Saturday, August 06, 2005
Mommy's Cling-on
Emma adores her Noni and Popi. She plays with them and shows off for them and will do things for them that she never does for me. But lately she doesn't want me out of her sight, even with them. We went through this over a month ago and it seemed to get better, but then twice this week she saw them and acted like she didn't want to be left alone with them. I know this is a phase, but it's weird how it comes and goes. At first the need for me was an ego boost. After months of being her slave with no recognition it was gratifying to find out that she did prefer my company.
Earth Roast fizzled
It rained. We did go pick up our roast beef sandwiches though. It was worth standing in the rain.
10 favorite TV shows
OK, I've never followed a blog meme before, but then I'm not usually much of a follower. However, when you can't think of your own content, memes will do. So for today we're doing at the behest of former TV critic and A-list (had to go there) blogger Jeff Jarvis:

1. All-time favorite hands down is NewRadio. This was funny and witty and clever on so many levels. It was the greatest ensemble comedy I've ever seen. Dave Foley and Phil Hartman were superb in their roles, but each cast member was essential.

2. Crime Story was so slick and cool. I didn't catch much of it the first time around but saw the whole thing in syndication. Several times. The final episode was mind-blowing.

3. Sopranos was a revelation. Who knew TV could be so smart and multilayered?

4. South Park features some of the most pointed political satire I've ever seen. Yes it's profane, offensive and sometime very off-putting and it's certainly not for kids, but damn it, it's funny.

5. After many years of being away from television I did finally succumb to the charms of Seinfeld. I followed it to the end. That end left me with a sour taste in my mouth and colored my view of the whole endeavor.

6. Mythbusters is a current favorite. I'm fascinated with the anti-chemistry between Jamie and Adam and it's fun to watch them blow up stuff.

7. Hill Street Blues was Must See TV for me before they ever made it imperative. I was hooked to the detriment of my homework assignments in high school.

8. Cheers was definitely a favorite. NBC owned me on Thursday nights for well over a decade.

9. Saturday Night Live. Obviously this couldn't be a favorite over the duration of the run. But at times it defined pop cultural awareness. When I was in, to know what happened last Saturday night was almost required. I had to endure a lot of chaff to get some wheat, but the high points of that show are some of the most memorable high points in television IMHO.

10. And now for the obligatory lame copout to actually making a top 10 list...here are also rans: NYPD Blue, CSI, Picket Fences, Simpsons, and maybe I'll come up with some more later.
Friday, August 05, 2005
I got a catalog in the mail...
from Birthday Express. Apparently according to a mailing list I'm on somewhere I must be planning a kid's birthday party soon. The catalog was interesting, it covered about every theme I could possibly want. Except the one I want. Which is Baby Einstein. So I went online, they actually had it online. I could get the Deluxe Party pack for $29.99 for 8 partiers. Or I could buy the exact same Deluxe pack from another supplier for $19.50. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that.

Many mommies on my board are already furiously planning. Not me man. I'm thinking just grandparents, her aunt and maybe a great-grandmother. That's it. It's on a Sunday so no wild parties. It will probably be BYOB with Emma being the only one carrying.
Earth Roast tomorrow
No. I'm not foretelling impending doom. The local Ruritans have an annual earth roast we attend every year. What it amounts to is pit-cooked roast beef. They bury it. Then dig it up when it's done. Don't worry, they wrap it first. Anyway, it results in great roast beef sandwiches. The sandwiches come with a dinner of beans, cole slaw and homemade dessert. Entertainment is blue grass music, cloggers and cake walks at the end of the evening. It's an event where you can go hang out with your neighbors. Our entire year is marked by these sorts of events. Of course this will be the first one for Emma so that will make it extra special ;)
Bottle-time Play-time
Emma wants to hold the bottle herself now. Unfortunately she also likes to pop it in and out of her mouth. In and out and in and out. This doubles or triples the amount of time it takes to drink her bottle. I don't know what this signifies. That girl is a constant mystery.
Volunteer? Maybe not.
Well, I made arrangements to be available to volunteer for the road bike challenge tonight. They called and asked me to work. The plan was to pick up Emma from the sitter's, take her to MIL's to feed her, then take her to the high school where the registration is being held. DH was going to pick up some dinner to bring me when he got off work, then he was going to take Emma home and do the evening routine with her. So I show up to work and, ta daaaa, all the seats are filled, they don't need me. Great. I just arranged my whole evening around this.

