musings of Mother Hood

Let's Try This Again

By this time last week, I'd already been vomited on. More than once. And the week didn't improve much from there.

First, you should probably understand that Winter Weather in Northwest Arkansas takes on a life of its own. One minute the Weatherman is predicting a chance of winter precipitation and the next thing you know we're expecting 2-4" and schools are closed 24 hours in advance of the first flurry. It gets out of hand really fast. 

And we'd all been off our school/daycare normalcy for two solid weeks and I was enthusiastically looking forward to getting back to, you know, normal.

So last week. *sigh*

Sunday. 

• Weather forecast not looking good, but I was optimistic.
• Colt woke up early from his nap so we went for a drive. As we walked back in our house, Colt staggered toward me, wrapped his arms around my neck - and threw up his afternoon snack on my shoulder.
• Poor guy. He settled down, I cleaned us up, and I gave him some water.
• The rest of the evening was more of the same. The poor kid couldn't even keep water down. 
• Colt finally fell asleep, and we were hoping he would feel better by morning.
• By the 10 o'clock news they were already posting school closings for Monday morning. And sure enough - Fayetteville Schools were closed. This meant that daycare was also likely closed, so I made plans to take my Cabin Fever Vaccination and stay home Monday with the little guy.

Monday.

• High - 21. Low - 8.
• Got up at 2am with Colt. He gulped down an entire cup of Pedialyte then pointed back to his bed. No pleasantries, woman. It's the middle of the night! Back to bed he went and slept until morning.
• Woke up to discover that the University was closed so Jeff had the day off. 
• But upon calling to confirm daycare was closed, we found out they were open at 10! So we got the little guy out of bed to see how he felt.
• He ate his Cheerios like a champ and had no fever, so we made plans to take him to school.
• Had an appointment to get an MRI (long story, separate post) at 10:30.
• Came out of MRI in time to get a call from daycare that Colt was running a fever and we would need to come pick him up. Geez. He'd been there for ONE. HOUR.
• So Doctor's Office #2 for the day. Turns out, there's nothing they can do. Just a stomach bug. But since he had a fever, he can't go back to daycare for 24 hours. So I started gearing myself up to stay home. Again.

Tuesday.

• High - 23. Low - 6.
• More cold. More winter weather. All schools closed again. Colt and I stayed inside with Barney and Fireman Sam, and did not change out of our sweats.
• Had big plans to take a nap when Colt went down at 1:00 so I took a nice long shower and cozied up under the electric blanket.
• ...turns out the stomach bug was contagious.
• Spent Colt's entire naptime running back and forth to the bathroom.
• Made promise to myself that Wednesday. Wednesday would be normal.

Wednesday.

• High - 36. Low - 15.
• Felt like crap upon rolling out of bed in the morning, but vowed to get to work by lunch.
• Colt had his 18 month well-child checkup at 11, but he went to school all morning.
• You know how the checkup went... And the subsequent events...
• I WENT TO MY OFFICE THAT AFTERNOON. Felt like crap. But I was there!
• Held my breath for school closings.

Thursday.

• High - 26. Low - 6.
• Schools closed - AGAIN. Daycare closed - AGAIN.
• Attended Doctor's Appointment #4 for the week to get results from Monday's MRI. Waited 45 minutes for a 4 minute appointment. Figures.
• Drove home on DRY roads while silently cursing whoever cancelled every school between here and Kansas because it was COLD OUTSIDE.

Friday.

• High - 12. Low - 1.
• Could it be? Fayetteville Schools are open! Daycare is open! I get to go to work!
• Looking forward to a normal day. And a Friday, to boot.
• Walked to my car at 1:45 to drive to a 2:00 meeting at P&G. Car is dead.
• After Jeff came to jump me, I drove home shivering with no radio/heater/headlights so as not to use additional battery juice. Held my breath the entire way as the lights on the dash flickered. Mentally prepared myself to steer my dead car off the road should it give out mid-trip.

Saturday.

• High - 21. Low - 3.
• Stuck in the house again, but did make a trip to the Honda dealer for a new car battery.

