Good read...

Now,  you know I haven't the time (nor drive) to sit and read a long article.  but this is fascinating

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

 

 

Week over Week

As I sit in the dentist's chair waiting to learn the fate of an upper left molar, I'll attempt to explain why I think this week has got to be better than last:

1. After celebrating mr price's bday in lovely style... He became deathly I'll with the flu. poor guy; never seen him look so miserable. and it lasted alllll week. which meant a couple things: (1) he was in quarantine upstairs and i brought him food and drink, little more than sliding it on the bedside stand and bolting for the door for fear of catching this dreaded illness or worse... passing it on to the Shorty. (2) sick and in quarantine = needs help, not helping. so all morning, evening and middle of the night duties were passed to yours truly.
2. between the snow and the below freezing temps, there was quite a bit to maintain around the house - dripping pipes, running the pool pump, fishing leaves out of the pool (which involves holding a large aluminum pole for extended periods at below freezing temps and no, i did not stick my tongue on it), carrying the citrus trees to the cabana, and other manual labor.
3. still in the wrist brace
4. severe tooth pain brought on by a girl scout cookie. (they look all sweet and innocent...)
5. our cousin's dog had to be put down. broken hearts all around.
6. VERY heavy work load this week + a work event which meant having to stay late
7. earlier in the week I declined some additional (& substantial) volunteer work. by mid week I found myself having just agreed. hello rush advisor. what? yep. for all the fun I am SURE it will be; i still might be crazy.
8. the nanny missed monday due to a cut foot. while it was surely an accident, it totals a LOT of missed days. So tuesday involved a very serious 'talk' with her and the other nanny-share mom. no fun. but definitely necessary.
9. Friday was a 'snow day' funny thing about snow days when you work from home: NOTHING CHANGES other than it's cold and a bunch of other people are working from home who usually don't so conference calls start late, people no-show and progress is gerenally slower and more frustrating.
10. All weekend plans were cancelled - not just because or Mr. Price's aforementioned illness, but because all three other families ended up sick, too. Did I mention my hands are raw from contant washing?
11. this was the last week to get in all final details for a large fundraiser of which I am on the board. many emails and phone calls. see item #6 above which indicates: it is not ideal timing to need to wrap up a bunch of loose ends.
12. despite substantial effort - the car search is still no closer to closure. oh, and the cabana renovation has not had a finger lifted in it's direction... which leads me to additional odds and ends, but at this point i'm exhuasted myself.

But some lovely things happened last week, too.

• Besides for the birthday celebration and the lovely new shoes that had their debut
• I had a lovely lunch on Friday with Arin, little Will and my babino at 34th St Cafe
• Late Saturday night while the babino slept and Mr. Price felt up to it...I saw a movie for the first time in ages. Loved the cinematography & lighting plus very interesting dialog and speed to The Social Network. It was pretty darn good I have to say.

So the bottom line: this week I'm looking for a multi-digit percent improvement over last and i'm pretty sure that can be achieved. =)

Sent from my iPhone

Timing

As we clink and say 'to us both being out". ..I get this text:

"He is asleep but part of the house just lost electricity .. Off in kitchen and playroom dnd upstairs.. Anything I should do?"

Little Girl, Huge Imagination

Cette petite fille précieuse a volé mon coeur et m'incite à vouloir aller en France. Ou parlez au moins français pour le reste du jour. Stupéfier. Très impressionnant.

baisers,
emprice

(This precious little girl stole my heart and makes me want to go to France. Or at least speak french for the rest of the day. amazing. very impressive.)

Date night

A year ago tonight a very preggers me toddled into Frank & Angie's with Mr. Price for what we didn't realize would be our last pre-baby date night. Thinking we still had over a month to go - it was a relaxed dinner out. I specifically recall thinking as a table full of guys ogled my protruding belly, "how the hell am I going to grow another 6-8 weeks worth of belly at this rate?! I feel like this baby grew a pound today alone."

As we backed out of the driveway tonight I asked if he wanted to drive up to the hospital tonight at 4:30, just for giggles. He later admit that that comment made his stomach drop, remembering the feeling all too well. It was dark and quiet out... Just like tonight.

Impossible to believe it's been a year already. And then it feels like a lifetime ago.

Either way, tonight we unabashedly waxed nostalgic and it was delicious.

So Easy, A Baby Can Do It

The little boog hasn't been feeling stellar so Wednesday morning I let him play with my phone.

