Poll time

I have 2 roundtrip tickets to anywhere in North or South America on the company. I've still got 4 weeks of maternity leave that I still can take that is paid. So....where would you go?

I can go to anywhere in the US....but want to take it out of the country. Although we don't speak spanish or french.....we can visit either Canada or Mexico...or South America. We can go to the Caribbean....we have no idea.

I will either be going sometime in March or sometime in April. Which would you choose? Please be mindful of the kid. We aren't really beach people, but I seriously dig Mexican cuisine. I would loooooove me some authentic ceviche (the kind that doesn't give you diarrhea). Puerto Rico? Anywhere....tell me what we should go visit and why. This will be our vacation for the year.

By the way, any ideas of a b-day party for the kid? Maybe his auntie A and Uncle B could come visit and help him celebrate his b-day in style? Or maybe his grand parents in KS want to go crazy and come out to CA to help celebrate this kid's b-day? After all, he only turns the big O-N-E, once in his life. ;-) What say you? If you leave the celebration up to me, it'll be a sad cupcake with a candle and a bitchy orange dog.

Tonight's footage

So Mr. Oliver's been doing a bit of snorting lately. I don't even know what to call it or how to describe it. He wrinkles up his nose, squints his eyes and snorts. Its not that he can't breathe through his nose, its just that he thinks its hilarious. Here are a few shots from tonight's snorting. I've got a video of it..



Yes, I know I need to cut his hair. This weekend, we had 2 people ask if he was a boy or girl. Now, I know his hair is a bit long, but does this look like a girl to you?



This is what I like to call the ghetto "what you looking at?" stare, I think he's got it perfected to a science.

Bit of a update. My mama was here for a week. So this tells everyone that I have some despoiling to do. My mama admitted that she only slept maybe 4 hours a night and after I told her that she cannot pick him up at night when he cries....she still only got 4 hours of sleep. Imagine my shock that she would bring him into bed with her when he started to cry at 4 am? Well, at least I got my sleep for the millennium. Meanwhile, I think I lost it all after she left on the plane tonight.

Mr. Oliver is so rotten and spoiled. He actually threw a tantrum at costco. He was sitting in the top part of the costco cart and he wanted to be picked up. Only I didn't feel like picking him up. He just started to get more and more and more cranky. So we offered him a bottle. He was so upset at this point he grabbed the nipple and shot formula EVERYWHERE. Then he started to wail. This kid gave it all he had. I was upset, but thankfully my mama picked him up and held him. I was being sarcastic. She's spoiled him rotten. This reminds me of the monster that was created back in KS. I know I can't blame the grand parents, but geez, at some point you've got to give us a break. We're poor students when it comes to being good parents.

Some crappy photos

We were just chilling out today. We went to the crappy farmers market in the outskirts of the city and then we went to have some chicken noodle soup. Mr. Oliver ate his fair share and so after a long nap, we were chilling out in bed. These are crappy photos cause they were taken with Crazy's work mac.

Love in the 21st Century

Because its Valentine's day.

Back in 1997 (eons ago) I was in northern California going to college. There was this new thing going on called "chatting" and although I was busy with school work, I soon became hooked. I joined a music forum and started to chat with music lovers about different bands we were interested. Somehow this guy jumped in one day and asked me for my e-mail address. I hesitantly gave it to him. Anyhow, we conversed on and off via e-mail and chatting on the music forum. He had none of the same music interests but somehow we kept e-mailing and chatting. I was 21 at the time and pretty carefree. I was such a spunky kid and he was hooked. Anyhow we e-mailed for almost a year and started to talk on the phone for at least 6 months. Somehow I felt so comfortable with this guy and was able to say anything. In fact, the more unconventional I was, the more intrigued he became. We exchanged photos and I thought, gee, what a total nerd. Totally not my type, so feeling unthreatened I invited him to dinner in LA. As he was on his way to Hawaii for a 3 year stay and was dropping his car off in Los Angeles he agreed.

So....a week before he was to show up, he delivered the biggest fruit basket to my office. I had to make my sister help me carry the damn thing home and as I walked home hauling this thing I thought to myself, wtf was this guy thinking? Doesn't he know what a lazy butt I am? Anyhow he showed up a week later. Lets just say that he needed a serious makeover. There he was in the most dorkiest haircut, wire rimmed glasses, purple Kansas State t-shirt and tight stonewashed levi's and the ugliest brown loafers known to man. I thought to myself hmm, do I really want to take this guy out to dinner? But what the heck, we're just buddies, so no big deal. I quickly put on my black 8 hole doc martins and my punkish attire and on to the restaurant we went. On our way to the restaurant, I thought, WTF am I doing in the car with this stranger? But somehow I knew it was okay. He seemed safe for some strange reason. So in the car we were on the way to the restaurant, he asks "Will $30 cover the meal?" I thought to myself oh man, this bastard is poor, so I said, "Um...don't worry, I'll pay for dinner." After dinner we went to play pool. I completely lost, but he was nice enough to let me cheat. Even though I was able to cheat, I still lost.

