Phew...one major holiday down!

When I go back years from now to look through these pages and reminisce about Noah's early years I hope I can give myself some credit about the amount of effort I put into these pages and the amount of time and love I dedicated to documenting our lives at this time. With that in mind, I hope I can also give myself a break for missing a week or two here and there when living my life was more important than documenting it for posterity!

So, I am partially remiss in the fact that there is no weekly update from last week. It was an insanely short week last week, which was jam packed full of Christmas decorating, packing for Thanksgiving and getting things in line for the madness that is Christmas shopping and Noah birthday planning. Suffice it to say that the previous week, if I remember correctly was fairly uneventful. So, I have decided to summarize it in pictures! :)

Mr. Noah has continued to enjoy playing and as long as he is well rested, he can be the happiest baby I have ever met.


In monumental news, he did FINALLY cut his second top front tooth, which brings the tooth total to 4. Mommy and Daddy are now breathing a sigh of relief since the night time bottles and random mid-night wake ups seemed to have disappeared as soon as the tooth popped through! Please let this trend continue.

Noah is getting agonizingly close to walking. He stands unsupported frequently, and for increasingly lengthy periods of time, and he has finally let go and allowed us to assist him in walking around the house holding his hands for him for balance. Once the child gains a little more self-confidence, he'll be off and running...we'll keep you posted but learning from waiting for that second top tooth, we aren't holding our breath! Here he is wearing the sweater Memere B. knitted for him...this is a feat of some proportions given that she had to take apart the neck a month back or so and redo it with buttons since the first attempt wouldn't fit over his big noggin!

Noah no longer sits still when he is awake...if he is up from a nap, then who ever is on duty is running a marathon to keep up with him. Getting this picture of him sitting on his bench took FOREVER and about 16 tries of me sitting him back down as he had already taken off for the hills before we could snap the picture. Wish us luck in getting a good shot of him by the Christmas tree for the holiday cards!


Noah still enjoys emptying the toy basket and getting inside...its a game that will apparently never get old! :)


As I mentioned, we did get the Christmas tree put up. None of the other decorations are out yet, but, its a work in progress. Noah is not a big fan of Santa hats, in order to get this picture, I had the camera ready to go and the button half pressed down and Tim put the hat on and we took the picture. If you look, he already has a hand up to remove the hat from his head! Oh well, I guess Noah won't be playing Santa and passing out the gifts on Christmas morning.


Speaking of the tree and decorations, Noah is a huge fan of them. He admires the tree all the time, and escapes the living room on an hourly basis to go visit it.


He did manage to succeed in making off with the ornament he is playing with here, but not before tasting it, to make sure it was worth the effort!


Towards the beginning of Thanksgiving week, we started getting some of Noah's birthday and Christmas presents in the mail, which of course arrived in enormous boxes. One of said boxes has now been repurposed as a Noah house, which he absolutely couldn't be more excited about...pretty adorable!

Scary times people, scary times

So a bit of an update on the job market front now that I am back from giving my first talk at a national conference. That's right! I finally did it, I gave a talk at a professional meeting and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be at all. Of course I was massively prepared and it was a smaller group and the last day of the conference so a lot of people had gone home already to prepare for the upcoming holiday, but in any case I gave my talk, answered the questions appropriately, and didn't make an idiot of myself! I even managed to not panic about flying down and back to D.C. in one day. I got a bit nervous when the shuttle got stuck in a bit of traffic and ended up only having about an hour to change into my dress clothes, eat a light lunch, and pump before finding the conference room. Everything worked out really well though, and the best part is that it is DONE!

On to now more pressing information...the job market. It is bleak! I was perhaps naively under the impression that academia was immune to this whole economic crisis that we keep hearing about, but apparently I was sadly mistaken! As I have already posted, I got an anticipated rejection letter from Smith College, and in a new development, I got an interested phone call from Salem State looking have an informal phone interview before continuing with the remainder of the interview process. After hearing more about the department, like I would be expected to teach 4 classes each and every semester, I would have no dedicated research space, and would be expected to get external funding if I wanted to have any sort of research program at all (when I would find time to write grants while teaching 8 courses a year confuses me a bit), I decided it would be in my best interests to pass on the position. Basically, I was too far away from what type of position I was hoping to get. Say I actually did get offered the job, I don't think I would have taken it anyway, I definitely want to still be able to research. Even if the department can't give me money to do the research itself, a place to conduct the studies and enough non-teaching time to work on the project is really a basic need.

