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December 12, 2003
ANOTHER ELMO
We got a GREAT buy on a Jake-sized Elmo. We were in the mall to get picture taken, and a lady was walking around giving out $5 gift cards for K-BToys. We both got a card, then went over to the store . . . I had been wanting to get Jake a big Elmo, and ToysRUs had one that if you bought $75 worth of toys you could get the big Elmo for $5, but I wasn't about to spend $75, no way, no how. Anyway, I found almost the same Elmo, $16 marked down from $26. With our gift cards it cost me $6. HA! You should have seen Jake's face when I showed it to him -- he got so excited and reached out and gave it a big hug, and he wanted to keep hugging it and then holding it at arm's length to look at it. I never thought I would encourage a character obsession, but Elmo is great and I get a big kick out of him and it makes Jake happy so it's all good!
PICTURES . . . AGAIN
The Picture People are irresistable to me, especially when they have coupons, so I took mom and Jake Friday night, then Lou and Jake on Sunday. When we got there Friday I was waiting and I saw the guy who took our 12 month pics, and I took aside a girl named Ashley who worked there and asked who was going to take our pictures. She pointed to the guy and I said "He took our 12 month pictures and they turned out awful and I almost cried when I saw them and I do NOT want him to take our pictures." She ended up staying longer than her shift so she could take Jake's picture. HOW SWEET! Sunday Lou and I got there, and I saw the same guy that I don't like as the main person there, but there were desk workers so I quietly told the girl how I didn't want him, so she said if we waited 20 minutes, Ashley would be in -- I was happy! I know this girl must think we're crazy to get pictures so often, but I just don't care. And I know I seem obnoxious asking to not have a particular person take Jake's picture, but for $15 a sheet the picture had better be good! I can get it at Sears or Penny's for $4 a sheet, but PP is usually much better and that's why I make special trips there. Anyway . . . there is a link on my TTM board to the pics.
WEIRD
Being a grown-up is weird sometimes. The other night was so odd -- mom had put Jake down for the night, and the two of them were getting their pictures taken the next day so mom decided I needed to cream her "mustache" to get rid of it again. (Ya know how some women have fuzz on their upper lip? My mom has a lot, and it grows fast. I mean, it's not a full out mustache, but it's there. Anyway . . . ) So I put the cream on for her and you have to wait 10 minutes, so we were standing in my bathroom anyway so I got out the cleaning stuff and we scoured my bathroom. You have to clean whenever you get the chance! It was funny to be telling her what to do, because all my life she's the one telling ME to clean the bathroom. I like working together better than being told to do it. ;o) I decided to do my 'stach, too (yes, I have it, too, but it's much thinner and lighter) and then I ended up using tweezers to get the whiskers out of mom's chin and underneath. It sounds weird and gross, but when you start to get older (she's 50), these things happen and you just have to deal with them (most people pay someone at a salon for it while they get their eyebrows shaped). We're not even going to talk about mom's toenails . . .it's weird, though, to see mom as just a person, and a vulnerable person with faults and flaws, at that, when growing up she was larger than life and indestructable and not to be messed with! Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?
DECEMBER 9, 2003
It is exactly one month until my 25th birthday. That is so weird to me. I was thinking about how old I was the other day -- sometimes I forget -- and I thought for a minute that I was 23. Then I thought, no, I was 23 when I had the baby, I must be 24 now. Apparently a lot of people freak out when they turn 25, and I'm ok with it, but it still feels weird. I'm right on track with the things I was hoping to have by the time I was 25 -- college degree, husband, child, house, ok job, retirement account . . . and granted, I'm heavier than I'd like to be, but there are worse things in the world, and I am working on it. But still, it's weird. Sometimes I think I
should be accomplishing more, that I'm not living up to my potential, but then I think "I get the laundry done most weekends and Jake's photo album is current -- that's doing pretty good!!!" (I'm out of bed and dressed, what more do you want?) And I know I'm younger than a lot of people who read this, so you're all going to be thinking I'm crazy for being dramatic about turning 25 and I should count my blessings, right?
EARLY RISER
Jake has been waking up at the butt-crack of dawn lately. I have to leave for work by 6:20 a.m., but I usually don't roll out of bed until 6. Jake has been waking up at like 5:45 and wanting to play -- this morning he was up and mom had him dressed before I was even out of bed. Then he starts saying "mom-mom . . . mom-mom . . . " and my mom brings him to me and he is SO CUTE in the mornings. Jake was sitting with me in bed and mom ran into my bathroom to blow her nose and the noise made Jake laugh. I said "did Nana blow her nose?" and he looked at me and grabbed my nose. As I was congratulating him on realizing where my nose was, he stuck his finger up it . . . well, if that doesn't wake you up, nothing will. I'm just glad he finally realizes that someone other than Elmo has a nose -- he's been able to show me Elmo's nose forever, but no one else's. He slides himself off my bed pretty well now, too -- I remember when I could just lay him in the middle of the bed with pillows surrounding him and not have to worry about him going anywhere. Now we have doorknob protectors on all the doors which slow him down, but when he's really determined he just pops them right off. Sometimes I feel like childproofing devices are a complete waste of time and money, because at least half of everything I've bought (and installed correctly, I swear), Jake has figured out how to tear apart. And the outlet covers work, but then I can't get them off when I need to use them!!!
