Fall is coming

It's defintely getting to be fall up here. We're three weeks into school and are starting to find some routine.  Which is nice.

Nico scored four goals in his soccer game on Saturday.  There are a couple of other kids who are fairly decent, and the Cheetas seem like they might be a dream team of sorts.

Nico is doing this funny thing whenever I take a picture of him.  He poses.  

He sets up his feet like so and kind of leans back from the camera.  Its adorable.  I've asked him where he got it and he just says that he learned it himself.  But it is adorable.  

He's growing up so fast, some days I can't believe it.  

Engine 82

This week has been crazy.  I took Monday and Wednesday off of work... Monday to go to the doctor and Wednesday to hang out with Nico.  When I went to the doctor, I tried to have the conversation with him about replacing my left knee.  He doesn't seem to think that is a good idea, since I can still play my sports.  Says I ought to consider doing different sports.  What is weird is that he was completely different with Dave, wants to help Dave get his shoulder squared away, so he can keep doing judo.  This was very strange.

A couple of nights ago Nico and I were pretending to be EMS workers:


Isn't that adorable?

This was also the same night that the Blackhawks lost to the Bruins.  Here are some of Nico's thoughts:


Isn't he funny?

Dave and Nico are headed to a wedding in Louisville this weekend.  I am going to stay at home with the dogs.  I am hoping to be very productive.  But I might go see a movie.  Or two.  :)

In Chicago

We've made it safely to Chicago.  We are still unpacking- hence the no updating.  Nico is loving the crap out of the city.  He likes riding the train (no surprise).  I have been working while Dave and Nico are at home.  This has resulted in this thing where they go do fun stuff without me.  Nico and I have a new thing where I tell them not to have fun without me.  Then at the end of the day, Nico reports on all the fun things they did.

Nico seems to like our new house.  I am so relieved to be past that shitty part... past living apart from my boys, past packing up, past unloading the truck.  Now we are slowly putting together our house.  I have a girl cave.  This is a place for all my craft stuff.  I want to make it a craft space+photography studio+home office space.  Dave says the weird little room in the basement isn't big enough.  I say challenge accepted!!

Our kitchen is tiny.  And apparently, I can't say no to kitchen devices.  Seriously, I just can't do it.  The result is that our painfully small kitchen is spilling out into the dining room.  So I took this island and made it a bar cart.  As soon as we get those plates off of there.   

Thursday I came home from work and scooped up Dave and Nico and went to a German place called Leshatt's Inn.  Was one of the best meals we've had in a long time.  Of course, it's not hard when you have a crazy beer selection.  Afterwards, we stopped for ice cream... which was completely off the chain.  Nico loved it of course.

I found out that four of my five favorite musical acts are touring this summer (Springsteen is touring, but it looks like mostly Europe for now:(  Counting Crows+Wallflowers and Goo Goo Dolls+Matchbox 20 will both be in Chicago this year.  I keep trying to convince my sister and mom to please come to Chicago so they can go with me.  To no avail. 

I think I might suffer from some type of mild manic depression, only with out the depression. Because I get on these whiriling, high energy "must do all the things now!" kicks.  The latest one has produced a new blog... that is separate from the Royse show.  It's more about crafty mccrafterson stuff.  

http://thejbrshow.com/

Basically I just want to blog organization+food+crafty+diy+photography+awesome+memes+chicago stuff for moms who ain't got time for that!!  Still trying to figure out a posting schedule.  But I am working on it.  Especially now that I have a girl cave.  

Starting to get Sad

It struck me today, that we are leaving Tallahassee- and it's not all rainbows and butterflies.

