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November 27, 2006
Football
My friend Karen asked for the back story about Macaulay Culkin. I thought I'd written it down before, but I can't find it, so here is the retelling of Why Signa is Afraid of Macaulay Culkin. One day when Signa was about 2, we got a package from Aunt Gin. She was thinning out her talking doll stash and so the box contained a talking PeeWee Herman doll and a screaming Home Alone doll. Marc and Signa were sitting on the sofa and Marc gave her the Home Alone doll and pushed the button. The doll was broken, though, and so even though all it did was scream the patented-Home Alone scream, it was Really, Really Loud. And high pitched. Signa lost it and sobbed uncontrollably until Marc told her that he threw it in the garbage.
Instead he just put it in the garage.
A month or so later, they were outside and Marc found it. He thought she would be over it and brought out the doll and she got really upset. So he said that this time he was really throwing it away and he took it over to the garbage can, but for fun, threw it on the roof instead. But it flew over the roof to the other side and rolled off the roof to the ground right at Signa's feet.
Screaming.
Now she cried sobbing and uncontrollable at the mere mention of Macaulay Culkin and/or Home Alone.
But she loves monsters and bugs and ghosts and everything else truly scary. The only other thing she's afraid of are the Comcast commercials and we still don't really understand why.
So there is the origin of the Home Alone Fear of the Century. And the Comcast one, but I don't yet have the back story on that as it's a relatively new fear.
---
We decided to go visit Santa early this year and so here are the cutest children in the world with Santa. If you have see Christmas Story, there is a part where Ralphie finally gets to see Santa and gets his chance to ask for an official Red Rider bb gun with a compass and a stock and a thing which tells time. But he's so scared, he says, "Football."
I could have got Signa to say, "Football."
She sat on his lap, put on her fake smile and then didn't change. Kept the fake smile and kept her face toward the camera but her eyes on Daddy. Will smiled gleefully at first and then lost interest. Sadly, when he lost interest was when I got Signa to look toward the camera. So this was the best picture we could get. After all that, Santa asked for a hug and asked what she wanted for Christmas. She said, "Yes." Smile.
I said, "Signa, tell Santa what you want for Christmas."
"Yes," nod and smile.
"Signa, don't you want the castle…"
"Yes, castle," nod and smile.
Santa said, "The Dora castle?"
Signa said, "Yes. Dora castle." Nod and smile.
"No, Signa! Not Dora. You wanted the Mermaid castle, remember?"
"Yes. Mermaid castle."
I so wish I had her say football just for my own enjoyment.
---
Anyway, Will had his 7-month checkup on Wednesday. He's doing just fine. 27" long and weighs 17 lbs, 2oz. He's basically right-on for height (50th percentile) and a bit small in weight (10th percentile), but that's using old charts, not the new. The new WHO breastfed baby growth charts put him at about the 45 percentile for weight, so perfect.
He's all healthy and fine with no issues at all. We explained to the doctor that we weren't doing fluoride for him and that did not go over well, so we lied. He got 3 shots and they just angered him more than hurt him. I tried to give him some boobies right after and he just glared at me while screaming baby obscenities.
Thanksgiving was great. Bob and Scott and Gramma came over and Marc made a delicious turkey. We had all the trimmings from the cooking thing we went to on Saturday, so it was relatively easy and fun. Poor Signa got confused, though. After all the Thanksgiving projects and stories and talking about what we are thankful for and building up the parade, she was a bit disappointed. She got up Thursday morning and came to cuddle with me while I finished watching a movie. She was quietly just cuddling and watching and then when the movie was over said, "Momma? Is this it?"
Poor thing thought that was the parade and that was Thanksgiving. She was much happier when everyone came over and she got to play. Of course, I had to wake her for dinner and so she was Uber Cranky Girl until dessert. Oh well.
Posted by Debbie at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2006
The Return of Macaulay Culkin
The hacking cough seems to be subsiding. Mostly. I've been busy trying to get better and launching my Usborne books business (see www.mascotmanor.org/ubah). Well, not much real time has been spent on either of those things, but they've taken up my writing brain cells.