Sooo...I get to go home, make supper, and do all my usual chores. What an anti-climax. Don't these people realize that I look forward to ogling fit, athletic cyclists in their tight biking shorts? I mean, damn!

I blame the new management.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Behold My Shame!!!
These are the tops of Emma's feet after crawling around on my "clean" floors for an hour.



Now you can see why bath time is a real treat for mama!
This is why you carry a digital camera everywhere you go...
...so you can be sure to catch images like this:

Bottle weaning starts now
I talked to the babysitter this morning and we've launched Operation Drop-A-Bottle. We agreed that the mid-morning bottle was the most expendable. Sure enough, Emma slept through mid-morning and awoke in time for her solid meal at lunch. I'm so clueless about this stuff. I haven't had time to read my books and I have no idea when things like this are supposed to be done. Thankfully I got a clue on this one from my mommy board.
Chewable Books
That would be board books. Emma's a connoisseur. She prefers the flavor of the little Baby Einstein books. She's just about devoured the one on Babies. I'm holding the Dogs one until she's finished.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Nightmare stuff, includes a dog and a baby
OK, nightmare because dalmatians are very touchy. I never know how he'll react to Emma. We keep a close eye on the two of them. The lab is very easygoing and doesn't seem to mind Emma pawing him, but Jake will growl sometimes. Anyway, the reason I'm yammering over the whole video in my "doggy-talking" voice is because I'm trying to reassure Jake and keep him from biting Emma's face off. It worked, this time. Sigh.

jakeyencounter.wmv
What is the junkiest food you've given your baby?
This was a question posted on my mommy board. My reply was french fries, which she had for the first time at Mickey D's a few weeks ago. We were at Wendy's tonight and she had a few more...Truthfully she gets very little junk from us. But when we go to the grandparents, all bets are off. ;)




And now for the rest of the story. Two minutes after this photo was taken she gagged on the fry she had been stuffing in her mouth and barfed up her entire dinner: Gerber macaroni & cheese, green beans and three fries. My first experience in cleaning up barf from the carpet in a restaurant. Good times, good times.

UPDATE: I just want to acknowledge that my Mom did the bulk of the cleanup on the eruption of Mt. Emma. She was unfazed. Maybe twenty years from now I will achieve that level of peace with puke.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
My baby sweats
No she doesn't, says Miss Southern Belle, she "glows." Uh, no, my baby sweats. Her head gets all warm and clammy. The hair at the nape of her neck gets damp and curls up.

She gets that from her daddy. When it's warm he can't even hold her, they're sweating all over each other, making each other even hotter.

I don't mind it. I think it's cute, like just about every other thing she does. When she's been crawling all around, terrorizing the dogs, cleaning off our coffee table for us, consuming our crumbs from the floor, she actually has some sweat to show for her efforts. It's validation for her hard work.

Did I mention dog hair clings to sweaty babies? I probably could have let that one go unsaid.
On the subject of Rockers...
I had to laugh out loud today at an account I read of Jennifer Aniston's interview in Vanity Fair magazine. Asked about Brad Pitt's current blond dye-job she replied, "Billy Idol called - he wants his look back."
Bwaa Haaaa Haaaa!

I wasn't the only one who noticed.
Queen + Paul Rodgers
I should be thrilled that Queen is touring again. Eh, whatever. It's only two original members, Brian May and Roger Taylor. I haven't even heard Paul Rodgers singing their tunes. It's just beyond impossible to replace the unmistakable voice of Freddie Mercury. The closest I heard was when George Michael sang with them at the Freddie Mercury Tribute at Wembley. Anyway...they only have two tour dates in the US, one in NJ and one in CA.

