A Real Monday of a Day

I read a clever anecdote recently about a retiree talking to a stay-at-home mom. The retiree said, "Yeah, everyday is a Saturday...I guess that's kind of like your life" to which the stay-at-home mom replied, "No for me, everyday is a Monday." and while I enjoy staying at home with Caleb, I have to agree, that being a mommy is an exhausting sort of work that never seems to have a weekend. But today was a real Monday and on top of that it was very Monday-ish.

It started last night when Rob announced he was going to bed at 9:30 - I should have known then that it would be a long night. Rob never goes to bed at a time even remotely close to 9:30 - if he goes to bed by 11:30, I'd say he was going to bed early. Of course, he was sick. And the worst kind of sick. I can handle all sorts of grossness, but vomit is where I draw the line. He was up almost all night, so I was up almost all night, fortunately Caleb slept all night peacefully.

When Caleb woke up at his usual 6:30, that was it for me. It was time for breakfast. Caleb's last molar is stalling and giving him grief, so we spent the morning dealing with that until we had to leave for an appointment with my midwife. It was a quickie, just a blood test, so I figured we'd be out of there in record time, but I ran an errand for Rob on the way, showed up late, couldn't find parking, and discovered that everyone thinks your baby is cute...until they have to press into an elevator wall to make room for your stroller.

Of course, a midwife's office occassionally has emergencies, so it took a little longer than normal for quickie bloodwork, so by the time we left, I had expected to have been home long ago, I was about to pass out from hunger, so we went to McDonalds. I figured I could share chicken nuggets with Caleb pretty easily. He ate 2/3s of 1 chicken nugget and 2 tablespoons of ketchup (by sucking it off of 3 french fries.) Oh well...

Well he also ate a banana in the midwife's office.

So we headed home and I guess that combination of foods didn't work for him because he threw up all over himself and the carseat while we were on the turnpike. I have heard a lot of talk about carseat manufacturers testing their carseats for highway safety, but I have yet to see the test for removing the cover while it is covered in stomach acid and undigested french fries. It actually required that I remove 4 screws from the back to take the cover off. I like our carseat - I do not like this feature particularly.

Home again and since it took so long to the get the midwife's office this morning, Caleb slept in the car and was in no mood for a nap (he actually acted like he felt fabulous, quite a contrast from Rob.) Except for the lack of a nap, once all the affected clothes and car seat parts were cleaned up, it seems that calm has rejoined us for a little while.

A Riddle for my Friends

Metaphors (by Sylvia Plath)

I'm a riddle in nine syllables.
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.

A Pre-Disney Experience

We've been in Orlando since Saturday for the National Religious Broadcasters convention. Well, Rob went to the convention, Caleb and I have been checking out all the non-Disney, non-Sea World, non-Wet & Wild, non-Universal Studio, non-admission charging things to do in Orlando. This has been a good trip - I'm definately getting an idea of how Caleb will react to days full of Walt Disney. (By the way, Lori - there were some characters in the convention expo hall for some Bible videos and they came up to Caleb and he seemed interested at first, but when they got to close, he lost it...)

Yesterday we checked out the extremely nice city park around Lake Eola. It was recommended to me by a friend from the U of A who lived in Orlando for a few years, then moved back to Arkansas. It had a super toddler playground and SWAN BOATS! Which I do not have pictures of :( It also had two of Caleb's favorite things - ducks and dogs - Caleb was in Heaven.

Today we visited the Henry P. Leu Botanical Gardens. There's actually a charge there, but while researching online I discovered that Monday mornings, it's free! And it was absolutely beautiful.


Although they did have a section with the usual palm trees and bamboo, the real heart of the garden was a large area of roses. I showed Caleb how to smell the roses, which he did...right before reaching out to grab the petals.

Our whole trip has been very nice. I feel like I've successfully navigated my way around Orlando (minus the parts where Disney World is actually located) and Caleb has charmed every person he's met - especially when we were at the convention - there was a serious baby shortage there. Still I'm glad to be going home tomorrow - Caleb has had some diaper "issues" that I'd rather not deal with in resturants (he's been completely naked at two very nice resturants now). And...it's been so cold! In the 40s and 50s, which I know seems like summer to anyone, well, anywhere except Florida. I've been pulling my jacket close around me watching aghast as the British tourists swim at our hotel.

The Orange County Convention Center is just enormous, it's like an airport where they enclosed all the runways. They had about 10 different conventions going on at the same time. One was the Megacon convention - it's some kind of comic book/I don't know what convention. They were all dressed as characters from comic books, cartoons, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. There were several storm troopers and a lot of them were carrying fake weapons...at least I hope they were fake.

The Danger Lurking in my Pantry

2111 - those numbers sealed the fate of my newly purchased peanut butter this morning. I'm normally a Skippy girl myself, but I couldn't pass up buy one/get one free Peter Pan Peanut Butter at Publix yesterday...only to learn today that it's serial numbers put it in a group potentially laced with salmonella. Yipee.

They said on the radio that this batch of peanut butter (any Peter Pan or Great Value with serial number starting 2111) has been out since May of last year! Check your pantries!

I am not all that picky about my peanut butter brands, but I highly recommend the Skippy Natural Peanut Butter. I think natural peanut butter tastes much more peanutty, but the drawback is that it is usually oily and has to be stirred before spreading, but the Skippy Natural does not. I don't know how they pull this off because there are no hydrogenated oils in Skippy Natural - making it trans-fat free. It is yummy.

Rob's New England Adventures

Rob had to go to Cape Cod on radio business earlier this week. He said they have more Dunkin Donut shops than anywhere else. (This is his *authentic* Boston creme donut that he actually bought at the Boston airport.) He was only gone one night, but I kept hearing that Reba McEntire song in my head, "When whoever's in New England's through with you...and Boston finds better things to doooooooo..." Anyway. He also saw some honest to goodness (frozen) cranberry bogs. I'm impressed!

As impressive as stuffed donuts and pools of floating frozen cranberries can be, these pictures are really what I wanted to share. He took them with his phone (hence the quality). This is Gate B32 at Boston Logan Int'l Airport. It's where one of the flights that hit the World Trade Center took off from. I think it's sobering to see the waiting area and know what happened there. Rob's plane took off from Gate B33.

This shows the American flag posted at the end of the bridge of Gate B32. There's also another American flag in the airport between Gates B32 and B33 - Rob said there wasn't room nearer 32.
The farther we get in time from 9/11 the less real it seems, and it was a scary day even here - so far from where it all happened. I guess having someone I love so much so close to where it all started is a helpful reminder that it really did happen and we should not forget that.

Love is Blind

We ate rice the other night and Caleb LOVES rice, and of course, being not quite 1 1/2 years old he got it everywhere! Rob insisted I take his picture with rice sticking to his face, so the smile in this picture was technically an accident, but oh, my mother-heart, what a beautiful smile! I saw none of the rice, just the beautiful friendly smile of my sweet boy.

Over the weekend I emailed this same picture to my mother and she commented on something I completely overlooked. This is like one of those seek and find pictures in Highlights magazine, do you see anything, um, unsanitary about this picture?


I'm sure you've found it, but just in case, here's some help:



And a close up.



The funny thing is, in the same email I sent, I mentioned how Caleb seemed to be dropping less food, so Mako was getting less scraps. I guess we have a very pro-active dog!

*****

On a totally random and unrelated note - does anyone know where you can get those cherry red heart lollipops that were soooooooooooooooo delicious? I think they had Mickey Mouse on the wrapper. I wanted to get some for Awana's (since it's on Valentine's Day), but Target really let me down. I told Caleb that if they have stopped making them it is really sad thing for his generation.