Who Are You?

Months ago I put a traffic feed thing-a-majig on my blog. It is always fun to try to figure out who's reading and see how they arrived. One has had me baffled from the start though. Who are you? You are in Phoenix, AZ and usually click through Mike & Katy's blog...I'm stumped.

Tooth #2

Jacob had another tooth just barely poke through yesterday. I can't exactly feel it but I can see it. He's too wiggly for me to feel it since it's right next to the other sharp one and I can't differentiate between them. Anyway, soon Jacob's little pictures will be sporting two front (bottom) teeth. I guess that's probably why he screamed like crazy last night. Poor baby.

Dancing Fool

Jacob has discovered music. That boy's got some rhythm. If he hears music, he starts dancing to the beat. It's like an automatic switch over which he has no control. We love it.

Said a Mother of One to a Mother of Four...

Once upon a time I was at Mali's house with Ben when he was my only little one. He didn't eat much of his lunch and neither did her three girls. She was cleaning up and asked if I wanted her to throw out Ben's food. A conversation ensued about how Mali dumps the plates after a meal and I pack it up and put it in the fridge for later. Just seemed like such a waste to chuck all that food. He had left overs from every single meal and he always ate them within the next day at one meal or another. Mali questioned why I would bother to go to all that work to keep track of it. I was adamant that it was about not wasting and I remember always having to clean my plate at home growing up. I had full intentions to always do it. Why change? It worked for us. And she dumped her girls picked at remnants of lunch in the trash can. Fast forward three or four years. I have three kids now. I never (almost) save anything anymore. It's too nasty and gross for me to want to touch it and repackage it for later. Usually there isn't enough to care about in the first place. The saved food always just went moldy in the fridge anyway with Maddie because I could no longer keep track of it and juggle making a new meal for everyone else. Etc, etc, etc. I have to say I ate my words. Some things aren't worth worrying about in the end. So we waste a piece of bread from each loaf...who cares in the end? I wonder what else the wise, experienced and amazing Mali is right about. Only time will tell. Of course she won't be here to revel in it, not that sweet Mali ever would, but still, she'll miss the show. Last Sunday as I drove home from church and turned off of Roberts onto Zion I got a little bit mad at her. I can't believe they aren't around anymore. It just doesn't register in my head yet. On a typical Sunday morning we both hit that traffic light at the exact same time on our way to church. The light seems to always be in our favor and we fly past them as they wait for the light to turn. This morning I looked for their familar white van out of habit. No one was there and it made me sad. We'll miss them terribly. So to a mother of four (now five) from a mother of one (now three)...Thank You! Our family will miss you guys. You are wonderful friends. I learned a lot from you, Mali. A lot. Good luck on your adventures in Thailand. We're already awaiting your return in two or three years.

It's Not About the Location

Maddie has a nose picking problem. I don't make a big deal of it most the time. Most of the time because I know it is fruitless. She just doesn't care. Today at the pool, I noticed her pick her nose and before I could muster a "STOP!" she put the prize in her mouth. It was already in her mouth when told her not to eat things from her nose anymore. In her purest attempts to obey, she opened her mouth (with a HUGE smile, I might add) and removed the booger from the tip of her tongue and placed it back into her nose. Again, before I could stop her, she said, "Don't worry, Mom. I put it right back!" Ugh. That's completely disgusting. I guess she thought I was upset about the boogers being in the wrong location, not that she was picking and eating them.

Cleaning Up

Today was a decent day. I had a pretty relaxed attitude considering. Maybe I handled it because I didn't have anything else that absolutely had to be done. In any case, I tried to be really efficient and defrost some chicken to cook up for multiple dinners. Being an optimist, I didn't put it in a bowl or anything. I ended up disinfecting my entire fridge from nasty chicken slime and wiping down everything that had been touching the shelves. Later in the evening, I was on the couch feeding Jacob while the big kids got their pajamas on. Brian went to the basement for a few quick seconds. In our absence, Maddie yelled down the stairs that her pull-up was stinky. I asked if it was stinky or wet (she always says stinky the first time and it's never stinky). She said it was just wet. I told her to put it in the diaper pail and put a new one on with her pajamas. Turns out she was wrong. The pull up was stinky. Then so was our carpet, her legs and it was smeared ALL OVER the diaper pail. I was incredibly grateful that Brian was home. He gave her a bath and got her cleaned up. I spent the next 45 minutes disassembling the diaper pail with a screwdriver and cleaning all the nasty, poop filled nooks and crannies. It was awful, but it is done now. It's really, really clean now and the carpets have been scrubbed. Now we just have to wait for the air to clear. Today I'm grateful for the extra patience.

Good News DC

We just heard on the nightly news that DC (along with several other states) is "on track" to come in with a lower murder rate than last year. Is that not the dumbest news report you've ever heard? It's like saying, "Great job DC! If we just keep killing people at the same rate, then we'll hit our goal!" What the heck kind of "goal" is that? No mention that we are still having murders. That people are still dying and that registers with me as a problem. On a related note, during my former life, when I worked in the refinery for a few years, we were always setting goals. Performance goals, reliability goals, environmental goals, safety goals. It would make Brian nuts to hear our "goals" of "x" number of safety incidents or OSHA recordables i.e. 0.8 injuries per 1000 work hours. Shouldn't the goal always be zero? If we're under our goal in August and run the risk of coming short, do we draw straws and the poor guy that drew the short straw has to go find a way to injure himself? That is just plain retarded. Never the less, a non-zero number is always chosen. And we track that goal through the year...stupidity institutionalized and accepted. So, keep up the good work DC!