Cookie McCookerson

Quick post today. Nico is eating lunch.... and by eating lunch, I mean toying with his food while he chews on a new beanie baby dog thing I got at JoAnns.  Am I the only one that thinks its a little strange that he insists on chewing on the dog's nose?  Weird.

Here is a picture of Nico helping make Egg Fondue.  I figured that since he likes to cook and since he likes dogs, we'll make some dog treats when he gets up from nap.

We even have a dog bone shaped cookie cutter.  Yeah, he's pretty adorable, if you ask me.
Have a great new year!

He's a naked baby... yes he is... he's a naked baby....

One of my favorite things in life is our bed time ritual. 

Because putting Nico to sleep is much easier when I am doing it (I am pretty much batting 1000), Dave does the bath, I do putting him down.  I know that this only builds up the expectation that I put Nico to bed, and thus makes it harder for Dave... but it is what it is.  What are you going to do?  Plus, Dave is also funner at bathtime than I am.  I tend to knit and talk to Nico while we are in there... Dave plays with him more.  So when Dave is giving Nico his bath, I am usually putting away dinner stuff... working in the office... maybe doing some laundry. 

In any case, Dave gets Nico out of the bath, dries him off.  Lets him brush his teeth.  And lets Nico go.  At which , Nico runs around the house looking for me.  When he finds me, he laughs, "Ha!"  Like he is so pleased with himself.  Ha! Ha! I am not wearing any pants!  What is amusing about this little ritual is that when we do the bath situation, it gets warm and toasty in the bathroom, but the rest of the house can get FREEZING cold.  So the fact that Nico likes to run around in the house in the cold makes me laugh even more. 

Of course, the other night was especially funny because he started peeing.  On the floor.  Its really hard not to laugh when your kid just took a piss on the floor and looks very pleased with himself. Plus, his little legs and bum are so juicy.  Nico running around naked looking for me is my cue to go get him and put a diaper and PJs on. 

The Nicody Bains got me a light for my kindle for Christmas (but JJ tried to take credit for it, like he got it)... so lately, I have been able to read when putting Nico down to sleep.  I finished a book last night.  Wha-what?  A whole book.  Isn't that great?  I could really into life post graduation...

All for now.  Hope everyone has a wonderful new year!!

The wood, the wood, the wood is on fire!

So this week we have had one of our former players watching Nico while Dave and I are at work (one of the pitfalls when your primary baby sitter is an undergrad- they take off at the drop of a hat... like Christmas break). Nico was NOT happy. At all. Didn't/wouldn't take a nap until 4:30. Yikes!! But, he was extra cuddly when he woke up- which was a bonus.

Other than that, not much going on. We had some firewood delivered last night. Wooo hooo. That is pretty exciting. Its been really cold here- which is not surprising given the weather on the rest of the Eastern seaboard. But its still pretty cold here. We've had a fire almost every night the last couple of weeks. Plus we've had space heaters going and the furnace going. Can't wait to see our power bill this month. Should be nice and high. Seriously, whenever Dave and I land where we are going to land, I am going to advocate building our house into the side of a mountain or a hill, like the Ingalls family in Little House in Walnut Grove.  Seriously- it really cuts down on the heating and cooling costs. 

I am thinking about using some turkey leftovers for shepherd's pie tonight.  Should be good. 
All for now.

Christmas WIN!!

So let me start by saying, I am sorry... I suck at life.  I have been absent of late... because I got a lot going on.  I am working towards something new...not really ready for the big reveal, but its going to be awesome!!  It's no excuse, its just the way it is. 

Sooo... Dave's parents were in town last week.  They stayed at the house with Nico during the week, which was great- definitely put me at ease, plus it was nice to not have to fork over the baby sitter money :) 
So we did the Christmas thing last week!  I am telling you, this is really the best way to do Christmas... one week, one grandma comes up, showers with affection and gifts (Nico got to open his Christmas present early, a little scooter/bike thing).  Next week, other grandma and grandpa come up, showers with affection and gifts (Nico got to open Christmas presents early- which included a judogi.).  Seriously, how cute:

Can't you just eat him up?