SOOO, that is 2 position down, plus I got a letter from Quinnipiac University today in CT. They have had to put a hiring freeze university-wide due to the tightening economic situation. I have also seen and heard rumors that UMass Amherst has done the same thing and reliable sources have indicated that UMass Boston has already contacted candidates on their short list for interviews. Given that I haven't heard anything, I am not optimistic. That is now potentially 5 schools off the list...granted 3 of the 5 were probably schools that wouldn't have been the best fit for me anyway, but it is starting to make be a bit nervous. I am holding off on the panic until I hear negative news from Williams and/or the University of New England. But can we all collectively pray to the job search gods that I hear some good news soon from a school that would be a good fit for me????

Thank you and Amen! :)

Too much excitement for one morning!

So, I knew there were difficulties in working with an older adult population, but given the fact that my research is aimed at the "normal healthy aging" population, I figured the odds of having an emergency were slim to none. I was apparently wrong! One of the grad students in the lab was testing an older man this morning on a non-stressful memory type of task. Immediately after completing the practice run, the man became unresponsive, was swallowing hard, and remained that way for about 3 minutes! This is NOT NORMAL. The poor grad student didn't call for help down the hall, but was with it enough to get on the phone and call 911. Long story short, the man came to and didn't realize anything had happened. He had ridden his bike in from Jamaica Plain, which is about a 30 minute ride, the Boston EMTs couldn't find the building, so one of the nurses at the student health center came over, the BC police and EMT finally made it in to examine the poor guy who by this point is totally with it and apologizing for causing a scene. Eventually, the EMT came to the conclusion that he had a TIA or a mini-stroke. Needless to say we refused to let him ride his bike home and we called him a cab. We made him call us when he got home and confirmed that he had made an appointment with his doctor. Hopefully all turns out okay, but the poor guy won't be participating in any more of our studies. He did one of my studies back last spring...I am going back right now to look at his data to make sure it isn't out of the ordinary! Let's hope the rest of the day is less interesting.

Dressed up ready for the frost

So it is finally cold for what seems like it may be the winter now. Saturday it was 60+ degrees and now we hit a high of 49 today. It is only supposed to get colder from here out too, I think Wednesday is supposed to top out at 36! In perfect timing, I have finished up the winter hat Memere B. started for the little dude, so he now officially has a hat that fits his head and matches his snowsuit! Its not perfect, it has a certain "handmade" quality to it given that I had a hand in it. But I am proud of my accomplishment and can honestly say that I could make another one, from scratch with no help now! It took some serious fighting to get it going correctly once I picked up where Memere B. left off, but I got there and unless you point out the spots, you can't tell 2 different knitters worked on it! So here it is in all its cuteness...I present the wee man's winter hat!

The rest of the outfit is adorable too I might add. He's got some tan corduroy pants from Old Navy, the coveted jean jacket from Great Aunt Pris, a hooded zippy sweater and the Shoo Shoos that thankfully still fit him!

In recent developments this week, the wee man can now stand unsupported for brief periods of time. Here is a terrible picture of him, but it nicely displays this new found ability. Look Ma...No Hands!!!

We have gradually been getting better with meals that don't contain yogurt. I am still trying to be patient given the fact that the tooth still hasn't come fully through the gum yet. I imagine it is still bothering him in some ways. We keep trying the finger foods and we are gradually adding a few things here and there...he is pretty good at Cheerios, bits of chicken, tiny pieces of bread, chunks of Dunkin Donut Munchkins (yeah, I know, not organic goodness, but he loved it!), Gerber Puffs, peas, and shredded cheese.  The main problem is he would rather play with the food than eat it, so you end up with a wee man that is a complete disaster and is still hungry since nothing has made it to his mouth.  The point of this all you ask?  Check out the chin in this picture, Gerber Puff anyone? I think its Strawberry Apple flavored :)  Incidentally you can also see the remainder of a couple of bruises on his forehead from his recent run-ins with the floor...the play table at Nana Lou's, etc.  And as per usual, he is clutching with white knuckles his very own spoon, which serves little purpose other than giving him the impression that he is more independent in this process than he really is, allowing us to sneak in spoonfuls! :)  We are still at least a step ahead!  For now that is!

