Clap Your Hands!

Stella's First Crawl: On Tape!

Thursday Thirteen

Got this from my friend Kelli's blog. I don't know how to get all the fancy code that makes it pretty because I've never bothered to really learn how to use blogger, but here's the jist.

13 Concerts I Have Attended

I have of course attended way more than 13 concerts, so I'll just choose what comes to mind.

1. Erasure's Wild Tour at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion when I was 12. That was my first concert and my best friend Sarah's Aunt Stephanie took us. It was awesome. Andy wore a tutu and danced and frolicked around with hot gay men in little shiny underwear. Perhaps this concert is what turned me--into a fag hag that is:) Louie Louie, some horrible pop flash in the pan was the opening act. (I saw them again when I was a sophomore in college with Tim and his sisters Caroline and Christine. Fun, but certainly not as out there as the first concert.)

2. Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion Tour at the Summit when I was a junior in high school. Sarah and I went with her Mom (since it was in kind of a sketchy part of town). We had 8th row tickets and I swear to God that David pointed me out to Martin when I mouthed "I love you" and gave him my best 16-year-old sexy look. and TheThe was the opener and their bass was so loud I stuffed tissues in my ear and I swear my heart was beating in time to the beat. I saw them twice more, once on that tour when it came back around at Cynthia Woods, and once shortly after Tim and I got married on the crappy album tour at that crappy Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre outside San Antonio.

3. The Cranberries' No Need to Argue Tour at the Astrohall. Sarah, Frank and I went, even though Frank and I had to get up at like 5:30am to go to a speech tournament the next morning. I think I was a senior in high school. We wound up partying all night and I slept like maybe an hour. I barely made it through the next day. Not my best work. I saw the Cranberries again when they swung back through and played Cynthia Woods in the Spring. Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my favorite bands at the time, opened for them that time and were awesome.

4. Lollapalooza 1992, August before my sophomore year, I went with Sarah, her boyfriend John, and a friend from school I had a crush on for some reason, Chris. Sarah and I had had to have our parents lie for us and say that our families were going on a picnic together so that we could miss Colorguard practice. Sarah and John disappeared to go do God knows what (okay, I do know what, she told me in excrutiating detail), and Chris and I hung out and watched the show. We had a lot of fun. Pearl Jam was awesome, Eddie Vedder climbed up to the top of the stage while he sung, Ice Cube made me feel very white, Red Hot Chili Peppers brought the house down, and Ministry did my goth soul good as Al Jourgenson danced with a skeleton.

5. Morrissey in London at the Royal Albert Hall, June 2004. One of the best concerts ever. Period. I paid a ridiculous amount to win tickets off ebay, but it was well worth it. To see Morrissey in his native land, with a bunch of soccer hooligans chugging pints and singing along to every word behind us? And the sound was amazing! It was a symphony hall and only sat around 2,000 people, so it was intimate too. Plus at the door they kept asking Tim if he had a mobile (they aren't allowed in because they can take pictures), and Tim totally couldn't understand him, so finally I had to go, "do you have a cell phone?" like such an American idiot.

6. REM with Radiohead opening at Southpark Meadows, Fall 1995, the Monster tour for REM and The Bends tour for Radiohead. Wow wow wow. The day I fell in love with Radiohead. REM puts on one of the best live shows I've ever seen and Radiohead nearly blew them out of the water. RIP Southpark Meadows. I've seen REM one more time, great, and Radiohead twice more, the Kid A tour at Cynthia Woods, which was a transcendent experience where the audience was just one in enjoying the music and the Hail to the Thief tour at Cynthia Woods where some A-holes on cell phones tried to ruin the experience.

7. Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie at Southpark Meadows, also 1995. Trent blew David Bowie off the stage, poor guy. Went with Sarah, Elizabeth Z., and George. Interesting group. Sarah was in town and we had to hunt her down a ticket. We went to all the kiosks at UT until we found a poster for someone selling tickets, then went to their house to buy just ONE ticket, which I think pissed them off. They kept trying to sell us both.

