All My Children

The little one is fine. She’s getting cuter every day. But the eat, poop, sleep routine is not were the action is. If you want real drama you go to the 4th grade!

Kyle’s classroom should be located in 90210!

Here is how it all went down: Cole was going out with Marina (I mean really, could you get more soap opera-y?!). But then one of Marina’s friends told Kyle that Marina liked him. So Cole asked Marina if she wanted to break-up and she said no. Kyle told Cole that he wasn’t interested and was staying out of it while they tried to work things out. Well it seems that their love had run its course so Cole dared Kyle to ask Marina out. And he did. Now Kyle and Marina are going out*. Kyle assured me that things between him and Cole are fine. Although Wyatt has turned into a lousy friend since Charisse broke up with him. According to Kyle he’s changed. Well that’s what a broken heart will do to ya right?

Upon hearing all this, I immediately pulled out Kyle’s class picture to check out the legendary Marina. She’s cute. And then last Thursday night at the open house/band concert we saw her! Though there was disappointingly little interaction between her and Kyle that we witnessed. Kyle was playing it cool in front of the ‘rents. Of course we are teasing him about this. Not too much. But enough to keep us entertained.

But all this was last week. Who knows what today will bring. Will Kyle and Marina still be together? Has Cole come to regret his decision to let her go? Will Wyatt get over his heartbreak or has young love scarred him forever?

Man, I’ve never been so anxious for Kyle to get home from school before!

* This apparently means hanging out together at school. I couldn’t get confirmation or denial on the kissing part. I think Kyle mentioned a cheek. I was the one singing about sitting in a tree…

Stay tuned... HA!

Oh, it’s a look all right

And we have not yet begun to embarrass you little girl. Or ourselves.
Or each other as the case may be.

Exhibit A:

And yes there is an explanation for this. Or at least I can tell you how this fashion statement came to be. It all started last year when Chris got this free blue camo baseball cap and a t-shirt (a disappointing solid navy) from a free-diving magazine. Then early this year we ran across this SkipHop diaper bag that came in blue camo. Now this was a diaper bag a man wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen carrying. At least not my man. So I bought it for him. He was already quite pleased with his matching hat and bag, but then I saw this blue camo onsie for $3.99. Oh there was no way that I was not going to buy this for him. It even had matching booties! And Chris was happy. I would catch him giggling to himself with gleeful satisfaction, just waiting for the day he could spring this daddy/daughter abomination on the world!

And that fateful day was Wednesday May 16th. The day Chris took Erin to her first dive club meeting.

“This guy is nuts”

“Hey lady, why don’t you put down that camera and help me?!”

"I am not a boy"

Next week, I’m going to dress the baby in black! Mommy-style.

Q: Where am I? What is this strange place?

A: The kitchen!

Oh dear. Is this some uncommon side-effect of postpartum depression? Has being at home the past 2 months finally pushed me over the edge? This is not normal behavior. Clearly this is a cry for help!

I’ve been in the kitchen for the past 2+ hours!

And just what have I been doing all afternoon? Prepping for tonight’s dinner! Which doesn’t involve the microwave, defrosting or the telephone. Something is definitely wrong with me.

It all started on Monday when I looked through a couple cookbooks, picked out a few recipes that didn’t look to daunting and added what I was missing to the grocery list. I should have known then that I was headed down a slippery slope.

Tonight I am going to make Pecan-encrusted Chicken. That’s right, I chopped pecans. And parsley. But here is the really sick part – the recipe called for fresh breadcrumbs. I have a container of breadcrumbs in the cupboard. And I didn’t use them. No I did not. I made toast. And then I crumbled that toast into little breadcrumby pieces. Yup, I made fresh breadcrumbs. (FYI, 3 pieces of toast yields 1-½ cups of breadcrumbs)

Who the hell am I?!

And since I was already in the kitchen, I figured I would prep the veggies for the side dish. Now, this was not part of the original try a couple recipes plan. Julie (my own Bad Home Cooking Kitchen Goddess) posted a recipe for Vegetable Couscous on Tuesday that she claims is a ‘sure thing’. And who doesn’t love a sure thing? Or couscous? I even had some in the pantry. In fact I had all the ingredients but the onion and zucchinis. And since I was going to the store again anyways, I figured I would give it a try. I’m clearly easily influenced in this unstable state.

So now I have my pecan-encrusted chicken chillin’ in the fridge. My vegetables are chopped, spices mixed and chickpeas rinsed and drained. When Chris gets home, all I’ll have to do is throw the chicken in the oven, cook the veggies and couscous and it’ll be Miller-time (except without the bad beer).

See?! I’m obviously sick. What’s next? Home-made cupcakes for Kyle’s class?
Oh crap – I already did that.

Promise me that if you see me in the grocery store with pearls around my neck and anything other than Crocs on my feet, you’ll ram me with your cart and drag me to the pharmacy for an emergency dose of some ‘Mother’s Little Helper’. Or Thorazine if the shoes have heels!!!

Last call!

Oh glorious day, the baby only woke up once last night! We fed her at 8:30pm and went to bed an hour later. Erin woke up at 2:00am* and then slept until 6:00am! Now that I can handle. What wasn’t so nice was Kyle knocking over my one and only cup of coffee! Luckily I was up and ready early enough to make a coffee stop before dropping Kyle off at school. So put those worry beads down, I’m caffeinated and ok.