We fell into dating long distance. I told him, "look, I'm young, I have friends, I don't want a full time boyfriend, so if you want that, you need to look elsewhere." He said, "Okay, I'll take what I can get." So he took my calls when I was able to call him, came to visit when I had time to give him. Otherwise, he kept to himself and gave me all the space I needed. Six months into dating, he called and asked me to marry him. At 21, I said, "Oh that's just gross." He made a lame excuse of letting me use his military benefits so that I wouldn't have to work so hard at going to school and working. I couldn't imagine marrying someone for their money, besides I was young and busy living my crazy life. But he was always on the other end of the line when I was free. He thought the world of me, loved every crazy outlandish thing I said or did. He didn't say anything when I picked out clothes for him, he got on his knees to tie my shoes, he held my school bag, did research for school projects that I didn't have time to, did everything I asked him to do. Two years pass by and on my way home from school, I thought to myself, I'm graduating college in a month. What am I going to do afterwards? Then it hit me. I was ready.

I called him on the phone when I got back. I said, "Crazy, I think I'm ready." All I got on the other side of the line was total silence. I patiently waited for him to say something. He finally said, "Are you saying what I think you are saying?" I said, "I don't know, what do you think I'm saying?" I said, "Crazy, don't you have something you want to ask me?" He said, "Oliver's future mama, will you marry me?" I said, "HELL NO! I'm young!" Yeah I'm an asshole.

So he came to the city for my graduation. He fell down a hill while my entire family watched. He took it in stride. He then weathered my crazy family. We picked 2 cheap wedding bands a few days later and got married in city hall. He would later tell everyone, we got married in the same place that Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio got married. I opted to elope to escape having a wedding. I moved to Oahu 15 days later. We didn't tell anyone we were married. We hurt a lot of feelings. We just did not want a wedding.

He's still one of the most patient people I've ever met. He accepts me regardless of how crazy I am. He sacrifices everything to give me anything and everything I want. He will move to the end of the earth for me. We had a child. He's beautiful. We have 2 dogs together and live in a great apartment in the heart of the ghetto. We spend quiet nights together. He does my laundry and changes the poopy diaper of our child. I am a lucky woman.

We're sick again

I can't believe that we are sick again. Mr. Oliver has been puking and having diarrhea. Its quite fun, especially when he power vomits over 2 of your huge white feather blankets. There is just nothing quite like a baby spewing kobacha squash with some peach yogurt. Gives you new perspective.

Crazy stayed home today with Mr. Oliver. Then at 2:30 pm, I couldn't stay at work anymore because I wasn't feeling well and my immediate duties at work were taken care of. I went home and took a long nap on the floor trying to fight with Mr. Oliver who did not want to take a nap. So he kept pulling on my hair and climbing all over me. I kept telling him no, but in my hazy tired state of mind, I don't know how long this went on. Then Crazy took him away and gave him to his mama who luckily took care of him for an hour while I napped. Yes, he still is able to hang out with his mama, the weight maximum is 25#.

Crazy made some spicy pork soup for dinner. :-) Mr. Oliver had some organic goat yogurt for dinner after he refused his squash. He then proceeded to talk. He was so talkative that I called up my mama who he spoke to for a few minutes before my mama got bored and hung up on us. Crazy put him to bed at 9:30 pm and hopefully he won't wake up until 7 am. But knowing our crappy luck, he will probably get up at 5:30.

Speaking of sleep training. I forgot to update everyone on it. He's sleeping through the night. It took us about 2 weeks to get him to the point where he sleeps through the night. For a full week, he would get up and cry himself silly while we lay awake in another room silently begging him to go back to sleep. He would cry and cry and cry. It was really heartbreaking, but I just couldn't continue the night feedings any longer. His pediatrician was right, he didn't need the night time feedings, he was holding off eating during the day because he knew he could eat at night. Now he gets a bottle after he eats his dinner and plays for a little bit, then gets a bath before being put down. Night times are still a bit painful, but we're working on putting him down quietly. Its just that when he's sick, its hard to be firm, especially when he's got the pathetic crying down like a science.

