It Never Rains in Southern California?

Our flight was scheduled to depart from Denver on Sunday, February 18th. That morning, I woke up at 4am to find Pumpkin standing next to me. He'd been doing very well sleeping alone in his own room up to this point, and apart from the 1st two nights, hadn't woken either of us up again. Well, I was dead tired still so I just picked him up and put him in bed with us, and we all fell back asleep. Two hours later, he bolted upright and threw up. The rest of the day proceeded in much the same fashion.

My poor little Pumpkin threw up on the way to the Denver airport and then again as we were approaching the airport in San Diego. Fortunately, we were going to be staying with my friend Joe for one night before heading to the resort so we were able to do a load of laundry at his house and also wash our car seat stroller since Pumpkin had already just about gone through all the clothes we'd brought for him, and we were gonna need that car seat back in play asap.

We all woke up Monday to a raging storm outside. It was raining cats and dogs, even by Houston standards. Who ever said it never rained here? Well, Pumpkin was finally able to hold down a few spoonfuls of tortilla soup for lunch on Monday so we fed him a few bites of mac-n-cheese for dinner. He didn't throw up any of his food so the next day, I gave him some soy milk and bananas for breakfast and then his favorite, rice and beans, for lunch. He still seemed ok so we walked down to the little beach at the resort to get some air. I also wanted to stay close to our room in case he was going to be sick again. It felt really good to sit out in the sunshine after being cooped up indoors for what had felt like forever back in Denver. Pumpkin and I both enjoyed ourselves immensely.


(left) Bye-bye birdies! (center) Bye-bye sand castle! (right)



On Wednesday, Joe took us to the zoo. We went on a bus tour, from which we were able to see elephants, zebras, rhinos, and many more of Pumpkin's favorite animals. Afterwards, we picked QT up and went to the harbor for lunch then we hightailed it back to the zoo for one hour before it closed.



That's me and Pumpkin on the bus, QT in front of the harbor, and QT, Pumpkin, & Joe at the zoo. And, below, is a short video of a panda bear eating bamboo.

Drat this weather and other random thoughts

I woke up this morning with thoughts of hanging out at a park, perhaps reading a book, while Pumpkin ran around happily playing with a ball or chasing birds or whatever it is toddlers like to chase. I quickly scrapped those plans once I turned on the weather channel and realized it was only 19 degrees F outside. Naturally, I realized it really was just a dream cuz when I looked out the window, I saw that there was still plenty of snow on the ground, and it's piled up even higher in those areas where few feet have trod. The sun did come out eventually and warm things up to a more acceptable 30-something, but it was approaching naptime by then so here we are at home. Bah humbug.

I find myself really missing Clear Lake this morning. I imagine driving down Bay Area Boulevard on a beautiful sunny day in my Miata (cuz the heat is not yet oppressive there at this time of year). I can almost even see the shops lining the road and wish I could stop in at Freebird's for a yummy burrito and some queso with "wac." (wac=guacamole, btw, for those of you who aren't in-the-know). Thinking of Kerbey queso, in turn, raises memories of the Kerbey Lane Cafe in Austin. Now, THERE'S a blast from the past! I've many a fond memory of the Kerbey Lane Cafe, many of them involving being drunk and having a snack in the middle of the night. (I'm talking about food, folks!) I wonder if the cafe still exists?

Speaking of nonexistent locales, I recently found out that our old college pizza hangout has been bought out by an evil developer from Houston who's planning to raze the block to build a Starbucks and other such places (figures!). That is such a total bummer! I was so happy this past summer when I found out that they'd finally reopened, and just like a figment of my imagination, they've vanished once again. Well, farewell, Flying Tomato. I hope your owners reopen somewhere else cuz it'd be a shame to let an institution like that disappear forever.

Moving on....I am happy to report that Pumpkin's slept alone in his own room in his own bed for the past 2 nights. Mind you, he didn't exactly sleep through the night having apparently woken QT up around 3am on both nights, but he also didn't ask to join us in our bed, which rates a big 'ole Yee-Haw in my book. Strangely enough, it doesn't exactly make me feel better to know that I've somehow managed to sleep through both nights without hearing him. At all. (permit me a pause while I allow a million and one possible scary scenarios of all-the-things-that-could-go-wrong-should-my-mother-sense-continue-to-fail-me-in-the-middle-of-the-night go through my mind.) So what's up with that?! Why can't I, the person who used to be able to hear him sigh from across the room even while I was in the middle of a sexy REM dream, hear him cry over the monitor or {gasp} notice him walking into our room and standing beside our bed?

Though I was shocked at first, upon 2nd blush, I'm feeling fairly tickled about it. Since we moved here and had to bring Pumpkin into our room to calm him, I don't think I've often had an undisturbed night of sleep. That is not to say that I haven't had any undisturbed nights. I slept deeply and happily when I spent my birthday weekend alone at a local resort (compliments of my darling hubby) and again during the 3-4 weeks that I slept in Pumpkin's room while recuperating from my back injury. So maybe I'm looking at this all wrong...and perhaps I'll just savor these few nights cuz they're sure not to last.

Deep Thoughts

Perhaps I really am just delirious from the accumulation of nights spent half-awake watching over my baby while he recovers from croup (silly name, that illness). In any event, I have a very honest confession to make. Since I consider blogging akin to writing in a diary (albeit one that is potentially readily available to the rest of the world), I will post my deepest thoughts here.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit nonexistent. ?? I'll offer a bit of background that may help explain. I've been re-reading A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and I've just gotten past the part where Offred is recalling the day the government froze her assets and took away her right to work and to own property. As she lay in bed that night with her husband, she got the notion that he was happy that she was now completely his. 'Patronizing' was the word she used.

