(photo) Being a baby is exhausting! 

Poor baby.

Adrian and I went to the doctor yesterday morning, due to the diarrhea & diaper rash. She gave us a prescription for the rash and a stool collection kit. So twice today I was scooping poop out of a diaper to put in a plastic vial. And I have to tell you, I came up with a fairly long list of things I would rather be doing. None of them involved poop.
I guess I should be grateful that he's fine otherwise and still his usual jovial self, but I am too tired to be anything but tired. Wee man decided that 5am was a fine time to rise and shine, and did you know that PBS isn't on that early?

More evidence that babies eat brains.

Ahem.
So, we went to Birmingham and here is a list of everything I remembered to pack:

for Adrian:3 sets of jammies, 3 onesies, 1 tshirt, 1 pair shorts, 3 pair socks, 4 bibs, 52 diapers, diaper wipes, desitin (aka baby butt cream), teething ring, 2 plastic blocks for banging together, jingly lion toy,plastic chain, sunshine rattle, 1 book, quilt, lightweight blanket, lamby blanket, plastic spoons, formula, bottle, bottle liners, cheerios, graham crackers, diced peaches, and empty ziplocs for dirty things.
for me: 2 pair pants, 1 skirt, 3 tshirts, 1 lightweight sweater, 3 pair socks, 3 pair underwear, 3 bras, extra pair of shoes, and jammies.

List of things I forgot to pack:
sippy cup.
camera.

That's right. I can remember to pack a jingly lion toy but I can't remember to pack the stupid camera.

Thankfully my brother Jono had brought his digital camera and he promised to send all photos my way. And I will be harassing him via email until he does so.

The trip was good, other than the fact that Adrian had diarrhea the entire time and developed his first-ever diaper rash. In spite of these difficulties, he was a charmer and now has a whole host of girlfriends in the Birmingham airport.

We're back!

Woke up this morning, walked down the dark hallway to the bathroom and stepped into a cold, wet pile of cat vomit.
Mmmm...welcome home.

Leavin' on a jet plane...

I do it myself.

Hello all!

Tomorrow we (Aaron, Adrian, and myself) will get on a plane at 6:15am and fly to Birmingham, Alabama to visit with my extended family. I am very much looking forward to seeing everyone--it's been 3 years since I've seen some of them. I am not looking forward to getting to the airport at 5am with an eight month old baby. I have visions of Adrian pitching fits from here to Birmingham (with a stop over in Detroit)--spreading ill will in his wake. I plan to anticipate the worst and hope to be pleasantly surprised.
We still have yet to pack for our grand adventure--and anyone who knows me well will tell you that waiting until the day before is making me antsy. I dislike packing, I have a tendency to over-pack, and I live with the constant feeling that I've forgotten something (usually my toothbrush). I think that my compulsive list-making all started with the lists for travel, compiled weeks in advance under the delusion that this will make me remember everything essential. I fail to take into account that I am easily distracted and often wind up placing 'items to be packed' in kitchen cabinets as I fix myself a cup of coffee. It's like a scavenger hunt set up by my subconscious.
All of that is really to say that I'll miss you Internet, but I'll take lots of photos and fill you in when I get back.

(photo) Pizza night at Benny's. 

Things what are funny.

(photo) things what are funny.

Hunh.
Well, somehow it's Friday again, and I'm just now uploading the photos from last Friday.
In an effort to get to bed at a decent hour, I have kept myself away from the computer after Adrian goes to bed. The downside to this is that I wind up not posting here, and breaking many a heart (I'm sure). Obviously my gallant plan is in need of revision.

Adrian thinks that wearing his dad's glasses is hilarious.

And now I'm being shuffled out the door for another Friday night of family fun.

More later--don't cry for me, Argentina.

Somber man

(photo) So serious.

Lately Adrian has taken to making the most serious of expressions, which also make him look slightly like a drug-addled teenager. It's very funny to me because he can't yet speak, so I get to put words in his mouth.
"Mother, I am filled with ennui"

Of course, I think knock-knock jokes are funny, so you probably shouldn't take my word on it.

Adrian seems to have an odd sense of humor, too.
Things he finds funny: when Aaron smokes a pipe; throwing rocks; spitting.
We're living a life of high culture indeed.

