Missing out

As part of the package of parenting, you get giggles, goofs, pride, child-like excitement for things like Christmas-being able to experience those joys through the eyes of your child...

In addition to all those awesome things, you get

The Flu
Tantrums
Whining
Messes
and NEVER-ending laundry...among other things.

Today we got the flu- well, not all of us, but my darling little one has had diarrhea all day. Seriously, I've changed about 12 diarrhea diapers today alone...I'm SO over it!!!! Gross. Not only do I feel awful for him but Treven's New Years Eve Eve party was tonight and for the last 4 years, we have missed it. I've said this a hundred times to my friends, but becoming a parent is such a learning experience. I used to think that people had kids and miraculously became homebodies. Well, it's just not true-it's not that we all WANT to stay home with a kid with diarrhea, but what other choice is there? We don't plan for these things- they happen and we react. Here's the bottom line- Our priorities have changed not our personalities- Mason's well-being is #1 top priority. To all those of you, out there & single, bumming on your friends with kids because they're no fun anymore- give em a break. They don't want to miss out on all the fun- they're just trying their best to be good parents and do what they think is necessary...

Ahhhh, Christmas!

Well another holiday season is closing and it's really been an amazing one. I was giddy with excitement, like a little girl, for Christmas morning this year. Mason, of course, awoke early @ 5:30 am-UGH. SO I laid in bed with him until 6:15 when he climbed over me, out of bed and opened his bedroom door for the first time. Pretty cool, he must have been as excited as me for those presents under the tree. Christmas eve I set up a city rug with a train set on it in the very center of the living room so it was the first thing he'd see when he got up. He screamed "choo, choo!" when he saw it and was engulfed in playing with that for a good 45 minutes when we were begging him to open the rest of his presents. Some were things for him to get excited about, some were boring- like a whole box of shoes I got a good deal on at Nordstrom rack, 5 pairs in 1 box. He did ask me to put them on, but it was 5 seconds before something more interesting caught his eye and he was back to opening presents. He did get a pretty cool pair of rain boots which he wanted to wear for the remainder of his present opening. THen he got the golden gift, a vacuum from Pottery Barn kids- everytime we go in the store he would push it all over the store for at least an hour and cry when he was forced to leave it there. After that, came a shopping cart which Grammy later filled with over 100 pieces of fake food- hehe, it is so cool! I was also excited for Nate's presents. I got him a Burberry watch, it has a square face and a shiny silver finish. It's super nice and he totally didn't expect it. I also got him a mandolin, a bunch of clothes, a few books and a few other fun things. He got me a new cell phone, the Centro- which I LOVE, a beautiful white wool coat (which was too small, dang it!) a couple pairs of jammies and good make-up brushes. It was such an awesome christmas! We saw dad and Aurora Christmas morning, then headed back home so we could start getting dinner ready. It was a nice dinner, but WAY WAY WAY more food than we needed!!! Time for that DIET New Years resolution. My goal is to lose 8 lbs in 3 weeks....because after that I have a NEW new Years resolution...rock-a-bye who???????????

Not a survivor

Ok, seriously, I'm watching the Survivor finale tonight and there is no amount of money you could pay me to be on this show. The bugs, the challenges, the sleeping on bamboo- no freaking way!!!!

In other news, I learned to make Limoncello tonight! My friend Tracy came over and I had such an awesome time learning and chatting and drinking homemade, fresh squeezed lemon DROPS! YUM!! Basically it's going to take a week, then I can add sugar and then wait another week and we can strain it and bottle it for friends. I'm so stoked!!! And we still have hundreds of lemons on the tree. Anyone want to come over for lemon drops??? YUMMO!!!

As for Mason, boy is he teething today- and MAN is he a GRUMP! I know he's in pain, but boy is it painful for all of us when he's in a mood.

Well, I'm over and out- exhausted from the day- love to all

j

So, I suck, give me a break!

There are always so many things I want to write about. There is always so much going on, and so many cool stories to tell- and we all know I have no shortage of things to say..but I just suck at this blogging thing. What it really comes down to is that I just don't think about it. When I sit down after a long day with Mason, blogging is probably one of the very last things that comes to mind.

