I know EVERYONE really cares about my list

It is still not a bucket list, Mike.
 
I know these posts are terribly interesting and exactly what you were hoping to see today. I'll even show you pictures. So, you might care a little.

In a fun twist for the month of October, I've gotten to check off stuff that wasn't even ON the list.

I saw Falling Water:

Ignore the tourist.

This was a beautiful place to visit. Everyone should spend a whole day to go and visit the Frank Lloyd Wright houses.  

I used blackmail to get this pic

I wonder what he would have created with today's technology. The man was a visionary.


I got to see Kentuck Knob:


Here is the 50 mile view from the top of the knob where the house sits. My battery was toast for the most part by the time we got up there after, Falling Water.

3 states can be seen here

More blackmail





There was an art meadow at Kentuck Knob, which featured an art piece of something like 500 red metal dancers in a grid. It was slightly creepy and neat looking at the same time. (not pictured, obviously)

The Heinz History Center!

 

Kid loves the roller coasters.

This is also a place you should spend an entire afternoon visiting. It is a pretty amazing place.

I used to ride one of these with my mom

Shit I wanna do list: Running out of Stuff Edition:

• Go to Kennywood for phantom fright nights
• The PGH Glass Center
• Go to the Frick Art & Historical Center
• Take Julia to the ocean
• Just Ducky Tour (I just want to take mike on it once)

Unexpected List Update!

Shit I wanna do list: Tired Of Putting a Year Here Edition

• Go to see Falling Water or Falling Water AFTER DARK TOUR
• Go to Kennywood for phantom fright nights
• Heinz History Center
• The PGH Glass Center
• Go to the Frick Art & Historical Center
• DONE: Sandcastle
• Just Ducky Tour (I just want to take mike on it once)

Wait. Do you see it?

I took Julia to sandcastle for the first time!!

When I lost my job and all vacation plans were tossed in the garbage, I had to think very local. The happy new job has a happy fund to cover things like amusement park tickets. Which is GREAT. Because: Do I really need to point it out? Also because happy new job doesn't pay as much as torture terrible job did. ( I'm ok with that. I like my sanity and everyone else does too.) I got to do something fun with her since there was no trip anywhere this summer.

There is also a rumor that I might get to check something else off this list in September. See if you can guess what it might be!

A life worth living.

[Mom blog post]
At the last minute last week, I decided that I was taking Julia to kennywood. Just the 2 of us. It was a great afternoon. I have some adorable pics that I will put up on Facebook soon. We got there later than I wanted, but we rode everything we could ride. And a couple things, we rode twice.
She was pure joy and so well behaved.... And I left behind all that has been stressing me out.
I try to make all my time with her count.
I think about all I have gone thru in the last year. How I have survived thru it an become a stronger person. How its helped me to have her. How its helped me to be a better mom.
I hope it has.
My job maybe a pain in the ass. But it pays me enough money that I can do things like that with her. What is life worth living without love, laughter, and someone (even just a 4 1/2 yr old) to hold your hand? Something we should all strive for... Maybe then... This world would be a less angry place.

#PoolTour2011 South Park Wave Pool

Last week I decided we were going swimming damn it.
My sister suggested the south park wave pool since she was over that way.
Admission is the same price as north park.
DAYTIME Adult 5.00
Senior Citizen 3.00
Junior 4.00
Youth 3.00
Children 1.00
The changing area was fairly clean. The concession stand was pretty extensive, but chaotic... Because it was kinda of self serve, if they were out of something you had to wait. This caused a bit of confusion. The prices were not too bad and the food was pretty good.
There was a good bit of seating though outside the concession area, thought not a lot of it was shaded with table umbrellas. There is a reasonable sized play area for toddlers and a larger tree just inside the gates. But there is no baby pool.
The wave pool was clean, has a sloped entry and the waves seemed to be turned on randomly. A bell would ring as warning. The towel area was covered in indoor/outdoor grass carpet and rafts could be rented for $4 + $1 deposit.
Over all we had fun. It was Julia's first wave pool experience. She got a pretty big kick out of it. The water was a bit cold. But at 90* you tend to welcome the numbness from the cold. And waves tend to take care of getting you wet fast.
I would give it a B. Because the tables were missing their umbrellas and lack of kiddie pool

The Rants Have Returned.

