Strip Baby

Aric usually shuts down for the night around 7pm. Shortly after 7, we start our routine of a bath, another feeding and then sleep. Most nights Aric is usually sound asleep by 8pm. Some nights Aric starts fussing before 7 and we have found a few tricks that work.

Yes, we start stripping him down and let him play. (And we even let him play with our blinds.)

First, the socks go. He’s usually satisfied for awhile discovering he has toes. When that no longer works, the pants go. After awhile he loses his shirt. Aric enjoys being unclothed. Actually every night he cries after his bath when I dress him again.

Six Random Things

I was tagged by Carmen to tell you six random things about myself. Here goes:

1. My left big toe is slightly bigger than my right big toe. The summer before third grade I broke my left big toe by opening a heavy glass door over the top of it. The doctor told us it might be affected in some way since I broke the growth plate. It grew slightly bigger as a result.

2. I refuse to check strands of Christmas lights for that one burnt out bulb. I would rather throw them away and buy a new strand. Don't get me wrong. If I can easily tell which bulb is burnt out or replace the fuse I will do that. If the strand doesn't work or only half of it works I have no problems tossing it out. During college I worked in the Special Events department of a university that would decorate their entire campus in strands of twinkle lights as a gift to the community. I spent a long, hot summer sitting outside checking strands of twinkle lights, trying to figure out which bulb was burnt out. I am NOT doing that ever again.

3. I am deeply affected by scary, horror movies. Even seeing the preview of a horror movie on TV will cause problems for me. When my husband and I were dating he took me to see Event Horizon. I made him mad because I spent the entire movie watching the floor of the theater except for the one long bathroom break I took when I read every single movie poster that was hanging on the theater walls. Just hearing the movie made me avoid the basement like the plague for two weeks, and it was my job to do the laundry in the basement.

4. I like leopard print even when animal print is not in style. I have a custom-made leopard print dress in my closet. I haven't worn it in years, but I won't get rid of it. I also have a leopard print shower curtain packed away somewhere. Not to worry, though, my husband let me get a leopard print seatbelt bag this past fall. I'm still able to let my inner wild child show.

5. In college I used to eat two cheesy hotdogs with mustard, Ruffles the Works potato chips and a can of cherry Coke almost every day for lunch. I still love that meal, but I'm a little sad that Ruffles doesn't make the Works anymore. To this day I won't buy any other type of hot dog except Oscar Meyer cheesy hotdogs.

6. I do not like anything touching my neck- hands, chokers, turtlenecks, etc... This stems from typical sibling issues from childhood. If you ever see me wearing a turtle neck, it is only because the turtle neck is so loose it doesn't actually touch my neck. My test for this is if I can stick my chin down into the neck without actually having to do anything but dip my head down. This is so troublesome, though; that I have to really like the turtle neck and be pretty sure that it won't be bothersome to even try it on. Currently, I don't own any turtle necks.

Now it's your turn. I TAG anyone who would like to share six things about themselves.

Ready for my next set of days off!

I found the light bulb in stock for the TV today. It was $312. (Merry Christmas to us!) I sure wish I would’ve known about that before we bought that TV. I think we would’ve looked for a TV with cheaper maintenance- or no maintenance at all. I haven’t even installed the light bulb, so I don’t know if it works. I’m waiting for Ryan to get home and do the honors.

Today I checked into a local childcare center to see if we were eligible. We are eligible; however, they are a little stringent on the times that they take part-time children, so it really won’t work for us. (Their drop-off time is 30 minutes after I have to be at work.) They did provide me with a list of names of possible part-time in-home day care providers. I called several names and actually have an appointment for next week to meet with one of them. This whole thing just makes me nervous. I want Aric to get good care and I really don’t want to have to worry about him. If we had a “safer” house and lived in an area more conducive to it, I think I would check into just doing daycare myself and then I wouldn’t have to worry about it!

After all that happened in the past two days I’m really ready for my days off. Oh, wait- those were my days off. Back to work, I guess.

Credit Card Fraud and Outrageously Expensive Light Bulbs

I haven’t had a bad day today, but enough bad things have happened to make it seem terrible.

It started with me discovering a fraudulent charge on our credit card. I viewed the credit card account to see how much money I needed to pay for some Christmas purchases. While viewing the statement I discovered a pending purchase of $205 to the Armani Exchange. Anyone who knows Ryan and me would know that we aren’t Armani Exchange kind of people. When Ryan came home, I asked him about the purchase just to make sure that he hadn’t decided to shop there on a wild hair. (Okay, I’m guessing they sell clothes, but I really have no idea.) He called the credit card company, who has since cancelled the card and will be investigating the charge. I think we’ll both be looking at that statement a little more regularly!

If that isn’t bad enough the light bulb on our big screen TV went out. That right there put Ryan in a really bad mood. He bought that TV as a gift to himself after an 18 month deployment. The cost to replace the light bulb- $275 and that’s if we buy the light bulb and replace it ourselves.

...And this is what happens when Mommy isn't paying attention.

Applesauce

He liked applesauce, but not quite as much as pears. What can I say- the boy LOVES pears!

Not Me! Monday

It’s time for Not Me! Monday and more confessions of silly things that did not happen to me this past week.

I did not prewrite this in order to have it ready in time for Monday. That would just be silly. In fact, I do not prewrite the majority of my blog entries, then proofread them multiple times before posting them, and then edit them if I notice something wrong after posting them. That would just be really silly.

I did not allow my son to co-sleep with us pretty much every night this past week because he was sick. I am not now wondering how to get the co-sleeper back into his own bed and back to sleeping all night long now that he is feeling better. My husband did not upon returning home from a night out of watching football with a friend say "no" in response to me asking him to put Aric back in his crib and then walk away claiming later that he had not heard me. My husband always hears everything I say.

I have not started referring to new changes at work as the "witch hunt". That might be considered juvenile even if others might deem those changes really stupid and the name completely accurate.

I did not tell my husband, while he was taking this photo, that Aric's hairdo made him look like Syndrome from the Incredibles. Mommies are always supposed to have nice things to say about their children.

I did not go to the grocery store three times last week because we couldn't decide if we wanted turkey for Thanksgiving. We do not have a whole chicken in our deep freeze from one of those shopping trips. We did not eat leftover turkey sandwiches before we actually ate the main meal. That would be too weird and hard to fathom.