Noah has also been having great fun in the big boy tub. Elliot was hanging out in the bathroom Saturday night too. Memere and Pepere B. got the wee dude some bath letters and numbers to play with and they stick places when they are wet. We decided to decorate the little dude with his initial...the scarlet 'N'!!!

We had a pretty quiet week and weekend. The little man had a rough couple of days on Monday and Tuesday with the teething, there was crying, there was screaming, there was clingy-ness, and Nana Lou and I took turns getting a workout carrying him around both of those days.  For some reason Daddy just wasn't cutting the mustard...he was fun when Noah was a happy man, but as soon as his mouth started to bother him, he went straight for me, and I ended up doing 85% of my tasks for Monday during the day and Tuesday evening holding on to a pathetic mess of a Noah man.  So sad.  Thankfully, we seem to have gotten over the worst of it, he is much happier now, and doesn't spontaneously break into fits of tears...and he is now sleeping better as well.  The eating is a work in progress, but hey, it can't be perfect, we would wonder where the challenge was.  I got a couple of hours of "free-time" on Friday afternoon.  I worked at MGH in the morning at the MRI scanners and the after lunch had an OT appointment, which I think may be my last...I can't take the stupidity so I think I am going to cancel the remaining ones.  I'll go back if my cortisone shot wears off and the pain returns, but for now, I have a hard time stomaching the annoyance the the waste of my precious time when I am not even feeling any pain.  Anyway, so after the OT appointment, it was only about 1:30 and I didn't want to go get Noah for fear of disturbing his afternoon nap.  So instead I went back home and had 2 1/2 hours of quiet all to myself.  I didn't to housework, I didn't do anything for anyone.  I ended up doing a bit of Christmas internet shopping, worked a bit on my talk for the conference next week, and watched the most recent episode of Grey's Anatomy which I missed because they put the Patriot's football game on ABC during my show...RUDENESS defined!  It was wonderful, but by 4pm, I missed my wee man and went to Nana Lou's to rescue him!  I guess I am resigned to the fact that I don't have any free time, I've got a wee dude and I guess that is a fair trade off. :)  

The weekend was also quiet, the most excitement we had was about an hour's worth of errands on Sunday to get more cat litter, some work pants for Tim, and a few wee man supplies.  There was the requisite 5 loads of laundry and a bit of cleaning.  I worked on making some food for the little dude...potatoes, peaches, pears, applesauce, and some peas.  I still have to finish that project this week with some carrots, sweet potatoes, chicken dices, and pumpkin, but at least I got a good start.  I am hoping that by going all out and making a bunch of stuff now, I won't have to make any more until after Christmas...we'll hope for the best!  Next weekend we are planning to decorate for Christmas since we will be up in Maine the day after Thanksgiving when we traditionally decorate.  I can't wait to put up the tree.  Oh, and we have to get going on Noah's birthday party planning too!  I can't believe its only like 5 weeks away...crazy!

Random good news

There are a few things that apparently I am overdue in posting.  First, I would like to say that I have invited Tim/Daddy to be an author on this blog for the 3rd and final time this morning.  If he doesn't buck up and accept the invitation, I will no longer claim responsibility for posting any updates from his front unless of course the wee man is involved!  In addition, I will be giving him the silent treatment for an evening in the hopes that he will get the point that I am not the only one that should be recording memories of this experience for posterity.  We'll wait with baited breath to see what transpires.  

Second, the update that I should have posted quite some time ago, but then things got REALLY busy and then I kind of forgot how exciting it was because it had already long since past.  So, a few weeks ago, I made mention of some potentially exciting news in Tim's work front.  At long last, an update!  In May he switched to a Grocery Manager Trainee position in Waltham with the intent on finishing out his prep and getting trained on all of the necessary systems and HR policies so he would eventually be promoted to a Grocery Manager once a position opened up.  Well, one opened up in Quincy and a few days before Halloween he went in for an interview only to be told by the store manager that he wouldn't be interviewing him, instead he would be recruiting him to accept the position!  They were that impressed by him and he received such glowing recommendations, that he was essentially hired on the spot.  This was a Tuesday and by the Monday after Halloween, only 6 days later, he was the new Grocery Manager in Quincy.  Now you can see why this kind of got lost in the busy shuffle...it all happened so fast and so non-traditionally, that it was kind of surreal and never really sank in.  I still forget sometimes that he isn't still commuting to Waltham and getting stuck in some of the same evening traffic that I am.  I actually called him yesterday on my way home to warn him about traffic only to realize that he was on the highway and no where near the traffic I was worried about.  Oh well...exciting news, sorry it took so long to share!