Welcome 2011!!!!

WOOOOOOOOO!!!

Anyway. After spending a month with out land line internet to my PC... Big Yellow is now wireless. The land line running to the PC went bad. It was easier to spend $20 on a USB wireless than try to run a new line to my room. Lets just leave it that that
I have a post Christmas parent type rant. (cause it ain't Christmas unless I'm bitching)

Packaging. Toy Packaging.
And "directions."

First, directions. The tiny princess castle was Direction FAIL. There was a sticker sheet, cause apparently its TOO EXPENSIVE for the manufacturer to put stickers on... and the direction paper was seriously 2 little pages. The fail came to applying the stickers. It only showed about half the sticker placement.
Then it said this, "See product picture on box for sticker placement."
Here is the problem. SOMEBODY did not make sure the picture on the box was the SAME as the item IN THE BOX.
It wasn't.
Apparently they made the castle "bigger" on the box. Or they made it smaller later to fit in the box. I know this because I looked at the places where there were random stupid stickers in the picture... and then looked on the castle to see there was NO WAY POSSIBLE to fit an effing sticker in that spot. I improvised. I generally ignored the picture on the box. I was so pissed though.

Barbie's vacation home thing is also guilty. There are these clips to attach TV's and lights when the vacation house is opened up. The directions are so bad, I am still not sure I have the right clips on the right items. Also, it took me 10 minutes to figure out what these were:

That's a tiny remote and a tiny effing ipod/speakers. There was no mentions of the items. I thought the ipod thing was a part because there is no detailing on the back of either item like there is on the front. Stupid.
Even the damn barbie car. It had 2 sticker sheets and little side mirrors that needed attached. No directions at all. NONE.
Add an impatient 3 (almost 4 yr old) to the mix....
*sigh*

Now, we will talk about Barbie. Julia LOVES Barbies. The Tiny Disney Princesses, the Tinkerbell line (I'm always the bitchy black haired fairy), the Barbies themselves...  she loves them. I, on the other hand, HATE getting the Mother Effers out of the packaging. (yes. effers. I'm trying to say the F word Less. Don't judge me.)


WHY is the barbie hair SEWN to the box when she has 27 plastic tie things, (no, not the twist ties) and 20 tiny clear bands holding her in???!! Not to mention the shipping grade tape on the outside of the damn box. And she has the ties in her damn HEAD. So, when you do rip her out in frustration, you have to take small scissors, find them in her hair, cut the T shaped part sticking out, then shove the rest in her little plastic effing skull with out leaving a bald spot on the damn doll. How about you just put little effing bands in her hair so that I don't RIP OUT what hair I didn't cut???

I had several minor injuries from the damn packaging on my hands.
And a massive headache.
Merry Effing Christmas.
Bastards.

A Day with out Epic Fail

[mom blog post w mini rant]
On Thursday, we made plans to go to North Park Pool... With friends of course. Funnel cakes were rumored to be found there so yeah... We were going. We were DARING the weather to not get nice by going... Damn it got really nice...  Julia LOVES water.... I went with @pghrugbyangel,  also @burghseyewife, @shellrenee and their boys, along with @aphotobug‘s son. The kids and the adult pools are enormous. I was stunned.

First I must say that I Giant-Red-Heart the Android OS and Google Navigation for getting my ass to North Park in the first place. (aka F you iphone)
I was supposed to follow my friends out there but my drive way was blocked:

And these men were making my head explode when they did this to my sidewalk:

Because they are preparing to tear down the house across the street.
Assholes better fix that shit right!

Anyway.

I get to NP and the place is damn empty. So its easy to find my friends. Julia plays in the kids pool for a bit but refuses to get in the big pool. "Jen says this is MY pool." She says referring to @burghseyewife's comment that Julia had the kids pool all to herself.
                    ---------> empty ass pool!

When @pghrugbyangel asks her, Julia goes right with her. To the Big Pool! Next thing I know Julia is diving off the ledge at her. It was adorable. When we tried to get her to go down the slide... There were about 14 thousand trips up and down those steps to the water slide. She would watch everyone else go. Chickening out every. single. time. I promised to catch her. Jen said she would catch her. Finally, I told her she was going or not at all. She looked at me and said "I want my new friend, Claire to catch me." 
The boys (what great kids they are) raced down the slide to go find her for me and tell her. 


