Choo Chooin in Chattanooga

We took Leo on a “Big Boy” trip to Chattanooga  this past weekend. It was his last trip as an only child so we made him the center of attention. The main draw was the “Day out with Thomas” event that was being held there. We joined other parents and their 2-7 year-olds for a hot, fun-filled afternoon with Thomas, Sir Topham Hatt and the gang. Here are some pics from our weekend which also included the Aquarium and a ride on an electric train at the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel.

Oh, and luckily I found another family of three where the mom was taking all the pics and convinced them to take our pic in front of the Aquarium (in exchange for us taking their pic). If I hadn’t done that, there would be no record of me being on this trip! It looks more like “Leo and Daddy’s weekend fun!” Oh, I was there all right—8+ months pregnant and sweating!!

 

 

“Would you rather?” in Real Life

In college, we used to love to play the “Would you rather?” game. Here’s an example: Would you rather have one great outfit that fits you perfectly that you had to wear every day for the rest of your life or a closet full of clothes that were always two sizes too small?

You can’t answer that you would lose weight or you would just explain to everyone the situation. You have to just answer on impulse and not factor in that you can make any adjustments.

I’d love to offer more examples of this game but I can’t think of any that aren’t vulgar or x-rated.

So here’s a real life one that happened to me. Well, it happened to Frank.

Would you rather have $300 and have to keep a queen size mattress and box spring propped up against the wall of one of your bedrooms for 30 days or NOT have $300 and just keep your mattress and box spring on your bed?

When a research company called Frank and asked if he would participate in this mattress study, he first refused. See, they DO bring you a new mattress and box spring to test out but they insist that you keep yours in a room in the house—not in the attic or garage. He figured I wouldn’t go for that.

But then I asked, “How much did they say they’d give you?” For $300, I’ll have mattresses all over the house! You can even call me Mattress Mack (a little humor only the Houston readers will get)!

So he called them back and here’s how we’re living now: we’ve got a pretty nice mattress on our bed that Frank has to review on a weekly basis for the next 30 days. (First impression: too firm). And in what was formerly the guest room and is now the nursery, we’ve got this:

 

 

It’s scheduled to be picked up around the day that we bring the baby home from the hospital. Boy, is he gonna get a good first impression! He’ll be like, “What kind of white trash family did I get born into?”

Don’t worry, baby. We won’t call you Bubba. But we might call you Mack.

All the world’s a train…

…and we are merely passengers. At least that’s how it seems to Leo. He can make anything into a train. We had this stack of plastic cups and he took about twenty of them and lined them up in our bedroom to make a train. He takes books and, instead of reading them, puts them in train formation.  Straws become coaches; spoons become engines; napkins become cabooses.

Today I tried to get him to play Memory and, while he did match up the cards at first, he ended up even making them into a train!

Boy, was I in trouble when I stepped on the train. “They’re not coupled up!!” he screamed at me.  He’s constantly doing the train whistle noise which sounds like “Haw haw!” Yep, he’s definitely got trains on the brains.

Bigger Boy Room!

In the 15 minutes that the Rooms to Go crew was in our house, Leo’s room went from baby to big boy. Gone went the crib-converted-into-a-toddler bed. Gone went the rocking chair that we spent so many nights and naptimes in, rocking him to sleep. Gone went the changing-table-dresser where we changed thousands of diapers.

Now Leo has a twin bed, night stand, new curtains, a new lamp and a new chest of drawers. The furniture is “mission style” so it matches our dining room set. That’s a good thing in case we ever have lots of kids and have to put Leo in the dining room!

 

 

We DO have a comforter for the kid; I just need to wash it. But it’s hot here and he’s quite a sweaty-head so I don’t think he minds.

 

 

Here he is on his first morning after waking up in his big boy room. He’s still good about not getting out of bed until we come in. In fact, yesterday during nap (his first experience in the twin bed), I watched on the monitor as he cried when his teddy bear had fallen out of bed. I had to go rescue him twice. He didn’t even think of getting out and getting it himself!

 

 

So while our first-born’s room is just about complete, our unborn’s is still a work in progress. Ah, the life of the second child!

 

One small step for mankind. One giant leap for Leo!

Do you know how many kids’ parties and events involve jumpy castles? Well, you probably don’t notice unless you have a kid who is terrified of them! Whenever we are about to go to a party, Leo asks nervously, “Will there be jumpies there?” Poor guy always watches from the sidelines and clings to one of us while the other kids bounce without a care in the world. Selfishly, I always wish he’d jump because it would be easier on me. I could stand around and chat with the other moms rather than having to comfort Leo or go to the baby/toddler play area. And although Leo is very verbal, he’s never said exactly what scares him about jumpies. I suspected it was the sensation of being off balance or maybe he’s scared of falling down.

