Yes, No, Maybe

YES:

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day: Charming, Witty, Quick-paced, Happy

My sister and her boyfriend: Happy them = happy me

My husband: Awesome

My little boy: giggle monster.

My best friend's 6 year old who crawled in to bed with me last night at 3 AM and slept with me until I got up the next morning.

Babies.

Bagels with eggs & cheese.

God: Love, peace, acceptance, freedom.

NO:

Money: In so many ways.

Addiction: Pain inducing.

Sickness: Friends and family with health problems.

MAYBE:

Superhero Movie: Good outtakes, best Tom Cruise impression ever, but I wouldn't call the movie 'good'.

Why??

Can someone explain to me why it's been snowing since I got up this morning? It's MARCH! Almost APRIL! It should not be snowing. It's even sticking some. For example, at my house:

Also, that picture was taken about 15 minutes ago and there's even more snow now. I tried to drive up by Western and couldn't get where I was going because it was sticking like white on rice and blizzarding and the flakes coming down were like ostrich down.

I am SO ready for spring. On another note, this mural in downtown Bellingham makes me happy when I drive by it:

Pictures

Pictures are up on Flickr, as I posted below. Here is a look at our new house, there are pics of the inside over there too:


I thought it would be particularly funny to post this as it has been SNOWING all day today. Seriously!? It is March 29. I am sooooo ready for spring to come, but instead I get a blizzard. It's not sticking as much at our house, but I tried to go visit Brie, Kyle & the twins at her Mom's house this morning, which happens to be on a big hill and it was like a blizzard! I couldn't make the turn onto the street and decided if I went and stayed there I might not be able to drive home. Argh!

Other than bizarre March blizzards, things are good here. Sam and I ended up going to the Children's Museum with Susan, Maggie & Lucy this morning since it wasn't sticking downtown and we needed something to do. In a little bit we'll be heading down to Seattle to Lorelai's SIXTH birthday party. Holy cow! I cannot believe she's six. Furthermore, I can't believe I've known Brooke for almost seven years. It seems so recent, but it also seems like forever.

Sam is getting much better about going to bed at night, but who puts him to bed has become a large factor. As in, Justin puts him to bed so well, and he doesn't cry, but when I try to do it it doesn't work as well. Oh well. He has even taken naps several times in the last couple days, and I'm pretty sure he'll sleep on the way down to Seattle today.

He seems like he's right on the verge of talking. The other day I swear he said "here you go" to me when handing me a crayon. He's very, very into cars and loves markers. We got him those color wonder markers so he can color and play with the markers and we don't have to worry about him inadvertently writing on anything. He is super-cute, as always.

I'm getting ready to start planning his birthday party so that I can give people from the Seattle area plenty of notice on the date and time in case they want to come. Helene has been talking about her and Lianna visiting in May and it would be really cool if they were here for Sam's birthday, so maybe I'll try to coordinate with that.

Well, I've got to go - we're off to have some lunch then go party!

LOTS of new pictures

So... I just spent about four and a half hours uploading pictures to flickr. Why I let them build up until there were so many, I don't know. All I know right now is that it's 2 AM and I need to go to bed so I can't write more.

Except... that there is no better feeling in the world than this:

Sweet Relief

After two nights of nightmarish going to bed AND waking up and being up for several hours in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe the bad bedtime spell is over. For the last four nights Sam has gone down with minimal crying and has slept through the night. We're crossing our fingers that the phase is over, for now at least. He's still fighting his naps - when putting him down, he cries a lot and doesn't want to lie down. Yesterday I gave up and let him get up, but today Justin put him down and we let him cry for maybe 15 minutes and then he went to sleep for a couple of hours and he was SO happy and cheerful when he got up. We had a really great time just goofing around on the bed, then went out to dinner at Red Robin. Sam loves to play with the crayons there, and he did a much better job of drinking out of the milk cup with the straw in it without tipping it and spilling it all over himself. He did do that also, but much less than last time.

Yesterday I had a doctor appointment and Kira and Emmy watched Sam and took he and Maggie to the children's museum. They had a really great time, I'm looking forward to Sam and Maggie spending more time together and getting to be friends! It's funny because he has a little bit of trouble getting along with her, I think it's just because they have really similar personalities and well, they're both two. I realized that maybe part of the reason is that Sam has had a lot more experience hanging out with kids that are a little bit older than him - he's spent tons of time with Seamus and Lorelai, and has just recently started spending more times with kids the same age or younger than him. He also gets along great with Nate, but he is also almost 6 months older than Sam.