Here is where I know my kid. She will love the slide if I can just get her ON it. When her new friend was waiting at the bottom, I pried Julia's hands off the railings and ignored her totally when she said she didn't want to go. And I MADE her. She LOVED it. As soon as her friend caught her, She said "I want to do it again!"


It was 3 more times she went down. The last time she came off the slide sideways (lol) and was done. She then proceeded to play in the kids pool, eat and try to drown her new friend later... LOL. After the others left, we finally made our way out via ice cream bribe. She did ask... when could she play with her new friends again....

Then, I got lost leaving, Google got me to RT 8, But seriously, Someone should tell Google that RT 28 should never be an option for travel unless the world is ending. Period. Even that wasn't that bad. We even made it to the Family Fest at Brookline park. Julia made crafts, jumped in the the blow up things they had and had loads of fun.


After lots of Epic Fail for me lately... There was no epic fail Thursday. It was wonderful.

The Saturn From Hell (aka Epic Fail 4th of July)

The weekend started with my mom leaving her car at my house for me to use this weekend while she was away. (thats another story) When she dropped it off at my house, I was at work already. She informed me via text that the car had been "fixed" by the "mechanics" at Schuler's. I wasnt aware of anything be wrong with it... I had it just a few weeks ago and it was fine...

For the record... My moms car is a plastic toy Saturn Ion. (I drive an Impala. Every thing smaller feels like a toy.) When you press the gas, I SWEAR TO GOD her toy car says, "What? Are you talking to me? You want me to go? .... Oh OK." The instrument panel is in the center of the dash, which is the DUMBEST place ever. (Yes, I am looking at you too Mini Cooper) Anyway...

So, thru text messages, I find out the later that the car doesn't want to start and I might not want it. In hindsight... I shouldn't have taken it. Turned out the "mechanics" who "fixed" my moms car FORGOT TO PUT ALL THE PIECES BACK ON THE F&%$ing car. Srsly. I cant make this shit up. Some cover for some wires is missing under the hood. Supposedly it needed a fuel filter, and some miniture wildlife was supposedly storing miniature nuts in the miniature engine compartment. Right.... Schuler's = rip off.

The decision was made I would check it out before work Saturday morning. When I got to my house, I went down back and it took a couple tries, but the Toy started. I ran it to burger king on Brownsville road and back and it was fine. I decided it was ok and off to work I went with that thing. I was such a dumbass.
I beat the tiny gerbils to 65mpg to get a good run and get the cleaner thru the engine that had been poured in the gas tank the night before. It seemed fine. At lunch, I ran to target for shirts without holes and to giant eagle to get REAL cold medicine.  Each time, I coaxed the Toy back to life after 1 or 2 tries. Saturday night I was still way out of it with the cold, and instead of driving to Moraine at 1130 at night on dark back roads and risking it, I went back to moms. It took 4 tries to start the car. Going home seemed to be the best choice.

The original plan involved me spending the day at our camp in moraine w Julia and taking her swimming, relaxing and then heading back to Pittsburgh about 7 and watching the City fireworks.

Here is what really happened.

When I went to moms Saturday night, I had to unload the car since I decided not to go up till morning. I parked in on the street. Took the spare key out of the ignition and tossed it in my purse. Dug for house keys. Popped the trunk. As I was getting out, I shoved phones and keys in my pockets. I realized I had no real way to lock the car (no remote). So, I hit the lock button on the door. And got out. AND SHUT THE DOOR!! Locking myself out of the car. With my purse and work bag right on the seat.

Thank goodness my clothes bag was in the trunk. I invented new curse words for my mistake. I looked all over moms house for an extra key. I text her about my huge error. She was sleeping by then. Terrified someone would break into her car to steal my purse, I hardly slept all night, listening. In the morning, I finally got her on the phone. Spare key still nowhere to be found. I call my sister.

I LOVE MY SISTER. At 11am she was driving me to Moraine to get mom's keys. We get there, I get the key and decide it makes more sense to just bring Julia home because otherwise I would spend most of the day on the road. (remember that). Pack sister's car with kid and her stuff... head back to Pittsburgh. We get to moms, unload. Its now 230ish.

