-week milestone - an original song...

And for those of you following along -- the bottles now have his name on them. And! we're covered in case blind people ever need to pick Colt's bottles out of a line-up...

Looking forward to a big weekend - Grandma and Grandpa Martin will be here tomorrow night, and Pop and Grandmother Hood will be here on Sunday! Stay tuned for pictures of the festivities.

 

What's in a Name?

I am slowly getting used to the fact that I have a "daycare baby". He hasn't been sick yet (knock on wood) and he hasn't come home with someone else's clothes or toys -- though, to be fair, he's 1 of 2 infants over there, and only 1of 4 total kids in the house. So we have, at best, a mild case of ihaveakidindaycareitis. In reality, we are VERY lucky to have found Ms. Barbara and Colt just loves her.

But.

For some reason, it's a HUGE pain to me that we have to start putting his name on everything. I know. We've been spoiled. Until this week - he was the only infant over there. So we never discussed putting his name on bottles or milk or diapers or blankets or whatever. But this week, another baby started at Ms. Barbara's. Bishop. He's about the same age as Colt, so they wear the same size diapers and probably clothes - so it's suddenly CRUCIAL that his name be on every. Little. Thing.

Couple things. First of all, I don't particularly care that Colt's wearing a diaper out of Bishop's stash or his own -- they wear the same size and use the same brand. They also use the same exact bottles. But here's the crux of my case. Bishop has his name on EVERYTHING. It's nuts. The first day he was there, I tiptoed over to his car seat and peeked in on him sleeping. This kid has his name stitched everywhere- his blanket, burp cloth, onesie, hat, diaper bag, you get the idea. His mom also uses the same milk bags as I do - and writes his name in 3 different places on the bag. These bags hold about 5 oz of milk -- they're pretty small. I think it's safe to label them - once. And she has little rubber band labels around his bottles with his name on them - think Livestrong bracelets. 

So basically this lady's making me look bad. Ms. Barbara asked me this week if I'll start putting Colt's name on stuff -- but honestly, I don't really see the need. If Bishop has his name on everything he owns -- then we don't have to do it, right? Wouldn't all of the un-labeled items belong to Colt by default?

(I can just hear my Mom.... "if you had TOLD me his name - I could have put his name on anything you wanted!" I love you Mom.)

The good news is this: the latent organizer in me is secretly THRILLED that I get the chance to label things! I am actually surfing LabelYourStuff.com and SeeJaneWork.com in separate windows right now......

4 Months!

A lot has happened since the last Colt Update! Last weekend was a big one - the Razorbacks won a conference game on the road (Go Hogs!) and we went to Keith and Don's to celebrate Keith's birthday. [His birthday was the 5th, but he's prolonging the celebration all month.]  While at Keith and Don's to hang out - Colt decided to humor us and ROLL OVER! He just nonchalantly rolled over like he's been doing it for years. I think we scared him with all the cheering and clapping -- but we kept putting him back on his belly and he kept rolling over to his back! And since we weren't at home - I have no video! After he did it a few times and we realized he was going to keep "performing" we tried to record it with a cell phone, but no luck... I promise to catch it this week as I know all of you are on the edges of your seats waiting for it. :)

[More photos of hanging out with Keith and Don in the "Colt" photo album in the upper right-hand corner of the page.]

So this week was number 17! Wow. And 4 months meant another trip to the doctor - and another round of shots... Our little boy officially weighs 15 lb 4 oz and measures 25 inches long! Both of which put him in the 75th percentile. Colt took his shots like a champ - and Mom and Dad were much better prepared this time around, too. The doctor said he passed inspection and we got the green light to start eating some rice cereal.

   

The doctor prepared us for the fact that Colt would probably fight us and would spit out most of what we fed him, but he didn't hate it. I don't know if he swallowed all that much, but he kinda liked the spoon idea and we are considering ourselves lucky that we have a boy who likes to eat!

Looking for a place that wouldn't be too crowded on a Friday night, and a place we (well, Jeff and Becky) could have a beer to celebrate Tom's birthday -- we went to Colton's last week for some burgers and cheese fries. Check out the sign -- I think we should have been able to eat for free!

And a few "outtakes" from our monthly photo shoot with Mr. Bear --

  

 

Lots more pictures from the last 10 days - in the photo album. Have a great week!

   

525,600 minutes

Dear Tom,

I can't believe it's been a year. It's been a year since we were sitting home on a Sunday night watching football and Jeff's phone rang. It was Dad with the worst news I've ever heard. And it was the beginning of the most defining year of my life so far.

After I had to tell my baby sister the news that Sunday night, I tried to go to work on Monday - and got as far as Mick's office at P&G. I told him what few details I had then and completely broke down. After promising to let people know at my office, he sent me straight back home where I pretty much stayed until we left for San Antonio a week later. During that week I got phone call after phone call and text messages and emails from anyone and everyone who knew you and knew of you. I don't think I answered a single one until weeks later. I didn't have the words. That Tuesday I had my first prenatal appointment and confirmed I was pregnant. By the end of that week I didn't know if I had room in my heart for anything more.

But I did. We left for San Antonio that Saturday and spent a week with family and friends. We laughed as much as we cried and my heart was comforted by every person who was there. Little did any of us know just how many lives you had touched. And there was more to come. Over the course of the last year, people have continued to contact Mom and Dad with stories of how you have been in and out of their lives - knowingly and unknowingly. I am still stumbling upon articles and blogs about you -- written by people none of us have ever met. It is very healing to know that your story is out there.   