One thing I keep meaning to mention is the Cooking Places. I went to one with my mom and it was so fun. They have all the meals ready to go and you just throw stuff in bags, slap a label on and freeze until you are ready to eat. We made 12 meals and loved all but 2 of them. This Saturday we are going again, but this time to a different place and I'm taking Marc instead of Mom. A date day full of food. We'll be making all the Thanksgiving side dishes, tuscan chicken, parmesan crusted chicken Dijon, kung pao chicken, steaks with garlic and herb butter, maple-thyme pork chops with wild rice pilaf, fruit stuffed pork roast, and homestyle chicken and dumplings. All of these (except Thanksgiving and roast) are actually 2 meals. So we'll have a freezer full of fun fancy food!
Now about Will… he is just too cute for his own good. He is stubborn but accepting. He is funny but serious. He is silly and adorable and all the other good things I can think of. He adores the Higglytown Heroes and Blue's Clues.
He sits in his swing in the mornings and tries so hard not to nap. The chair is slanted back, so all he has to do is sit back and swing to his nap, but he sits all the way forward, leaning as far forward as he can, so that he CAN'T go to sleep. He'd rather be tense than accidentally fall asleep. He has just started eating foods. He will eat a melba toast, carrots and sweet potatoes. So far the rice cereal, bananas, and applesauce are flops. We'll come back around to those and see how it goes.
Signa is just the perfect wonderful Signa that is always. She wanted to play on her computer last night so Marc set her up with her My Little Pony game and I went to bed. This morning Marc said that he fell asleep on the sofa and so our little angel was up until 11pm playing her games. The only reason he woke up is that she came in and asked for a different game to play. Let's just review; I went to bed at 8pm, so that was three full hours of the computer.
I should get her a part time job.
She made us laugh so hard the other day. We were sitting around the living room just hanging out with the TV on. I was flipping channels and I said, "Oh look! Home Alone is on!" I figured we could watch it and she could get over her Macaulay Culkin fear. But Signa totally lost it. Sobbing crying because she is so afraid of Macaulay Culkin. (see here) We tried explaining that it's a FUNNY movie: a comedy. But she'd have none of it. I hurriedly changed the channel and it stopped on The Mummy Returns. She was fine with that.
Posted by Debbie at 03:19 PM | Comments (2)
November 08, 2006
It Could Be Worse
It always could be worse. I could be pregnant AND have pneumonia (again).
Instead I just have the pneumonia (again). I actually feel fine, but this cough is vicious. And a cough produces pressure in my abdomen, much like a sneeze. So I am able to simultaneously hack up crap from my lungs, pee, and vomit just a little bit.
I'm so very cool.
I'm still working, though, as I really do feel perfectly fine. The inhaler and antibiotics are being scoffed at by the Lung Crap, though, I fear. I'm off now to check if the steroid the doctor will give me on Friday is compatible with breastfeeding.
See? It could be worse. I could not respond to this current treatment AND not be able to breastfeed for a day or two. Or three. Not only would I have to do the bob-and-distract, but I would have to use up ALL my freezer stash of breastmilk. How fun would THAT be...
Here's hoping we don't have to find out.
Posted by Debbie at 09:40 PM | Comments (1)
November 03, 2006
Disneyland (and Halloween)
DISNEYLAND 2006 (and HALLOWEEN)
The Drive
Will did surprisingly well for the 6-hour drive. I think he only cried for an hour or so of it. We left Saturday morning (only about 3 hours later than we planned- woo hoo for us) and went to Ginger's house. Got there around dinner time, so we found a motel nearby and then went to dinner at a '50s diner-type place. Just like EVERY. SINGLE. MEAL. since birth, Will woke up right when the food came. I can eat most things one-handed now, but not burgers. So we did the Baby-Switch-Around for awhile and eventually I got my meal finished.
Ginger's apartment is so cute. It's tiny, but decorated just perfectly for her (and Marc. And Signa). Monsters and postcards and silly fun things everywhere. She let Mom and I "shop" in her make-up and skin care stash and we just really had a nice time.
Holly Weird
On Sunday we went to Hollywood. We walked on the stars and put our feet where the Stars once had. I never noticed them in my trips to Hollywood before, but there are people- regular people- who dress up like characters and go and let people take pictures with them. For money. So it would be like me dressing up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and then people wanting to take pictures with me and give me a dollar to do so. Why?
