Not Me! Monday

Short one this week. Most of the Not Me! stuff I've done is too bad to print, even in denial form.
I did NOT tell my sweet 19-month-old child to "Grow up!" when he began to throw things out of his crib. Jalal did NOT laugh at me and tell me how ridiculous that was to say, and I DID laugh along and NOT take myself too seriously. (I was NOT, however, fighting a cold at the time and will NOT claim feeling crappy was my excuse.)
I did NOT get irrationally mad at Quinn for telling me sixteen times that he had to go potty, only to say "All done" as soon as he sat down. I did NOT put my head in and my hands and almost cry after the fourth time as he ran around the living room without a diaper. Because I was NOT going to be one of THOSE moms.
I did NOT think terribly mean and catty thoughts about the drunk, trashy women at the bar when I went out with Maureen. I did NOT congratulate myself on the fact that I wasn't the one wearing a black T-shirt with a sequined black miniskirt and white strappy hooker heels.
I did NOT seriously consider buying Maureen a birthday dessert, knowing she would share it with me and I could therefore quiet my chocolate craving while "doing good."
I was NOT disgusted at the idea of cuddling and comforting my crying child Saturday night when he was sick and unhappy and couldn't sleep, merely because our A/C was broken and it was 88 degrees and he had a fever. I did NOT try to push him over to his Daddy's side of the bed so I could sleep. (In my defense, Jalal did NOT gleefully admit to doing the same thing to me the next day.)

(I would link this to MckMama's blog as usual, but she is still with Stellan in the Boston Children's Hospital. So you're either going to have to live with just mine or search for other people's Not Me! Mondays on your own.)

Love, Us.

Funny Stories

Okay, my plan tonight is just to jot down a few quick stories that I've been meaning to share about Quinn. No, they are not necessarily in chronological order, so just bear with me.
Quinn has had a nickname for Elmo since the very beginning of his hard-core speaking life. It's "Momo." Lots of other things have been called "Momo" at times, including Jesus (red robe) and Veggie Tales movies (cartoons). So last week, Jalal and I got Quinn a few pairs of $1 socks at the front of Target. One pair had Elmo on them. As we were checking out, our cashier was talking to Quinn and said her favorite character was Elmo. I asked Quinn, "What do you call Elmo?" He said, clear as day, "Elmo." I can't remember the last time I felt so stupid in public. I said, "What about Momo?" Again, he said, "Elmo." Ok, fine. Smart aleck. Ironically, he hasn't said Elmo since then. Only Momo. Does anyone else ever feel like your kid tries to make you look stupid? I get that often. I can't wait til he brings home his science homework and asks me to help him. Good thing I have very little pride anymore.
Today we were in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, trying to spend a gift card and failing miserably. Quinn was so cranky that we let him out of the cart and walked alongside Jalal. At one point, he started walking across an aisle and said, again clear as day, "One, two, three, GO!" I know he knows the word "two" pretty well because every time I say, "You can have one cookie," he says "Two?" But I've never heard him count like that. It was so freakin' cute.
It wasn't too much later that he started running his free hand along everything he passed. We told him he had to put his other hand, the hand not holding Daddy's hand, into his pocket. Well, it took him a minute to figure out how to do that, but once he did, he kept it in there until we would stop and look at something or he wanted to sit in a beach chair. Then he would put his hand back in his pocket as we walked. It was so stinkin' adorable.
Yesterday we went to a baby shower for a girl from my church. I was so happy to have had an excuse to buy cute little girl clothes. Anyway, Quinn took a while to warm up to people, but he eventually started running around the kitchen and dining room with the other kids. Now note that he has always called me "Mama." But he overheard an older little girl, maybe 4 or 5, called out for her "Mommy." All of a sudden, I hear Quinn from the other room yell "Mommy!" I went in and said, "What did you call me?" He said, "Mommy!" I told him you don't call me Mommy, you call me Mama. He said, "Mama!" That's right. It kind of stuck, though, and now every now and then he'll call me "Mommy." Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I could swear he's making fun of me whenever he does. Is it wrong to be so suspicious of such a young child? Yeah, probably. Okay, that's all I can remember for now. Hope you have enjoyed this version of "Sunday Silly Stories." Love, Us.

