mamajoan

Ruthie is back from an extended 2-day, 2-night sleepover/play date with her cousin Baz. Thanks sandykidd for keeping her fed and alive and such. ;) She was happy to snuggle with me at bedtime and then sacked out like whoa.

Isaac and I enjoyed the quiet time without her ;) and took the opportunity to watch some stuff she wouldn't want to watch, namely an episode of Buffy the first night and Sharknado 2 the second night. (We watched the first Sharknado last week and Ruthie hated it. To be honest, so did I, but Isaac was eager to see the sequel...man those movies are so unbelievably awful!) We even slept late these past two mornings, as it turns out that getting ready to go takes a lot less time with just the two of us. At one point I said, "you gotta admit, it's nice to do it this way once in a while for a change, but it would be so boring if there were no Ruthie in our life at all." Isaac grudgingly admitted this, and said to his sister, "Ruthie, you're annoying, but things would be more boring without you around." High fraternal praise indeed. ;)

Okay! Okay! After two dozen posts on my flist about it, I get the hint that this Dr. Horrible thing is, you know, maybe kind of a little bit cool and maybe I should think about checking it out. So the kids and I watched the first two parts.

I'll say more later (like when I don't have two kids yanking on my arms) but for now, just this: All you johnny-come-latelies who aren't watching "How I Met Your Mother" and are just now discovering that Neil Patrick Harris is teh awesome? I laugh in your general direction. I got on that train like two years ago. If the man weren't gay I'd quite possibly be stalking him (yeah, in my copious free time...).

Anyway, and for those who were surprised that he can sing? You must check out this YouTube video immediately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXsJjVdj1E

You're welcome.

I know I need to post about the Children's Museum trip today (capsule summary: way fun but we stayed SO LONG OMG and got home way past naptime and yikes) and other stuff, but it's late and I'm tired.

I gotta say though -- I found my camera!! *whew* I know that doesn't mean much to you but believe me, I was really freaking out not being able to find it. In the end it was in my backpack even though I had looked there four times and not found it. Whatevs! It turned up and that's what matters.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I'm planning to meet up with a fellow SMC (single mom by choice) who recently posted about feeling lonely and isolated as a SMC with a baby. So I felt I should reach out to her, especially since she had emailed me a while back (when she noticed that we were both on the SMC list and also the SomervilleMoms list) and I didn't reply back then because I suck. So after her lonely post, I emailed her and apologized for not having written sooner and invited her to hang out with us on Mother's Day. So that's the plan for tomorrow. Also I gotta bake bread and hopefully get some laundry in. Here's hoping Ruthie sleeps well, because she only had a short nap today and she is soooooo cranky and clingy when she doesn't get enough sleep. On the plus side it's supposed to be good weather tomorrow and a playground trip is always popular.

In other news of randomosity, I finally got caught up on "How I Met Your Mother" and may I just say, ( spoilery? for the ep like three eps ago? ) lol, this show rules.

ok, time for chocolate and bed. in that order.

Hmm, let's see, what's new?

I am taking off all day tomorrow to go visit three schools for Isaac. I have an appointment for the 9:30 tour at one of them, and can do the others "free-form." I also have an appointment in the afternoon to meet with a doctor who may become our new pediatrician. Ruthie's constipation issues last week have motivated me to get off my ass and try to find a new doctor, especially since it's only two months until Ruthie will be 2 (!) and will need a checkup and so forth.

Also ( a digression about Isaac, school application, lead tests, and my ongoing dissatisfaction with our current pediatrician )

Anyway. So wish me luck tomorrow with the schools and the doctor.

In reading news, I finally finished Misfortune by Wesley Stace. It was a very odd book. It starts off with a baby being abandoned and left for dead, and then discovered by an eccentric rich man who decides to take the baby home and raise it as his daughter. Just one slight problem -- he neglects to actually look between the baby's legs before declaring it his daughter and giving it a feminine name. Oops. Well, you can sort of foresee the type of hijinks that ensue. The beginning seemed promising, but ultimately it didn't work out for me. There's a big plot twist near the end that I totally saw coming and found rather disappointing, plus the book ends with one of those "jump forward in time several decades and tell us where all the characters ended up" devices, which I think is fairly lame. I've rarely seen that kind of thing done well. Anyway, so overall not the greatest book but I'm still glad that I finished it at last. And now I'm about halfway through Carnival by Elizabeth Bear, which I also am not terribly much enjoying but am finally (now, at halfway through!) starting to give a crap about the characters. So I guess that's good? Am I just cranky these days or what? ;)