I was talking to Nico tonight on the phone and we were talking about how we are going to be moving in a few days.  The conversation turned to Graham, and Nico insisted that Graham is coming with us.  I guess when they have talked about it school that has been the conversation: that Nico and his family are moving to Chicago and Graham is going to come with us.  And I just got really sad for Nico.  I don't question the decision we made.  In the long run, this is going to end up being amazing for him.  He doesn't realize it, but things are going to change for him this weekend.  His two best friends (Graham and Ovid) are still going to be in Tallahassee and he will be in Chicago.  We are going to try to see them one final time this week, but it's difficult, because none of them will realize that it's probably the last time (at least for a while) that they will see each other.  

This spring, I read "Nurture Shock" by Po Bronson.  It's basically about what the latest science says about children and how they develop.  One of the most intriguing chapters of the book was about the psycho-social development of kids and the degree to which they learn sharing, compassion, and empathy from the relationships that they have with siblings.  Turns out that the better predictor of their abilities to express compassion, empathy, and to share come from the relationships that they have with their friends.  Since Graham has a little sister, he's always had to share.  And he is awesome with her.  He is very matter of fact about her abilities and the fact that she is little.  But he doesn't ever seem to view her presence as a drag (bringing down the fun that Nico and he were going to have).  His way and what he wants aren't the only thing that matter.  So when he interacts with Nico, they have a really fun way of playing, where they go from activity to activity to activity, both playing together.  Bossing each other and pushing back against the bossing, but never abandoning each other.  Never getting pissed at each other and deciding to do something different.  Which I think is awesome.  I hope that someday, when Nico is an older brother, he is half the brother Graham is to his little sis.  

In any case, we'll try to do google hangout and facetime and all of that.  I am in the process of assembling a mail kit for Nico, so that he can send letters and post cards to Graham and Ovid.  I'm also going to have a photobook printed of his friends and the house on Atapha and the hospital and the house on Apakin.  And the parks.  I hope it will help.

Singy McSingerson

Nico's school is having a big May Day celebration this year.  We've noticed that Nico has been singing songs that we haven't taught him.  He's kinda shy about it, so Dave had to record this surreptitiously:



I think they might be doing this song too at May Day, because Nico knows the words:


Also during bath time, Dave has been teaching Nico all the words to yellow submarine.  Which is awesome

Weekend with my boys!

I flew home on Friday, for Mother's Day weekend.  I had a bit of a debacle leaving Chicago though.  Apparently, there was going to be some bad weather, so Delta delayed my flight out of O'Hare, but I would have missed my connection in Atlanta.  And not get into Atlanta until 1145 pm.  And Mama don't play that.  So, after consulting with some coworkers, they suggested, I get in a cab and then get on the phone with Delta when I couldn't get the Delta website to work for rebooking my departure.  I did and was able to get Delta to reroute me through Midway, leaving an hour earlier.  This put me into Tallahassee at 830 pm to see my squish and Dave!

Saturday, Nico and I started with a trip to the park with Ovid.  There is a new spinner thing that they just did not get tired of.  It was pretty much amazing.  

Saturday night, we stayed in and tried to watch Finding Nemo.  Nico was still not entirely interested in watching a movie all the way through (even though I thought he'd be all over Finding Nemo).  Oh well.  

Sunday morning, Dave and Nico took me to a special Mother's Day brunch at the Hotel Duval, which is kind of a swanky place in downtown Tallahassee.  The brunch was very nice.  We had to get dressed up. I am not sure, but I think Nico might be modeling here.  

The brunch was delicious... there were mimosas, floats, quiches, etc.  It was awesome.  The brunch was held at the Level 8 lounge (which is the bar/lounge of the Hotel Duval).  It has a fantastic view of the skyline of Tallahassee.  

Sunday afternoon, we scooped up Graham (Nico's best friend) and Graham's sister Lydia, to take them to the soccer field.  I wanted Dave to be able to play soccer, so I kept the kids.  Nico and Graham had a grand time... they played nicely for two hours, with the occasion break for snacks.  Including watermelon.

  

Then, this morning, we took off for the airport.  Nico and Dave dropped me and I flew back to O'hare and headed to the office.  In all, it was a great weekend.  Nico's been a peach- but I am definitely looking forward to getting the boys up here.  