New plan is to take Julia to Moore Park Pool. Pool closes at 5:45.Then watch fireworks at Mt. Washington.

We change to our swimsuits. I realize Julia's suitcase is in Sister's car still. We head over there on our way to the pool. When I was given keys, it was never mentioned that sometimes mom has a problem with her key. (It has a chip in it and I have decided that chips in keys? SUCK.) At first the key wont go in, then it does and the car starts right up. I think, "SCORE!" Half way up Berry Street the car says. "Fuck you!" and stalls. I frantically start it, stop at Sister's, leave the car running and snatch the suitcase. Off to the pool. Its 3:30.

I get to the pool, park the car. Put it in park. The locks don't release. The key wont turn off. I must have looked insane yanking with all my might to turn the car off. In and out of park, neutral. Nothing worked. It would not shut off. Srsly. I called my mom, half out of my mind with frustration. Freaking out, I drive the car to my house, bust down the door w julia in tow.

THE CAR STILL WONT SHUT OFF.

We put it down back. Neighbors come over and I'm on the phone with mom (both of us freaking out), Julia is crying cause I promised her the pool. Finally, they pull a fuse and the engine dies. All the lights do not. That requires a battery pull for god's sake. You know where the damn battery is in that fuckin car?? THE TRUNK. Its now 415pm. Julia settles for her little pool. Eventually.
The key I used all weekend is needed cause the window was down and the trunk is closed. Now I have to go back to moms a house AGAIN. So, here I am in my car. Driving back to moms. Get the spare I was using. Pack all our stuff up, change out of my swimsuit cause its 440pm. I spend 10 minutes reflecting on how much of a fail this day has become.

Its 5pm when I get back. Day ruined. Baloney sandwiches and pasta salad is dinner. I put Thumblina on for Julia and try to rest for a bit now that I have spent ALL DAMN DAY in a car. I give up all other plans. We end up going to watch Dormont fireworks with neighbors and playing with sparklers. That part wasn't so bad. But I have never been so happy to see a day end.



The key is still stuck in the Toy. In the "on" position. It refuses to believe its in Park. We moved it so that the "mechanics" can come tow it Tuesday. The fuse still had to be pulled AGAIN cause the car did not shut off when the battery was disconnected. Srsly.

A Little Christmas Bitching

I want to say I love Christmas. Not the cold and snow shit so much, but the lights and gift giving shit? I love. I love finding that perfect gift for someone, whether I am shopping on amazon.com (love ya) or my other favoritest store, Target (Yes, I know favoritest is not a word. It's my blog. I can say what I want.) I love sneaking out at 9pm and shopping during the extended hours cause I can get always get a close spot in the lot. I love hearing Julia in the back seat talking about how all the "pretty lights are wonderful, Mommy!!" It makes me happy.

But it seems that there is always one damn person who has to suck the FUN out of Christmas for me every year. This year it is Family Member A. (aka FMA) FMA buys themselves EVERYTHING. They have apparently never heard of the November Rule. (This rule states that as of Nov 1, you don't make any purchases for yourself without approval so that people can buy you stuff for the holidays) It seems simple enough right? WAIT a few weeks for non urgent items and someone ELSE will BUY it for YOU. Right????

FMA has this horrible habit of breaking the rule, EVERY YEAR. Going so far as to BUY the present themselves (!!) to make sure they would get it one year. After getting a reasonable idea for FMA who has EVERYTHING... We find out FMA went and bought the item Thursday night (!!!) and we were going shopping on Friday! December 3rd. FMA is buying themselves stuff December f&%$ing 3rd!!!

Dear FMA: STOP IT.

I was so pissed that FMA almost did not get a damn present this year.

Then you have the family members who wont give you ideas for themselves (or their kids) and you have to just guess what they might like or don't have already. FUN. It's especially helpful for those people you don't see and talk to on like a weekly basis. Makes you want to spork someone.

Almost as bad, are the ideas so vague that the person might as well have grunted at you.