 

We started off looking at pictures of him which usually makes him giggle (or at least smile) and reach for the baby.

 

Imagine my surprise to later realize that the real-life baby managed to send that picture via email-- along with some random letters (which I think the phone auto-corrected and inserted 'dad' ...just too much ) to his blog.

 

And so there you have it, folks.  The secret is out.  Blogging is SO easy... a baby can do it.  Quickly.

 

Hair Today...

...Gone to Locks of Love tomorrow.

11 Step Program

An old, dear friend re-posted this on her facebook page and I truly cannot remember ever laughing so hard that I couldn't pry my eyes open to continue reading. Mr. Price and I had to take breaks from reading for bouts of laughter.

I thought about putting something together like this... but it is too perfect. my favorite parts have to be the "...softly in the dark..." and melon. Mr. Price thinks there needs to be a section on trying to keep the little monkey from eating everything in sight - similar to putting a starving mouse in a box with a bunch of cheese and then attempting to keep it from eating anything. But I'll let you skip ahead to the good stuff. So perfect.

Enjoy!

11 Step Program for those thinking of having kids

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Cabana Fever

Between the generosity of family and friends' overwhelming bounty of toys for the shorty and his new-found mobility... I feel like the walls of my recently expanded home are closing in on me.

It doesn't help that I work from home most days and the nanny, my shorty and the baby we nanny share with are all sharing the same walls every other week.

As such: I am feeling highly motivated to clean up the cabana and do a bit of renovating to turn that waste of space in the backyard into a usable living area. I won't even be so picky as to identify the space as a playroom or office for me... it just needs to be usable muy pronto before I lose my mind.

I oscillate between just wanting to do the whole darn thing now (as in everything from painting all surfaces, new flooring and ripping out the bathroom and rebuilding it from scratch) to tidying and cleaning the front room ASAP and leaving the rest for later. With this newly found impetus, I went ahead and took the liberty of having the whole darn thing bid out this week. I know I should probably get estimates from others before pulling the trigger. but that just might take too long, now wouldn't it? **note the irony here that we've owned this house for 6 years in February(!) and moved out of the Cabana 5 years ago Christmas Eve. Yet, suddenly there is no time to spare and it has to be done immediately.

I'll post pictures and would love thoughts/insight/advice on what to do with this disaster in my back yard. The question that is currently puzzling me is: to paint or not to paint the cedar-lined room in a white (sure, a grey-ish-taupe white, but white nonetheless). the whole room (ceiling included) is covered in six inch wide cedar planks. beautiful and functional... but dark.

Beads, Blogs and Butts

I'll spare you the resolution talk... we know i don't believe in those anyway. but happy new year!

BEADS
While in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains I began beading Shorty's Christmas stocking (yes, the week after Christmas) but there was no getting to it sooner and it was a lovely thing to do while relaxing in NC. I haven't beaded since living in Dallas with the good ol' "Stitch and Bitch" group. For all the creations I made along the way, I was surprised to realize that I gave away almost all of my creations with the exception of a couple snowflakes I found shoved in with my bead and sequin supplies. It's still a work in progress, but the most time consuming part was designing and cutting out the items. So while i was at it, I cut out an extra set to make a 'kit' for future stockings. good times.

BLOGS
Sadly, though my mind has been cranking away on blog posts, i've not been cranking them out. it takes a lot longer and a lot more body involvement to type these days. However, i go back to the doctor at the end of next week and we'll see what he says about the hand/brace. cross your fingers!

BUTTS
And the most shocking post-holiday news of all: I have been working out. yep. gone twice now to my neighborhood non-chain gym and am 50/50 on enjoying it. However, i'm hurtin' today. Not because of the dinner last night celelbrating Mr. Price's company being funded. And not because the baby woke up after we got home and remained awake and unhappy until finally giving up around 3:30. I'm hurting because of Tuesday's equipment pilates class (my first ever! which I would have enjoyed, I believe, if not for the raging b!tches in the class that I had to contend with) and yesterday's 'boot camp' style class with an inspiring and energetic (but not obnoxious) teacher and interactive and fun class. Hopefully i'll keep it up! You never know. =) The fact that it takes under 6 minutes from my door to walking into the gym and thatI can go during the day while the shorty is with the nanny makes it much more likely that this could continue.


Hitting the ground running this week. It's been great to be back home and have a smooth re-entry into work after a couple weeks off. Thanks to CES, collegues both internal and external are all doin' it up in Vegas - leaving me to actually get some stuff done. yay.