Invalid

Here is a picture of Nico in a bowler hat.  Your argument is invalid.

Getting there...

Well, I made it here safely.
I left Tallahassee on Tuesday April 23rd and rolled into Chicago on the afternoon of the 24th.  It was an easy drive, except for some hard rain I encountered leaving Louisville on Wednesday.  I brought the Kia, loaded down with clothes, toiletries  kitchen items and a few craft things.  I got them all unpacked and into the house by Wednesday night.

The house has two stories and a basement.  I moved all my clothes into one room upstairs and am sleeping in the other room (on an air mattress).  I didnt do much last week, except figure out how to get to work and where the closest grocery is.

On Saturday I drove to Plainfield to get a firetruck bed for Nico.  A tollbooth lady told me that I could pay with cash at my last tollbooth, I couldn't.  So, I can't wait to see the ticket or the fine I will get for that. Should be good times.  When I got back, I headed over to campus to video chat with the boys (since my internet at home isnt being installed until Thursday).  On my my way out of there, I swung by the fiber arts store I found in Lincoln Park on my last go.  I picked up some yarn for a hat for Nico (for Christmas). Saturday night, I went to Target to get a few food items.

I went to a benefit on Sunday for the Read/Write Library of Chicago.  One of my friends/coworkers helped organize it.  I went and got to see another part of the city.  In all, things have been pretty good here.  I miss my boys like crazy.  Dave's parents are in town this week- so hopefully Nico won't notice how much he misses me.

My main source of transportation to work is the brown line from Kimball station to Fullerton.  There is apparently work going on on the brownline somewhere so transportation is a little wonky now.  But I asked a transit worker and he directed me in the right direction.  No big deal.

I have a life list item to run all the bridges in Chicago.  Today after work, I am going to give my first couple a try.  Should be fun.

I have a list a mile long of things I still need to do.  Then there are the things I want to do.  :)

All for now.  Will write more later.

In good working order...

So I am officially a short-timer at FSU.  Less than two weeks.  When I started thinking about transitioning to DePaul, I was a bit cavalier with Dave and Nico.  I just figured that we would figure out a way to make it work.  The problem is... the legislature.  Seriously.  When I got the job at DePaul, we were in the drop dead period of just before the session, so Dave couldnt leave.  But DePaul wanted me there yesterday.  So, I just figured I would figure out a way to make it happen.  Dave and I have been apart before.  I went to Malawi.  I went to DC for an internship when I was 7 months pregnant.  Whatever.  I just didnt think it would be that hard on Nico.

Turns out- it is.  

The thing is, it might not be, if the session wasn't happening.  If Dave could sort of coast at work and go into overdrive at home, then it might be doable.  Its just really hard to be in overdrive at work and at home.  What that means is Nico gets pretty unhappy when I am gone.  And I am caught between that rock and the hard place... knowing that in the long run, the kinds of things Nico will be exposed to in Chicago will be far outweigh the shittiness of being away from me for 1.5 months.  But then I have to ask myself, "there is no harm in asking right?"

So long story short, I asked my new boss at DePaul if I could push my physical start date back by about 10 days.  He said yes, and that is great.  But I can't help but feel like I am on the verge of being fired.  From a job I just got.  Wouldn't that be unfortunate?  It gets us closer to when Dave's mom can come up... which is great... Nico likes hanging out with her.  But there is nothing like the feeling of about to be fired from a job you just got.  

Does this mean that I am going to stay on for another 10 days at the College of Medicine.  No.  I will not be doing that.  I hope to use the extra days to get packing.  And help out as much as I can with DePaul stuff here in Tallahassee.  Which is great, because I wasn't really sure how I would get stuff packed up on Friday April 12 and leave on Saturday April 13.  But I just assumed it would happen.   