"Sweaters." OK. What kind? What colors? What style? Personally, I detest turtle neck sweaters. DETEST. Unless you ask me, I don't run around professing my hate for clothing wrapped around my neck. I never ask for clothes. Cause I know I am picky. Hella picky.

"Perfume." Again... What brand? What kind of scent? Full strength? Watered down? Again, I am the kind of person who's body chemistry can destroy the scent of perfume the second it hits my skin. So, I have 2 maybe 3 scents I know I can wear and not smell hideous.

My absolute favorites are the lists that read like its from a rich kid in Fox Chapel:

What I want for Christmas:

A Treadmill.....

WHAT? A treadmill? Where the f*&% are you putting a $4000 piece of equipment? Who do you think is buying you THAT? SRSLY?

To end on a nicer note:
So, when I went shopping Friday I very annoyed and I was trying to live up to the "Bitch Train" Status on Blackberry Messenger. I was going to take all those people that pissed me off and just get some random gift cards and be done with it. Why put effort in to it when they are not making an effort? Gift cards are wonderful, I ask for them alot. But at least I ASKED for specific kinds of gift cards.

It was a nice, but exhausting day. Daytime shopping at the Mt Nebo/Camp Horne Rd Target rocked. The place wasn't hideously crowded, we found some very good deals and I got a ton of shopping done for almost the whole 20+ person list. The side note, is that I really wanted people to have something to open this year. Turns out, I changed my mind and bought them stuff, going out on a bit of a limb and I have to hope they like what I got them.

Bitch Train or not, I couldn't stay in that mood. I had fun picking out toys for the little ones on the list, including Julia. Christmas shopping CAN be fun. As long as you aren't going to the G20 Summit (aka Walmart on Black Friday) to do it.

:-)

PS I'm trying to post more. I promise.

What I have learned..... and other shit

I am sorry for going so long between posts... It just has not been in the cards for me...

What I have learned:
Even though i wear my contacts 355 days a year, (I know! Bad bad... but I am practically blind and life is much easier this way.) Sleeping in contacts while being attacked by a wicked sinus cold is a BAD thing. So bad that I scratched my right eye and irritated the shit out of my left eye. I haven't worn glasses in FOREVER and when I pulled them out... I vowed to live with wearing 1 contact and just suffering. Anything to keep from looking like Harry Potter's sister. Srsly. As I write this, I still only have 1 contact in, but my eyes are not a new shade of red anymore... thank goodness.
I am hoping in the next couple days my eyeballs will stop hating me and my F&%$ing Halloween cold will clear the rest of the way out....

What I have learned:
That 7 weeks of classroom training still doesn't prepare you for the brain explosion of taking calls alone (sorta). All the shit you learned now needs to be more than just theory.... and that's a challenge in my new line of work...

What I have learned:
No matter what I try, my almost 3 year old kid refuses to stay potty trained. She will do it for my mom and sorta for me, but not at all for her daddy. She KNOWS. She just refuses, so if you got tips, tricks, ANYTHING, please share. I need HELP.

What I have learned:
That there is a real life Dennie the Menace and he has moved for a 40 acre farm in Virgina to 2 houses down from me. And while he appears to be destruction with feet, its my neighbor I feel for. He has become the unwitting "Mr Wilson" stuck in the role of giving the kid juice boxes to go away when he is working in the garage, dealing with him climbing and hitting the metal fence between the yards, and other annoying shit...
His dad is trying to adapt, but this is the city and your kid is 7. You just cant send him outside and NOT check on him for HOURS. SRSLY.

I'm gonna rest my eyeballs now.

Stubborn 2yr olds....

So, Saturday I was invited to a little thing at BurghBaby's Awesome new house. Yes, it is totally awesome. I baked some fresh zucchini bread, and after the kid took a nap, we (husband, kid and I) ventured out to her new place.

I confess I was nervous. These were mostly (I think) people I talk to on twitter, and I had never met anyone of them face to face. And I was bringing the Mistress of Destruction with me. Yeah. Nervous.

If adorable Alexis ever had a polar opposite - it was Julia on Saturday. Alexis seemed shy from all the people and kids. Julia, however, did not care. she dived right in to the play room with several other kids since we were the last to arrive. Tim settled in to keep an eye on her in the play room while I tried socialize. Its a little like being the new kid, striking up the conversation is the hardest part. I ventured downstairs and helped with peeling pizza dough off the wax paper (I held) and made small talk.
Not long after Julia came bursting out of the back door, my husband sends me a text "I cant find our kid" LOL. She played "park" and (sorta) with other kids.