Other than that, what's going on here? I'm sick- again. I'm so sick and tired of getting every freakin thing that comes around. I've never been a sickly person but it just seems like this last 2 years has been horrendous for me. I even started using hand sanitizer like 15 times a day. It was getting so bad, my hands were so dry, they were cracking- and then I have to do all this hand therapy crap to counter all the hand sanitizer. UGH! I even got a flu shot this year!! Granted it didn't hit me as hard as my dad and others that I think I got it from- but jeeeeez! I've even been a good girl about taking my vitamins!

What else...Mason is a monkey, climbing every little ledge (and big ledge) he can find. He climbs on the armchair and goes "surfing". Ya know this whole Little Gym thing is a crock! Granted it's given him confidence...but COME ON!!! This is getting ridiculous! It's just not safe! Now it's even more work for me to be watching him every second. All I can say is thank God he can't open doors yet!

He's been super cute lately though, if you ask him what Santa Says he answers "Ho Ho HO". We stole that from Evan- mason's little buddy. Hes also recently started saying "whoa, cool, look" when he sees something neat. He's definitely communicating a lot better but I can still only understand about 20% of what he says. I feel for him ,it must be so frustrating trying to tell someone something and they give you that blank stare back. It would be like me going to Germany- never having spoken a word of german. I try to work with him, but he just repeats the wrong syllables over and over, not realizing he's saying it wrong.

He's sleeping good at least- although he did wake up at 5:30 again this morning- which was a bummer for Nate who slept (didn't sleep actually...) on the couch hoping to avoid my flu bug. I was still out of it this morning and useless. So now the house is even messier than normal...and I want to have another kid?? seriously??? ARGH! Gotta run, naptime is over-

Fires in SD

We're back and settled in since we returned from San Diego Monday. San Diego was craziness- the house under construction, Nate in pain (I'll explain later), and the FIRES, OH MY!! My younger brother Jared came with us this time but it really was a hell of a trip- and not necessarily in the good way. The worst of all was Monday morning at 8 am when Stacy called Susie's cell phone to tell us to evacuate. Come to find out, not only was our power out, but the phone lines were down too so there was no way for authorities to reach us in the reverse 911 system they use to evacuate. Anyway, the fires had been crazy burning all night and there was so much ash in the air you had to close your eyes even for a second outside. In the end everyone was safe, but we frantically woke everybody up, packed the car, and jammed to get out of that awfulness.

As for Nate- he has a cyst on his tailbone and was MISERABLE all week. After an 8 hour drive there and back he was in real misery. He's better now though- awaiting a new doctor adn insurance so he can get it taken care of properly.

been a while

There are so many things I really wanted to blog about but for some reason, none of them are coming to me at the moment. What does come to me is that I haven' written anything since before we went to Maui- which was fabulous, by the way!! Mason and I went for ice cream tonight with some other kids- he got banana pudding ice cream with a chocolate sprinkle cone. I got low carb strawberry with almonds- yummy. My weight is finally down...just in time to get pregnant and do it all over again. It's nice to know that I can do it though. I won't be so hard on myself next time. We're off to San Diego next week, I'm sure I'll have something to say about all that...one of these days I will blog about our trip to Maui and I owe you one from the pumpkin patches too. Lator gator!

Ramblings from mommy group...

I just love my Roseville baby playgroup and felt the need to ramble on about how great they are. Today at playgroup, Stacey got up and talked to us about a family's add she saw on Craigslist for a guy in desperate need of a crib and baby bedding. I didn't take it for granted that we could afford all the best things for our new baby, but I couldn't imagine being in such need for those necessities. So, Stacey proposed we all contribute just a little bit so this family could afford to provide a nice place for their new baby to sleep. It was heart wrenching- she cried while telling us about this add, I cried, watching her cry...what a blubbering mess we were. But, what luck for me to have found a group of women & mothers that are so generous, so giving, and so thoughtful. This is the world I was born to live in. I am so thankful to belong to such an awesome group.

There are some things in life that are sent to you from above- this is one of those things.

Skinned Knee

Hey there-
We went up to the Auburn farmers market today to be-bop around with some friends and let the kids run wild. And boy did they. We started off with a visit to the local, family owned coffee shop. The thing is- we are Starbucks snobs- we are...! We're used to the 3 minute drive through for 2 venti coffees and a breakfast sandwich. This place did not take 3 minutes. Actually, I honestly don't think it took 30 minutes to get 3 coffees and a bagel with cream cheese. Maybe they churned the cheese themselves- anyway it was insane- and crowded and Nate was going ballistic for his coffee.