Other than that... going through the list of stuff that has to be done before we can move. Yesterday was doing something about our bikes.  We have three.  That we never ride.  One has been sitting out in the yard for a year, the other two in the the shed.  So I asked a friend to get them in good shape for us.  Nico's new favorite thing is checking to make sure something is "in good working order."  So that is what we did after school yesterday.  He kept saying, "Mom, I am getting this bike in good working order."

It's pretty great.  Dave made it home last night before we were done with dinner, which means he got to read to Nico before shower time.

Trucks

Isn't this great?

Nico has been lining up some of his trucks in the doorway of the office leading out into the living room. Last night, Drake was a bit annoyed because the trucks locked him in (while Dave and I were in the kitchen talking).

It's awesome that he is playing a lot by himself these days. For a while he wouldn't play by himself and he wouldnt want to do anything except watch TV or whatever I was doing. But now he plays by himself a lot. I can actually take some time to throw a load of laundry in the wash or get dinner started. Its pretty awesome.

Have you ever seen?

Nico is starting to be aware of things that rhyme.  And it is awesome.  Absolutely just awesome.

He will say things like, "Mom, have you ever seen a bear wearing underwear?"  "Have you ever seen a pig wearing a wig?"  

Even awesomer?  He is also saying things that don't rhyme.  And laughs because it is funny that it doesn't rhyme, like, "Have you ever seen a whooping crane wearing a nose?" And he is making words up.  Like, "Have you ever seen a benquin riding a striped penguin?"  Makes me laugh so much!!

Fencing...

Nico and Dave fencing.



Yes.  Nico is wearing a garbage can on his head.  As a shield.  Whatev!

Nico sads...

So, we had a fun weekend around here.  I tried unsuccessfully for much of Friday night to find a hard copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I just finished reading the series and have been trying to watch the last two movies.  Turns out there is some sort of dustup over the digital rights to it, so it is unavailable online.  Anywhere.  Not for rent or for purchase.  :(

I have been doing some cleaning... only the most annoying kind though- the little at a time- tear up this part of the house and take two weeks to put it back together kind.  :(  Dave doesnt know it, so maybe dont mention it, but we have this massive built in bookcase in our living room that is about to get MADEOVER.  Seriously.  On this shelf sits a box of VHS tapes.  In this box is prolly about 50-60 VHS tapes that are what is left of my "younger days" soccer career.  In any case, I have been meaning to transfer such tapes to DVD for years... so finally I put an ad up on Craigs List and found a stay at home mom who is willing to do for 5 bucks a tape.  Can you believe that?  Yeah, pretty good.  I am pretty excited about that.  Friday, I dropped some tapes off and went for a run.  Nico and Dave got pizza at Mellow Mushroom and had it waiting for me when I got home.

Saturday, Dave let me sleep in and got Nico up.  They went to the fair grounds to check out the dog show- especially the agility trials.  Nico was kinda annoyed because he wanted to do the obstacle course :(  I ran some errands.  Just before nap, I took Nico to the park so that he could run the bases and play ball... which he loves.  After Nico woke up from nap, we went to get some groceries including ingredients for a "special treat" for Aunt Nicole and Uncle JJ.  Why?  Its their birthday.  And also because I wanted to try making homemade snickers bars.  Which brings me to- the problem with healthy food is that it doesnt taste good.  Seriously.  I am eating a salad for lunch.  But I still would rather have a bacon cheeseburger.  Meh.

Sunday, I woke up early with Nico.  We made some breakfast and went to run some more errands. Then we went to Chapman Pond at Myers Park and fed the geese.

Then last night Dave and I went to play soccer.  Nico was not terribly pleased.  I played in goal and gave up five goals.  Seriously.  Five goals?  BARF.  On the upside, I did make a bunch of good saves, including one off my face, and one where I think I pulled my armpit muscle (dont ask how I managed to do that).  In preparation for the baby sitter coming over, we managed to put the house back in order, so that is great.  But its still dusty as ever.