I don't want to accuse Brian and Roger of being sellouts or trading on the Queen name. In my mind real musicians are the ones that will continue to make music whatever the circumstances. They can hit the pinnacle of fame and fall to the depths of anonymity, but still they're called to make music. Brian and Roger will be at it till their dying breath. I'm just happy for them that they can trade on the goodwill that the original band generated. It just makes me miss Freddie again.
That Damned Harry Potter
His sixth book is hanging over my head like dark cloud. I need to finish it. No one is making me, but too many people expect me to know the end. I've been a known fan in the past. But this time I just don't have the time to read it. A 650 page book just seems like too much. And the worst of it is that I have 6 books that I want to read. Dammit! I have blogging to do, people to IM, chat rooms to visit! Oh, and a baby to raise. ;)
Monday, August 01, 2005
Fantasy vs. Reality
My guess is that this will be a recurring theme here. The Fantasy: the word "no" will be used sparingly, only for those really important things, like actual physical danger. I don't want my daugther's world to be "no, no, no." I hate hearing that. I'll use alternatives like redirection and diversion. The Reality: You know what? She understands the word "no." And physical danger is all around. I'm already hearing the word "no" come out of my mouth more than I'd ever hoped. Just picture my daughter being raised perfectly in a parallel dimension. That's about as close as I think we'll get.
Roots of Rhythm
Here is my baby exploring her percussion potential. I love it how she's half afraid of the actual noise she's making. My baby does flinching well.

BangTheDrumAllDay
Sunday, July 31, 2005
A simple switch
Yesterday I was inspired to introduce something different into Emma's sippy cup. She's been drinking water and enjoys it at the end of every meal. I thought, she's going to love this...I'll put formula in her sippy and she'll have bonus milk. I filled the cup with 4 oz. and set it in front of her. She could see me coming with it and I knew right away this wasn't going to go as I expected. She recoiled from the solid white stuff in her sippy. I tried to put it to her mouth and she batted me away and complained. I persisted and put some on her lips so she would know it was the formula she loves. No go. She wasn't having any of it. In the end she had her way, no weird white stuff in her sippy and I got to throw away 4 oz. of white gold.

See the film:
milk denial.wmv
I made my first movie
While my brother's family was home recently I was inspired to upgrade my digital camera. I wanted one that could take video with sound. I got the Canon Powershot SD200 Digital Elph, just like B. had. It does three things my old Elph couldn't; it takes video with sound, has a long battery life, and has the capacity to upload the pictures to any computer without installing special software.

Since I've had the camera I've taken lots of short films. I bought a 1 GB SD card so I'd have the capacity to take a lot of video. I've uploaded some of the shorts to zippyvideo.com to share with family via email and friends on my mommy board. Since it was the end of the month I decided to create a highlights movie of all the shorts. I can't say I'm fully satisfied with the result. It's not as clear as I would have liked. I assume I have a lot to learn about digital video.
Bath Time Fun (for me)
Bath time is a very satisfying experience these days. That's because Emma is D-I-R-T-Y. It's not like the old days, before she was mobile. All this time we've been bathing her every day because it was part of her nighttime routine. Bath time signaled to her that bed was coming soon. Her bath water was always just as clear when we were done as when we started. Not any more. Now I can rub and rub the dirt off of her skin. I can literally see the dirt disappear. And the bathwater is gross when I'm done. I know I am cleaning that girl up good.

I reminds me of when I was in fifth grade. The teacher used to have us pass our papers to someone nearby to be graded. She'd call out the correct answers and we'd mark the papers and pass them back when we were done. As mortifying as it is in retrospect, we used to actually argue over who would get to grade the paper of the dumb kid. If you used a red pen it would look like you had bled all over the paper when you were done. What does this have to do with bathing the baby? Just the fact that if you have to do the task anyway, you might as well be accomplishing something.