14 October 2007. So much has happened since that day-- Laura graduated from college, we spent our first Christmas without you, Colt was born, Mom has been in and out of the hospital, Laura's in Africa while Becky's in Fayetteville near us, Mom and Dad are moving across the country, and this last week was the first time I couldn't call or write you on your birthday. And for everything that's changed forever - there are things that will always be the same. I will always secretly pull for Notre Dame and I will probably always tear up a little when I hear John Denver on the radio. And I will always be so proud that you're my brother.

Over the course of the year, I've grown stronger when it comes to your story. I wear your name on my wrist every day and for awhile it was tough when people asked about it. I would tell them about you, and fight back tears - often unsuccessfully. But more and more now, I'm able to talk about you with a smile on my face - which I know suits you. And wherever we are - Arkansas or Africa - I know you're there, too.

I will never forget what it was like to say goodbye to you that day at West Point last October, but I remember you like this:

        

   

I miss you. And I know that someday we'll all be laughing together again.

Love, Sarah

                                                                     

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love? 

Measure your life in love.

- RENT, Jonathan Larson

Sweet 16

Another good week! We spent some quality family time watching the debate last night. Colt didn't care much for it, but he humored us.  I've tried not to be so apathetic about the whole election, but it's tough to keep interest in something that seems to have been going on FOR YEARS. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- there should be an Election Channel. Get as much or as little of it as you want. Like E!. It's brilliant - I can get nearly 24-hour Entertainment News. If I want to know what Britney Spears had for breakfast yesterday, I know where to go. If I want to watch presidential candidates point fingers at each other while unnecessarily repeating themselves - Election Channel. Seriously. ---I can almost hear Tom groaning at me :)

So. Sweet 16. I don't feel like I took very many pictures this week -- just under 100... ha! -- and I really need to be better about posting videos as Colt is moving and giggling and squealing lately. It's pretty adorable.

This week brought the Johnny Jumper-- perhaps the best thing that's ever happened to us!  Well, at least the best thing that's happened to Colt...

We were a little skeptical at first - thinking maybe he was too little for it. We couldn't have been more wrong! My friend Teresa from work, and her little boy Chaz, let us borrow the Johnny Jumper as Chaz is too big for it now. It is Colt's new favorite. I told Ms. Barbara today at daycare -- she needs to pull hers out of the closet. It's gold!      

Lots of smiling and squealing this week -- I need to post a video. In the meantime - here's my favorite picture we've taken in awhile.

16 weeks!

Programming Note: Since the introduction of the new site, there has been a sharp drop-off in the number of comments posted. And while I have tried to convince myself that I don't need comments -- it hasn't really worked. Just a reminder that it's easier than ever before to leave me a note. You don't have to sign-in or leave an email address or verify your identity in any way, really. I would love to hear from you!

Turn, Turn, Turn

Jeff is out of town this week for work and it makes me realize just how little credit I give him for how much he helps me at home. Colt and I both cannot wait for Saturday - when Dad comes home. Everyone sleeps better.

For some reason, only this week did I truly begin to realize how fast Colt is growing. In last week's post I was marveling at his ability to hold something in his hand for 3 seconds if I carefully put it there myself, deliberately wrapping his little fingers around the skinniest part of the telephone rattle. In a matter of days he has gone from able to hold something for a few seconds to able to pick up a toy from the tray of his exersaucer, wave it around in the air, and use it to repeatedly hit said tray until he finds the buttons that play music and farm animal noises. He has gone from randomly smashing his hand into his face until he stumbles upon his mouth to being able to put his thumb (or finger of choice) directly into his mouth - do not pass go.

Sleeping has been hit and miss the last week or so. Not quite sure how, but we got off our schedule last weekend and have yet to recover. (And this is my sorry excuse for being a day late with my update...) We've tried a few things to ensure Colt sleeps all night and, since we've tried them all at once, have no idea which one is affecting his sleep or if it's altogether coincidental that he's slept well the last few nights. We've started giving him a little bit bigger bottle at night, bundling him with his hands out so he can suck on them, and putting him to bed a little earlier. We had been selfishly waiting until 10 to put him to bed so we could see him more in the evenings -- but it looks like bedtime is going to settle somewhere around 8:30 for awhile.

When I was pregnant, there was no shortage of advice and wisdom and "your life will completely change" and "enjoy it - it goes by so fast". No amount of hearing all of that can prepare you for the reality of it. It is flying. My baby is 15 weeks old. (Insert cliche comment about 15 weeks turning into 15 years in the blink of an eye.) He can smile and coo and suck his thumb and pick things up with his hands and is generally the sweetest, cutest baby I have ever met. He drools a river a day and is reserving the ability to roll over as his ace in the hole -- but he eats and sleeps like a champ and has had 15 healthy weeks of babyhood.

He changes so much every day that my camera is having trouble keeping up! I don't know how parents did it when taking pictures wasn't digital (and thus, free) -- I literally take hundreds of pictures of him. And each week I sort through them to decide which ones to share with the internet - and I marvel at how much he's changed in just 7 days. And now I'm crying. *sigh*

Nancy, our family photographer (when Grandpa Martin is not in town), met up with us again this week to take photos of Colt. (Though I desperately wanted to take pictures when the leaves were changing - and that has obviously not happened yet.) Fall is my favorite time of year - I love the colors. (I only recently realized that Jeff and I were technically married in the Summer. I have decided to ignore the reality of 16 September being 6 days shy of the first day of Fall and continue picturing this and this when I think about our wedding day -- and it will be Fall in my mind.) So we headed out into the FALL to snap some photos. Colt missed a nap that day and decided to punish me by refusing to smile the entire time -- lucky for us he's cute anyway! Below is my favorite one from the set, but all of them are along the right hand side of this page in an album called "Colt - 3 Month Photos". Enjoy.