In other Tim-related news, during his last working day in Waltham, he participated in their Halloween costume contest.  He just got an email this morning that he won said contest (see pictures of Halloween for his costume...which during the day included FULL war face paint as well)!!!  As a prize, we get 2 tickets to a Celtics game of our choice provided by one of the assistant managers in Waltham who has season tickets.  We may go Tuesday night if we can rustle up someone to look after the wee dude...I am not sure I am up for taking him out that late at his age...he is too busy and too stuck in his routine.  We'll see, I'll keep you posted.

For now, I am off to run the MRI scanner for the morning and then to another pointless OT appointment.

Job Search Update

Quick update on the job search. Thus far I have gotten quite a few letters confirming receipt of my application. Most of them indicate that search committee meetings will be held in the coming few weeks, with interviews spanning from early to mid-December all the way through mid-January. For the most part I still don't know much, but I am told by my advisor that it is still early. Today I did finally receive some real news from some where. Sadly, I will not be joining the faculty at Smith College. The position was for a neuroscience faculty, but they were hoping for an animal researcher, of which I am not. It was a long shot, but worth putting in the application. Hopefully, it is better news from here!

Bullets cause I have no time...

So, its Monday, and we are back from another weekend and I am just as stressed now as I was last week! I have about 5 million things on my work plate and am feeling a bit more than overwhelmed. So in lieu of skipping a post about the updates in Noah and our lives from last week, I am defaulting to random bullet points because I have no time for paragraphs. These are listed in the order in which they appeared in my head, if it is completely disjointed and chaotic...welcome to my mind as of late! :) Enjoy! Oh, and as always, pictures of the wee man will be posted at the end, cause he is too cute to miss a week of.

• Monday, the day from hell, Noah screamed for the better part of the afternoon so long and so hard that I got to be convinced he had an ear infection, or something seriously wrong with him. Nope, just not the case, we wound up in the pediatrician's office having to wait over an hour to be squeezed in after the last appointment of the day only to be told he is perfectly healthy and is just having an "off day." Nice, thanks for the assistance! There was a grand total of about 45 minutes worth of napping all day, badness defined! I haven't felt that stupid in a while, but at least I am not the mom who never brings the kid to the doctor even when he desperately needs it.
• Note to self: While I am sick now with a nasty cold, when I come back to life, I need to go and get a flu shot pronto!
• Last week pretty much consisted of on and off carpet cleaning and rearranging the house to let the carpets dry while we tried to get rid of the recurring cat pee odor that was starting to permeate the living room. I was disgusted and after some consultation with a dude at a reputable pet store, we opted to replace the area rug. The alternative was soaking the carpet and letting it air dry (no fans, no nothing) and repeat 2 to 3 more times. I say no to spending $75 on cleaner and forfeiting our living room for a month...thank you just the same. Problem solved, anyone else who wishes to pee on our new rug will find themselves a new home.
• I had my first occupational therapy appointment on Tuesday. I finally broke down and decided to give it a try given that my wrist is not getting any better. In case I haven't updated, I have DeQuervain's Syndrome, which is apparently very common in new mothers. It started when Noah was about 4 or 5 weeks old and has been a persistent painful annoyance ever since. I have gotten 2 cortisone shots in the hopes of alleviating the pain long enough for Noah to get old enough so that whatever childcare activity it is that aggravates it would no longer be necessary. So anyway, the OT keeps forgetting why I was sent there in the first place and claims that all of my symptoms are simply due to chronic stress and tension. The appointment was a joke and I am already convinced that this is going to be a serious waste of my time. The chick spent half of the appointment telling me to rub ginger paste on my wrist and made me stick out my tongue to see if I had inflammation. She's very much into Eastern and alternative medicines, and I am very much not. I would rather deal with the pain than her lectures on the benefits of Indian tea and meditation....someone save me.
• It was a quiet weekend, not much excitement except shopping for a couple of sweaters for the wee man, complete lack of naps and all day fussiness on the wee man's part and then replacing the area rug on Sunday. I don't blame the poor dude though because....
• Noah is FINALLY cutting that second top front tooth. I saw the white line with my own 2 eyes...and on more than one occasion to confirm that it wasn't a figment of my imagination.
• I did 5...yes that is one week's worth...loads of laundry. Instead of folding as they come out of the dryer, this time I let it pile up and then dumped it all on the living room floor. I didn't know we had that much stuff in the house...do these things multiply?
• I managed to take down the Halloween decorations, which includes a wreath for the front door with a black bobble head kitty on it (its not as cheesy as it sounds, trust me). Noah fell in love with that kitty and would poke at it and laugh every morning when we left and every afternoon when we came back...too cute! Sadly, the fun kitty wreath has been replaced by a boring Thanksgiving wreath covered in leaves and fall type things. Not nearly as much fun.
• Oh, I found Noah a pair of Christmas jammies so he will look cute opening his presents on Christmas morning. Check them out here. Seriously adorable, and yes, we have tried them on him, he will be the talk of the town opening his presents!
• Last year for Christmas, I got gift certificates to see Blue Man Group and its almost a year later and we have finally got a day to book to go see them. December 13th, at 8pm people! Memere & Pepere B. are coming to babysit and we are out on the town for the night. Its time for a good night out.
• Lastly, let the countdowns begin. 42 days until Noah's 1st birthday and 44 days until Christmas!