But I know her. She finds trouble. It should be her middle name. My mom called me once to check on the splinter from hell situation, and i jinxed it all by saying julia was being pretty good...

I shadowed her the rest of the evening worried she would do something awful to BurghBaby's awesome house. Once she tried to go wandering around their 2nd floor. She climbed onto a water table (no water) and stuck her head through the kids sized basketball hoop. Twice. I am pretty sure she is partly responsible for the bomb that went off in the playroom.

The 2 worst moments of the evening went like this--
Moment # 1 was when she spotted the trampoline in the next yard. I had to chase after her and retrieve her from the damn thing. Immediately she brought out the child psych warfare. (It worked on her daddy in the dr's office once and this was the 3rd time recently she did this to me.) Julia began screaming stuff like: "ouch, it hurts, your hurting me" etc and crying. Loudly. All I was doing was herding her up the damn hill side. :-( I don't even want to think everyone there thought I was hurting her. But I pleaded silently for her to just go back to the party and she eventually did.

Later she discovered the trike in the basement and by the time I convinced her to come upstairs, everyone but 1 person had left. (of course) Finally at 9 came the 2nd moment. I had to make her leave. She wanted to be Alexis's new best friend and I don't think Alexis was feeling that at 9pm. I forewarned everyone still there. I knew what she would do. There is NOTHING I can do to stop it, but be MORE stubborn than her. (Just like the going to sleep in her bed thing. I won that round tonight, but that is another post)

Moment # 2 was when I forced her to leave. Practically tackling her, and picking her up and she screamed and cried right up to with in inches of the front door. I let her open the door. Then she left normally and we got in the car with out further incident. How is it, that ALL the other kids left with out a fight and my kid has to make a SCENE!!??

So, I am truly sorry for my little terrorist. I hope that I'll be invited back again despite my crazy ass kid. Next time, I'll wear a name tag that says "My twitter name is rantpittsburgh" on it.

A Piggy Colony

Sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate this stupid image from where I am. I didn't think my post made it to blogger last night.

This is a colony of Piggies that I found at the Rite Aid down the street from my house a couple weeks ago. I actually forgot the pic was in my phone until last night. I bought an extra one and tucked it in my drawer. Insurance. I don't want another Piggy incident. EVER.

What I Love about Julia

I am sure to all the parents out there, I am not telling you things you haven't heard before. But Julia is my one and only and I am always in awe that I had a hand in creating this little girl. So, this is not a rant.

What I love about Julia is her imagination. The kid has no rules. Anything and be anything in her world and I find that so awesome. In her 2 1/2 year old mind there are no limits.

My favorite?
2 pennies apparently have a job and a car:

Yes, that is "monies car" and they indeed get in the car and "go work" Sometimes nickels and dimes get in on the action too. Its a hot car! lol

Foam bathtub letters and bath "craynons" have become birthday candles or snacks. Blocks have been drinks that she passes out to everyone in the room. Sweeper attachments are microphones that she sings into. Colored pencils are "cho-cho trains" My old compact is a phone.... I could go on... My point is that she absolutely doesn't let the object's actual form mean anything to her when it comes to pretend play. And I just think it is awesome.

A piggy replaced.

Thank you Tystore. A new piggy has arrived. Julia is happy. An tonight I wont hear her begging me for it. :-) yay.

Open heart, insert knife.

I spent 3 hours after work, looking. Driving around, asking random people. There was no sign of them anywhere that Julia had been today. I even asked Julia. But at 2 1/2 years old she could only answer me back with my own question or say "I don't know." It had been too long and we missed the window of time where she could "go find it" now. What's missing you ask? Well, i have to explain from the top. When Julia was born we bought her a Snuggle.

This is Original Snuggle and NEVER EVER leaves our house.

I read in my "what to expect:toddler years" book, That you should have 2. An exact duplicate back up in case shit happens. So, a little more than a year ago, I decided that was a smart idea. However, when I went back to Target, they did not have an exact match- it was out of stock at the time. So, I bought what became known as "other snuggle" Julia began sleeping with both of them. I figured she had to get used to it since it wasn't a match, in case it ever had to fill in.

