June 19, 2007

What happened?

Unfortunately, nothing dramatic actually occurred this weekend - certainly nothing interesting enough that I could cobble together an interesting blog post out of it. No, indeed. The facts are quite simple. I am a fucking idiot who after years of "practice" can exhibit a stellar ability to grossly mismanage her time. Bah.

My ass! Dude, it's the ROCKER.
This past weekend, X and I put together a piece of furniture. A rocker. Yes, Innernets, once again, we pushed our marriage to very brink of divorce but walked away victorious. When we were done, there was a brief squabble as to who would sit in it first. I pointed out that I am 9 months pregnant thereby putting TWO lives at risk. I am delighted to report that X sat in the chair and emerged injury-free. However. My toes barely touch the ground when sitting in it. The seat does not quite fit properly. In fact, MY seat doesn't fit properly. At first, I thought it was my big, fat pregnant ass that could barely squeeze in it. Seriously - I was ashamed that I couldn't fit in this chair, so I didn't SAY ANYTHING. Because, you know, THE SHAME. Just today, I noticed the arms are on fucking backwards thus decreasing the amount of space in which one's ass, ANYONE'S ASS (e.g. not just MY ass), could squeeze on by to make it in this fucking rocking chair. Backwards, I shit you not.

iPoop
Apparently, an iPod shuffle can be washed once, but woe to the poor sap who thinks it can be washed twice. Is this where I point out that I am not the poor sap? You get only one guess as to who the culprit was in this case.

A is for Amiable, Affable, Adorable, Arun and apparently, "Bap-Pull"

Arun is in Unabashed Adorable Mode these days. Full blast, no holding back. If he keeps it up, I could almost be convinced that we might need a EvenNewerKid eventually. Maybe. Probably not. Anyway, lest I neglect my duties as a mommyblogger who has nothing to talk about other than her precious progeny, let me talk about my kid for awhile............
  1. The words are exploding from his mouth now! Although, it's hard to get the gist of what he wants when he's doing his Toddler Babble in Pidgin. Fortunately, he's very good at leading us to what he wants and pointing. For sure, though - he's got "apple" down pat and has no issues with asking for his beloved "bap-pull" while gesturing to the refrigerator.
  2. We are still tantrum-free, although he is prone to lying prostrate on the floor in Silent Protest at times. Come on, admit it. You'd laugh, too. I say, give the boy some chains and point him to the nearest endangered tree. He's got a career as a Professional Protestor.
  3. He's in the this total "Carry me!" mode which has me worried. It's hard enough to carry a newborn in that damned Baby Bucket, but to sling along a toddler, too?
  4. The kid loves, LOVES his alphabet and numbers - he learned about 6-7 shapes but quickly abandoned those when we started letters and numbers. He recognizes his name when written and often will proclaim "Ahhh-ooooo" if you ask what it is. Regardless, writing his name down will get you some killer dimples. Little egoist. We have his name on his wall and a train with his name on it. We also have the I See Me! book which blows his hairy noggin to bits. His little bug eyes get even buggier when spying his very own name in a BOOK.
  5. Also, counting to 20 has an amazing, calming effect on him and is actually part of our night-time routine. He's got 1, 2, 6, 7 and the "teens" (dah-deen!) down pat. Forget the rest of those stupid numbers - they're useless, I tell you. Useless. The bonus is that while in a grocery store waiting in the checkout lane you feel far less stupid counting to 20 than say, breaking into a routine with the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" as your score. I think the sweetest ever was the other day when we were in the car and he started getting antsy. Literally, "counting cars" made his day and saved my sanity. And no, I don't think he's some little prodigy who really understands the concept of numbers, he's just imitating the cadence, which for some reason he likes.
  6. He yelled for me a few weeks ago for the very first time. I was upstairs rummaging around and I heard him yelling from the bottom of the stairs "Mama! Mama! Mama!". I melted immediately. I may play the Bitch role online, but in Real Life I'm a totally fool for Toddler Babble. And when that babble includes "Mama"? Sigh. The sweetest word in the English language. Now I understand why X is such a total fool for our kid - Arun's been saying "Daddy" forEVER. Smart boy.

Designing on MY Dime, Yo
I am not a designer or decorator or anything even resembling the two. I throw shit up on my walls that I like. I do try to keep only original art downstairs and I keep reproductions and prints upstairs. Yep, I LOVE Renoir, but I don't think hanging prints of him does much to make a statement, so Renoir hangs out in my bedroom. Anyway, my style of decorating could best be referred to as Early Attic. Whatever. Even with Arun's room, I could not get excited about it. For me, decorating a nursery was a waste of money - I'd rather save that money for when he is older and can choose what he wants in his room. The same goes for NewKid. Since they are sharing a room for awhile, the point was moot anyway. One thing I did do was paint the letters for their names for the walls. I HIGHLY recommend this - I take Arun's letters down quite frequently so that we can play with them - it provides for a nice tactile experience while he's learning his letters.