Here is Nico's sad face:

Isnt it great?

Nico salsa

Nico eating salsa and chips.  How great is this?

Regular Season District Champs!

So the big news around here is that we are the regular season distric champs!!  Waka waka!! 

Yeah, we are pretty much awesome.  We beat Rutherford on Saturday, despite getting down by a goal early.  Difference between this team and previous teams?  Prior to this year if we got down by a goal early on, we'd fold up like a bunch of lawn chairs.  We seem to be at a place now, where we're like?  Its only one goal!  And we have 70 minutes of game ahead of us.  Lets see you hold on to that lead!! 

So we have two regular season games left Tuesday (senior night) and Saturday (we go on the road to Sewannee).  Then next week, we skip the play in game (first time in 5 years that we have gotten to skip the play in game :)  We go to Panama City on Friday night to play the District Championship game.  Whoot!!  That is pretty exciting. I think this photo pretty much sums it up:

On another note- I ran a 5K on Saturday (before the game).  Again, with the lack of preparation.  I dont know who I think I am- maybe Kelly the Baller?  First, who thinks they can just show up to run a 5K?  Secondly, who cant do the math to see what that would entail?  Seriously- since I started my "Run Every Day of 2011" Resolution, the furthest I have run is 1 mile... which wasnt a big deal when I calculated that a 5K is 2.2 miles (its not).  A 5K is 3.1 miles.... so much of the race was Sucktownvilleburg.  But I am glad I ran it.  I had planned on running the Resolution 5K on FSU's campus this coming Saturday.  But Leslie (a friend and the other assistant coach (pictured next to #21) suggested that I run the Billy Bowlegs race this saturday... and she would run the Resolution 5K next week. 

On another note- how cute is THIS guy?

Don't you think he should be selling jeans for Gap?  Or hooded fleece sweatshirts for Old Navy?  Here is the thing:  If this soccer/judo/track/cross country/baseball/academic thing doenst work out for Nico, I think he might have a future career as a model.  No seriously.  Look at him and his cuteness! Can't you just eat him up?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. We ended up leaving mid-afternoon on Wednesday. It was slow going though- especially once we got on I-75. But once we got on the turnpike, it picked up a little and we ended up making it into Miami around 1 am. As expected, the craxy traveling schedule+new surroundings threw a wrench in Nico's flow. This meant that instead of sleeping until 552 am, he proceeded to wake up at 3am. AWESOME. Naturally this lead to a lot of napping over the holiday.

Dave's Mom and Aunt made a huge Thanksgiving Feast, which was delicious- including a very tasty cranberry sauce- which I proceeded to eat most of by myself. That is how I roll.

On Friday, we went up to Christian and Heather's place to meet their new baby, Liam. Their older child (Miranda) is about 2 and half and is a genius. Overheard: "Mommy, can I get another marker? The pink doesnt show up well." The pink doesnt show up well? Srsly? Good grammar at two and half? Yes please. Apparently, the fact that she is pretty smart helps- but they dont talk to her like she is a little kid. They talk to her like she is a human. LOVE IT. Of course, Dave and I would like to have a genius kid like that- but I dont know if its worth not talking in LOLSpeak. For real- how much fun is it to say things like, "I can haz some milk?" or "All of ur diapers are belong to us nao!" And its even awesomer since we talk for him anyways.

Saturday we went to a place called "The Field" for lunch (an Irish Pub). It was delicious, thank you very much. I had Bangers and Mash- both of which I highly recommend.