8. Camper Van Beethoven at SXSW 2004, I believe. La Zona Rosa. We got there like at 8 to make sure we'd get in since we were just paying cover. I made it through all the crappy bands before, but I thought I was going to be overcome by all the smoke and stuff in the room, and the packed in people. But thankfully, I made it to see CVB and it was well worth it. My high school dream had come true, to see CVB, who'd broken up by the time I got into them, and they didn't disappoint.

9. The Pixies at Stubb's, Fall 2004. Also a band that I'd never seen live because of a break-up. They were amazing, more high school dreams coming true. And I'd also spent a pretty penny on this show, but worth every cent.

10. The Cure's Wish Tour at Cynthia Woods, summer before my freshman year of high school, the Wild Mood Swings Tour at the Summit after freshman year of college, and the Curioso tour August 04 at Cynthia Woods. Always incredible, always worth seeing, will never disappoint. I dressed up totally goth for the first two shows, but I felt I'd grown a little past that by the Curioso tour. At the Wish Tour, my friend Philip died his hair with Kool-Aid and it was dripping down his neck. Good times.

11. Dave Matthews Band, Erwin Center, Sophomore year of college. Damn those guys can put on a show! Christi, Daniel and I went and had like 6th row or something tickets, and we were just blown away. (I'm running out of adjectives, sorry) Daniel could always get us the best seats. Damn you Daniel for moving to D.C.!

12. The Lemonheads with Redd Kross and some other band opening at a place in Houston that's not even there anymore, junior or senior year of high school. My friend Marissa and I stood in the very front, bracing and bruising our knees against the wood that separated the stage from the audience in the hopes of getting close to Evan Dando. Then the a-hole came out and he was too stoned to even play more than a song. He was in his PAJAMAS! I was so mad.

13. The Violent Femmes, Numbers, 1994 or 95. They worked that show, played for nearly 3 hours, I just loved it. Played all my favorites, and at one point I hid from my friends because they wanted to go home (or perhaps had to go home because of curfew), but I didn't want to miss a second of the show. I also nearly had my neck broken because a girl who'd been crowd surfing came down on me, I had to hurl her off with all my might. Excellent!

Oh, dude, I forgot Ben Folds at La Zona Rosa who led the audience in a beautiful sing along, and Counting Crows, and so many more!

The Brave New World of Mobility

So yesterday, Stella decided she was going to crawl. She'd been getting more mobile lately, but still her little stretch and creep a little, then sit up maneuver. But yesterday she just said, "hmm, I think I'll go ahead and do this crawling thing. I want that over there, so I'll just crawl over to it." Tim said she was into EVERYTHING this morning, even though he only watched her for about half an hour. She's not being quite so active with me because she is, of course, at heart still a lazy baby. But I think things are going to get more challenging from now on. First on the list is finishing baby-proofing everything. I baby-proofed her room even more, but it's still not completely safe for a baby that can get into everything. It was safe for a baby that just had a small radius, but now that she can crawl, well, I have a little more work to do. My guess is that we'll figure out a lot of what needs to be done just by watching what she goes for and then fixing that. I was so excited, but now I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, my job just got a lot harder!"

To Clarify...

So both Tim and Ashley had really good points in their comments on yesterday's post. And I should make it clear that I was not proud of what went through my head and onto my blog when I saw the woman using WIC for the milk, but that's the way I think sometimes. And to make it clear again, I totally think we should help support the poor, I am definitely a social liberal, but my point is that I think people should think about their financial resources when they choose their family size. And I wish that our goverment would be more proactive about educating people about birth control to allow people of all income levels to control their family size. BUT Tim brings up an excellent point about people needing assistance sometimes. What if I got pregnant again and whammo Tim lost his job? I know we'd both be grateful to have that help. Thanks for helping me see things from the other angle, guys, sometimes my selfishness makes me ill.