We're settled in to our house up here in Bellingham, there are a couple of boxes left to unpack, but for the most part the house is all set up. It's very cozy and I am really enjoying it. The window in the front lets in a ton of sunlight in the morning and warms the whole room, and gives us a cheery start for the day. We need to dig out the lawn mower, I feel bad now because both of our neighbors mowed their lawns this week so now I feel like we better join the club!

We're headed down to Seattle tomorrow for Easter - we're going to church, then picking up Kira and Emmy in Seattle and heading over to Kirkland to our friends Tara & Phil's house for an early Easter potluck dinner. I'm happy that Emmy will get a chance to meet Brooke again and see her kids, and to meet Tara and Courtney. Also, Emmy had forgotten that Tara, Phil, Brooke & Dave were all from Pennsylvania and lived in Philly for a long time, so she'll be able to have some good conversation with them.

Well it's getting late so I think I'll head off to bed. More updates soon!

Total TV Junkie

If you know me very well, you know that I'm a total TV Junkie. I can't help it. I just love it. I got the EW Spring TV Preview issue today and red the whole article right away. Here are some random thoughts on the current TV situation...

JERICHO: It's cancelled (again) I'm sure for real this time. I like it, think it's great, but I think it started out too involved - you really can't miss an episode and expect to know what's going on in the next one. Skeet Ulrich has been on some shows I really liked recently - this one, and that Miracles sho a year or two ago. Maybe the next one will last...

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: It's almost back. FINALLY!

BREAKING BAD: Justin and I have been watching this new show on A&E. It's got Bryan Cranston (last big role was 'Hal' on Malcom in the Middle) as a science teacher who finds out he has terminal lung cancer and starts cooking meth to make money. It's definitely the totally opposite side of the spectrum from the sitcom role, and he's very good in it. I'd definitely recommend it if you can handle the darkness of it.

TOP CHEF: New season started 2 weeks ago! Yay! I love Bravo's reality TV - Project Runway, Top Chef, Shear Genius... love it.

I can't wait for Grey's Anatomy, 30 Rock, Supernatural, Moonlight, Bones, Criminal Minds and Battlestar to be back on. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it then!

Fun In Seattle

My cousin Emmy arrived in Seattle to visit on Wednesday night (after her plane was delayed about 4 hours), and will be here until early next Tuesday. Last night, Kira, Emmy and I went down to Seattle to stay downtown (thanks to our other cousin Aine for the hotel points!). We checked in then had drinks at the Top of the Hilton restaurant, which was fun - great view and yummy appetizers and drinks. My favorite was the Cherry Cordial Martini - cherry and chocolate. Then we went over to Dragonfish with Kira's friend Jerry for dinner, then Kira's boyfriend Joe came and we went to Sunshine Liquor on Capital Hill. It was a cool little bar, not too loud and the music wasn't too loud, and the bartender was nice. Plus they squeeze all their own juice and their homemade sour mix was really good. Collapsed at the hotel around 3:00 and got up this morning for a DELICIOUS free buffet breakfast at the hotel.

I spent the rest of the day with the fam, then went and saw "Be Kind Rewind". It was pretty good, I thought it was an odd little movie, but entertaining enough. What a weird concept. Here's something nice about living in Bellingham. I left at 8:40 to go to the 9:00 movie downtown. Got down there and found an excellent parking place right in front and went to walk to the ATM to get cash. Got to the ATM and realized I didn't have my bank card. Well, I was able to drive home, grab the cash, and get back to the theater before the movie started about 12 minutes later.

All in all it's been a good weekend so far, plus on the drive home from Seattle I saw a dog hanging out a car window in DOGGLES! That's right, doggie goggles. It was funny and I happened to have my camera in my purse so I took a picture, soon to be uploaded.

Tomorrow we're headed down to Seattle again for Easter and I'm staying over to work on Monday, but hopefully after that the rest of the week will be a little calmer!

