Thursday, January 29, 2009

National Pie Day...

Friday was National Pie Day….and no, I didn’t make this up, there is a day for about every occasion you can think of. I had previously known about “National Pie Day” but didn’t remember what day it was. Then, I heard someone talking about it on the radio and I decided that this year I would celebrate it. So, we invited a few neighbors over for pie. I baked a chocolate pie and an apricot pie and everyone enjoyed ingesting the calories.
But it got me to thinking, what other National days are out there that I could be celebrating?? So, I decided to look into this and see what I was missing. Some of the days I found are ones that I would be interested in observing, but others…well, some of the others just left me scratching my head. I will share some of my favorites with you.

January 3rd – Festival of Sleep Day – would absolutely observe this one!

January 7 is …Old Rock Day - don’t get this one
January 11 is … National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day – this sounds fun, but in
January?? In many states there aren’t any non-frozen puddles in January so it may hard to observe.
January 19 is … National Popcorn Day – would have enjoyed celebrating this one, maybe next year.
January 21 is … National Hugging Day - You may get some strange looks but pick some random people and try it.
January 22 is … National Answer Your Cat's Question Day - what the *%$#
January 23 is … National Pie Day – got this one down
January 25 is … Opposite Day - now, as a kid we observed this one but not necessarily on the 25th, we seemed to pick many days of the year for this one.
February 5 is … Disaster Day - why would I want to celebrate this one??
February 8 is … Kite Flying Day - “let’s go fly a kite…”
February 9 is … Toothache Day - again… why would I want to celebrate this one??
February 12 is … National Plum Pudding Day – does anyone even eat plum pudding anymore?
February 23 is … International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day - hmmm……
February 24 is … National Tortilla Chip Day - a little salsa and I’m all in…
February 28 is … Public Sleeping Day - let me find a park bench…
March 5 is … Multiple Personalities Day – part of me likes this one and part of me doesn’t…..
March 7 is … National Crown Roast Of Pork Day – again, what the *%$#
March 15 is … Everything You Think Is Wrong Day - I don’t like this one….
March 16 is … Everything You Do Is Right Day - ok, now I feel better
March 20 is … Festival Of Extraterrestrial Abductions Day - I thought being abducted by aliens was a bad thing…
April 12 is … Look Up At The Sky Day – this is for the birds….
April 24 is … National Pigs In A Blanket Day – how did this get a day??
May 2 is … Fire Day – does this mean what I think it means?May 3 is … Lumpy Rug Day - ????
May 9 is … Lost Sock Memorial Day – I never knew we were supposed to mourn their loss…
May 14 is … National Dance Like A Chicken Day – if only my chickens had known about this…
June 19 is … World Sauntering Day – this could be fun…can you imagine if NY City celebrated this and for one day everyone just sauntered?
July 14 is … National Nude Day - Ok, now we’re talking..I like this one!
July 20 is … Ugly Truck Contest Day – Ok, I know some people that are already celebrating this one…..
July 27 is … Take Your Pants For A Walk Day - don’t you do this everyday??
August 8 is … Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch at Night - since I’ve been living in the country where everyone has a garden and every garden is prolific I can see the merit in this day. I would probably support additional days for the rest of the vegetables.
August 10 is … Lazy Day - I would explain why I like this day but I don’t feel like it.
August 15 is … National Relaxation Day and National Failures Day – are these two synonymous? I like the idea of a Relaxation day, but do we really want to celebrate our Failures…I don’t.
September 2 is … National Beheading Day – this sounds cool…I’ll start making my list…
September 5 is … Be Late For Something Day – since being a mom I seem to be practicing for this day..
September 6 is … Fight Procrastination Day – why is this day right after “be late for something day” ??
October 3 is … Virus Appreciation Day – why should I???
October 12 is … International Moment Of Frustration Scream Day - can we have this day once a month? It would be good for everyone’s blood pressure.
November 15 is … National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day – shouldn’t this be more than once a year??? Yuck!
November 19 is … Have A Bad Day Day – hmm….didn’t know we had to plan for this…
November 22 is … Start Your Own Country Day – YAY!! I get to rule my own Country!! It’s about time….
December 26 is … National Whiners Day – this will make some people very happy…
December 31 is … Unlucky Day – does this mean you don’t get what you want for Christmas?
‘til next time…