Around 9 months ago Julia got really into a farm book that had piggies in it. Oh, how she loves all things piggies. On a whim, I saw a beanie baby one in Rite Aid downtown and bought it for her. Piggie became a bedtime regular immediately. Other Snuggle became the traveler, going with Julia on overnight trips as well as nights at home. When home, she had to have all three to go to bed. Who am i to argue right?

For her 2nd birthday, I bought her a musical lamb:

Julia loved Lamb and it also became a bedtime requirement. I named them "the posse" : 2 snuggles, piggie and lamb. It was hilarious watching her with full arms carry all of them up and down the steps at once. We had to kiss, hug and tuck in all of them for "night-nights" with her in her bed. Ironically, 2 weeks ago, she asked me take pictures of them with my cell phone. They are her bedtime posse and she loves them all, I don't dare send her to bed with out all of them.

Except tonight.

Today. Other Snuggles and Piggie vanished.

Vanished while they were out on a road trip at another family member's house.

We went to target, searching for replacements. What is now known as New Snuggle- is totally not like either of the other 2. New snuggle seems to be cool with her. The piggy? well, its a pig. She liked it, not enough to take to bed though.

I knew what was coming. She wasn't upset earlier. But she wasn't on her way to bed either. There is still a dull ache in my chest. It was way worse earlier today. I put off bedtime. Letting her wait till the worst hockey game on the planet was almost over before sending her to bathe. I left her play in the tub till almost 11pm. I didn't take her up till 1120 or so.... I tried to slip a doggy in. I thought I was successful.

Till the lights went out.

She started asking. "where piggie?" "mommy, where piggie?"

"I don't know, Julia" "here is doggie, sleep with doggie tonight"

"you hold doggie"

Then, came then knife. Thank god it was dark. She spoke in a very quiet and pleading tone.

"please mommy, where piggie?" "Pretty please mommy. Can i have a piggie?" "mommy, please find piggie" "please?" "Pretty please get piggie mommy"

That was it. I lost it. Lost my composure.

Julia was so shocked at my outburst, she stopped asking about piggie and told me "don't cry" a few times. I told her I was sorry. I would buy her a new one. It was my fault it was missing. I calmed down so that she wouldn't start crying too. In a few min she fell asleep holding just the snuggles while laying against me. I left her room and went right to the computer and to TY's website. The price of never hearing that pleading again?

1 Sniffs - Beanie Baby 2.0: Item Price - $4.99
Shipping & Handling - $11.05
Grand Total - $16.04. It's worth every. single. penny.

It won't get here fast enough for me. I still have at least 2-3 nights of torture ahead of me.

Missing Stuffed Animal Report: Lost in Brentwood, (Pittsburgh) PA

1 beanie baby "Piggie" and 1 "other snuggles" If you have seen them- please let me know.

Odds and Ends

Remember that post about how Julia was sleeping in her room all night again? Yeah... that lasted a week. Last night she refused to go to bed until almost 1130, testing me to the point that I had to get away from her for 45 minutes. Only to come down from her room at 1230. She then woke up crying at 345, and when she realized she forgot her snuggles she came an woke me again at 410am.
*sigh*

Thus I have less patience, not enough sleep and it is a full moon leading to Extra Stupid on the phones at work today.

Now on to my MSNBC stuff.

OMG! Shut up about Twitter already! (yes, that is the REAL headline)

I tend to agree with the article. My life is busy enough (and my child is nebby enough) that I don't have time to Twitter even though a friend convinced me I needed too. I tend to have too much to say to fit it in a tweet and I am too lazy to post a tweet and Facebook status at the same time. (Which is usually once a day any way, so what is the point?)I just blog (rant). That works for me. Twittering back and forth? I'll just use Trillian, my instant message program, that links my AIM and Yahoo friends in one chat client if i want to chat. (which I am usually signed into at midnight or so. (see beginning of post if you have to ask why so late).