I think Nico had a good time tearing things up and running around in general.  We made the Rollins' corn chowder on Wednesday night and little cheesecakes (in wide mouthed mason jars).  Nico got to help... which was probably a bad idea, since now he expects to be able to help in the kitchen all the time... which normally isnt too bad (when you're peeling carrots or potatoes).  It can be a problem when you are trying to get the turkey out of the oven. 

Speaking of cooking... we started a new Bishop-Royse family tradition: gumbo on Christmas Eve.  I know... Awesome, right?  I made Paula Deen's.  It was pretty good.  Combined with the leftovers we had during the week, we didnt actually cook on Christmas Day.  We had leftovers and whatnot out of the fridge... and ended up cooking turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy last night. 

I had a major problem with my phone on the evening of 12/23.  I was told that in order to get two new apps I wanted for my phone I needed to update the operating system.  When I tried to do this my phone crashed.  And while I did back it up before the update, I lost everything when I was told to remove and reinstall itunes.... over 1,000 pictures and 800 videos of Nico... gone off the phone.  Luckily, I had synced it all up a couple of months ago... and I have posted most of the best pictures and videos here... so I guess its not all lost. 

Also had an epiphane this week... no more furniture or toys that need to be assembled.  Period.  What a PITA.  Spent most of the day on Saturday putting together Nico's play kitchen- which is pretty adorable... also assembled an easel from the Nicody Bains- which is pretty cool.  Nico has had a good time drawing all over it in markerboard marker. 

Okay, all for now.  Hope your break was awesome!!

Weekend Awesome

Weekend was AWESOMENESS!!

I dont know if I mentioned it or not, but Mama Bishop was in town last week. She dropped off some Christmas goodies and watched Nico during the week (so we didn't have to put him with a sitter for the duration of break).  Friday night Dave and I ran about town doing some Christmas shopping. We'd decided that our Christmas gift to each other would be a bigger flat screen tv.  So we ran around on Friday night looking at Best Buy, the mall, etc. for the best deal.  We decided to check out Cosco in the morning and made a stop at World Market... which is always a terrible idea at Christmas time.... or any time really.  Especially since I just got paid.  For real... I will know that I have finally arrived when I decorate my ENTIRE house with World Market furnishings.  SCORE!! 

Saturday morning, we took mom to Another Broken Egg.  Can I just go on record here?  New favorite place for breakfast.  They have a crabcakes benedict that will rock your face off.  Seriously.  Love it.  Mom got on the road Saturday morning and we headed to Costco, where we found our new baby.  A 40" Toshiba HD LED flatscreen.  Mmmmmm.  Of course, this necessitated a new entertainment center situation, which I bought on Saturday afternoon and commenced putting together on Saturday night... BARF.  Of course, Dave hates all things assembly, so guess who got to do the majority of the assembly?  This girl (points at self with two thumbs). 

Saturday afternoon, we headed down to the county for a christmas party with the girls.  The sister that had it at their place have an amazing place complete with horses and karaoke.  Dave channeled his inner Billy Idol to sing "White Wedding".  The girls' Dad, Jim led Nico and Dave around on a horse.  The first time Nico was up there, he was a little nervous.  But then he got the hang of it.Will post a picture and maybe a video of them I took... adorable.

Saturday night, Dave played soccer- I stayed home with Nico and worked on putting together the thing.  BORING.  I think I hate doing that stuff almost as much as Dave- but someone has to man up to do it. 
Sunday we cleaned the house up (AGAIN).  It was a wreck after not cleaning it or putting things away for almost a week.  Sometimes Nico was helpful-he is getting pretty good operating the dustpan- but kind of sucks at cleaning the bathroom.  His insistance to do things the way he wants to do them made the power cleaning session a lot more tiring than necessary. 

Dave's parents got in Sunday afternoon and we got the TV hooked up.  So far I am a little concerned because the TVscreen shows a black box around the picture, which is kind of annoying.  Seriously, what was the point of getting a 40" screen if the image is only going to be 32"?  May have to put the muscle on someone at DirecTv.  :( 

Mostly got Christmas shopping done.  I stayed up late last night to do some wrapping.  I couldnt stay up late enough to get all my gifts packaged to send... which means that not only do I have to go to the post office today, but also tomorrow :(  Yay! Barf-townvilleburg!!