Take a Picture, it'll last longer!

The ice has finally melted and Stella and I ventured out to the grocery store today for more supplies. Well supplies other than milk. They were COMPLETELY OUT! Only had like one gallon of buttermilk and that frankenmilk Mootopia stuff. So no milk for us. Oh, but the point of this story: Stella has a black eye because she fell on her bookshelf while playing on it and trying to pull up Tuesday evening. I was two inches away and I still have no clue how she did it. I think she was just really tired and clumsy. I cried nearly as much as she did, I felt so guilty, but Tim, who was only like 3 feet away when it happened, pointed out that there was nothing I could do. But I've gotten over the initial shock of what it looks like and I didn't really think about it until I got to the grocery store. Everybody stared at her! Yeah, like I hit my baby and then take her to the grocery store. Everyone at the deli counter asked what happened. I wanted to say, "none of your business.", but I thought that might be suspicious, so I told the story over and over again. One old man said, "learning to walk's tough, ain't it kiddo?" when he saw her. I thought that was kind of sweet, since he obviously knew that kids get all kinds of bruises when they start getting mobile. And another lady told me about her son falling out of his high chair and his tooth going through his lip. Sheesh!

I also chatted with a woman who was in line in front of me with her 21 month old daughter who was enamored of Stella. This woman was pregnant, and we chatted happily, but I felt a little like, "woah, what the heck?" when I noticed she was using a WIC coupon. She'd said how her husband wanted 4 kids. I can't help but think, "shouldn't you wait until you can afford them?" This is probably very snobbish and bougeois of me, but I couldn't help thinking that my tax dollars were paying for her kids. It was weird too because her daughter was very well dressed. I didn't notice what they were buying except for the milk because she bought it separately (that's what you have to do with WIC, I think). And she was white, which I think it's totally racist that I am bringing up, but there you go, I think it's important to the story in case you assumed she was non-white. (oh, the milk she bought was Lactose-free, in case you were wondering how she got milk when there was none)

Going Ice Storm Crazy!

For anyone who's been living under a rock the last few days, we in Austin (and across Central Texas), have been experiencing an ice storm and snow since Monday. Schools and work have been called off, businesses have been closed, life as we know it has come to a standstill. Even Tim didn't have to go into work, but it didn't stop them from making him do his work at home. That's the problem with the internet and technology: you can make your workers work even when they can't come in. Which is why I haven't been on the internet much. He had to use my computer since his is currently broken. And so while Tim was here, for the most part I felt like some sort of old-fashioned housewife who would bring the child around periodically for a kiss on the head, and then would take her back into her playroom to keep her away from Daddy while he was working. I mean, not exactly, we played in the same room as Tim yesterday, but it was very frustrating having Tim right there, but having him be chained to his computer. And he really should be home today, too, but obviously the CEOs can't stand another day around their families and so he had to go in at 10. Today looks to be the worst yet, but he's taking the bus. Hopefully the buses won't get stuck on any hills like they were yesterday. I try not to be too worried about the bus. The bus is going to win any car fights out there. It's the biggest and the baddest. It will even beat your SUV you bought to make yourself feel safer, even though really in a collision you will probably roll over and be smushed. Of course, you will only roll over and be smushed after you've plowed into the driver's side of my xB and caused me to have permanent brain damage. Congratulations, it's a draw! But I digress. Anyway, Stella saw her first snow yesterday and was fascinated, but really, we need to get out soon, especially now that it's just Stella and I. I sure hope it warms up later!