( misc stuff about the kids, including some cute things Ruthie has been saying )

Also, I can't get over how awesome my new camera is. I love the fact that it's small enough to carry in my pocket, and that it starts up so fast; both of which together mean that I'm experiencing a drastic reduction in the number of missed photo-ops. ;) Where it used to be "oh crap they're doing something cute, where's the camera, quick, run and grab it without disturbing them from the game, turn it on, wait wait wait while it starts up, okay ready...dammit, they're doing something else now :(" now it's "ooh they're doing something cute! pull out camera, turn it on, shoot!" :) Of course, it's not like I've had any time to upload any of those pix, alas, but ah well -- they're there for whenever I get to them. ;)

My mom brought Bastian over the other night and we all had pizza together before she returned him to his rightful home, so I took some pix of Ruthie and Baz interacting, but unfortunately I didn't realize that I had the camera on manual instead of auto, so they all came out blurry. :( Gotta keep an eye on that! It was fun though. Ruthie didn't mind Bastian sitting in her high chair to eat pizza, or playing with "her" (i.e., Isaac's) trains. She got a little wary when he came near her while she was sitting in her special chair (which is also actually Isaac's, LOL, but he's too big for it now) but it was okay. While Baz was in Ruthie's chair she stood next to it saying "Hi Baz!" repeatedly, LOL. And when grandma and Baz were ready to go, both Isaac and Ruthie gave Baz hugs, which was adorable. Baz seemed pretty confused by it all, LOL. He didn't say very much, although I understand that when he's at home he chatters nonstop just like Ruthie does. He did come out with a few babble-sentences that were completely incomprehensible to me but that I'm sure sandykidd would have understood perfectly, heh.

OK, I think that's long enough for one post, don't you?

I had a "lightbulb moment" recently in which I realized why Chris Kimball, of Cook's Illustrated magazine and America's Test Kitchen, looks so familiar. It's because he is the nameless main character in Green Eggs and Ham.

OK, probably I am the only person on the planet to whom this means anything, but lemme tell ya, it was a revelation.

Washing machine is working but dryer still out of commission, status unknown. Just did a "desperation load" of whites, now hanging on drying rack in bathtub. Given today is very humid, don't know how many eons they will take to dry.

Chiropractor says that I have lost weight in just the few (3?) weeks she has known me. Possible. Scale says at least a few pounds under my prepregnancy weight. Still on the chubby side though.

Went grocery shopping with baby today after chiro appt. Nursed baby while walking the aisles. Probably undid all of chiro's good work. Scored a 6-pack of Ensure for free because it didn't ring up at the price displayed on shelf (last week's sale price sticker had not been removed). Go ahead, mock me for drinking Ensure. So sue me, it tastes good and provides quick calories + some nutrition.

Am building freezer stock of breastmilk. Already have something like 30 ounces, which is about 28 ounces more than had w/Isaac when started back to work.

Not ready to go back to work. Do not anticipate being ready in 4 weeks (actual return timeframe).

All caught up on "Top Chef" except for finale. Begging everyone not to spoil me.

Need babysitter for Red Sox game next Tues.

Had odyssey yesterday w/Isaac on bus and subway. Failed to end odyssey with purchase of bagels. Long story, v. sad.

Drowning in bills.

More later.

1. As of last week, Ruth and Isaac have a third cousin once removed! Baby Alexandra was born last Thursday, I believe, and I have calculated that she is my third cousin so she's third cousin once removed to my kids. Her grandmother is our Cousin Ellie (first cousin of my late grandpa) who is a lovely lady and I am sure completely delirious with delight over finally being a grandmother. Anyway, welcome to the world Cousin Alexandra.

2. My mom bought me a bunch of different frozen food items from Trader Joe's to try, the idea being to stock up on things that are quick and easy to prepare. One of them was Artichoke Risotto, which btw is quite tasty, but the preparation instructions stymied me at first:
Heat 1 or 2 tablespoons of water or oil on High for 5-6 minutes stirring occasionally.
Maybe I'm just overly literal, but dammit, it doesn't actually say to add the contents of the package!! WTF!! And yes, you can laugh, but this really did confuse the crap out of me at first. Hey, YOU try deciphering that with a brain addled from sleep deprivation, hunger, and hormones.