I have to pack again today for Santa Cruz (I know, life is rough) but this time I’m not stressin’ it. Most of the stuff we need is either still in the bags or close by and ready to go. Now that we know what to bring and how to pack it – no worries – I only need to do a couple small loads of laundry and run the dishwasher. And this time I only have to over-pack for two! In fact, I just gave the Bean her bath and already have her clothes picked out.

Since Erin’s umbilical cord stump fell off last Sunday, we’ve been avoiding the onsies and dressing her in a t-shirt only to let her creeps-me-out belly button heal. This morning I put her in her first dress. Yes, I’ve gone all pink and girly. Don’t judge me.

I’m also going to try and get over to REI this afternoon. I have a 20% off coupon that expires this weekend and a need for shoes. Now before you go making any ‘what a girl- always buying shoes and bags’ assumptions, my Tevas broke last week while taking the baby for a walk. I am not happy. This was my second pair of Tevas that have broken in the exact same spot! Both pairs just over a year old! And I am not hard on my sandals. I walk in them. And since I am a girl and have shoe options, they aren’t the only pair I wear (unlike Chris who has had the same pair of Tevas since I met him and wore them continuously until the croc purchase of ’06! Again- don’t judge.) So, I’m gonna try on some Chacos. Tevas are dead to me.

Hopefully I’ll find a sandal replacement at REI and won’t have to spend all my Santa Cruz shopping time in the shoe stores. Danger Will Robinson Danger.


*For whatever twisted reason, when I looked at the clock and saw it was 2am, I imagined a large black woman stomping around in the baby’s head shouting “Last call!”

Travel tip for new parents

Get a vehicle that is big enough for all your crap! And I’m not talking about a mini-van. See that word there in front? Mini? Well, that is not gonna cut it. You need a real van. A man’s van! Like this:


Yes, our maiden voyage to Santa Cruz in the van with the baby was a complete success. We packed everything (except the bathtub) not knowing what we would end up needing but having the room for all of it. And we ended up using everything we brought. Although I did over-pack the clothes for the baby (and me and Kyle if you want the whole truth) – but that’s just how I pack – always too much but covering every clothing possibility. This weekend I’ll leave all the extra shoes at home. Of course that will be the one time I need a different pair of shoes! I’m all over that Murphy and his law.

But lets get back to singing the praises of the man’s van. So, not only were we able to pack all the stuff for the baby, we had plenty of room for 3 duffle bags, all of Chris’ dive gear and guns, plus the pillows, a pile of jackets, Kyle’s Game Cube container and then some. All of this was behind the 3rd row bench seat. I'm sure there was room for more but Chris doesn't want to encourage me! And I will admit that it was nice to be able to climb back to the bench seat and sit next to the bean and feed her as we cruised down the highway. Oh yes, Chris is mighty pleased with himself! Good thing there is plenty of headroom.

And the baby had her first trip to the beach. She snoozed the whole time in her little pop-up shade tent. Kyle got his surfing fix. I took some pictures – and they weren’t all of Erin! My favorite car was still parked outside the condos:


So was this nice old Ford. The roof was rusted but the body was in great shape:


It wasn’t until I passed it the second day that I noticed the little red Dorothy shoes hanging from the rear-view mirror of this roached out Isuzu:


But I did manage to take a few pictures of Erin. As predicted, this is how that baby spent the majority of the weekend:


And since Chris didn’t get to do any diving last weekend, we are going back down this weekend. Kyle will be at his dad’s so we’ll have a bit more free time. Chris can go spearfishing on Saturday and I’ll get in an afternoon of shopping with Grandma and Erin. Sounds good to me. I need a new pair of shoes!

The Bean Giveth and the Bean Taketh Away…

Wow, Erin is 3 weeks old today. How the hell did that happen?!
Today is Friday correct?

Erin is a joy. Although a little more sleep would be nice. 2 nights ago, she slept from around 8pm to 2am – a 5 hour run! It felt sooo good. But then she went and ruined it by not going back to sleep and fussing for the next 2+ hours. Not good. Chris and I were dog-sh*t all day yesterday.

Last night she did the 8:30 to 2:30 5 hour run again. Nice. But this time she went back to sleep and didn’t wake up again until 5:30am. Now that’s how to do it baby! So, I’m feeling pretty good this morning. Good thing too since I’ve got a lot of packing to do today for Santa Cruz.

I’ve actually been really busy this whole week. I’ve been working on all the financial stuff to get our health benefits and flex spending accounts updated. Research, claim forms, math. So not fun for me. But I think we’ve got that all squared away now.

And the last 2 days I’ve had to go into the office for a couple hours to train my temporary replacement, the lovely Sharon. And only 2 months after I started my maternity leave! So of course there was a huge stack of expense reports that hadn’t been processed. Looks like I really am a ‘vital cog’ – at least to our sales guys and their Amex bills!

My neck, shoulders and back are all jacked up from lugging the baby around in her car seat – I think I’ll add ‘Schedule a massage’ to my to-do list!

What’s left?
I need to call around to local daycares to get the going rates.
More laundry.
A shower. (Hey, I’m not doing to bad today – I actually ate breakfast before 10:30!)

My life summed up in a picture: