He's learning body part names

Brooks' friend Gabe has known where eyes, nose, mouths and ears are for months, he can show you on himself and you. I've been trying to teach Brooks these sames words for a while now and he hasn't gotten them down. I point to my nose and say "nose" and he open hand punches my nose, it has really put a damper on my desire to further this part of his education. But I am happy to report that the other night we discovered he has learned a body part name and will point to it when you say the word...his penis.

We always said we weren't going to make up names for genitalia before we had a baby. So the first time Brooks touched his penis we said, "that's your penis" just like we say "that's your nose" or "stop poking me in the eye". A few weeks ago, like many guys, he started making sure it was there during bath time. When he would do that, in a funny voice we would say penis, this voice made him smile, then laugh and then it became a game.

I am very proud of my son for learning the proper nomenclature for his appendages, or at least this one. I am more than grateful though that he hasn't figured out he can get to it while clothed, hopefully he won't read that here and get any ideas. Back to working on vocabulary, maybe tomorrow we'll work on something he can do in public.

Well, he's not a vampire

Brooks got another two teeth just 36 hours after popping another bottom tooth out. They are on the top and bicuspids #1, according to the dental charts that I scoured the Internet for. Seeing them come in before his canine teeth made me quite anxious. First, I knew that his chances of becoming the replacement for Robert Pattison in the remake of Twighlight in 18 years were over. Secondly what if there isn't enough room and the canines come in and then they can't finish coming in because there isn't enough room and his mouth is all jacked out and he's grumpier than he is now and I get less sleep than I am getting now and and and and and and.......This is when I hurried an email off to some friends. A few hours later I got a response, "Just asked my friend who teaches Dental hygiene at insert school dental school. She said there shouldn't be any spacing issues and kids don't need to go to the dentist till 3. Just do normal brushing routines and all should be fine." Phew, relief, now I can stop thinking in run on, stream of conscience sentences.

PS, can you imagine if I drank caffeine?

A Gift Guide of Sorts

So what do you get your husband's cousin, who is also an artist and lives in NYC and has everything she needs and wants, for her birthday a big one at that?

The best present money can't buy.







I labeled some of the
finer points of the picture too.

Vaction 2.0

Hope that my last post didn't make you think that I didn't have a good time after my last post, because I really had a nice time. So many people together allowed us to have 2 real dates and 3 kayaking dates. We had several trips to the beach, biking, kayaking, pool and lots of family time. Here's what we did.

Brooks got to meet Lowly and take him for a ride. Yeah we paid 3 quarters for this 30 second ride, not exaggerating.

We ate our favorite food, crabs, well Brooks didn't, but he has 11 more months to start liking it or he gets traded in.

Gave and got lots of smiles

Saw some beautiful sights, but worked for it!

Vacationing 101

Vacationing with your kid is so different, (duh…) but vacationing with your partner’s family AND your kid is a THOUSAND times different. There are so many dynamics involved more than just personalities.

First, their history, they have all the stories. Remember when Uncle Joe fished that pair of underpants from the pond? They all laugh and you’re sitting there going, “Is there a nail salon nearby? What’s for dinner?” oh, yeah funniest story ever, please tell it again. OK so it’s not really that bad, but you feel on the sidelines occasionally even after 5 years of marriage and 4 years of vacationing with his family.

Secondly, they have their traditions. How am I supposed to know that Mondays are pancake breakfast, Tuesday is shopping day, Wednesday is beach day, Thursday is pool day, etc.. One night eat out, then we take turns making dinners, then the last night take out.

You all get the point. There is no way to know this ahead of time either. You have your own traditions, desire to create new ones, and your way of doing things, until you get together with 5 other adults and a very opinionated 4 year old. How does one adjust to this? Roll with the punches, I guess. I say I guess since I have NO.FLUCKIN.CLUE. I tried to do my own thing, while being available, but I am completely unable to be this flexible no matter how hard I try.

This year I will practice more yoga to be more flexible for next year.

The Griswold's Go to the Beach

Being married to a carpenter has it's advantages and disadvantages. If you've ever heard the expresion, "The cobbler's wife has no shoes", yeah that's pretty much us, except in all honesty I have some really nice shoes. John got a wild hair a few months ago and decided to build kayaks. He started in on the first one and asked a few days into it, it I would like it. I later found out that this was so he could iron out the mistakes on mine and his would be better looking. I don't care, I have a custom made kayak, no over head light or finished ceiling in my bedroom, but I am now the proud owner of a custom kayak. Open cockpit, light enough for me to carry alone, I get to name it (I think "Ship" is what I'm going with), and chose the color.

John finished up his kayak a week before we left for vacation, this past Saturday, he launched it on Thursday and was MORE than pleased with himself when it didn't take on water or sink. Now the dilemma, we don't have roof racks OR kayak holders. No problem for Mr. Crafty, a.k.a. John, he took 4 rachet straps and made roof racks by wrapping them through the inside of the car and over, then made the kayak holders out of wood and foam. While describing this to me I really thought that my husband was brillant, and was picturing a lower tech version of this. I had NO idea that what I was actually going to get was THIS!

OK, not the end of the world, I mean after we all we are driving the beat up car and it's only a 2.5 hour drive. Pride swallowed.

Saturday morning we load up the car. We decided to take John's car since it has more trunk space and that is a high commodity when 3 adults and a cloth diapered baby are traveling in one vehicle on vacation for a week. Everything had to be done in a specific order, trunk loaded, kayaks loaded, then the bikes put on. Oh, did I mention that we decided to take our bikes? Two cross-over mountain bikes, WITH a baby seat attached. John's modelesque cousin models the beauty of the vehicle that will transport to a week at the beach.

Besides looking like idiots driving to the beach, there was a serious flaw in the plan; rain. The faux roof racks bent the rubber casing around the door and when it started raining the rain came in the car. It came in the door and ran down the ratchet straps and dripped all over us both. We grabbed napkins and tried to prevent any further dribbles to no avail, as they were saturated almost immediately. We pulled into a drugstore to buy some papertowels, while in there decided that something with some more absorbance might be better, bonus if it has adhesive, yup, maxi pads. They weren't pretty, but did the job. We went through 17 of them in 2 hours, but were nice and dry with a great story.

A Different Spin

I had a lovely post planned with pictures of the house and no mention of my child, then the Today Show blew it for everyone.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44104472#44104472

Starr Jones, I used to not hate you, but I might now. Who the hell do Savannah Guthrie and Starr Jones, think they are? The two without kids are against nursing in public, even saying that there needs to be modesty in public. Brooks never nursed with a cover over him, and he still doesn't. Doesn't mean the whole world has seen my nipples.

While we are winding down our nursing time together this shit just needs to stop being discussed. Like gay marriage and palazzo pants, nursing in public needs to be accepted by everyone.

*Sigh*

My cousins went home today, booooo. They had been here since last Saturday and it was our 4th summer in a row for a nice long visit. Our visits started the first year with one little girl, the next year her sister came, now it has evolved into two young women (alright one is still really a girl) visiting.

We did some seriously touristy stuff, but also some off the beaten path activities. Zoo, Please Touch Museum, Art Museum (which I learned on this trip is really beyond fabulous and I can't wait to explore more), swimming, etc. I also took them to a breast feeding event called Latchon.org, they were SO good and helpful, I can't over state how helpful they both were.
Here is a list of things I will NOT be able to do once they are gone, (bonus points if you recognize the theme)

1) Pee in peace, one of them was always there to hold or entertain Brooks, so I could just pee by myself or without listening to him scream for me.

2) Not clean up dog pee. The dogs had their own personal assistant all week and she attends to their every need.

3) Not pee on myself, seriously for the first time in a long while, I was able to make it a whole week. I guess I should give myself a cookie like when my parents potty learned me. Hmmm....now I want a cookie

4) Get laundry done. Seriously, I vacuumed the laundry room floor, because all the laundry was done and not in piles all over my floor.

5) IBe subjected to shows that focus on the letter "I" in their title, if you watch NickJr, you know what I'm talking about. Seriously the letter must be like catnip for the tweens.

6) Look at every Selena Gomez hairdo for the past 6 years. Yeah the girl is gorgeous and has fabulous hair, but she probably has a hairdresser follow her all day. No one's hair looks that good all the time.

I'm going to miss my ladies. I always have a blast with them and I hope that they say the same about me. I wish I had a picture of us together, but I didn't think about taking one. Next year though when they are 10 & 12 and BOTH taller than me.

A New Thing I Look Forward To

Until recently we didn't really have a bed time routine. Our kid always fell asleep really well on his own. Of course we had our ups and downs, but for the most part no biggie. He doesn't like "reading" or as we like to call it, Brooks tearing pages or throwing books. And music seems to actually keep him awake.

A few weeks ago before we knew that Brooks was teething again, I wrote to some friends and family to see if they had some sleeping tips/techniques. Almost all of the said the same thing, get a bed time routine. So we did.

8pm: bathtime
8:20: nurse and brush teeth
8:30: bedtime

Pretty simple, to the point and so far effective, except of course when he's teething. He still goes to sleep easily but doesn't stay down, oh well, one day he'll have all of his own teeth and then I'll have to pay for braces.

How I offended the Locals

The MODG, if you don't know her, she's kinda like The Oprah, or Jesus, only I don't call him The Jesus. Anywho, she reminded me of our local fair's baby pageant contest. As the daughter of a beauty Queen, I jumped on the opportunity to exploit show off my child.

It was hotter than a whore house on nickel night, in the bingo hall on the fairgrounds. We got there early to support The Modg and her son, G. After they were robbed by Mike Myers (actual participant's name), we sat around for 2 hours. Because apparently they don't know or I don't know how old my son is, (it's them). I figured since he is 12 months he would be in the 12 month catagory, but no, they put him in the 13-16 month catagory. WHAT!?!?! How the hell is supposed to compete with walkers? But I figured we had this in the bag, he's dressed in a gingham smocked romper with race cars, I coordinated in a white shirt with blue gingham pants. IN.THE.BAG. For good luck The MODG gave me her "My Kid is the Total Package" pin, I left it on the stroller as to not seem to cocky. (You know where this is going right?) Yeah we didn't even place.

Afterwards my friend, Jonathon and I started cussing like drunk sailors. The poor white haired woman next to us almost stroked. She had this horrified expression on her face. Her expression only made me laugh harder, which is what we were doing by this point.

I called my mother in the car and told her. We came to the conclusion that for Brooks to really contend we are going to need to get a pageant and talent coach, but the real reason we think he didn't win....his lack of hair. What do you think?