Fashion sucks

Okay, fashion sucks right now. Or at least, I find the styles sucky. I got money for Christmas and I have been trying to find some shoes and a purse and possibly a new diaper bag (well a bag I can use as a diaper bag). I have not found ONE PAIR of shoes that I liked! I can't believe it, I've been to like 10 stores and not a single pair! Usually I have to really struggle to not buy 5 pairs of shoes at a time. I really love shoes, but there is nothing but fugly really high heels and fuglier extreme flats. I don't get that, either heels are about 5 inches or they are non-existent right now. What is going on? And purses? Yuck! Everything looks like it was made for my Grandmother to carry. Back in the 80's! Perhaps that's what it boils down to: 80's fashion is in right now and it is U-G-L-Y. I just hope that it's over fast. At first I thought the problem was that I hadn't gone shopping in so long because I'd been pregnant, but now I realize we are just going through a really ugly faze in clothes right now. I hate it when I have money to burn and I can't burn it!
I did find that I have expensive taste, though. I got Nordstrom's gift cards from two of my sister-in-laws for Christmas and I went shopping there Saturday. Wow, it was so nice! And they actually have sale racks, although it's unclear exactly how much things are going to be until you get to the register. I thought I'd gone way over my gift cards, but stuff was about half what it was already marked down to. So I could have gone even crazier! But they are so nice there, and the lighting in the dressing room is actually flattering. Now if I could just afford (or let myself afford) $70 blouses and $200 pairs of shoes on a regular basis!

Babies and cheese

I am sitting here watching Stella eat cheese and it is quite entertaining. She's so determined. She kind of examines each piece of cheese as she brings it up to her mouth like, "hmm, is this the same thing I just ate? How am I going to get this strange substance into my mouth?" Then she puts it and her finger into her mouth and starts mashing it with her jaws and then swallows it. And when there is no more cheese she stares at her hand, hoping for extra bits of cheese that got stuck to it. Then she eats those too. This is what passes for amusement these days. That and Guitar Hero 2. Guitar Hero 2 is most excellent fun after Stella goes to sleep.

Goodbye 2006!

So it's 2007. Last year, my life changed forever because we had Stella. Sometimes I miss our old life, but then I hang out with Stella and I think how much better I have it now. New Year's Eve ROCKED! Bill picked up the gauntlet and hosted at his house, and my Mom came and stayed with Stella, so we rocked it pre-baby style (well except for drinking oodles and oodles of alcohol, I still have to feed the baby when I return from my partying!) There was tons of yummy food, great alcohol and just a few fantastic friends. Perfect! Although it would have been more perfect if Ashley and Travis and Jeff and Tara had been there. Jeff and Tara were sick, though, and we realized it was the first time we'd not spent New Year's Eve with them in 7 years! Our first New Year's Eve was 1999 when it was just Tim and I, Jeff and Tara and Anna and Sean. All our other friends had gone out to the country to celebrate New Year's at a friends' parents house. So the 6 of us had more than one bottle of champagne per person and had a great time drinking ourselves into oblivion to celebrate the new millenium.
This New Year's Eve we did not get our obligatory midnight shot, unfortunately, because my new camera was not cooperating. But I got all kinds of other great shots, I'll have to promise a few choice pics. Ian and Erin helped me make the most of all the "scene settings" on my new camera. The theme this year seemed to be "acting stupid and making crude jokes." Unfortunately, my mother and other people's mothers read my blog, so I cannot tell you the new, incredibly nasty word for female gentalia that I learned from Aaron (or was it Bill?), which we proceeded to make even nastier. If you want to email me, I'll send it to you. It's totally gross. We also learned way too much about Bill's personal life, Aaron's uncle's hunting habits, and some other friends' make-out habits. And we saw Bill's "love den". He's got beads hanging on his bedroom door! Ladies, this man will not be single for long with a pad like this! (Seriously, he's a catch and I love him to death, I hope he knows I'm just teasing him!)
Yesterday we got to sleep in a little because my mom was here, then we went to lunch at Galaxy. Then Stella took a nap and so did I, while Tim played video games. I am trying not to be a bitch about video games, but I remember how much I hate them! Whenever something needs to be done or we're trying to leave, it always seems like we have to wait for Tim to find a save point. I felt much better after the nap (as did Stella), so we assembled the new furniture from Ikea we got Sunday. Oh, yeah, we checked out the new Ikea Sunday! It was fun, but they let you take your cart through the whole store, even though you don't need it at the beginning, so people were always in the way. And they were out of stock on some of the things we wanted. But I got a bookshelf with doors and lights to function as a curio cabinet, and a little larger than we realized bookshelf to store all Stella's toys in the breakfast room. That bookshelf may not live here permanently, we're kind of still living with it and seeing how we feel about it. But it was fun to go to Ikea knowing that if we forgot something, we could always just come back and get it later!
Okay, I still need to transition some stuff into the new china cabinet, so I'd better go. Happy 2007!