While the guys were dealing with all of that, Mason tripped onto his knees and skinned the heck out of his knee. He just fussed for a second, but then I noticed all the blood on his leg. ARGH. A skinned knee. Poor guy! So we covered it with a bandaid from Jenny's trusty car first aid kit and we were goo to go.

We finally got down to the farmers market, walked around and had a great time browsing all the vendors yummy food. It was warm though and it's was getting close to nap time, so we headed back to the car. We parked by the Auburn courthouse, which has the most awesome set of cement staircases EVER! Since Mason is generally obsessed with stairs, Nate took him to go up and down. To Mason it probably looked like the Empire State building looks to us. It was awesome. Then we headed back to the car and somehow Mason got wrapped up in his feet and fell face first onto the pavement in the parking lot. He hit his face so hard we heard it. It as bad...I knew it was bad as soon as it happened. And then....blood. AHHHHH! Blood coming out of his nose as he's crying. It was such a bummer. I felt so bad for him- he cried harder than he ever has.

But, a bump on the nose and a bump on the forehead and that was that. No ER, no paramedics, just a little bit of blood. But it did scare me. My little baby boy. This was the first of many I'm sure...

Craziness in SF

No matter how fun, how relaxing a long weekend can be, it's all craziness. We spent a long weekend in SF with Nate's parents. Traveling with a baby is just SO much different than traveling used to be. Sometimes I just wish we could go back and do more traveling before kids-but then I might have been one of those women that wait till 40 to start having kids... Seriously though- we had a great time.

When we arrived Thursday afternoon, we went straight to our room- the 1800 Penthouse at the Mark Hopkins in Nob Hill. I've never been in a room like that. It was seriously bigger than our house. Mason loved it too. He sat at the window one night just giggling in excitement looking at all the lights of the city. It really touched me- it actually brought tears to my eyes thinking about all the opportunities he will have in life; all the experiences he will have. It gave me an amazing warm feeling that we are able to give him that.

Nate had to work a good portion of Thurs and Friday but we still had a fabulous time. Nate had a big fiasco with my computer and decided that Mac is worthless when it comes to Excel macros and formulas so he went to Best Buy and bought a new laptop of his own. Good, now I can have this one to myself ;)

Oh yea, 2 more things worth mentioning. First, was our dinner Friday night. We all got dressed to the nines and we to Fleur De Lys. Dinner was fab. Nate discovered he doesn't like Fois Gras and I had the best dish ever- a roasted lobster appetizer with citrus supremes and some sort of creamy, buttery, YUMMY sauce. Oh my gosh is was good. Saturday we had a lazy morning and then headed off to the ferry building. We took a ferry to Sausalito, walked to Starbucks, drank Frappachinos and made fun of passerbys- one in particular, a dorky lookin dude on a moped, getting a ticket. We laughed and laughed trying to figure out how you can get a ticket on a MOPED. Bill then decided to go ask the guy, while the cop was still standing there. He asked, "what the heck did you do to get a ticket ON A MOPED?". The geeky dude angerily got on his ride and scooted away- Moments later the cop giggled and told Bill he was riding in the bicycle lane. HAHAHA! We got a hearty laugh out of the whole thing.

Overall it was one of the finest and most memorable times I've ever had! Thanks gigi and papa.

New to this

Well here I am, sitting here with my new MACbook PRO wondering what all the fuss is about. I arrive at "blogger" through the help of a fellow MAC'r Nicole and "HALLELUJAH webworld, here I come". This is the coolest computer I've ever had! Seriously- I wouldn't have known how cool it was if someone hadn't shown me, but holy moly, it is cool. For all of my favorite PC users out there- you have to look into this. I love it!

Anyway, now I have to go through the hell it is to personalize a new computer. Bookmark all my favorite sites, change all those monitor, keyboard, etc settings...move all my data over. ARGH, it's going to take forever. See you in a few light years-
In the mean time, go buy a MAC so that when I get back we can all be on the same page. :)