(I am up past my bedtime! This now fills me with a sense of dread rather than the sense of glee from my youth. Another sign that I'm actually one of those grown-up people.)

(Photo) Good fun for everyone! 

Flickr and me

Hiya!

So, I take A LOT of photos. A Lot A Lot. And there are times when I'd like to share all of them with you, but I am afraid that would slow down the load time of this page and you would decide that it's not worth it to stick around. So, if you're interested in many photos, you can now go here and view them to your hearts' content. Or you can choose not to and enjoy the gentle ramblings of yours truly.

So there's that.

In other news, Aaron and I were driving to the grocery store yesterday and passed a squad car, upon which was written: City of Rock Island Police/Senior Volunteer Patrol.
It was driven by an elderly man in a baseball cap.

And I cursed myself for not having the camera.

In perspective.

Just when you think that your life is terrible because you've run out of tonic water and are unable to make gin & tonics (a tasty treat for mummies everywhere), some crazed fundamentalist asshole goes and blows up the London transit system.
This is one of those moments that makes me wonder how on Earth can I ever explain to Adrian what this (terrorism, war) is all about.
How do you explain this less-than-lovely side of life without terrifying your child?
Right now his language comprehension is such that I can avoid the subject altogether. I envy the fact that his life revolves around bottles, walks, and the dreaded sleep.
Why do we have to grow up and make life so hard?

In Review.

Hello, Internet.

I have been extremely tired of late and I have been using my spare baby-free moments to nap instead of sharing with you. I figured you'd understand. Here is a rundown of what you have missed.

Thursday, June 30:
We took Adrian to visit Grandpa at work, where Adrian had his first display of stranger anxiety. To be fair, it was loud and there were lots of new faces. After that we went to a late lunch at the Olive Garden where Adrian ate 2 coasters (as part of his pre-circus training) and was then so bored with the whole ordeal that Aaron and I had to eat in shifts. One of us would walk with Adrian while the other ate. (Have a baby: Never eat at the same time again!)

Friday, July 1:
I don't remember Friday. I know it was there and I lived through it, but I honestly can't tell you what happened. I changed diapers and fed the baby (oh what a glamorous life I lead).

Saturday, July 2:
Our baby likes pork! We ate ribs, and fed scraps of pork to Adrian as he leaned forward with his baby-bird mouth wide open.

Sunday, July 3:
We attended a dinner cookout thrown by neighborhood friends. Adrian again showed a little bit of stranger anxiety, which was quickly forgotten when he met a man with a moustache. Moustaches are fascinating to our wee man. And that night, I was terrified out of my skin. It's funny now, but not so much then. A play by play, just for you:
5am: Aaron & I are sleeping. There is a cat asleep at the foot of our bed, which is usual protocol for us. I, still sleeping, hear cat fighting noises (which will be explained shortly). Then I hear Aaron screaming--I snap my eyes open and he is sitting bolt upright, eyes wide open--so wide that I can see the whites all the way around his pupils. He looks terrified; so I start screaming--then he screams again--so I scream again--and then he's holding me going "it's okay, it's alright, you're okay". My heart is going a million miles an hour, I'm shaking and completely freaked out. We hear cats fighting all the time, as Ming the Merciless refuses to accept the fact that our cats now live here too. We hear Ming beating up on our cats all hours of the day and night, and usually one of us will just grab the old fleabag and put him outside for the time being. So I thought, when I heard Aaron screaming, he was just trying to get the cats off of the bed so he could grab Ming. But when I saw the look of terror on his face, I was so startled all I could do was scream back. I have never, in all the time I've known Aaron, seen him get scared. He loves scary movies, spooky stories, and the like. Apparently, when the cat fight started, he was having a nightmare and the cats were fighting right on top of his feet, so his dream carried over into this reality.
Our screaming was so loud, Nina stuck her head in the door to make sure nobody was dead and we woke the baby.
Yeah, so that was awful. Funny in retrospect, but you couldn't pay me to do it again.

Monday, July 4:
We went to a block party, watched fireworks on TV and called it an early night. I was still jumpy from the night before, so I went to sleep with the light on while Aaron stayed up talking with his family.

So I guess the big news is that even though I have never been so scared in all of my life, those Kegel exercises really work.

(Photo) Plum-eating baby. 

(Photo) Pool time!