I totally forgot about Cheerios!

I can't believe I forgot to relay the most exciting development of yesterday: Stella is feeding herself! We'd tried giving her bananas and corn (not together) in the past and she wasn't interested in it, but then last night we tried Cheerios. Man does she love Cheerios. Then we mixed the corn in with the Cheerios and she was digging it. Then I tried the same thing with bananas this morning and she ate those as well. Although those are much more messy. And the dogs won't eat them, so I have to clean them up myself. But still, it was very exciting!

9 Months and Growing

So Stella is Nine Months old now. It seems amazing that she's been out longer than she was in. It's gone by so fast. We went to the doctor yesterday for her check-up and the doctor used the "W" word. For those of you not freaking out about your baby growing up, the "W" word is weaning. She wants us to start giving her snacks of yogurt and cheese, which will eventually replace those breastfeeding sessions. I'm not ready! It's hilarious, because when I first started bfing, I was like, okay, I only have a year. For the first few months, I practically counted it down. But now that she's so active and only nurses for about 10 minutes or less at a time, it's not really a big commitment anymore and I really have come to treasure that time. It's our cuddle time. My favorite time is when we wake her up right before we go to bed to feed her. She's all sleepy and Tim changes her diaper and cuddles with her and then hands her to me. She doesn't even open her eyes as she eats and she reminds me of when she was a newborn and almost never opened her eyes. It's so adorable.

Of course, she is doing lots of amazing things that I have to remind myself to dwell on instead of the fact she is growing up. Yesterday the doctor showed us how to give her our fingers and she would sit up just holding on to them. She's been holding out on us, being lazy. Also, the doc showed us how to help her pull up the same way, she's really pushing us to work more on that. And when we got home, Stella did try to pull up on a chair for the first time, but gave up. I think she gets frustrated easily. Interestingly enough, the doctor didn't give us any suggestions on how to help Stella crawl and I forgot to ask. Stella still is mostly content with reaching for things, and rolling to get things, with some occasionally creeping, which usually results in her going backwards rather than forwards and getting frustrated.

Stella also seems to FINALLY be over her cold. Some coughing, but that's about it. I also am pretty much recovered. Part of me wants to put her in a hermetically sealed bubble now that we're both well, but I know that won't accomplish anything. Plus, I didn't get much social interaction because I had to avoid babies so we wouldn't take the chance of getting them sick. So hopefully January will be a well month!

Oh, and the doctor's office measured her and I think they at least did the height wrong. They got 27.5 inches, but we'd measured her at 28.5 about a month ago. I think the nurse didn't bother to stretch her out all the way. 27.5 would be the 50th percentile and trust me, Stella is not average height for her age. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she is quite tall. We need to do our own measurement. Her weight is 18 lbs, 9.6 oz, which is actually a slight drop from when we went in a couple of weeks ago and she was 19lbs. That's only 50th percentile, but the doctor said they usually lose some weight as they become more active. Her head was 43.5 cm, and the doctor said it's rounding out nicely. Yeah!

Well, I hear the little munchkin waking up, so I must go!