On Sunday, we skipped across Aligator Alley and swung into Ft. Myers to do brunch with my parents. We saw a ton of alligators- which was very cool. They dont play! In any case, brunch with my parents was cool. My dad got to meet Nico for the first time, which was awesome. I think the jacked up sleeping schedule, plus all the stimuli got to Nico, because it wasn't long after we got on the road when he had a MELTDOWN MELTDOWN MELTDOWN. Not a lot of fun. I spent much of the drive on Sunday reclined back in the passenger seat trying to keep him from crying his face off.
We ended up getting back on Sunday night around 930 pm. Not too bad. Was actually a pretty fun weekend, if tiring. Right now, we're just trying to get our feet under us for this upcoming week. Its pretty out of control.

On a completely unrelated matter- I am thinking about entering Nico into a cute baby contest. Trying to figure out what kind of picture to send in. Any thoughts? How do you guys feel about these? I dont have any really great pictures of him smiling...and he's not really extradordinary looking (like the Nelson tripletts who are very adorable, with their curly blonde hair and blue eyes). Advice?

Rollin, rollin, rollin, keep those doggies rollin...

This is a picture that my friend Dylan took of the boy last week (on our Christmas Photo Session outing to Optimist Park). Isn't our boy handsome? The best thing about this picture? He has his little eyebrow arched. Makes my day!

On an unrelated matter- little homey rolled over today. Front to back. It was pretty great. I had just changed him out of a sleeper (that was covered in drool) and had laid him on our bed and was playing with him. I figured I ought to try to do some tummy time with him... especially since the last time we did it, he was pushing up really high. Unlike before where he just laid there on his stomach and made crying noses until I rolled him over. This afternoon he pushed up really high on to his elbows and kept pushing with one arm until he turned over. It was fantastic!

I yelled for Dave to come from the kitchen to see- but then Nico decided he wouldnt do it for Dad. So Dave went away... and Nico did it again. It was brilliant. Next step: walking!

I took a video of him doing it after I got back from tutoring:

Sleeping: ur doin it rite!

Not much new to report- had another good sleep night last night. Nico even went longer from when he went to sleep originally to when he woke up for his mid-night meal... which was awesome. Its rainy here, so it was really hard to get out of bed this morning... Nico was snuggled up next to me, had Drake snuggled up on the other side of me. One reasont hat not having a job rules!! I didnt get out of bed until 1030... of course, its hard to be productive when you dont wake up till that late.

We ended up with a Baby Bjorn (given to us by a couple whose kids are too big). Dave took Nico on a walk last night around the neighborhood. It might just be a boon for me- because Nico LOVED it. And by loved, that is to say, he went to sleep in it. So this is good news for me doing housework (like laundry and the dishes) and for me coaching, because it means that I can actually do stuff without having to keep an ear trained on the bassinet to make sure that he isnt screaming his face off...

Dave and I ventured to Borders last night. I wanted to get a book that I had seen at a Borders in Bethesda, called, "Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy: Darkness on the Edge of Truth." There is apparently a whole series of books on popular culture and philosophy- and on the day I saw it, it appeared on an endcap with "Pride and Prejuidice and Zombies". In any case, it looks promising, with chapters like, "Living in "My Hometown": Local Philosophies for Troubled Times" and "Who's the Boss? Springsteen on the Alienation and Salvation of Work and Labor". A brief perusal of the latter and I see mention of Marx and Weber, which is fair, I guess, since its hard to talk about alienation, work or labor without mention of Marx and Weber. Should be interesting.

I bought the book (along with Dan Buettner's "Blue Zones") with the idea that it might be a good read for the many hours I spend nursing Nico. I have been watching "Leverage" online (and just put season 2 into the Tivo Season Pass Manager), but I am likely to be caught up pretty quickly with the second season, meaning that I wont have anything to watch for a while. But even better? Thy SyFy channel shows old episodes of LOST at 1 in the morning. So its not entirely a beat down to have to wake up with Nico for that mid-night feeding. Now, if they would just show Season 5... that would be great.

SLEEP: WIN!!

We had a win last night!!