It's Snot Funny

I know it has been awhile since I posted, but I have had the lamest immune system lately. I had just gotten over my really bad cough when I came down with another cold. I felt so much better yesterday, but today has been pretty phlegmy--and Quinn's nose has been running all day, so I'm now guilty of getting him sick. I try so hard not to get him sick, like making him kiss me on the cheek instead of the mouth and not letting him drink from my cup (I actually try to prevent that all the time, I'm just more diligent when I'm sick).
Anyway, I have been pretty busy. I turned in my work for my new job last Friday, a full week early. Yay! And I went out to a bar last night with Maureen for her birthday. I'm glad I did because none of her other friends showed up. I didn't stay out late, but I did have a pretty good time. One woman (wearing ALL WHITE) stopped me on my way back to our table and told me over and over again how beautiful I was and asked if anyone had ever told me that. She held me captive for about three minutes and it was just a leetle uncomfortable. Oh well, guess I can always use a self-esteem boost, right? And I remembered how much I love the taste of Malibu and pineapple juice. Mmmm.
Today was the joint birthday party for Owen and Emma, two of Quinn's friends. It was crazy, with 10 kids running around at once (actually, one of them was just 2 months old, so he wasn't doing a whole lot of running). Quinn was a wreck, totally out of character. He kept tripping or hurting himself and then crying hysterically for a while. He was such a mess. But he had no trouble eating his cake and ice cream.
Well, it's late now and I think I'm going to try to get some sleep. I know this was a short post, but I'll be back again soon. Love, Us.

Pour Some Sugar on Me

I really should be working because I am getting farther and farther behind, but I can't resist talking about my adorable child. We had a wonderful Easter, even though Jalal had to work and couldn't go to church. But Quinn looked perfect in his Easter outfit. We went outside and took pictures in front of the house, which is what Trish and I did when we were kids in our Easter dresses (I wonder if I can find pictures of the year I had a perm fro and we both got bright floral, off the shoulder dresses).

Quinn has been doing so well with his language skills lately. He has started saying "Up" instead of "Ut," though I still have to prompt him sometimes. He says "door" now (and he can open them!) and "horse" and all these words I never heard him say before. This morning, Jalal and I were hanging out with him in bed and reading his Eric Carle alphabet book. As soon as he grabbed the book, Jalal asked him to point to the "A," then "B," then "C." And he got them all right! My jaw just dropped. I said, "Were you working on that last night, Jalal?" He said, no, not since the previous morning. Holy crap! Is that normal? Now, even when he doesn't get the letters right, he still seems to recognize that they are letters. At the mall play area today (it was raining), he stopped and pointed to the letters on the floor and said "E" and "B" (though not necessarily correctly). I'm so impressed with him.

And he's going through the attachment object phase. He loves his blankets ("banktet" or something like that), but the other day when I got him up from a nap, he asked for his blanket while I was changing his diaper (another new word, and he goes to get a new one whenever he's wet). I gave him his Winnie the Pooh blanket because it is comparitively small. He said, very sharply, "Nuhnoh!" and I had to get him his Wendy Bellissimo blanket (at least the kid has good taste). Now he wants to carry that blanket downstairs with him when he wakes up.

Last night, I had bowling and Jalal stayed home with Quinn. I had given Jalal a couple of his favorite sweets for Easter, like Peeps and chocolate marshmallow eggs, which come in a real egg carton. Quinn has had more sugar in the past weekend than in his whole life combined, between sugar cookies, jelly beans, his first Jello (that was funny), part of a Peep, and I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. Anyway, Jalal told me he had to go out to get something from his car at one point, at the same time a coworker called his cell. So he closed the gate and told Quinn to stay put, that he's be right back. When he came back in, Quinn was sitting on the couch with the marshmallow egg carton open on his lap, chest and face covered in chocolate. He saw Jalal and looked up with a look on his face that said, "Oh, no, busted." He quickly swallowed what was left in his mouth and Jalal figured out that he had eated two whole eggs. What have we done? He used to say no to desserts or sweet things. Now he's a monster!

Bowling last night was incredible. We wiped the floor with our opposition. I posted a sad 81, then made up for it with a 153 and then a 178! My personal best! Even more impressive than that was Ceal's final game. The girl whose average is 100 shot a 183! It was so amazing that I was shaking at the end and couldn't sit down. Let's hope that shoots us to the top of the league! Go Gutter Gals!