"Hi Mom, you wanted the dining room shelves rearranged just like the living room right? No, oh well, I'll just play around here instead. Mmmm...tasty highlighters." Sadly, I thought we had properly hidden all of the highlighters...better luck next time I guess.

"Hmmm...calculus...now that sounds like a book a wee man can sink his teeth into."

So much for not rearranging the dining room shelves. This is what transpired on Wed. while I was at work and the carpet was drying yet again. Can you imagine a whole month of carpet drying??? We wouldn't have a house left!

"Who me? Still not getting in trouble over here!"

Cat Update

After carpet cleaning extravaganza 2008, we seem to have gotten all of the "problem spots" cleaned up and aside from the rather odd smell of the enzyme cleaner which I will be hopefully taking care of with some powder carpet deodorizer tonight, the living room smells SO much better! We also haven't had a new spot since we instituted the new plan. Here is a brief summary of the events since my annoyed post on Wednesday. Keep praying to the litter box gods that our good fortune will continue and their furry highnesses will find our litter box offerings acceptable for their humble usage and they will leave our carpet alone!

1) Yearly visit to the vet, 2 shots a piece. Mia lost 2 pounds, which now puts her at only slightly tubby, but at an acceptable weight for the vet's liking. Everyone looks amazingly healthy and happy (aside from the poking and prodding of course).

2) A 3rd litter box was added to the kitchen.

3) All litter boxes were scrubbed within and inch of their lives, disinfected with bleach (which incidentally cats actually like the smell of)

4) New environmentally friendly litter was ditched in favor of the old familiar litter that is less effective, less environmentally friendly, but what they have been using for the last 5+ years. My bad for trying to introduce a "greener" product to cats who obviously don't give a crap about their environment or the sustainability of the planet!

5) Baking soda is sprinkled in the boxes when they are scooped daily.

Hopefully these new changes and the reappearance of the old faithful litter will keep things clean and happy at home. We'll keep you posted if not...believe me you'll hear about it! :)

Halloween and the second busiest weekend ever

So now that it is Friday of the following week, I figured I might as well publish a weekly update for last week. Its been a long and VERY stressful week here, so I am amazed I am actually getting to this before this weekend. So here it is, monster Halloween and weekend post.


While I am now completely exhausted, we did have a great Halloween! Noah was the cutest monkey ever, and was in an amazingly good mood the whole time! Thankfully he slept most of the ride up to Maine, so he was well-rested and quite happy for his first trick-or-treating experience! While, I know he didn't get the concept at all, he did have fun being social and visiting all kinds of new people, and for good measure, we at least gave him some great experience with saying "thank you!" All of the grandparents, and I mean ALL of them, came over to visit with the wee man on his first Halloween. Everyone went out for a walk around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat, that is except Pepere B., who was at home passing out the 18+ bags of candy to all of their trick-or-treaters. He had quite an entourage for such a small person!