Anyway, my mom decided that it was just missing one word ("with" after "Heat") and prepared it accordingly, and it was fine. But I'm still laughing about it, and wondering whether I should write them a helpful letter. Meanwhile, last night I made a different item (Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli) and noticed that the instructions said something like "bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, boil for 7 minutes, drain and serve" and that gave me no trouble, even though it also doesn't specifically say to add the ravioli. Silly instruction-writing people.

3. Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, next Tuesday! Anyone want to join me in an excursion to Harvard Square? :) I loooove Free Cone Day. It's one of my favorite days of the year. :D

4. In related news, just now the ice-cream truck drove down my street. It MUST be spring! woohoo!

5. There is a strange chick in my mirror. She looks vaguely familiar, but her belly is way too small, and she has HUGE tracts of land, if you know what I mean. And if you don't, you uncultured philistine, I'm talking about boobs. Breasts, mammaries, bazongas, hooters. That beeyotch in the mirror has a serious rack. I wonder who the heck she is.

6. Isaac has almost mastered putting on his socks -- just in time for sandals weather to begin. LOL. It's Murphy's Law for toddlers.

7. Am I the only one who caught Alexis Denisof on "How I Met Your Mother" last week, playing a sleazy newscaster with a bland American accent that gave me a serious double-take? yow! How the mighty have fallen. ;)

8. Congratulations to hardcorewife and husband on the birth of their new daughter!

LOL, so the TiVo decided on its own to record an episode of "Thomas the Tank Engine," a very popular kids' show about trains. I saw it on the listing and thought, what the hell, let's check this out. Isaac, as I've probably mentioned, pretty much never watches TV. Hasn't shown any interest at all until very recently, and even then it's usually fleeting.

Well, he was SO excited by the opening sequence of "Thomas." Of course it showed a whole lot of trains going along tracks and over bridges and into tunnels and so forth, and each time, he screamed "There's another one!" while bouncing up and down and like vibrating with excitement. LOL!!!! Then there was an actual story, of which he had NO interest in the plot -- he just wanted to see the trains and say "what's that train doing?" over and over.

It's on the second story now (I gather each episode consists of several short vignettes) and he's still riveted. I can hear him in there talking back to the TV. I got up and left the room and he barely even noticed.

Okay, so I hadn't really wanted to turn my kid into a couch potato, but well, so far it's just cute and hilarious. Feel free to mock me and point out how utterly my own fault this is, if I come back in a day/week/month complaining about how all Isaac wants to do is watch Thomas.... ;)

Animaniacs coming to DVD next year! And a separate disc/set of Pinky & the Brain!!!!! woohoo!!!!! Thanks lunaris_ for the linky! :)

This morning my mom had to take Nomar (one of her cats) to the vet for a checkup, so instead of her coming here to get Isaac, I brought him to her house. I explained to Isaac several times that Nomar kitty was going to ride in gramma's car with him, but I don't think he understood. ;) When we got there and he saw Nomar in the cat carrier, he was very interested. He kept peeking through the little windows and yelling, "There he is!" LOL. He barely even noticed when I drove away. I have to call my mom in a little bit and find out how the vet visit went. Isaac at the vet ... I can't even quite imagine. *g*

Then since I was in the car anyway, I popped over to the pet store to pick up some more food for Bini, as he eats Science Diet which you can't get at the grocery. The pet store is right next to the mall so I popped in there to return the Old Navy pants and sweater that I got for Isaac that were too big. The pants I exchanged for the same thing in the right size, but they didn't have that sweater in the right size, so I got a credit for it. And then of course *blush* I bought a whole bunch more stuff, using up not just the credit from the return, but also another $20 of my money. Damn you, Old Navy!!! Damn you and your super-soft, super-cute, not really all that expensive toddler clothing!!! Or as a wise man once put it, you go to hell and you die! LOL...

Then on the way out, I had to go into Brookstone (which I know as "the really expensive stuff you don't need store") and sit in their massage chair for a while. I always want to, but it's usually occupied when I'm at the mall, because I usually go at a busy time. Turns out, though, surprisingly enough ;) that the mall isn't all that busy at 10am, so no one was in the chair. OMG!!!! That thing is unbelievable. The control panel is more complicated than my car's dashboard! It does legs and arms as well as back, and has a zillion different settings and controls, with five preset programs and the ability to set and memorize your own programs. It REALLY feels like real hands kneading you! It rules. And I noticed that it didn't have a price tag on it. Clearly it's one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" things.

Man, when I win the lottery, there's going to be one of those in every room of my mansion. ;) And everyone I know is getting one too. Yes, this means you! :)