All for now :)

Top 5: Christmas Movies

So, I was thinking about it and I realized that I havent done my share of watching Christmas movies thus far, this holiday season.  Without much ado, this is what I think are the best 5:

1).  Love Actually. 
Billy Mack: Hey Kids, it's Uncle Billy with a public service announcment.  Don't buy drugs... become a pop star and they will give them to you for free!

There are lots of things that make this movie great, including "Uncle Billy" (above).  I love the fact that there are so many recognizeable actors and actresses.  Including Bill Nye (above), there is also Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Laura Linney.  It is pretty great. 

2).  Bridget Jones. 

Bridget: "Thank you, Daniel, that is very good to know. But if staying here means working within 10 yards of you, frankly, I'd rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse."

I know its more about crazytown Bridget Jones than it is about the actual holidays... but this is my list, so bugger off!!

3).  Lethal Weapon.
Murtaugh: You're not trying to draw a psycho pension! You really are crazy! 

I know... the quintissential holiday movie.  Who can forget Mel Gibson's hair?  Granted, its not really a christmas movie in the sense of "Christmas Movies", but does include lots of references to Christmas movies. 

4).  National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. 

Cousin Eddie:  So are you surpised to see us?

Clark:  Eddie, if I woke up with my head sewn to the floor, I wouldn't be more surprised. 

There are many great things about this movie- including Cousin Eddie (he is wearing a black dickey with a white sweater- how classic is that?).  Plus the scene at the end when he confronts his boss...not to mention a spot-on Julia Louise Dreyfuss.  Clark, is Rusty still in the Navy?

5).  Scrooged. 
Frank Cross: Do you think I'm way off base here?

Elliot: Yes. You're, well, you're a tad off base, sir. That thing looked like The Manson Family Christmas Special!

You can have your Miracle on 34th Street, your "every time a bell rings" nonsense.  Classic. 

Have a great weekend!!

Great week!!

Oh happy day!!  Such a great week, thus far!!

It started last week when I graduated.  And just a shade under a decade, alright... yeah... it was pretty cool.  I was sort of nonplussed about the whole thing.  To me, the real accomplishment was defending- back in October.  Plus I am a sociologist, so there is the whole social construction of ceremony thing.  I didn't really "get it" until I was walking into the Civic Center, passed 1800 other graduates... it was pretty cool. 

Here I am with my Yoda/dissertation advisor/mentor, Ike.  This was before the ceremony.  I dont know how many of you know (or better yet care), but for PhDs, they call you onto stage and your advisor puts the hood on you (its the blue thing he is wearing around his neck).  It hangs down your back and is symbolic of the university and discipline where you recieved your PhD. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get to keep my hood or gown.  Apparently I only rented them for the ceremony (which is kind of BS, I think).  In the event that I end up as faculty at a university, I will have to probably order the get up, so that I can walk at graduation. 

One sort of surprising thing, was that my Dad came to my graduation.  Surprising because he was sort of surprised too.  He came up to Wakulla to go hunting with a buddy.  When he realized that he was so close to Tallahassee, he realized that he could come to graduation... which was pretty cool.  Definitely out of the blue, but nice.  Mom and JJ watched the graduation webcast (and drank wine!!)

We cleaned the house this weekend.  My mom was due to come up to deliver Christmas gifts, plus help with Childcare this week (Nico is out of daycare till Jan 4).  So far we've had a pretty good time cooking and doing crafts in the evenings.  She and Nico have been having a blast during the day.  Nico isn't being rotten the whole time, although yesterday he was on a tear when I got home.  For some reason, he seemed intent on being destructive, for the sake of being destructive.  Usually he happens to destroy on accident, like he tears up something because he is interested in it... yesterday he was just tearing stuff off of shelves and tables and just throwing it on the floor just because.  ROTTEN.   

Our two games got canceled this week, on account of other teams not wanting to get their asses handed to themselves in the cold.  Which is kind of a bummer- since we were looking forward to the wins (is that cocky to say?)  Also, a WHS student commited suicide over the weekend, so a bunch of the soccer girls are taking it kind of hard (I guess they all knew her).  It would have been nice to have the distraction of games, to help get their minds off all that. 

Since we aren't practicing, Mom and I are going to go to Joanns with Nico, plus get some frozen yogurt and maybe some cupcakes today (yeah, how do you like me now?).   I am looking forward to tying up some loose ends with shopping this weekend- looking forward to spending time in the line at the post office next week.  Woo hoo!!