Another Christmas come and gone

So Christmas 2006 is over. Stella's first Christmas was a resounding success, in fact perhaps too much of a success. We're going to Ikea Sunday to get bins to store all her old loot and new loot. We had a great time with everyone we got to see. Stella is so special she got 3 Christmases: one with her Aunt Caroline, her boyfriend Daniel, her Aunt Christine and her Uncle Brian, one at home with Daddy and Mommy, and one with her MeMe, Pappy and Uncle Keith. Wow, that's some serious Christmas overload! But she handled it in style.

I got some great stuff this year too. Actually, that's an understatement! Tim got me the most beautiful ring as an "upgrade" for my original engagement ring, which I haven't been able to wear since I took it off exactly a year ago because I was afraid it would get stuck. I'd been reading horror stories of pregnant ladies who had to go to the ER to get their rings cut off. My Christmas ring is just amazing, I love it! Tim did a great job! (okay, we went shopping together) I also got a new digital camera from my parents, and it totally rocks! It's a Canon PowerShot A630, 8 Megapixels, and it has manual controls, which I have not learned to use yet. So if you've noticed an increase in the quality of my pictures, it's the new camera that's responsible. It's got a kids and pets setting that takes kick ass pictures of both Stella and Lucy (I haven't tried it on the other furry kids yet). AND you can focus what you're looking at, then just wait for the photo you want to present itself, and snap almost instantly. I cannot believe how good pictures are when you can take them exactly when you want them, rather than having to wait for my slow camera to decide to snap a shot. The only downside to the PowerShot is that it's much larger than regular digital cameras, but that's so that it takes better pictures AND can fit Canon's lenses. Plus it has a really cool swivel LCD, so you can take pictures of yourself (handy for when Stella and I are playing photoshoot at home).

I was also happy because everyone seemed to really enjoy what I got them. I got my Dad some new varieties of beer for him to try, based on the recommendations of Bill, beer expert extraordinare, and my Dad really liked them. I got my mother some jewelry that my friend Nicole had made, and she really loved them too, especially the necklace that I was kind of on the fence about whether she would like it or not. I was very pleased.

So onto 2007, I guess. We'll be going to Bill the Beer Man's New Year's Eve party because my Mother is coming to watch Stella. This is the first time we haven't hosted New Year's since we got married (7 in a row) , so that's going to be kind of weird. But I'm proud to pass the torch to Bill!

Sick of Being Sick

So Stella has practically the entire month of December sick. She had stomach virus which we briefly thought was a UTI at the very beginning of the month, then a cold, then two days of wellness and then another cold which started Saturday. We went to a babysitting coop Friday night which we worked and an 18 month old girl that was there had snot aplenty and was breathing through her mouth. I knew she was sick and I was pissed that my child was now going to get sick because someone brought their sick child and dropped them off. I also somehow wound up being in charge of this little girl and Stella all night. I tried to keep them separated, but it really didn't matter. So Stella started having the sniffles again early Saturday morning and now I'm sick too. Whee! I keep reading that babies have like 8-10 colds their first year of life, but I didn't realize Stella was going to have all of them consecutively!

The picture is of us backstage at our church's Cantata Sunday night. We were Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus!