A funny little tidbit about what shitty parents we are. So....yesterday when Crazy dropped off Mr. Oliver at daycare, Ms. Janice asked where his shoes were. Well.....Crazy and I haven't really been too crazy about buying shoes for Mr. Oliver....and besides, he pulls off his shoes and socks whenever he gets the chance. But our main reason is that baby shoes are so pricey that I can't really think about spending $30-$40 bucks on shoes he can wear for a week before he outgrows them. Besides, he's not walking and we would rather not stunt his feet. Besides, who are we kidding about putting shoes on him? He can't walk, why put on the costume? Anyhow back to the story. Crazy got really defensive when Ms. Janice asked where Oliver's shoes were and said, "Well, he always pulls them off..." to which Ms. Janice responded, "He never pulls them off here." Anyhow to make a long story short, Crazy felt completely embarrassed and called me to beg me to buy some shoes for Oliver. We bought some shoes for Oliver at Target, however since he's a baby, and those things are so tiny, we have lost them. We bought some soft fabric boots for him...but they are also missing. He pulls them off like a demon. So to sum this all up, Mr. Oliver is shoeless because his parents are unprepared for life in general.

Plan of attack

So we tried our best on Friday to get a company to come out and clean our carpets of all the pet stains (Thanks Mr. C), however no one wanted anything to do with the ghetto. So Crazy had to go rent a steam cleaner at the grocery store. Saturday was spent cleaning up carpets and we dropped off the cleaner that night. Poor Mr. Oliver had some weird bug where he barfed up all day long. He managed to keep his formula down, however he couldn't keep his meals down. I need to mention he's got really good aim. He got me a few times, and he got a big white fluffy down blanket. It was seriously gross.

So...we managed to get the majority of the laundry done, all the floors cleaned, the beds made and we will no longer be sleeping on an aerobed in the living room because the odors from the bedroom are now thankfully gone. Plan of attack means that we've decided to keep Mr. C crated when we are at work, Ugly is also crated. The only one with free roam of the bedroom is Kylee. She's the only trustworthy one. We've tossed out the dog cushions aka pee cushions. The kitchen is clean, meals are planned, dogs' food is ground up and packaged away in the freezer. Oliver's meals for the week are ready. For those who care, he's got roasted chicken brown rice porridge and roasted kabocha squash. We will be having spicy pork soup for a few days and a shitake mushroom stew with sauteed vegetables and lots of brown rice. I even made dinner for us tonight. We had honey mustard chicken, brussel sprouts and brown rice and there's enough left over for lunches tomorrow.

I've shaved Ugly and my house finally feels good to me. Its been a loooooong 6 months. I can't believe that ever since I started back at work my house went to the dogs, however since I went back to work, my house finally looks like someone sane lives in it. The dogs and Oliver did not win. :-)

So weird to think we finally are able to catch up. We've even put up the new car seat. We did our grocery shopping. Jeez! Almost all of the chores are done.

Uncle Ben!

U JELUS!!!!!!!!! Its okay, we still love you, despite the fact that your jealousy turned ugly.

Knock out!

Tonight Oliver KNOCKED out. I had to work 11 hours today. So....Oliver and his maybe papa had some dinner....and obviously Mr. Oliver was blown away. Before anyone asks, what is that humongous sheet behind Mr. Oliver....well we were doing laundry and some sheets did not dry so we draped them over the chairs.



You may also notice the alien underneath the table....that's Oliver's Uncle's dog, who we affectionately call "Ugly". Ugly has realized what a treasure mine this chair is.

Scoops, Scoops and more scoops

How much do I love thee?

We went to LA this weekend. I took Friday off and we drove down after we got back from work Thursday night.

Guess where we were on Friday night?


Eat your heart out Auntie A. I got 3 scoops. Black sesame seed ginger, black pepper strawberry, and pistachio honey.

Then Saturday was Uncle K's birthday, so.......we went out to dinner.

Look at that bastard eating. He did all the ordering...all I have to say is, my poor poor wallet. I told Uncle K that he had an hour to eat before I would leave him in the dust. We broke a few laws and got to Scoops just in time to grab the last bit of gelato he had. He sold out! Can you believe this? Thankfully we were able to get the last bit of gelato.


You jelus yet Auntie A?

So then on Sunday we had a great visit with Uncle P and we saw this afterwards


Last some photos of Mr. Oliver that are just irresistible.



If you haven't guessed yet, I loooooooove that cap. Its so darn cute. Don't you just love those two itty bitty toofs? It must seem like he smiles a lot....its totally false. False I tell you. Oliver's Uncle K asked how many kids I wanted to have. I told him that if some chick volunteered her body and the first 3 years of the kids' life, then I'd be more than willing to have at least 3, at this point its painful to think about even 1. Then Uncle P said that it would be hard for Oliver to be an only child....well, if he knows a chick that would be a surrogate mother to my big HEDED kids, then they would be more than welcome to "pop" a few out for me.