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sometimes you just shouldn’t assume…

Ok, so I'm going to tell on myself because I have been reminded of a good lesson.
Yesterday I went to put Wythe down for his nap and he proceeded to cry non-stop like he always does. I will admit that I used to look for every possible reason that he might be crying but after months of him screaming throughout his hour-long naptime I have begun to expect the tears. Yesterday was no exception, he cried throughout the naptime and then once the naptime was over I went in to pick him up. As I picked him up a small, plastic, toy car fell out of the back of his overalls. I realized then that he had probably been lying on this toy and that this most likely contributed to his distress. Needless to say, I felt awful. But it was a good reminder to me to not assume that I know what is going on based on the actions of someone.

It is easy to assume that we know what is going on in another person’s life just by looking at their behavior. But so often we are only seeing the “tip of the iceberg”. It is easy to look at people and judge them based on the way they act or react to a situation but that is unfair since we don’t know what is going on in their life. It reminded me of a situation that I experienced several years ago while working at a retail store. I was called to the front of the store to speak to a woman who was demanding to speak to a manager. She was visibly upset that she couldn’t find a shirt in a particular size and seemed to feel that the store was personally sabotaging her shopping experience. After quite some time of working with her and eventually finding some clothing that met with her approval, I took her to a cash register to ring up her purchases. She continued to be disagreeable, complaining about every possible thing, how fast or slow I was ringing up the items, how I folded the clothes, how fast/slow her credit card was processed, how many other customers were in the store, the appearance of the store…etc, etc. Everything you could possibly imagine this woman had a complaint for. I was biting my tongue to not argue with her and point out how unreasonable she was being. But I was thinking to myself “wow, what an evil woman!” Fortunately I kept my thoughts to myself and instead said, “I’m sorry you are having a rough day.” Instantly she stopped and just stood still for a few seconds, then she started crying and said, “I am so sorry for the way I’ve been acting. My husband died suddenly a couple of days ago and I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t have anything to wear to the funeral, it’s tomorrow morning and I was trying to find something to wear.”
 That was a lesson to me to not automatically assume that I know what is going on with another person. I tried to remember that in the future when I was dealing with difficult people. I would try to not get too upset with them and remind myself that they may be going through a difficult time in their life. I believe that at times I have given people much more credit than they deserve because the sad reality is that there are a lot of miserable, nasty people out there however, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be more understanding and less judgmental of others.
So today when I put my son down for a nap and he started screaming I first checked to make sure nothing was amiss before I kissed his check and left the room - lesson learned.



‘til next time…

Thursday, January 22, 2009

A visit to old friends...

On Friday we went to Charlottesville to visit my dear cousin Jeannine's family, who I hadn’t seen in many years, and also to see our good friends Gary and Amy again. We knew a snow storm was moving in but according to the weather forecast it wasn’t supposed to start snowing until late that night. We assumed that we would have time to go down there for dinner and make it back home before the roads got bad. As we were getting to C’ville the snow was falling so we knew we might have a problem. The snow was already accumulating when we got to their house. It was so good to see everyone! My cousin has four boys and I hadn't even met the youngest two. We visited for a bit then had dinner together. Amy's sister came over with her kids, her husband was stuck on an icy road, news that did not bode well for us! It was so wonderful to see them and talk but the time just flew by, we wanted to stay but we knew we should get on the road and head back. They of course tried to convince us to stay but knowing that a large amount of snow was coming we knew spending the night wasn't going to solve the problem of getting home. With great reluctance we prepared to leave, they gave us a few items for our car, water, toilet paper, blanket, etc., just in case we got stuck in the snow. After lots of hugs and promises to see one another again soon we left and started a painfully slow trip home. On a road that normally you would drive 65 we could go no faster than 25 m.p.h., it made for a long ride home! We were cautiously driving down the road and cars would come flying by us, as we would approach the next turn in the road we would see the car that just passed us now off the side of the road, having learned the tough lesson about the difficulty of turning on ice. It took us hours to get home but we made it safe and sound!