Dumb-Ass Moves

I backed into the garage door today. Not one of my proudest moments. I used to open the garage door and then put Stella in her car seat and then get into the car and go. But I had started worrying recently that someone could sneak up behind me while I was putting Stella in her carseat. Paranoid, I know. So the last couple of days, I'd been putting Stella in her carseat, and then opening the garage door from the car and backing out. Well this morning, I was super-excited about taking Stella to the mall to see Santa, and I was running late to meet Anna, and I gunned it to back out, not realizing that the garage door was not quite finished opening. So I hit it. Ouch. I was able to get it open all the way so I could finish backing out, but I wasn't able to get it closed again, but I was late and Anna and I both live in the non-cellphone world, so I had to go. My car didn't do too badly, some scrapes on the top above the window and the little knob piece that sticks out where a spoiler would go if I had a spoiler fell off, but otherwise not too bad. I inspected the door when I got home and it just has some minor dents, but when I forced it open with the garage door opener, I bent the bottom wheel that wheels it up. So to get it closed, I had to hammer that pin out on both sides. While Stella sat in her stroller with her earmuffs on (it was loud). So the garage door is closed, which is the important thing, but now we have to add "fix the garage door" to our already incredibly long to-do list!
What's weirder is that in the span of a few hours I felt like a) the biggest idiot on earth for backing into the garage door and then b) a total badass for figuring out why the door wasn't closing and then using my muscles to close it. Go figure.
And on a side note, Stella did beautifully for Santa. We got an adorable picture and Anna and I had fun at the mall. Daniel did not sit for Santa, but kept Stella's spirits up while we waited:) Also, I had to nurse Stella while we were in line and one of the "elves" was talking about how cool it was that I was breastfeeding her, how'd she'd done that with her children and we talked about how wonderful it was. Very cool!

Music Meme from Kelli

Instructions:1. Open your library on your Zen or Ipod or other MP3 player
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button

Ready, set, go!!!!!

Opening Credits: Golden Boy- Greg Dulli

Waking up: The Face of Zero and One-The New Pornographers


Falling in love: Lovely Day-The Pixies (oh, that’s nice)

Fight song: Celestial Annihilation-Unkle (Wow, gotta’ love any song with “annihilation”’ in it for your fight song)

Break up song: Big Man with a Gun-Nine Inch Nails (wow, that’s kind of disturbing. Although I would certainly break up with a man who just sang about his big gun.)

Making Up: Black Tongue-Yeah Yeah Yeahs Not the best way to make up with someone. I mean, she calls them some very not nice things in this song.

Life's Okay: 1,000 Seconds-Secret Machines Seems appropriate since SM are so stoner-rock and if you’re stoned, life’s generally pretty okay;)

Mental Breakdown: Drink To Me Babe, Then-A.C. Newman

Driving: Touch and Go-The Cars (ha! That’s awesome!)

Flashbacks: Textbook-We Are Scientists

Happy Dance: Glow in the Dark-David Garza This is totally appropriate, rock! “I glow in the dark and I won’t sit still”

Regret: My Mathematical Mind-Spoon (well, regret does usually start in your mind…)

Final Battle: Numb-U2 Appropriate somehow I think

Death Scene: Explain it To Me-Liz Phair

Final Credits: Sour Times-Portishead definitely great closing credits music to any movie

How about a Cold to go with that UTI?

Stella has a cold too, poor baby. I can't decide which is worse, hearing her struggling to breathe through her nose, or watching her scream and cry when she has to pee. I'll call it a tie. Although I honestly am trying not to complain too much since she's a trooper and there are certainly way worse things that parents have to deal with than a couple of minor illnesses.