So I heard about this hysterical blog today from my sister. For those of you who don't really care to read about anybody's kids but mine, this is totally different. It's a guy in Oregon who adopted three baby chicks. He named them Noodle Soup (Noodie), Salad Sandwich (Sally), and Pot Pie (Potty). Every day, he takes model-style pics of the girls, and it is so funny. It's super short, so it won't take long, but you will get such a kick out of it. It's http://3chixaday.blogspot.com/. So that's enough for tonight. I'm going to get on the bike and put in a decent workout. Night-night. Love, Us.

Winnie the Poop

No, that is not a typo. We had our Easter egg hunt (or "Eggstravaganza" as everyone here insists on calling them) at church this morning. It was reall a lot of fun. They had all kinds of crafts for the kids inside before the actual hunt. Quinn decorated a sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles and then ate all the icing and sprinkles before finishing the rest of the cookie. He played with a couple other kids his age, chasing and trying to blow bubbles. He stuck a bunch of foam stickers all over a foam egg. And he tried to collect every single crayon out of the container without actually coloring his picture at all. But by far the funniest thing about the day was when he pointed to one of the nice ladies organizing the event and said "Poop!" Those of you who keep up know that "Poop" isn't our word for potty (that's "Bobby"), but evidently he has picked up on the word "poop" as we'll made (some) potty training progress. No, she was wearing a lovely shirt embroidered with all of the Winnie the Pooh characters. So poor Quinn, in his ever growing vocabulary, has confused Pooh and Poop. It could happen to anyone. Luckily he did choose that moment to use his inside voice, so nobody but me heard it. Saved me from having to tactfully explain that Quinn was not being rude.

Quinn did pretty well collecting Easter eggs, too, along with the other 19-month-olds (there's about 3 other boys his age at church!). Then, after collecting about 5 eggs each, the boys took turns on the slide. At one point, Quinn decided he had so much fun with the Easter egg hunt that he wanted to do it in reverse. So he took the eggs out of his bucket one by one and put them on the ground. Oh, and did I mention his shirt? His shirt says, "The Easter Bunny made me do it." Hah!

After a nap, Quinn helped me decorate our own sugar cookies. No icing, just sprinkles (do I look stupid?). He was very helpful. He would sprinkle some on the cookies (unbaked), then pick them off and eat them. Try as I might, I couldn't get him to focus on decorating alone. I even made sure he had just had a big lunch. Then the plan was to let (help) him put Easter stickers all over the eggs I dyed yesterday. But I couldn't get the stickers to stick, so I just let him move the eggs back and forth from the tupperware to the napkin on the table a few times. He really enjoyed that. I'm not sure he would have enjoyed doing it the right way any more. Well, that's been our Easter festivities so far. I have Quinn's Easter basket all loaded and ready to go for the morning with no candy! I think I'm going to fill a few plastic eggs with some jelly beans tonight, but that will be the extent of it. I'm surprised he isn't bouncing off the walls as it is with the two sugar cookies, sprinkles, and two large jelly beans he has eaten today. Well, I'm going to get going. I skipped Quinn's bath last night so that he would be clean for church tomorrow. In case I can't check in tomorrow, happy Easter everyone! (I really want to watch "The Passion of the Christ" again for this Easter. I probably should have planned ahead and ordered it from Netflix a few days ago. Oh, well, maybe some of you will watch it and remember what Easter is all about. I mean, besides marshmallow eggs and putting bunny ears on innocent little boys.) Love, Us.

Gutter Gals "Strike" Again

Hah! I'm pretty proud of that title. Bowling last night was fun, though for the second week in a row, it was just three of us. We played our friend Bryon's team, which is always a lot of fun. We won two of the three games, but they got more total points, so we didn't move up to first place. Before last night we were in fifth place, which is misleading. The top two teams both had 48 points, and the next three (including us) each had 46, so you could say we were tied for third. If the teams ahead of or tied with us didn't do as well, last night, we'll move up. But Bryon's team was already ahead of us. Anyway, it would be really nice to win and get some money. After all, I have Kenny Chesney tickets to pay for! I didn't do as well as I would have liked, though. I got a 107, 115, and 115. All over my average of 106.

At least it was a night away from the beast. I swear, something has gotten into him. He was a little better yesterday and a lot better today--until Jalal left for work. He won't eat, he is starting to hit (only me, though, hmmmm), he freaks out and throws things when he gets mad, and he bit me yesterday in the grocery store. Is this just the Terrible Twos? I hate blaming this kind of behavior on a phenomenon like that, but none of the other explanations seem to cover everything: teething, getting over a cold, growth spurt, possession (I made that last one up). Well, I guess we'll just keep trying to teach him how to behave properly and hope he doesn't shrink too much before he gets his appetite back. I had better get going so I can get some work done and maybe call my mom before the Biggest Loser comes on. Happy Easter week! Love, Us.