Part of the challenge with Nico has been trying to figure out the perfect combination of bed time rituals that would result in sleeping for 3 hours at a stretch. For those of you who have had babies, you understand how this is the utopia for little babies- because the time between feedings starts when you start a feeding... so if you start a feeding at 3am, and Nico eats for an hour, you can expect that he will be ready to eat again sometime between 5 am and 7 am.

So last night was a good night. We gave Nico a bath (which by the way, he HATES), and fed him by about 1145... and Dave put him down to sleep, while I went ahead and started sleeping. Nico woke up at about 345. I woke up and changed his diaper. Then I gave him a bottle, swaddled him, and rocked him until he was a sleep and put him back in his bassinet. Where he slept until about 7... when Dave woke up, he changed Nico's diaper and brought Nico to me. I fed Nico and we lounged in bed until about 1000- all together it was a fantastic day!!

The picture above is Drake keeping an eye on Nico last night. Turns out that Drake is going to be a great baby sitter!!

So not much new to report... that is all I have. Am currently trying to figure out what to do about a baby book for Nico. Both Dave's mom and my mom did baby books for us. And if this were five years ago, I would definitely be all about a baby scrapbook, where I keep locks of his hair, his bracelet from the hospital, etc. However, several considerations make me a little gunshy about starting a scrapbook for him:

1. The scrapbook store in Tallahassee went out of business. This isn't really that major of a problem, except for the fact that I liked taking my supplies and scrapbooking there... otherwise I have to always clear a flat space to do scrapbooking here at the house... one thing leads to another and its been years since I touched a scrapbook. Case in point: I have a scrapbook for the Wakulla girls. I started in after our first season coaching- and I haven't touched it since then.

2. I dont have the space to store and hang onto another thing that will only be looked at a couple of times a year. And that will likely end up covered in dust.

3. Would Nico really appreciate all the time and effort it takes to make a good scrapbook? The kind of baby book I am talking about is pretty high end- with the advanced techniques (like embellishing with brads, etc.) My guess is not... plus, with scrapbooks, you have to be very judicious with the pictures you use... you cant just include every picture you have- because, well, there isnt the space for it.

4. Part of the fun of baby books and scrapbooks and whatnot is showing them to other people. With Dave's family in South Florida, my family spread between South Florida, Texas and Australia, it seems like an electronic/digital scrapbook would be better- so anyone can see it any time. One could argue that this is what this blog SHOULD be about... but lets be real here, the minute I start doing something with my day aside from feeding Nico, changing him, and putting him to sleep, his blog is likely to get hijacked by my antics. The only reason that this hasnt happened yet is that I really havent been doing anything interesting these days... I dont think taking a shower counts as something blog-worthy.

5. I hardly print pictures anymore. Seriously- the only time I do, its for a project (like to frame and hang in the house somewhere). 99% of the pictures I take these days dont get printed, they get ripped off my camera and uploaded somewhere on cyberspace (facebook, etc.)

So I have kind of been thinking of starting an account on Flickr or something, where I can post pictures and put captions and stuff... so, sort like this blog, but more pictures. And that way, it will exist FOREVER in cyberspace- unlike what might befall a scrapbook in my possession, which is likely to never even get finished. Plus, there would be a lot more pictures- which I think would please the grandparents...

So what do you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Beavis and Butthead

A blog that is entirely made up of me complaining about how much sleep I am not getting would likely get old after a while... especially since JSD and NBB are reading this like, "Yeah, it sucks, but it passes... MOVE ON ALREADY!!" So rather than continuing to complain about being tired, I am going to take today's blog post to report about the most surreal moment I had while in the hospital.

Picture it- Tuesday August 11- Nico's second day out. He's chillin, like a villain. That's what villains do- they chill. Dave and I are wondering what the hell we got ourselves into... between Nico crying at night and being awakened, literally, every hour on the hour for "vital checks" where they check my temperature, blood pressure and whatnot, we are what you would call "bleary eyed". This is a condition that results from not getting any sleep- and is largely characterized by the inability to focus one's eyes. Basically, you are so tired your eyes osscilate between crossing and rolling up into the back of your head when you focus on something. If you remember, we were up late on Sunday night doing the birth, and then Monday with the crying and the no sleeping... by Tuesday, were were pretty worse for the wear.