We got to Maine in plenty of time to sit and relax a bit before the fun began. Noah decided to chill out on Daddy while we were waiting. Don't you love how he likes to play with Daddy's chin fuzz?



Here he is all dressed up and ready to go, hanging out with G.I. Daddy

And here is the whole family, dressed up and ready to go out for our first trick-or-treating experience. This is the first and last time I am getting dressed up for Halloween...next year I am maintaining my dignity and letting the wee man have his own fun! :)

Out and about and my arms got tired from carrying my little monkey man, so Noah hitched a ride with G.I. Daddy!

Checking out the loot he is getting next door and saying hello! Thank you Peggie! :)

And of course not to be neglected on this Halloween when the little dude wasn't really going to be eating any of that candy, the Memeres and Peperes spoiled him with some Halloween gifts. Memere L. and Tom got him a little pull around phone just like the kind I had growing up and Memere and Pepere B. got him a Pooh book, bath letters and numbers, and a ball that rolls itself around the floor.

[I had a picture here, but a small person decided to sneak a play with the keyboard and deleted it! No time to find it and replace for now...oh well]

Regardless of the fact that he got presents or not, Daddy decided he could try out just one piece of his candy stash, what a sticky nightmare!

Other than the Halloween excitement, we also had a ton of other things going on this weekend, including daylight savings time, which as you read already, seriously messed with my wee man's life! We went out to the traditional Saturday morning breakfast with Memere & Pepere B. and the Kings, which is fairly low keyed. As usual, Noah was Mr. Social Butterfly and ate his yogurt and cheerios like a fairly well-mannered baby in his highchair pulled up to the table. Some time I need to take a picture of how cute he looks pulled up to a restaurant table eating with the rest of the peeps! So cute! He took a good nap Saturday morning and then we had a fight to the death on Saturday afternoon getting him down for a nap before our dinner out Saturday evening. Noah won, there was no nap until we plunked him in the car to drive to dinner. Daddy had him down and all comfy, except he laid him down on his blanket. Instead of grabbing another one to cover him, Daddy tried to extract it and ended up waking up the little dude who decided that on second thought, there would be no napping. Two hours later, there still wasn't a nap, so we headed out for dinner with Memere L. and a bunch of the Poirier's for a birthday dinner for Great Memere Poirier. It was either going to end in disaster and we would leave early or it would go okay and we would survive. Thankfully Noah slept in the car and then for another 30 minutes on Daddy's shoulder in the restaurant, so when he woke up he was happy and mostly social and at least ate his dinner well. It was nice to see that side of the family and for Noah to meet them finally.

Noah was up for a bottle in the middle of the night and then up for the day at 5:15am...thanks to Daylight Savings Time. And Sunday was a fairly similar nightmare...a relaxing morning, fun playing in the living room and then a good morning nap. We were then supposed to go to visit Pepere L. and Nana briefly for a picture with all of Nana's grandchildren (all 6 of them). That sort of happened, we were minus one granddaughter, and we ended up staying longer than we thought, which ended badly afterwards with a WAY overtired Noah. Thankfully after a short dinner we headed back home and he slept most of the way back to MA in the car.

From all of this chaos I have learned a valuable lesson. Noah is too big and too active to be carted around all day. So, family be on notice, I am instituting a new rule...no discrimination...across the board. Barring yearly holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, there is to be a 1 activity per day limit on Noah's visitations, and NO FUN occurs without a decent nap! We will also be kindly requesting people to come visit Noah at my folks place, there is an open door policy, so feel free to come by. We drive up from MA, hopefully it isn't too much to ask to have you stop by in Saco. Not only have we been working hard to babyproof there, but that is also where Noah has a crib in which he can take the precious nap. Don't get me wrong, we love to visit and see family, and we are glad to get out of MA for the weekend occasionally, but for my sanity sake, and for Noah's well-being, we just can't keep running around all weekend any more. Everyone was miserable by the end of the day Sunday...too much to do and not enough napping makes for unhappy people! Naptime is the new priority people! :)

What the...???