In Bruges

It is fascinating to me that a movie can go from being completely hilarious to tragically heartbreaking and back again. This movie was hilarious at points, and profoundly sad at others, then violent and bloody, and funny then sad again. If you like dark comedy, see it. For sure. Colin Farrel is weirdly endearing as a sort of failure of a hit-man.

On another note, I really hate the phrase "self-starter".

Oh, also, Robert Downey Jr. is black...

See: Tropic Thunder. I think I will. August 15.

Not Better

Well, I was in Seattle last night but it has been relayed to me by Justin that Sam was up from 1:00 until 4:30 last night. He did go to bed early - 8:15ish, so he's obviously exhausted. We gave in and made a doctor appointment for him tomorrow morning. We want to get his ears checked out just in case, and maybe the doctor will be able to give us some advice about how to handle what's been going on.

Absentee

Sorry I have not been around the last few days. If you want details of why, see my other blog.

I'm heading down to Seattle today. We're having a birthday dinner for Brooke and then I'm working tomorrow.

We went and saw "Doomsday" yesterday. I had no idea what it was about, although Justin described it as being similar in plot to "28 Days Later". I actually liked it more than I thought I would. There were a couple of parts I could have done without, where I felt the violence was excessive, but for the most part, it was all right.

I'm off to get ready to head down to Seattle so I can get some work in before dinner.

Developmental, or just mental?

Justin thinks Sam is going into a new developmental phase and having a growth spurt. I think that it's driving me mental.

For the last 8 days, our bedtime routine has been sort of like:

9:00: We tell Sam it's almost bedtime and he can watch a Blue's Clues first.
9:30: We try to put Sam in bed. He cries and screams.
10:00: We can't take it anymore and get Sam up, take him in our bed.
10:30: Sam stops crying and starts calming down, but is totally awake and playing games and kicking us.
11:30 or 12: We put Sam to bed. He finally goes to sleep.

So, that kind of sucks. No more easy bed time, and we are clueless as to how to 'fix' it. Do we totally have to re-teach Sam how to go to bed? We tried a new nightlight, thinking maybe it was too dark, then even put a small lamp in there. That didn't help. We have tried talking to him for a half hour before bed and getting him to lie down. No dice. We looked online and it seems like a lot of kids have this kind of phase between 20-22 months. The real question is how do WE make it through it without going insane??

He's also been totally inconsistent about taking naps during the day.

The last couple of days have been the worst. Here's what happened:

Saturday/Sunday:
10:00 AM: Sam wakes up for the day. Proceeds to not take a nap.
9:30 PM: Time flew by since we were watching "Bee Movie". We try to put Sam to bed.
10:00 PM: We actually leave Sam's room at this point, after sitting with him, talking to him, etc. trying to get him to lay down.
10:30 PM: Sam is still crying and screaming. We go get him. We take him into our bed. He keeps crying & screaming.
11:00 PM: Sam finally stops crying and screaming, although during this time while slamming his head down onto the bed he hit his ear on his juice cup, which caused even harder screaming.
11:30 PM: We finally put Sam back in bed. He doesn't cry.
3:30 AM: Sam wakes up and is screaming and crying again.
4:00 AM: We give up and take him into the living room and put on Blue's Clues and try not to start crying ourselves.
7:00 AM: I finally put Sam to bed. I was thinking it had only been a couple hours until I heard my alarm going off and realized what time it really was. Sam does not go willingly or lie down. But at least he only cries for 5 minutes or so off and on.
12:30 PM: Sam is up for the day! He seems pretty cheerful. I think he is slightly crazy.

I feel bad because I am leaving to go to Seattle - I have a dinner tonight and have to work tomorrow. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get mine on Monday night.

McSweeney's

You know what I love? Mc Sweeney's lists. I could read them for hours on end. Last night I found this website: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/. I sat there and read the lists for about an hour and laughed out loud probably about 10 times. This might be my new favorite place to waste time online....

Ahhh...

I just put Sam down for his nap, and he went into his crib wonderfully (with a book of course). I've heard a few random noises, but for the most part everything is quiet. So, if he's not falling asleep he's at least having some quiet time in his crib and giving me time to do a little work.