I'm Being Read!

It's late and I need to get to sleep after another long day of cranky baby. I was so close to wringing his little neck today. Thank you God for patience. But I just wanted to say that I have my first (that I know of) reader who is not a personal friend. Crazy! I guess that's a sign that something of our lives is universally appealing (can it be called universal if it's just one person?). Anyway, that lemon cake I made yesterday rocked. No kidding. My husband, who doesn't particularly like sweets at all, at two pieces last night! I stopped at one and had to brush my teeth to get rid of the sugar sheen. Mmmm. Sugar. Well, must go sleep now. Have a lot of work to catch up on tomorrow before I rock the house at bowling. Fingers crossed! Love, Us.

Cough, Cough, Snot

My child is a nightmare today. I don't know what is wrong with him, but if this is the terrible twos, I want out! He's fussy and cranky, won't eat but wants food, throws stuff all over the room, throws a tantrum if I turn off the TV, and can't even enjoy a trip to the playground. I would argue that he's been sick, which he has. I came down with a cold/fever while in Daytona (told you that place is toxic), and he caught it a couple days later. But he was almost 100% percent better yesterday. Basically, he was feverish and had no appetite for three days. Now the fever is gone, the appetite is not back yet, and he's coughing and sneezing and snotty. So I can't really take him out anywhere. We were supposed to go to some Despereaux Easter event at the mall this morning with Maureen and Sarah, but Sarah was up all night getting her canine teeth in, so we were going to go alone. By the time 9:00 rolled around, I said forget it. In the span of two hours, he was such a pain that I did not want to go anywhere with him. Unfortunately, I didn't want to stay here with him either. So he's down for a second nap today, which he usually doesn't do anymore. But I guess he needed it because he has been passed out silently for almost two hours! I took the time to make a cake out of my Kraft Food magazine. It's a lemon cake, and though it doesn't look as nice as the picture, I'm hoping it tastes good. I tried to make it this morning but realized we didn't have any round cake pans. Who the heck doesn't have round cake pans? When I called Jalal, he said, "Well, I don't bake, so I guess it's possible." So I went to Ross and got two round cake pans for $3.50. I also got a Dr. Suess video for Quinn (I never thought I would be so sick of Veggietales) and a cute tank top for him. I also made dinner already, though Jalal won't be home for another two hours. I plan to have Quinn fed and bathed and ready for bed by the time Jalal gets home from work. We are trying to spend more time together.
Yesterday was our anniversary (four years married and almost ten together!), and it was very nice. He sent me flowers (though he said the arrangement looked nothing like the one he ordered online), and I got a babysitter and took him to dinner. We went to City Range, one of our favorite nicer restaurants, and had prime rib. Mmmm. Then we saw Duplicity, the new movie with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen or Owen Clive or some British guy. It was fun because it had an unexpected ending, not something that happens often nowadays in my opinion.
For those of you who are still waiting to hear how Daytona went, it was crummy. I mean, it was great to see Trish (why can't she live next door for crying out loud!) and Mom, and we got to have a little picnic with my aunt and uncles, Nani (my grandmother), and two of my cousins, along with my cousin's baby, Caden, who seriously vies for my vote as cutest boy ever (okay, maybe cutest blond boy ever). But the house, the reason we went down there and spent hundreds of dollars at an inconvenient time, that was not good. Not good at all. Let's just say that I will not be going back there. Mom needs to put her big-girl panties on and deal with it. I am not a cleaning service! There, that's enough of that.
This morning, one of the things I did accomplish (or rather, my friends accomplished) was getting tickets to see Kenny Chesney next month. He's going to be here with Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert, and though they aren't my favorite country performers, we scored fantastic seats and I know we're going to have a blast. All the girls from my bowling team will be there. And after last week's bowling performance, we deserve it! Ceal and Alissa both had to pre-bowl, but we ended up winning all eight of our points. That should move us up in the standings next week!
Well, the beast stirs, so I'm going to take a deep breath, another shot (just kidding), and go get him. Pray he's in a better mood. And we're still praying for Stellan, who's been in the hospital for 13 days now. He's doing better but he's still a long way from healed. More soon. Love, Us.