I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby for $2.49 a piece, painted them myself with acrylic craft paint I already had lying around from prior projects. I've seen letters like these selling for at least $10 per letter - that's criminal! Do it yourself! It was fun AND I saved some money. I also painted a name train for Arun - I bought the cars at Michael's for 99 cents a piece. Again, I've seen these name trains go for big bucks, yet Arun's cost less than $7.

Ahh-ooooo!!

When I told him this says "Anjali", he tried to say it but garbled out "Ahhn-jee" instead. We'll probably have to give up on "Anjali" for now and go with "Anju" in the beginning, since that will most likely be her nickname anyway.

This thing is already showing some wear and tear because he plays with it so much - which is fine with me. I'd rather he have something he loves and uses, than something meant to be an "heirloom". I can repaint it if need be.

Just a silly snap. He's gotten VERY goofy these days. It's hard to remember those days when he such a serious, crabby, bug-eyed baby.


Um, look at all the Goat Shit in the background. Can you even IMAGINE what that looks like to a toddler? Imagine it. Go ahead. I'll wait. Feel my pain, now?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the name train and will be heading to Michael's this weekend to see if they still have these cars. Lil D loves trains plus we need to work on his letters, and I need more decorations for our new one on the way too. I've also been thinking of doing the name on the wall and your post may just inspire me to get it done.

And the goat poop -- way too enticing for little fingers! YUCK!

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

I definitely recommend the train from Michael's and the wall letters from Hobby Lobby. I didn't care for the wall letters at Michael's, but you might like them, so check 'em out. I used simple acrylic craft paints that were about $1 a bottle. I used paper plates as "palettes" and plastic knives as "paint sticks". I mixed the colors myself to get the hues I wanted - it was actually fun!

Anonymous said...

Ooooooooooh, I had all kinds of things I was going to say in the comments but, as always, I got to the pictures of the wee macaroon and once again, I'm speechless. And drooling. What a guy!

(Where's my e-mail???? :))

Bethany said...

That boy of yours is so cute!
I also love that name train.

Anonymous said...

Recently found your blog and am loving it! Your son is so adorable!!

Glad you figured out the arms were on backwards. I wish that was my issue, but um, not so much. :)

How did you hang the letters? I painted ones for my son about 8 months ago and have not done anything with them since. The major hurdle is figuring out how to put them up. I'm a little gun shy about banging nails into the walls since we remodeled his room right before he was born. All that fresh drywall....

Unknown said...

i'm a workaholic in recovery too! glad to know i'm not alone:)

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

Dooneybug,
I hung the letters using teeny, tiny pins. For example, I nailed a pin into the wall and in the "crook" of the A, it hangs from there. The R required some balancing, if you look at it and think about it. Does that make sense? I didn't want to put hangers on the back of the letters because I wanted to be able to take them down so my son could handle them - hence, the tactile experience. The pins don't cause much damage to the walls - I am pretty anal about marking up walls.

Andrea Frazer said...

I loved your comment from Meno's blog. Cute boy you have there! Good luck on the next one. Know that if you hated your husband ever before you had kids, and once in a while when you had one kid, two will make you want to KILL HIM. And that's okay. (Not that you are asking my opinion, but I'm being a saint and offering it.) Best of luck!!!!!

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

Mama P,
I have to say that having a kid actually made me appreciate my husband even MORE than before. Sure, he'll never pick up his socks or remember to pull his iPod out of his pocket, but he's such a good father, it helps to redeem him. LOL :-)

Kelly said...

Before Hudson was born, we were in Michael's and saw the name train. My mother told us she wouldn't look if we wanted to pick out the letters so she wouldn't see his name. Except we really didn't have a name for him. One of my first outings after he was born was to go to Michael's and buy the name train and an easter basket. His is up on a shelf in his room right now, but we'll get it down and let him play with it soon.

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

My sister used to call me NooNoo and your ass is SO NOT "too fat" for anything. Has X come back with the cinnamon rolls of well-deserved happiness, yet?

Christy said...

Is X going to reassemble the rocker?

Diana said...

Hah! You remind me of when Sara was 2. When in the grocery store, we had to visit the (largely numbered) aisles IN ORDER so she could see each number and say "Hi" to them, again, IN ORDER. No going backward. No skipping. For some reason the store didn't have an aisle "1", which incensed her no end for the 3 months she kept it up.

Heza Hekele said...

I would have to say that your calm as a cucumber in comparison to the state I was in before giving birth. The last month felt like the equivalent of doing time. I could. not. wait. to get him OUT! He sensed my anticipation and did not come until evicted...eight days after my due date!

Much luck with New Kid.

I love your blog.