So if you've been paying attention, that makes 1 stomach virus, 4 trips to various doctors, 1.5 days of work for me, around 2 cumulative days of daycare for Colt, 1 dead car battery, and an average temperature of about 7.

Crossing my fingers for a "normal" week. We need it.

So - from the top!

Where do baby ghosts go during the day?*

Ah Halloween.  Colt is still too little to both understand the concept of trick-or-treating and to eat candy, so it was 100% about the costume again this year. But I didn't want The Costume to suffer the same fate as most clothes that endure an entire day of daycare. So I sent him to school in his cutest day-before-Halloween getup. But not before I made him pose for a picture or two or twelve.

 

I picked him up from school a little early and we went home to enjoy a few minutes of sunshine. I feel like it's been raining for weeks and the poor little guy's been stuck inside quite a bit. So I just let him run.

 

Then we headed back to my office for some Halloween festivities. Kiddos were invited to come through the office, trick-or-treating and such. And Colt and I made our rounds to say hello. Teresa had Chaz with her, too, so it was our own little Take Your Toddler To Work Day. The cute little cowboy in the pictures is Chaz. 

 

I love that Colt looks like he's doing work in that second shot. Maybe I'll let him start managing my forecast.

This next photo is completely random and has not one thing to do with Halloween, but Colt found a box of "stuff" to play in on Saturday morning and we thought it would be good to have something to use as, you know, cultural evidence someday when we sit down to tell Colt about the Good Ole Days when we used to buy music in stores. On little discs. (If you look closely, there are even some cassette tapes in there. For good measure. And because someone never throws anything away.)

Some old friends of Jeff's from Smackover were camped for the weekend at Devil's Den, so we went to say hello. Jeff's friend Steve, his wife Delina and their kids Jace and Maylee. Maylee is five and let me tell you it was love at first sight. Colt couldn't get enough of her. And she was happy to entertain him all afternoon. I don't think I have any photos of Maylee, but she was such a cutie - and you know how Colt has a thing for the pretty girls!

We had such a good time visiting with them. Colt mostly behaved himself, and look Grandpa Martin! Colt started his Dutch Oven cooking career! 

And now. What you've all been waiting for. The Impossibly-Cute-Pictures-of-Baby-In-His-Halloween-Costume!

 

 

A monkey! Duh. Honestly, he didn't even need the costume. He is a running, climbing, jabbering little thing - all on his own. But the costume is cute. Right? We came inside after taking pictures and he went straight for Mongo. He is specifically fascinated by Mongo's left foot - as you can see - because his magic left foot turns on the infernal stuck-in-your-head-FOR-LIFE music that shall remain nameless. Monkey See Monkey Do!

 

Happy Halloween!

*Day-scare centers.

Paper and Plastic are SO 10 Years Ago.

• 100% recyclable
• Made from 85% recycled materials
• Made from approximately 4 plastic soda bottles
• Can replace 50 plastic shopping bags
• Can carry the same weight as 2-3 plastic shopping bags

Where have you been all my life?!

As you know, I vowed to adopt a PSP and settled on reusable shopping bags. And I couldn't be happier. I've waited a few weeks to blog about them because I not only wanted to be sure I'd stick with them, but wanted to be able to appropriately report back to you about all aspects, i.e. remembering to take the bags back to the store every time.

I don't know where to start. They've changed my life. Well, my grocery shopping life, anyway. I used to come home with between 20 and 30 bags of groceries every week. Now I have 3. Maybe 4. And unless you get Joe Teenager Checkout Boy, the cashiers are fairly good at bagging everything - cold stuff together, bread on top, etc. The reusable bags are wide and flat on the bottom so they stand up in the car -- no more hunting for stray jars of baby food in the depths of the trunk. And an unexpected perk -- shoulder straps! I can put the bag(s) on my shoulder and have my hands free, which is especially important now that I am perpetually wrestling a munchkin.

They fold flat, can be completely smashed and crushed into a ball, and double as a light-weight and convenient way to schlep clothes to the dry cleaner. What's not to love? One day last week, I had to buy a new one at the store because I ran to Walmart at lunch and didn't bring my gear. But I now keep a few in the trunk of the car for just such a shopping emergency.