NO NO, NANA
That is Jake's favorite new phrase. Last night mom gave Jake a bath in the kitchen sink, and he sits and plays with his little Fisher Price animals and he kept wanting to stand up and play with the faucet (he loves to stand up in the bath.) Whenever he stood up, mom would say "Are you
ready to get out?" and he'd say "no no, nana." And she would say "then sit down." What's funny is the way Jake says no no. It's like he's growling or something. I guess he wants to get the point across. His Big Bird video has a song that has squirrels singing "Big Bird doesn't fly, no no" over and over repeating that, and when it comes on Jake is just thrilled to get to sing "no no" along with the squirrels. Oh, but the reason mom had to give him a bath is she had just gone upstairs to take a shower and when she came downstairs and was talking to me about how nice it was to have a bath and feel clean again, Jake gets this look in his eyes and ran to the stairs and waited there. Then he started bouncing up and down and demanding "ba? ba?" (bath.) He's so
suggestable -- if he sees a banana he goes crazy until we give him one, even if he's not hungry.
BACK TO THE MALL
It's bad enough I was at the mall twice last weekend and have been to Kroger every other night this week (we didn't plan ahead food-wise last weekend and mom kept asking me to pick things up on the way home. Do you know how annoying it is to be in the supermarket at 5 or 6 p.m.? I live in one of the fastest growing counties in Tennessee, and while my town is a suburb of
Nashville and therefore should not be as crowded, it's like everyone and their mother is stopping at the store on the way home. It's so frustrating. Anyway, mom and Jake and I are meeting Lou's grandma (Frankie) at the mall tonight -- she wants to buy Jake a new pair of shoes. She has it in her mind that the StrideRite $40 shoes are superior to all others and buys Jake a pair every few months. Fine by me, that's one less thing for me to worry about, and they have wides, which is what Jake needs in order to get his chubby feet in the shoes, so it works out nicely. Then we're going to go to Frankie's house for dinner.
HOLIDAY CROWDS
It's slow-goin' on selling mom and dad's house in Montana, so they are still at my house all the time (although dad stays with Lou's grandparents.) I like having them here, but sometimes having so many people to come home to is a bit much. AND my little sister Kathy, who is one of my best friends in the world, will be here tomorrow for like 3 weeks. Now considering how social and extroverted I am and still I have problems with so many people, imagine what DH feels like. He's completely introverted and would prefer to not be around people any more than about 20 minutes a day. I feel kind of bad for him, because my family is loud when we get together and he's used to quiet -- but we had the same kind of company in our house when Jake was born and he did ok, so hopefully this won't be a big issue. My parents have someone in Montana who is thinking about renting the house for 2 years, and that would allow them to get a loan for a house out here, but the people don't want to make any plans until after Christmas, so it's just a big waiting game (which sucks.) I think everyone involved will be happier when they have a house of their own -- my mom feels so uprooted and unsettled without her own space. But that said, she and Jacob LOVE spending time together and mom spends a lot of time with Frankie, so it's all good.
EMPTY CHRISTMAS TREE
I've been kind of annoyed at our lack of decorating -- I mean, we've been in our house since April and still have only 1 picture on the wall. We have a ton of boxes still in the garage. So when Christmas season rolled around, I was hoping we would get our act together -- we intended to put up the tree Thanksgiving weekend, but it didn't get up until Dec. 7th, and we only had like 7 ornaments to put on it. In the past week I've bought about 13 ornaments so now we're up to like 20. The tree is in the corner of the dining room, behind the table, and really we can only decorate the top half anyway (so Jake can't take the ornaments down), but it bothers me that we have NO decorations, and really no money to put into any and no time to do it anyway. I did find our stockings and put them up on the top of the entertainment center (no mantle at our house), and pulled out the Picture People pic from last year of 3 month old Jake in the stocking (SO CUTE!) Lou says not to worry about the ornaments because it's something you gradually build, buying a few every year, and I guess he's right but I'm just not feeling very festive! I want lights and wreaths and red bows and the works, but he doesn't want any of that. Next year we are putting up outside Christmas lights if I have to get on a ladder and do it myself!!! (Does it seem to anyone else that the span between Thanksgiving and Christmas gets shorter and shorter every year? It seemed like a lifetime to me when I was younger, and now there's no time at all to get things done!!!)
PIANO RECITAL
I spent this week's piano lessons getting the kiddos ready for the Christmas recital, which will be Sunday. Evie just started lessons, so she is going to play 2 songs on the violin, which she's been learning for a while (but not from me). Alexis has been taking for 5 weeks and is playing 4 songs, Margie and Noel have been taking lessons about 2 years and are each playing 4 songs. It'll be a lot of fun and hopefully low stress and enjoyable for the kids. Shoot, I have to type up the recital program before the end of the day! Gotta go -- I just wanted to get a post up before the weekend, so hello to everyone, happy holidays, and TTM!
Jen
P.S. CONGRATS TO KELLY!!! On the birth of her new baby, Austin Daivd. There is a link to the birth announcement page I made for her on my TTM board. She has been anxious for Austin to get here and we are all so happy for her and big brother Nathan!!!
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