So Twitter? I just don't get it. But the story is worth reading just for the links to all stuff about twitter and Facebook. The 25 things about Facebook is hilarious. Especially since I refused to do to that stupid thing when it was going around. I don't say anything here or on Facebook I am not willing to say in person. I don't say anything about my job that would get me fired. Sometimes, I think people should think about that more often. I am personally tired of seeing Facebook and Twitters like "I have to pee." WHO CARES?! There are people who update their Facebook status every 20 minutes and I just want to tell them to SHUT UP and get a life already.

And more on that here: Twitter Nation: Nobody cares what you're doing

Back to the grind for me....

Vacation? and other random stuff

Ok, So, I needed a break. Between my birthday, Christmas, new years and a 23 month old who suddenly refuses to sleep in her room the whole night... (this includes not going to sleep before 11pm) I have just been way to tired. Not enough time....  In any case, updates/posts will begin again not that the holiday madness is 1 less thing I have to stress about.

My current worry is that some of my family has asked me why i didn't take Terrorist to see Santa Claus this year. I sorta didn't last year either. (A brother in law dressed up for us and Terrorist was barely a year and she didn't care.) Julia tends to not go near strange men. She will cry. If she doesn't see my dad for a while... she won't go near him. So, I just couldn't bring myself to stand in a line I *knew* she wouldn't wait in, only to have her refuse to go near him. Someone get me Mrs. Claus please? 

I know my kid. She stays up till 11pm. She has a TON of energy. Standing still is not possible for more than 15 seconds for her. There are some battles I just don't want to fight cause they aren't worth it.  So, does it make me a bad mom that I don't have a picture of my almost 2 year old (most likely sobbing, with me drinking in the corner from guilt) on Santa's lap yet? Is it unreasonable to want to wait until next year when she is almost 3 and can understand better? I don't think so...

Anyone?

Piggies and Kitkats

I bought Julia bathtub markers.... Only I spent more time drawing her piggies and kitkats than she did playing with it. She would then scribble it out an ask "where go?" and hand me the marker to start all over again.


Don't make fun of my drawing!

Sleep? Where? What is that?

Most people know I am a Mom. Right now, I am a tired one.

My daughter and I have a unique bedtime routine. This has been since she was about 15 months old and showed her extraordinary climbing abilities. My fear of her cracking her head off the floor meant I removed the front rail of her crib and replaced it with a child's twin bed safety rail. It allows her to get out of bed without diving over the top. but she won't lay in her bed alone ad go to sleep. She likes to lay next to me and I refuse to let her sleep in our already snug full size bed.

Our routine consists of getting a bath, jammies, a warm sippy cup of milk and her snuggle(s). We head up to her bedroom around 930-10pm, close the door with just her night light and the radio on low, and lay on the fluffy rug my mom made for her that is right next to her bed.

Now the fluffy rug is made of very thick hook latched yarn. It's soft. I have 2 pillows, 2 blankets (1 for me. 1 for her) Ideally, she drinks her warm milk, lays down and falls asleep next to me. After the required waiting period, I pick her up, put her in bed and go on about my business for the rest of the evening. What usually happens, is that she plays a little, we talk and then she falls asleep.

Lately its not been working. Instead of sleeping by 1030, its more like 1130- midnight. And this is just not working for me. I need to clean, do laundry, and still like to get a nice quiet hour to myself (usually at the PC) before I crash. Last night. It was 230 am!!! Because she fell asleep in the car for 20 minutes. On the way home from my stepsister's.... I blame winter for this. I blame shorter days for this. I don't know if I can do this any better. Its hard to reason with a 22 month old about bedtime. I really don't mind our routine. We get this special mom/daughter time. I just wish it wouldn't last all freaking night. Any suggestions?

Not a Rant... :-)

I took Julia to PPG plaza this afternoon to play in the awesome dancing fountains there. At first she was scared and wouldn't go near it. I coaxed her several times to splash. The suddenly a light bulb went on in her head... She had a blast, giggling, splashing, running thru the water, stepping on the water spouts, getting all wet....

After the 2:30 demonstration was over, she ran around the plaza hollering to hear her voice echo, ran off with a nice lady's small bag of chips and ate them. (I offered the nice lady money for the chips but she refused) She rode on the bus really good, was mostly well-behaved and as a result, we had a lovely, exhausting day. :-) What a great way to spend my day off.