But yesterday LEO JUMPED IN A JUMPY!!! It was the perfect setting. We were at our neighborhood’s spring fling and everyone there knew that Leo doesn’t like jumpies. So when they saw him climb in and jump, they were really supportive. “FIRST time in a jumpy!!” I exclaimed to everyone as I pointed proudly at Leo.

At first he climbed in and just lay on his tummy saying, “Look, mommy, I’m in a jumpy.” And then finally, with some encouragement from John (who even sweetly offered his hand to help Leo up), he stood up and jumped. I could tell he was thinking, “Why did I wait so long to do this?”

At some point it was nap time and we needed to get him out. He refused. Frank had to actually climb in and drag him out.

We just had the phone camera so the pictures/video aren’t amazing. But still, we’ve got the evidence in case he never does it again!

 

The Sleepy Tool

I’m currently working on a writing project that makes me sleepy. It’s not like I’m writing about glue or chemistry or something else really boring. There’s just something about it that makes it really hard for me to keep my eyes open when I’m working on it.

I told Frank about it and he said, “It’s like the sleepy tool.” He’s right. And here’s what he’s referring to: When I worked in advertising I had plenty of not-so-exciting projects to work on and at one point, they were all for a computer client. Any one of them could have been considered boring---a brochure on laptops, a tech guide, a landing page about a warranty—yet  none of them actually made me want to lay my head down on my cubicle desk and drool.

But one project—a tool—did. We worked on lots of tools for this client but it was just this one that put me to sleep. Thus I dubbed it “the sleepy tool.” It was an internal website that sales people could use to create flyers for customers. We were always trying to work out kinks in the system and improve it. And I guess that meant we had to meet about it—a lot. So on a regular basis (weekly? bi-weekly? every day?) a few of us from the ad agency and a few clients got together at their offices to meet about this tool.

These meetings were PAINFUL. And let me reiterate that these discussions were not necessarily about the most boring topic you could think of nor were they particular long. I still don’t know what it was about this particular tool that made me SO tired!  Every time we met, it was as if I hadn’t slept at all the night before. I was holding my head up, trying to look and sound interested but it would take everything I had to avoid nodding off.

If someone would even mention the name of this tool I would feel my eyelids getting heavy. I would start dreaming of my pillow. Caffeine didn’t help. Walking around didn’t help. When new hires came on board and ended up working on the project with me, I would try to warn them.

They, too, started calling it “the sleepy tool.” I wasn’t crazy. This project made everyone feel like narcoleptics. We eventually stopped calling it by it’s actual name and just started referring to it as “the sleepy tool.” Oh, don’t worry. We didn’t say this in front of the clients during the meetings; we were too busy sleeping.

Leo’s Third Birthday!

 

It seems like just yesterday Leo was pushing other children and demanding that we “give him some space.” Oh, wait. That WAS yesterday! That’s life with a three-year-old. Still, it’s hard to believe our little Leo is three and that soon we will have another little Leo (but probably a different name) to amaze us.

Have you ever tried to throw a kid’s birthday party based on a theme that’s not completely mainstream? Sure, if you go with Thomas or Toy Story or Mickey Mouse or Dora, that’s easy. That stuff’s readily available at party stores and online. But if your kid is into Dinosaur Train, well, it’s a little bit challenging.

But since Leo only turns three once and he may only be into Dinosaur Train for a little while, we went with it. Here are some shots of his party (which took place at the train museum) and from  that evening when we went out to dinner and to a park with the family:

 

 

 

What a difference…

 

…three years makes!!

“Tell Me”

If you ask Leo a question like, “How old are you?” or “What did you do today?” or “How many muffins did you eat?” He’ll answer with: “TELL ME.”

He even responds this way for things that the asker would not know the answer to.

For instance, “Leo, why are you crying?”

“Tell me.”

Oh, and you have to imagine this in his Georgia accent. It’s more like, “Tail me.”

Every now and then he changes it up a little and says something like, “Mama say it” and shifts the burden of answering to someone else.

And if he’s tired or wants attention, he simply answers, “NO!!”

No matter what, he’s not answering questions. He’d be a terrible witness in a court of law (or maybe a good one, depending on your perspective).

I have no pictures or videos that demonstrate this blog topic so I will just show you photos of our Easter weekend in Austin. Don’t be offended if you live there and we didn’t call. The point of the trip was to attend my sister’s Catholic confirmation. It was a fun, hot and holy weekend!

 

 

 

Bad Sports

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on sports but my dad is, so I’m sure he’ll have opinions on what I’m about to say: I disagree with how many sports are played.