All for now!

They call me cranky pants cuz my pants are full of cranky...

WOW.  Who am I?  My mom?  With the posting once a week?  Damn, next thing you know, I wont have posted since April. 

It's been pretty crazy.  We are in the full swing of the season... the holiday season and the soccer season, plus finishing up my last duties for TA-ing.  Soccer has been great.  We've been on a tear: we're 10-2-1, right now.  We have three more games before Christmas break, two against cupcake teams... one against a team that whom we owe a beating (Taylor). When/if we win tonight, it will have been exactly one month since we last lost.  That is an eternity in the high school soccer season.  Even crazier, if we beat Godby tonight, West Gasden tuesday and Taylor on Thursday, we'll have a thirteen game unbeaten streak.  That's definitely some type of record for WHS... :)

I gave them yesterday off, so they could start preparing for finals next week.  Which meant that I could do some crafts at home with Nico last night.  This is where I will admit my latest obsession.  Martha Stewart glitter.  ZOMG!  I die!  This ain't your granny's glitter!  That is all I am saying!! I recently got a subscription to MADE magazine, which is actually about DIY, crafts, etc. and not about the acceptance of lower level mob guys into mid-level leadership... in case you were confused. 

See them for yourself HERE. 

In any case, when I saw this in the magazine, I became convinced that this holiday season would not be perfect until I had a bunch of these that I could call my own.  Of course, this is completely ridiculous, because we have opted out of putting ornaments on the tree this year (since I am not sure Nico's obsession with it won't result in a repat of the Christmas 1986 (when Nicole and I caught beat downs from Dad after JJ pulled the tree over because he tried to climb it).  Thus far, I have caught Nico trying to take a garland of the tree and I have also caught him hitting the tree.  Yes, I just said hitting the tree.  Part of this wonderful phase he is in.  Oh yes...

Hitting and biting.  I dont think he is doing it to be mean- I think he is doing it to see what I will do.  Because as soon as I tell him no, he becomes obsessed with doing it.  So I have tried the really serious Dad face... he used to lower his chin and cock his eyebrows real stern like and lower his voice and you knew he meant business.  Nico hasn't quite gotten it yet...

He is definitely a talky mctalk lately.  He tries to repeat a lot of the words we say... and he knows a lot of words, like for body parts (head, hair, mouth, belly, hands, feet).  Sometimes he gets ears, eyes and nose right... most of the time he gets those wrong.  He knows tissue, toothpaste, toothbrush, dog, Dada, Mama (sometimes), bathroom, laundry room, bath. I didn't realize that he was learning body parts until just before Thanksgiving... and I was a little mystified.  Who was teaching him that?  How did he know what tissues were?  Well, school.  They actually teach things at his school.  Can you believe that?  I am stunned. 

So going along with this interest in talking is his increasing frustration with not being able to communicate.  So we've had a LOT of meltdowns lately.  Sometimes the afternoon is just one big meltdown.  One of my favorite things that he does is when you take something he wants (like the broom) he stomps and spins himself around in a circle.  He is so mad... but it is so funny.  And, he doesn't want to do anything you want him to do.  So like yesterday, I was starting my long awaited MS glitter christmas ornament project.  Now, mind you, I wanted to do about a dozen of these damn things to take to Nico's school this week.  And guess who wasn't pulling his weight?  Yeah, Nico.  For real.  Wouldn't use the paint brush to paint glue onto ornament.... but wouldnt let me have it.  I handed him an ornament at one point because he was being kind of gentle... which he responded by throwing it on the floor like a ball (to be fair, he probably thought it was a ball). But definitely a crank. 

We're also in the process of changing up the sleeping situation in the house.  While we do love this new house (A LOT) it is definitely a 60 year old house.  SOOOOOO POORLY INSULATED.  Seriously, I can feel cold air blowing into Nico's room.  Drafty much?  Since we have a fireplace, Dave and I are trying to take a different approach to energy management in our house this winter... simply because as blase as I am about spending thirty dollars on martha stewart glitter, I still have a coniption whenever Dave is like, "Yeah, the power bill was $400.00." WHA-WHAT? 