Whose idea was it to tell one of the cats to start using our living room carpet as a litter box??? If it was you, you should be ashamed of yourself! A working mommy can only take so much stress and carpet cleaning you know. It started this weekend while we were away. A spot by the fish tank underneath Noah's "bench" that he stands at. I cleaned it and cleaned it and hauled out the steam cleaner and got pissed and then got over it figuring it was an isolated incident. Then I smelled something nasty when I got home from work yesterday in front of Noah's toy basket. Tim brought home new and improved cleaner and thought he had cleaned up the second spot and we left a fan on overnight to dry things out. As I was checking for lingering smells this morning before leaving for work, I put my hand in a wet and smelly new spot fairly close to the original one!!! I will kill someone soon...that is as soon as I can figure out who is doing it! So, onwards to a new plan...switching back to the less effective but very familiar cat litter that we got rid of 5 or 6 weeks ago, an enzyme-based carpet cleaner that will neutralize and eliminate any lingering odors, a serious deep cleaning of the whole living room carpet, a vet appointment for ALL 3 cats this afternoon, and potentially 2 extra wide baby gates that will keep the cats out of the living room when we aren't in it to supervise. How gross is this new habit???? I am hoping for sanity sake that one of the cats has a legitimate medial issue, which we can sympathetically treat and move on from this recurring nightmare. Should that fail, we may be shipping someone off to Timbuktu in a cardboard box with holes (which is my last resort solution to all behavioral problems)! Anyone want a slightly problematic cat...to be determined which one will show up at your door, but I have a sneaking suspicion that its the same one who decided eating the thread with the needle still attached is the guilty party.

We voted...did you?

Just a check to make sure you voted...or intend to by the end of the day. Noah and I made our way to the polls at 8am. Thankfully, there weren't any lines, we just walked in, checked in, got a ballot, filled in the bubbles, checked out and stuck the ballot in the little reader machine. It took me longer to find a parking spot and walk in than it did to cast my ballot. In any case, we took part, and Noah had his first experience with voting and having a say in the country. His next one will take place about 4:30 this afternoon when Daddy totes him along to cast his ballot. He gets around, but at least he is doing his part.

Make sure you make time today to vote...make sure your voice is heard and you can say you did your part.

And may the campaign ads now cease...Amen!

I HATE daylight savings time

Daylight savings time sucks...in a HUGE, I can't believe how much I hate this, kind of way. I mean its great when you're a grown adult with no little people to be responsible for. An extra hour of sleep in the fall is wonderful, and especially nice is the fact that I no longer wake up in pitch darkness, but honestly, now that there is a wee man around, I would wake up in darkness for the REST OF MY MEASLY LIFE to not have had to change those clocks. He obviously doesn't understand the concept of clocks changing and so he is fighting the minor (I mean 1 hour is not an eternity people) routine adjustment so hard that you would have thought I would have suddenly decided to ship him off to a new family. He is clingy, whiny, refuses to nap at all, never mind on schedule, and has been up at 5:15am the last few days (which in his defense is really 6:15am in his mind). We have tried keeping him up to traditional times for naps and bedtime to get him readjusted, but instead we get late bedtimes, early wake-ups, and a 3 hour long shriek fest when we tried to get him down for a clearly needed nap. So I submit this open letter of annoyance to whomever is responsible (and therefore to blame) for my most recent suffering!

Dear People in Charge of Daylight Savings Time:

I would like to submit my formal complaint about the stupidity and cruelty of the concept of Daylight Savings Time in the hopes that you will agree with me and rescind the notion in favor of Nazi routines that don't throw a perfectly functioning family into a complete and utter tailspin.

My son was sleeping through the night (or at least most of the way) until we had to turn the clocks back. Do you think a 10-month old understands that just for tonight we are going to go through the hour of 1am twice??? I think not...trust me...he didn't get it. Instead, our extra hour of sleep turned into why am I up at 5am? And instead of putting him for his morning nap at the usual hour, we tried to keep him up a bit to get him back on schedule and have ended up with an overtired crank pot of a baby that now refuses to nap entirely! Thanks for nothing!

I calmly request the necessity of submitting poor defenseless parents nationwide to this sadistic form of torture and ask that you find another, more deserving group of people to harass...say people who beat puppies or something.

I look forward to your shift response!
Sincerely,
Christina (one overtired crank pot Mommy)