At this point, I am starting to feel like someone cut open my stomach and placed a bowling ball in there, in place of Nico. I felt a bit like a spectator of my life at this point. Which is why what happened next was disturbing, albeit kind of funny. So on Tuesday, I am am trying to finish up breakfast while breastfeeding Nico... I am definitely topless in the hospital room... anyone who walks by my door could catch a glimpse of the ginormitude... in all of its unglory... these two randoms poke their head into the room, see I am a bit unavailable and excuse themselves, promising to come back in a little while.

They reappear a little while later- but for here on out, these two randoms will be referred to as the Beavis and Butthead, because I felt like I was watching an episode of the Beavis and Butthead show being acted out in my hospital room.

So Beavis and Butthead come in, and without even introducing themselves to me (the mom) or Dave (the dad), they start arguing about who gets to hold Nico first. Turns out these two are the photographers from the hospital. Now, Mama Bishop probably knows where this is about to go... because, I can't lie, I take a DAMN GOOD picture. Really, I do. If I am really honest with myself, there are very few things in life that I do well... I am an okay soccer coach, a passable demographer, a fake sociologist, a terrible wife and a superficial hippie... but I am a DAMN GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER. Seriously- if I am really honest with myself, I probably should have just manned up and become a photographer and not gone the way of Academia. It is what it is... I started taking pictures with my mom's tricked out Canon with the telephoto lens when I was in middle school. Before I started caring about playing sports, I spent most of JJ's tournament weekends shooting pictures of him and his team. And this was back in the day when you did this with film in the camera. When I taught preschool, every parent got several beautiful pictures of their kids during the year... Action shots, portraits, you name it, I do it.

Now, there are very few people in this world that I would actively seek out to shoot the first photos of our child. Given my skillz with a camera, I think that this is justifiable... no where in this list is there Beavis and Butthead who are probably not even real photographers, but rather randoms hired by the hospital. So, as you can imagine, I am already a bit put off by this arrangement.

Add to this, that newborns are notoriously ugly when they are still in the hospital. Most babies that are born vaginally, have long pointy heads, because their heads get squished on the way out... most of the time, their eyes arent quite open yet... a lot are bald... and many have kind of a ruddy complexion, that seems to be a reaction to not being surrounded in water 24-7. While Nico wasn't exactly "ugly", he wasn't 100% adorable yet, because he was still pretty red. I would rather wait a bit before shooting pictures of him (at least till the red goes down). But I have Beavis and Butthead in my room- all up in Nico's grill, arguing about who gets to hold him first and who is going to shoot the picture, and a whole mess of nonsense that made my head hurt. Beavis asks me what color background I want... I say green, and a minute later, Butthead tells Beavis that green is a horrible color to have for a background. This goes on for like 15 minutes, them play arguing with each other, talking about how adorable Nico is, and how they just want to "eat him up", complaining to each other that one has held him longer than the other got to hold him for...

So they get done shooting 5 pictures of him. 5. 5 pictures. All of that nonsense, for 5 pictures.

But here is the best part... when they were done, and Nico was safely returned to his bassinet, out of the reach of crazy, all of a sudden one of them was all up in MY grill talking about package options... I was like, "What?" Yeah, apparently, this outfit sells the images in the form of prints, postcards, birth announcements, etc. And no, they are not a good value. At all. And that is when I figured it out- its a racket. They do the whole routine for new parents. The new parents end up placing an order... 2 weeks go by and then you get your ugly pictures of your kid... and you realize, you were duped.

In the end, we bought the picture CD... thinking that in the event that they were any good, that we'd at least have the digital versions for FB and whatnot... and so that I can edit the pictures to make them cute...