So we set up the Pack and Play in our room, with the idea that we would kind of close off Nico's room while it was cold... mostly because I felt like it was too cold to leave him in there at night without the space heater on... but Dave has this fear of setting the house on fire.  So by having all three of us in the same room, we can have the space heater on (and know relatively quickly if it catches fire).  Plus it will lower our energy bills, I think... we get the fireplace going in the evenings and when we head to bed we are really only heating two rooms.  But this has meant that Nico's sleep has been all jacked up, but it was before- this started back just before Thanksgiving.  So he hasn't been sleeping through the night... which I get.  But in the last week or so, he's been waking up and STAYING up.  Which I am definitely not a fan of.  At all- cause now I am just cranky and tired :(

I'm on a boat!!

Well hello there!!

It's been a while.  Things have been crazy.  Thanksgiving was awesome but crazy.  Dave's parents had a huge feast for us when we got to town on Thursday.  Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, the works. Mmmmm... no cranberry sauce (like his mom made last time).  Which was pretty much the only reason why I went... mmmmm.... cranberry sauce.  Apparently Dave's Aunt Rosie likes the cranberry jelly better... which is okay... all I am saying is that Dave's Mom is on notice:  Its okay to have the cranberry jelly, as long as there is the fabulous cranberry sauce, too!!  Did I just demand cranberry sauce at future Thanksgivings?  Why, yes!  I believe I just did!! 

So we hung out with Dave's family for a little on Friday  before leaving for the cruise.  Until I actually got on the cruise ship, I really had no respect for the size of a cruise ship.  We traveled on the Majesty of the Seas, which was about the length of the Titanic (880+ feet), which I would like to point out is the length of almost three standard high school football fields.  The Titanic and the Majesty carried roughly the same # of passengers (2600) but the Majesty's tonnage was almost twice that of the Titanic (76,000 tons versus 43,000). 

I wish I had taken more pictures of the actual ship... it was pretty much ridiculous- at least two hot tubs, two pools (I say at least, becuase I think that there were probably pools and hot tubs for higher class passengers, away from the commoners).  There were several dining rooms, elevators, a rock wall, etc.  MASSIVE.  Since this was our first rodeo, we got the lowest class room, an interior stateroom that was tiny.  I think that future ventures might require a larger room with a window or a balcony. 

The only really crappy thing about the cruise (in my opinion) was the childcare and pool situation.  We chose Royal Carribean because we were under the impression (from their website) that they had free childcare for children 6 months and up.  Yeah, not so much.  They had baby sitters who would come to your room and watch your kids, but that was the problem, there wasnt anything for Nico to do in our room (except play with toliet paper in the bathroom and the life jackets in the closet).  So that was annoying, and they wouldnt let kids with diapers in the pool (not even swim diapers).  So, there was basically nothing for Nico to do...

It is Dave's mission to visit all the islands in the Caribbean- so future cruises might be an option for us- but probably not until Nico is a little older- at least old enough to do some swims.  Speaking of the little guy:



This was on our way home from Miami on Monday.  I don't know where he got this behavior, but it is pretty funny!!

We had a game on Tuesday night, at home.  It threatened to rain all day, but we managed to get the game going.  Then, with about 5 minutes left to go in the game, this huge massive wind blew in... where the temperature had been somewhat pleasant (so much so I could take my jacket off), this wind came in and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in an instant.  Then it started to rain :(  So the last five minutes of the game was crap... but we still won 5-0.  Which puts us at 7-2-1.  We have Leon again tonight- the girls are pretty pumped.  I think if you talked to them, you might find that they expected to win our last game pretty handily and are thus a little frustrated that we tied.  Of course, that would be funny, because we beat them when we played at our place two years ago.  When we played them at their place last year we lost 4-0 (and played badly), but redeemed ourselves somewhat by losing only 1-0 at our place last year.  So history has shown that we play better against Leon at our place then we do on the road... I dont know what this means, becuase I think we played pretty damn well against them the first game earlier this season. 

In any case, it should be interesting.  One of our girls' dads has a barn heater, which apparently is pure awesomeness.  She is working on bringing it to the game tonight, which is even awesomer because some of the Leon girls were making fun of us for being country last game.  The temps to night are supposed to be pretty cold.  How'd you like them apples?  I guess sometimes it's okay to be country!!