Sick Baby

So I've given up on blogging about Michigan. I can't get Blogger to work nor can I get LGT to let me post photos, so I guess it's a sign that the world doesn't need to know about our travels. Instead I will blog about Stella being sick for the first time. Man, it sucks. It started Thursday when she vomited in the car on the way to lunch with Tim. It was gnarly, but she was in a good mood, so I didn't worry too much. Then she had diarrhea when we got home and a fever. So I started to worry and gave her tylenol, although she was still in good spirits. But man was she warm and a little poo factory. Friday she still had a fever and it was still climbing (it got up to 101.7, which scared the bejeezus out of me), so I called the nurse at her doctor's office. She said to try Ibruprofen to bring down the fever and to monitor her over the weekend. If the fever didn't come down that evening or the next day, we'd have to take her to the ER or Urgent Care. Now that's something a mom doesn't want to hear. But her fever broke that night and there was no more diarrhea after 9am on Friday, so I started to relax. Then she felt warm again yesterday, so I took her temperature and it was 100.5. So we took her to the doctor yesterday and she thought it was just a virus, but did a urine test just to be sure. Let me tell you the way they do a urine test on a baby girl. They literally stick a bag to her to catch the pee. And of course, when they did this at the doctor's office, Stella decided she did not have to pee. I nursed her, gave her water, but nope, she wasn't going to pee while we were at the doctor's. So I had to take her home and collect the urine there and take it back this morning. Luckily, Tim took it for me. Well the doctor called this afternoon and the poor thing has a Urinary Tract Infection. We're going to have to give her antibiotics for the next 10 days. What worries me more is that when I looked online for information, Babycenter had an article that said 30-40% of babies that have a UTI also have VUR, which can cause Kidney failure if not detected and treated properly, and treatment can involve surgery. Great, just what I wanted to worry about! So I'm hoping that after this gets cleared up the doctor suggests the tests for that, which involves an ultrasound. But I'd rather she get the testing than have it go undetected. So scary!
If you'll excuse me now, I have to go clean up poo in Roxie's cage. She is probably sick again since she likes to get sick before we have people coming in town or other big events, and what other time would be better to get sick than when the baby is sick too. Oh, and she has been without her special food for over a week since I haven't gotten over to the vet's because of sick baby and other dramas. Sigh.
UPDATE: I cleaned out Roxie's cage and the poo appears to be cat poo that Roxie snuck out of the catbox. So keep your fingers crossed that's all it is.

I Hate you Blogger!

I have been trying to post about the Michigan trip for 3 days, but keep losing connection with Blogger. I'm going to try one more time, dammit, then I'm going to give up and put it on my lgt blog: www.loadedguntheory.com

Holiday Meme from Kelli

I plan to blog about our Michigan Extravaganza, but decided to do this first:

HOLIDAY TIME MEME
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate. I think Egg Nog is totally gross.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
When I was a kid, Santa set the presents from him under the tree and my parents wrapped the ones they gave us. Santa's presents were always arranged for maximum "wow" factor;) Guess we'll have to decide how to do it with Stella.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
white, white, white. I think colored lights look tacky. I love white lights, they are so beautiful.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.

5. When do you put up your decorations?
Usually the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, but since we went to Michigan this year and just got back into town yesterday evening, I'm going to give myself a break and do them next weekend.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
My mom's dressing.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
I have several, but a couple include: Going to Picadilly at the mall with my family on my Dad's side and spending the entire dinner begging my parents to take us back to my Grandma's house so we could open presents. It was always the longest dinner of the year! Also running downstairs on Christmas morning to find all my loot;) And when I got to be a teenager with a driver's license, I liked surprising my parents by stuffing their stockings.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I was 9. I saw my parents bringing Keith and I's Alf dolls in from my Dad's truck. I knew it was over, but I didn't tell my brother.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Usually. Something boring like underwear or socks.

10. What kind of decorations are on your tree?
The colors are lilac, light blue, and silver. We also an ornament when we travel somewhere (the latest is one from MSU), and we have a tradition where we get each other one each year. Although Tim usually forgets to get one for me:)

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
Love it! We never have it. The last time we had it was in February a couple of years ago and our friends were over and we all had a snowball fight. One of the top 5 experiences in my life. Oh, and experiencing snow falling in Times Square in NYC on Christmas Day. Amazing!

12. Can you ice skate?
Absolutely not. I'm pathetic. (I'm borrowing Kelli's response because it's true)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Honestly, no, but I'm always happy to have anything:)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Spending time with family and eating way too much food!

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Fudge, peanut brittle, Pecan SAndies (or Sandy Duncans as I called them as a child)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Timing the Thomas unwrapping extravaganza to see if we will set a new record for Longest Christmas Ever.

17. What tops your tree?
A lit up white star, I think.

18. Which do you prefer? Giving or receiving?
Giving, I love giving the perfect gift. Although I love getting it too!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
Silent Night

20. Candy canes: Yuck or yummy?
Yummy!