I will even go so far as to say I think the government should mandate the use of reusable shopping bags. Yes, that's right. Why not? It's a SUPER easy way to be more sustainable and doesn't cost any extra time or energy. Maybe I should write my Congressman. (And as far as laws go, my Reusable Shopping Bag Law should definitely be in line ahead of the crazy Digital TV Transition Law. What. Ever. It's really a separate rant, but do we really need 18 months of public service announcements to help us "prepare" for the switch to digital television? Did the government subsidize CD players for the American people when the compact disc was invented and we all made the "transition" from cassette tapes? *aggravated sigh*)

So there ya go. They're more than Reusable Shopping Bags. They're a way of life.

Child's Play

I had the best day. It started with breakfast with my friend Angela at Neal's Cafe in Springdale. Angela is sort of an expert at discovering "best kept secret" type places and this one does not disappoint. It is a greasy spoon famous for its fried chicken, but has EXCELLENT breakfast. Mom and Dad, we're going there next time you're in town. The inside is painted pink AND decorated with multiple moose heads. You can't find that just anywhere!

After lunch, Angela and I headed to the mall. I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy people-watching --and the mall today was a gold mine. Aside from people thinking we were the mall information desk and asking us directions to things like the movie theater and "the teeth whitening place", the real fun was watching all of the guys walking around the mall the day before Valentine's Day with little pink Victoria's Secret bags in their hands, desperately looking for the Hallmark store. And we spent most of the day in the center of the mall - on the corner with all of the jewelry stores. Crazy boys waiting til the last minute! 

But the real reason we were there was that we both took a volunteer day to help CASA with Project Playhouse. CASA is one of the organizations supported by Saatchi & Saatchi X's non-profit, Thompson Murray Children's Foundation (TMCF). CASA is an organization that trains volunteers to act as advocates for abused or neglected children in court. And Project Playhouse is a big fundraiser for them every year.

Designers and builders get together and create playhouses with donated materials from area sponsors. These playhouses are GORGEOUS! The pictures don't do them justice. If you are in NWA - and especially if you have kiddos - please go by the NWA Mall and see the displays. They'll be open for kids to go in and explore from 2-4 the next two Saturdays. The live auction to end all of the silent bidding happens next Saturday. And two of the houses are being raffled - so yours truly bought some tickets and Grandpa is only off the hook if we win one! Otherwise Grandpa, take a good look at the photos -- someday you and Santa Claus will have to join forces and build Reason #64 that Colt will LOVE going to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

So far, the highest bid ($5000) is on "Pork Chop Manor". This one is built to look like a sky-box at the football stadium. It has a built-in stereo system for blasting the fight song and a child-sized tailgate area on the "field".

 

 

Perhaps the most original design was "Bedrock Bungalow", complete with a "fire" inside and a foot-powered car.

  

One of the houses being raffled is "Camo Camp" - combination log cabin and deer stand. Hunter camo curtains, gun and bow hanging on the wall, and a trap door complete with rope ladder. If we win this - it's totally going in our backyard.

But my FAVORITE is "The Mighty Oak". It's built to look like a tree, with a swing in one of the "branches" and the inside decked out like a log cabin with a miniature bear skin rug, stone fireplace, and hunting trophy on the wall. You can't really tell from the photos, but there's a ladder up to a loft that sleeps a few kids in sleeping bags, and there's a skylight!

   

You would not BELIEVE the detail in these houses. They're beautiful. Angela and I started dreaming of other "houses" we think they should build -- a castle with a drawbridge, an igloo!, a gingerbread house, a tee-pee, or even a cowboy's saloon.  We got a little carried away, but had so much fun hanging out with the playhouses all day. Our job was to help people place bids and buy raffle tickets. One lady sat down and told us about her dog and how she just hasn't been able to pick out the perfect doghouse for him yet - and that she'd like to buy some raffle tickets, so she can win him a "real" house. Wow. But the best part was the looks on the kids' faces as they oohed and aahed and picked out their favorites. Priceless. I totally want a playhouse.