our family in C'ville


my sweet baby girl


Jeannine and me

The snow continued to fall the next day and we ended up getting about 2 feet of snow. Wythe did not like the snow, he just cried! I don’t think he liked the cold and he seemed somewhat scared of the snow. We’d probably be scared too if the snow was as tall as we were!



like father like son...neither a fan of the snow!


'til next time...

Monday, January 12, 2009

6 month milestone's...

Is it just me or do babies grow up too fast?

It is hard to believe that my baby is 6 months old, where does the time go? How can that tiny little bundle that came home with me from the hospital be this big boy that plays in his exersaucer, laughs, throws temper tantrums and brings so much joy to our lives? And, what was our life like before he was born? Only 6 months ago we didn’t know him and yet I can’t imagine life without him.

Wythe just got over his first cough and cold. Now I know why parents are so careful to avoid exposing their kids to other sick kids. I was afraid Wythe was going to get sick after being sneezed on by a sick child and sure enough he came down with a cold. We spent many hours in the rocking chair as that seemed to be the only way to comfort him. And there were a few sleepless nights when he was too congested to breathe. Then of course, he graciously passed on his germs to me and for some reason I seemed to have a worse cold/cough than him. There are times when I feel so much more like a mom than at other times, this was one of them. For the first time in my life I didn’t have the option to crawl into bed and sleep off the sickness. No matter how miserable you feel there are still bottles to make and diapers to change and even if you feel like you can’t put one foot in front of the other, you still have to walk the floor with a sick baby. I was definitely feeling like a “real” mom. It’s funny, the other times I have had that same feeling is when I’m up last at night, the house is all quiet, my husband and baby are sleeping, and I’m folding laundry or picking up toys, those are the moments when it really hits me that I am a mom. What a wonderful feeling.

Wythe also celebrated the new year by popping his first tooth out! It is still just a little nub of a tooth but it is through the gum. I think he is working on another one now as the gum looks swollen again.

Today Wythe had his 6 month doctor’s appointment. As usual we were blessed to get a clean bill of health. He did have to have more shots though. Fortunately, he didn’t try to bite the nurse with his new tooth, that would have been rude. Honestly, I think the shots affect me more than him. He screams when he gets the shots but no more than when he is supposed to be taking a nap. The nurse commented on how upset Wythe gets over the shots, how his face turns beet-red and how loud his screaming is. When I told her that he has the same reaction to taking naps she suggested that I invest in ear plugs. Both the doctor and nurse once again commented that it is a good thing that Wythe is so cute! His cuteness helps compensate a little for his being such a “little booger”.

Wythe continues to grow but it is slowing down….thank goodness! Today he weighed 20 pounds 6 ounces and was 26-1/2 inches long. The doctor said to continue him on the same eating schedule he has been on for the last month or so. Wythe is having several bottles a day and eating baby food. So far he has loved eating the baby food! We have yet to find a food he doesn’t like. I usually feed him vegetables and every now and then some fruits but I am limiting the fruits because I am trying to limit the sugar he gets. Initially I bought the little jars of baby food because I was curious as to what foods he would like. But now that I know he likes everything I am starting to make my own baby food. Using one of the little food mills it is easy to grind up the food we are eating (before I have seasoned it) I haven’t yet tried any meats. I figure when I’m ready to do that I’ll start Wythe out on some home grown pork! At least I will know exactly what is in the meat!!

‘til next time…