So, here is how you know when you're a crazy mother. There's this episode of Blue's Clues where they skidoo into a bakery and help bowl and spatula make banana cake. If that sentence didn't sound crazy to you, you must have a kid. Anyway, every time I watch it I wonder if the recipe would actually work. I looked online at some banana cake recipes and they were pretty similar. So, I had these three browning bananas in the kitchen and I decided to see if it would. The recipe as given on the show is:

3 bananas
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
a dash of salt

After looking at recipes online I decided to add butter (1/2 cup) and a dash of vanilla. I also just realized I forgot the salt. Anyway, I mixed it up and cooked at 375 for 30 minutes. And.... IT IS GOOD! I just ate a little piece and it is lighter than banana bread. It's not too sweet, so I think it would be good with some icing, but I'm just going to leave it plain. It got a little too dark, I think if I make it again maybe I'd try baking at 350.

Anyhow, thanks Blue's Clues...

Holy Mother of Bedtime Horrors

Sam is in his room right now crying as if Justin is trying to pull his limbs off one by one. Reason number 859 that I have the best husband in the world: He is in Sam's room with him listening to the screaming at close range and singing and talking to him trying to get him to calm the bleep down. For some reason the last four or five nights, bedtime has been a total nightmare. We somehow went from sure, I'm used to the new house to hell no I'm not going to bed before midnight. As if taking care of an almost 2 year old all day isn't exhausting enough, now we don't even get any time without him in the evening. Last night he stayed up until MIDNIGHT people. Seriously. He finally went down then. He got up at 9:30 and did not take a nap today. That means that in the last 24 hours he's only had 9.5 hours of sleep - NOT ENOUGH for a 2 year old! By about 4.5 hours! He was at Brooke's all day today and when I put him in the car to come home at 8:15 he was asleep before I even got on the freeway. When we got home and I tried to put him in bed, he freaked. So I let him watch a Blue's Clues. Then Justin put him down and he went down nice and was quiet for a couple minutes, then started to cry, and is now screaming. Frustrating... I just wish that there was some way for him to talk to us and tell us what he needs. It makes me want to cry myself actually...

So, aside from that difficult thing, he's been okay the last few days, but a little fussy. He has not been taking naps unless we go to a park or something and run around in the morning before nap time. Which is a hard adjustment, and he really needs to nap during the day, especially if he's goign to wake up at 8 like he's been doing.

Let's distract me from the crying by listing some of Sam's current favorite things...

Favorite Foods:
1. Risotto (Weird, huh?)
2. Macaroni & Cheese
3. Yogurt
4. Cheese (he just started eating cheese in the last couple of weeks)
5. Chic Patties

Favorite Shows:
1. Blue's Clues
2. The Backyardigans
3. Yo Gabba Gabba
4. Ni Hao, Kai-Lan
5. Dora the Explorer

Favorite Toys:
1. Cars
2. Trucks
3. Trains
4. MagnaDoodle
5. Little square letter books he got from his cousin Gryphon

Favorite Activities:
1. Running, especially down sidewalks
2. Watching cars
3. Roughhousing
4. Slides
5. Putting rocks and sticks in his mouth and eating dirt

Cutest Activities:
1. When he hurts you, and you are saying ow ow, he kisses you
2. Cuddling
3. The other night he insisted that Justin put on his fleece winter hat with the ear flaps and chin strap, then walked around the house in it playing with toys.

Well, I think that's all I can manage for now... please send some sleep dust our way...

My Secret Identity

Last night I went and saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo at the Moore Theater in Seattle. I went with my 25 year old sister, my Mom and her fiance. We had dinner at Wild Ginger, which I've been hearing about but had never been to, then went and listened to the beautiful and awesome sounds of the concert. Driving home in the car it was quiet, and I began to think about how much fun I had that night. Sometimes I forget that I'm a real actual person who can watch TV shows besides Yo Gabba Gabba, read things besides Go Dog Go, and play with things other than little toy cars and MagnaDoodles. I used to have a blog called Scientific Nature of the Whammy. In my pre-mommy days, I would post my favorite headlines for the day or thoughts about what was going on in the world, the movies and concerts I went to and what I was up to. I still have a blog, which is linked over to the side there - Adventures of the Heiner Family. You'll notice that this blog focuses almost exclusively on my beautiful tow-headed little angel boy Sam. I am his Mommy, 95% of the time... but I need a place to be just me. So, here I am after 2 years of not posting to join the blogging community again. I hope you enjoy it.