There are nine houses total and you can see artists' sketches of all of them on CASA's website. But, seriously, go see them. Take your kids. They'll be up in the mall until Saturday, the 21st. SO fun.

To top off my day, I came home to discover my sweet Valentines had brought me flowers. I love my boys!

And just for you - a bonus V-day pic of Colt (from earlier in the week).

It's Not Easy Being Green v 2.0

For the most part, I am pleased with the suggestions I received regarding my PSP. The good news is that I don't have to pick just one. The bad news is that - on the record - Laura suggested "The Keeper" (Google at your own risk) and - off the record - Jeff proposed a One-Flush-per-Day Rule at our house! Neither are bad sustainability suggestions, technically...

But the PSP I gravitated toward most genuinely was the reusable shopping bag idea. And let me tell you why. Dad suggested reusable shopping bags in an email early yesterday and it intrigued me. Then Nancy sealed the deal with her comment about how much they hold. Yes! My single biggest issue with Walmart (and let's face it there are several) is that the cashiers only put one or two items in each bag. I painstakingly put my groceries on the conveyor belt in a VERY orderly manner. I put all cold items together, all boxed items together, all toiletries together, all cans together, I save eggs and bread for last, and I place everything up there RIGHT SIDE UP so they can easily find the barcodes for scanning. Bagging should be a snap. Pile all that cold stuff together! Double-bag it and pile in the cans! But what I end up with is 40 bags each holding a bag of chips or a tube of toothpaste -- and it takes me an hour to unpack the car and get everything put away.

(It's worth mentioning that I actually prefer the Self-Checkout, but I respect it like I do the Express Lane. If I have enough items to warrant more than a handheld shopping basket -- I forego the Self-Checkout. It should be reserved for those with a few items. It's not a rule. Just my opinion.)

Nancy hit the nail on the head when she mentioned the capacity of reusable shopping bags. Sold! My new PSP is reusable shopping bags.

The One-Flush-per-Day Rule is tied up in committee.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I need your help.

Though I am fairly cynical regarding the new "Green" movement I would like to try and look past the trendiness and do my part. It's not that I don't want to save the planet, I just don't know that ridding the Earth of plastic water bottles is the answer. Anyway.

Everyone at my office has been tasked with identifying at least one PSP. PSP = Personal Sustainability Project. I think the term was originally coined by Walmart. Not sure. But PSPs are commitments made by individuals to do their part in any small way to help the cause. Examples of PSPs I have heard around the office include:

• Biking to work (This won't work for me for obvious reasons.)
• Not printing emails (I think this is a no-brainer.The whole point of email is that it isn't printed... I think that one is cheating.)
• Eating a vegetarian diet (I believe in the food chain. I think Mother Nature understands that. She did invent bacon after all.)
• Only putting out one trash bin per month - recycling all other waste (This one intrigues me. Though I think I fill our kitchen trash about once a DAY.)

None of those work for me.

I try! I wash all of our clothes in cold water (in a non-HE washer...), I carefully wash and dry every single empty (Organic!) baby food container so that my family can reuse them to hold buttons and nails and such, we use those damn inconvenient compact fluorescent light bulbs -- I even wash all my dishes by hand so as not to run a half-empty dishwasher!  But I use disposable diapers, leave the TV on when no one is in the room, and I loooooooove to take long showers. Is that wrong?

I need some help on this one. Any suggestions for my PSP?

Lawson Michael

At the risk of baby backlash*...

Colt's new friend Lawson has arrived!

Our friends Lauren and Wes welcomed Lawson Michael on Tuesday morning, 13 January, 7:51 a.m. Lawson weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 23 inches long.

Lawson's been here since Tuesday, and I was finally able to get to the hospital to see them last night. Here are Lauren and Lawson - and some of the girls from the office: Sarah, April, Katie, and Brianne in front.

Lawson is just beautiful. You forget how tiny they are! I can't wait till our boys are old enough to cheer the Hogs together!

*NO. I am not pregnant. Right about the time we got married, my friends Allison and Devon both had babies and I posted pictures of them on the blog. It took us nine long months to quiet the rumors.

Vote!