Why? Why? Because beautiful 4-year-old little girls think they are real. I never, ever thought of that angle before. It just seemed dumb to me until Signa got ever so excited to see Freddy (Kruger) in person.
Candy Canes
On Sunday evening we left Hollywood and drove to Anaheim, which is the Southern California home of M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. We stayed at the Candy Cane Inn and loved it. Next door to Disney and a nice relaxing place. We checked in late and had a room next to Mom. Free breakfast in the morning and we got there in time for an evening swim (although the pool was too cold for me…). Candy Cane Lane also has a free bus that drives the one block to Disneyland. Another thing I never understood before children. Now it makes perfect sense.
The Mouse
We spent our first day at Disneyland running from one Land to another without direction because we wanted to see OUR favorites. Due to this, I had blisters on my big toes, little toes and on the top of my foot. But we loved it. Signa's favorite: Space Mountain. Yep, the big dark roller coaster. My favorite: Haunted Mansion all decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas. Marc's favorite: Pirates of the Caribbean. Will's favorite: all of the parts where he nursed and was held (i.e. all of it). Mom's favorite: ??? I guess the part where she held Will and got to sit down!!!
On thing we notice right off was that people who go to Disneyland for vacation are generally extremely rude. Not a lot of smiling and not much glee, which was weird because… well, let's face it- how much more gleeful can you get than Disneyland? But people pushed in front on lines and shoved from behind in crowds and moved when you sat anywhere near them. I was really surprised by this.
Day 2 at Disneyland was more of the same- rides and food and fun. Our intent in going for 3 days was to have time to go back to the hotel and rest in the afternoons, but we didn't have that. We still felt rushed and wished we'd been there longer. Day 3 we went to California Adventure and didn't really love it, so headed back to Disneyland in the afternoon. The Flying over California thing was neat and the Bug's Life area was great, but we'd rather have stayed at Disney. We saw the parade from way back on Day 2 and decided to get there early our last day and watch the parade before driving back to Ginger's. At 6:30 or 7pm, we headed to the street and found a nice place to sit and rest and wait for the parade. It was WAY early, but we wanted to just chill and have a good spot. Signa sat in the stroller resting and eating a sucker and Mom, Marc and I switched off holding Will and keeping him happy. The streets filled and the lights dimmed and the ropes went up.
So that's when we met The Rudest Family Ever. We called them the Douche Bag Family and took lots of pictures of them. Right as it's all really starting, they bullied their way in front of us (we were on the edge of the sidewalk right before the street and they sat in the street gutter in front of us). The one guy hit me with his backpack hard and the other guy pushed on Signa's stroller. The woman was just horrid and they all STOOD there for awhile, which boiled our blood. She even had a worker take their pictures showing they were in the front. We hated them passionately.
Scary Land and Universal Studios
After Douche Bag Family Night, we drove back to Ginger's. We spent the night in the same hotel near her house, but night time is very much different than day time there. Mom and Marc went to the attached Denny's to get us dinner and saw some scary dealings and insane folks (more insane than people who obsess over others cutting in front of them at Disneyland).
In the morning, we woke up and went to Universal Studios. Signa loved all of it, but the tour. Turns out Signa was more afraid of the tour there than of anything else she saw or experienced the whole week. For days, if you asked her if she had a good vacation, she'd answer, "No, I didn't like King Kong or the earthquake shaking the bridge." She's over it now and says she loved the vacation, but the tour was not her thing. Will nursed through it all. As he did through Disneyland and Hollywood.
The Drive Home
Friday morning we went to Ginger's and just hung out. We had lunch and then drove home. Signa caught a cold and we've since all got it (I have the hacking spasming pneumonia cough right now- kinda scary). The drive was uneventful except for Will's crying and Signa learning to pee on the side of the road. Yay, Signa!
Halloween
Marc's Batman costume was great. He's been sculpting and molding it for months and it was worth all that effort. He wore part of it to Monty's party on Saturday night and then finished it on Tuesday in time for trick-or-treating. Signa was Robin. They were so cute together. Will and I were cute together, too. I was a pirate and he was my parrot. I wrapped him in one of my baby carriers and put a parrot hat on him.
We got more candy than we should have.
And now it's back to normal.
Posted by Debbie at 04:54 PM | Comments (1)