Let’s start with football. For some reason at the end of the game, when one team is up and has the ball and there are just a couple of minutes left, that team is allowed to “take a knee.” This makes no sense. “Hurray! We’re winning! Let’s stop playing so the other team doesn’t have a chance to score.” When this happens, I say, “Oh, great. That team is going to sit on their knees, aren’t they?” If I were running things, I would say they need to PLAY THE GAME until the time runs out.

I often yell, “Just play the game!” during basketball too. At the end of this sport, they’re fouling each other all over the place—on purpose! And this is allowed. In fact, it’s all part of the strategy. So the last few minutes everybody’s just shoving each other and sending players to the foul line. Not only does it seem unfair, it makes for bad television.

When I told Frank I wanted to write about all the sports that I disagree with, he asked, “How do you feel about walking in baseball?”

“I don’t think I like that either!” I said. It’s like a head start. Wouldn’t the batter rather get to first base the regular way, by hitting the ball and running? I mean, who wants to watch someone miss the ball four times and then casually walk over to first base? (Even if it’s more like a jog; it’s still lame.)

My final complaint is about an event that doesn’t really even qualify as a sport: eating contests. To me, an eating contest should be full of people who LIKE TO EAT. And the winner should be determined by who can eat the most food in the way that God intended us to eat food. It would also make a lot more sense if it were filled with fat people (again, because it would show that they enjoy eating). But not only are these events usually won by 90-pound guys who have probably never eaten a Hungry Man TV Dinner, they don’t eat the food in a natural way. When they eat hot dogs, for instance, they dip them in water. Ew. They can’t be enjoying the taste of a soggy hot dog and bun. I want to see an eating contest where the people are hungry and they eat till they’re full. Is that too much to ask?

I don’t really know anything about any other sports which is probably good. But feel free to send me some information about other ones (hockey, lacrosse, ping pong) and I’m sure I could take issue with those too.

Easter Fever

Leo’s already participated in two egg hunts and it’s not even Easter yet! In the first one he scored four eggs (two of which were given to him by another parent) and in another one he got two. Luckily, he doesn’t seem to mind.

Egg hunt #1:

 

Leo with the Easter Bunny. He told him he wanted candy. Chocolate Candy.

 

Checking out the Easter Bunny with Dawson, Reagan and Anna:

Leo wasn’t sure about him once he stood up:

Baby Ryan says, “Will this guy bring me food? Then I like him!”

 

Egg hunt #2: Goofing around before the event:

Got an Easter egg painted on his face, which he wiped off in about four minutes.

 

 

Look at the crowd, lining up for the hunt!

Frank giving Leo a pre-hunt pep talk:

Competition was tough in the 0-2 age group. We knew Leo was on the edge so we went with the younger group. However, in this group parents were allowed to help. So that was our downfall!

Hunt was over in about one minute. Two eggs, not too bad!

 

Is that lady hiding a basket under her shirt?

Just a cute pic of my view from the kitchen sink:

And a shot of Leo’s baby brother at minus eight weeks to go!

Life after DVR

I knew that having a DVR would change how I watched television; I just didn’t realize it would—not to sound too dramatic—change my life as well.

For instance, people who don’t have DVRs or Tivos think that having one will make them watch MORE TV. I find that to be untrue. When shows are recorded, you only watch the shows that you like. You don’t waste time channel surfing. And best of all, you don’t waste time on commercials. (Frank thinks this is traitor-like of me since I used to work in advertising. I don’t care; I love fast fowarding through them!)

I don’t have to race home so that I don’t miss a show. I remember a friend telling me about how she and her boyfriend were out and about on a Sunday night and it was the season premiere of Sex and the City. They weren’t going to make it home in time so they actually stopped at a hotel that had free HBO, got a room and watched it! They would have saved a lot of money if they had DVRs back then.

When I was going through Catholic classes, I chose the church I went to based on the fact that they had Tuesday night classes. The one closer to my house had Thursday night classes which meant I would have to miss Friends!

There are also some side effects to having a DVR. Are they good or bad? You decide:

It’s pretty much impossible to watch TV in real time ever again: First of all, you realize that there’s never actually anything on. It’s either crap or commercials. It’s so frustrating. So I guess this side effect could be classified as “decreased attention span.”

You never know what night of the week a show is on. This is especially true if you live in Eastern Time. We don’t watch shows the night they air because they start too late. So we just go to the DVR and say, “What do we have?” That also makes us a little behind on stuff so we have to watch out for spoilers.

You want to rewind everything! When you’re watching a show on the DVR and you miss something, you just hit the little rewind button that takes it back about ten seconds. I find myself wanting to rewind the radio and even in-person conversations!

I hope you enjoyed my DVR analysis on this Thursday, a night which used to be known for “Must-See-TV.” Now Thursday doesn’t own me. I’m going out tonight and I’m not gonna miss a thing!