My Creative Director and friend, Mr. Andy Tyer, has earned a reputation around Saatchi & Saatchi X as quite the filmmaker. Last year, he and his girls won $2007 in the annual Saatchi & Saatchi X Film Festival and a few weeks later his family made a short film that won them a new car on The View! He has finished his latest masterpiece and needs your vote - see below:

Hi, all,

In the interest of exploiting my children until they’re no longer cute, the Tyer girls and I have entered another video contest, and we'd love to get your vote. In this one, we had to show how Cellular South gives the best coverage. We did a fun little video called "The Many Adventures of Dad”, in which the girls look very cute, and I look like a big ole doofus.

Check it out here.

VIDEO LINK

To vote, you need to register first. The register link is in the top right corner of the website. All they want is a username, password and valid email address. Then just click on the vote button in the window of our video. And you only need to vote once.

If we get the most votes this week (through January 17th) we could win $1,000. If we're the overall winner, we'll win ten grand!

So help us out!  And enjoy the video. We had a blast making it. Also, feel free to forward this to anyone you know. The more votes, the merrier!  :)

Thanks.

Andy

Welcome to the 21st Century--

I've probably mentioned before that I have never considered myself a "cool kid". And I'm ok with that. I spent weekends in high school playing bassoon and xylophone in the band and traveling the state performing in drama tournaments -- instead of... whatever it is that cool kids do. 

But today! Today I joined the rest of the cool kids! Well... if it counts to be almost 10 years behind...

I have an iPod. Well - to be clear - I've had an iPod since Christmas. Saatchi was lobbying for "Coolest Place to Work" votes and gave everyone an iPod video nano for Christmas last year. Very cool gift. Especially since the year before that, they gave us a book and a SSX-branded jacket... So I've had this --

-- in my possession since mid-December. And it has only been out of the package once... in mid-December. I've been telling myself for the last 6 months that I really should bust it out, put some music on it and join the rest of society. But I've been a little distracted and it never got done. But lucky for my iPod - I've had a furious urge to "nest" lately and "get things in order" -- and that included the iPod!

So today was the day. Well, actually it started a few days ago with the downloading (uploading?) of all my CDs onto iTunes (which I previously assumed was going to be impossibly hard to use). And today - in a matter of minutes - I had added over 500 songs to my iPod.

Maybe next I'll tackle my own reality show. Or whatever it is that cool kids do...

Like a weed.

I am trying hard to convince myself that it is due to the shirt I'm wearing today - but so far it's not working. 3 separate people have made comments today about how big my belly is getting. Thank God they have been polite and limited their comments to the belly...

According to the 33-week email update this past Tuesday, the baby is approximately 4 pounds and 17 inches. A coworker (Kim) and I got distracted today trying to find something in the office that was around that size and the closest we could come was some product on the Fabric Care Account Sup's desk-- a bottle of Dreft weighing 52 ounces. That's not even 4 pounds - and it seemed SO heavy.  Kim was holding it up in front of her own belly-- and then looked up at me and said, "that CAN'T be comfortable". Yeah.

So I'm pretty sure that the baby has had a growth spurt in the last week or so. This whole pregnancy thing was never uncomfortable or inconvenient in any way until about 10 days ago -- let's just say I've already started practicing for the nights-of-no-sleep to come.

In other news, the term "growing like a weed" has taken on new meaning for us. Jeff has been fighting the good fight out on our lawn the last few weeks. He claims that dandelions are literally growing in a matter of hours -- he'll weed the entire backyard at lunchtime only to come home to a spatter of the damned things. We have been intently watching the barrage of commercials for weed-killing-grass-growing miracle products on TV lately and will invest in some if it ever stops raining here for 6 minutes in a row.

---

If you haven't visited Laura's new site - please drop by http://www.freewebs.com/chiquitaq/   She's posted a few entries and a handful of pictures -- on her latest adventure.

She mentioned that there's a guy in her group that reminds her of Tom -- which I think is great. I had a dream about Tom last night - I think he knows that his family really needs him right now. He's with Laura on her trip and with me getting ready for the baby - and with everyone else in their own daily goingson. I love that he's as much of an encouraging friend now as ever.