Well, I've felt this way before, but I think reading this tale is bringing my old fears back up. (Fears??) I'm afraid that I'm losing myself here in our newfound suburban domesticity. Don't get me wrong. Most days, I'm happy and I enjoy my life and my family. Hell, I even enjoy my cats! Somedays, however, I can't help feeling like I'm losing something invaluable that I can't quite remember and wouldn't be able to regain even if I did remember. I think I might be talking about my sense of self. Right now, I am somebody's mother and somebody's wife, but take away those 2 parts, and I have no idea who I am.

Alright, yeah, my vote's with delirious. G'nite!

Finally Finished!

Well, it took me 2 days, but I finally finished stuffing & addressing all those envelopes. To those of you who asked, I HAVE NOT yet even begun licking the envelopes, hehe, but I am prepared with a big mug of ice water so let the retching begin! (yech) After all is said and done, this entire exercise is probably going to end up costing me double what I paid for the damned prints. Thankfully, I'm really bad about sending pictures so this probably won't happen again anytime soon. ;)

Okay, so we are now in Day 5 of Operation House Arrest. Pumpkin didn't wake up coughing at all last night so I think he must be getting over the croup if not the cold, but dang it if it didn't snow again overnight! Just when I thought I was out....I get stuck back in!

Fortunately, the snow appears to have stopped so I don't think wild horses could stop me now...or maybe they could. Yeah, they probably could. I mean, who wants to get trampled by wild horses? Well, horses aside, I don't know if we'll make it out of the house today anyway. To start with, I think I only got about 4 hours sleep last night so I'm half-cocked already. Plus, I'm expecting the A/C repair guy this morning to make some adjustments to our laundry room (I'll explain later) and some furniture delivery guys to come by this afternoon to swap out some faulty furniture. This is kind of funny actually. We bought a living room set and a big 'ole floor lamp from Jake Jabs and a dining room table from Furniture Row. As fate would have it, both the floor lamp and the table are broken and need to be replaced. Well, both places called yesterday to let me know that they'd be here between 3-5pm today. I'm kind of jazzed. Maybe I'll get to see a rumble between the two furniture stores a la Ron Burgundy! Wouldn't that be fun? Then, I wouldn't feel so bad about staying in yet again. Tomorrow, for sure, we're heading out even if it's just to the post office!

Pumpkin's 2y/o Pics

Since I was sidelined by a back injury for most of January, I was behind in getting Pumpkin's 2nd year portraits made. (yeah, let's just go ahead and blame the back injury, shall we? ;). As soon as I was able to walk again, I took him to a new place here called Portrait Innovations. Pretty cool deal: $9.99 for a buttload of pics. 'Course, they got me with the other poses so I ended up spending ten times as much as that, but even so, I felt the place was affordable considering I now have more copies of these pics than I can shake a stick at PLUS a photo CD (cool!). Here's a sample of some of the rejects:

In the first pose, Pumpkin's saying "bear" in ASL (the photographer was holding a teddy bear). In the next, he's hugging a cat. I'm not a big fan of the "numbered blocks" they use in kids' birthday portraits, and apparently, neither is Pumpkin cuz he kept refusing to sit on the #2 block they provided. He even tried to move the block off the "stage" as you can see in this 3rd pose, hehe. I don't remember why the 4th pose was rejected-he's got an awfully cute grin (or maybe he was singing ??).

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I've had the pics for over a week now. If I'm not careful, they'll end up where all of Pumpkin's other portraits have ended up. That is, sitting in a giant envelope filed away somewhere in our office for time everlasting. Today being Sunday and not much going on, I finally decided to sit down and start addressing some envelopes and get these pics out before next Christmas.

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QT and Pumpkin retreated upstairs over an hour ago for a little afternoon nap, and I've been at this since way before that. My hands are cramped from cutting photo sheets and from writing Pumpkin's info on the backs of all the pics. There is some good news though! Going through my address book today, I've rediscovered more than one long-lost email address (and have even taken a few moments to send some quick emails in the hopes that the addresses aren't so old that the host sites don't even exist anymore). After doing that, I also decided to take another few minutes to document this momentous occasion in my blog. :)

Well, breaktime's over, and it's back to the grindstone for me.

My Reading List

I was just adding a new title to my reading list here, and I'm suddenly feeling a need to explain my reading selections so that people (aka: my feminist and/or childless buddies) don't get the idea that I've sold out to Da Man! (j.k.) While it's true that I've apparently become the thing I never thought I would, which is {gasp} a stay at home mom, I swear that I have not sold out. I'm nowhere near being a docile little housewife who spends her days cooking, cleaning, running the kid around town, and waiting for the hubby to come home. Well, okay, my days do sort of go like that, but not nearly on as Stepford a scale as you might think if you'd glanced at my reading list and found yourself wondering if I've become obsessed with all things mommy and wifey. Take cooking, for example. The frequency with which I do any actual cooking here runs akin to that of Halley's Comet's rotations around the Earth. The cooking I'm more apt to do is prepare mac-n-cheese from a box or throw a frozen entree in the microwave oven. As for cleaning, well, QT would probably tell you that I do absolutely none of that EVER, and he'd be mostly correct so, you see, I'm still the same non-comfortmist (and sloppy) me....only now I've got a new appendage in the shape of a little boy. ;)

Some friends and I recently started a book club, and our read this month was Naughty Mommy by Heidi Raykeil. We set the date a month in advance so I thought I'd warm up for the book club book by first re-reading a couple other books about being a mom and/or housewife (specifically: Mad Housewife and I Don't Know How She Does It). Both of my warm-up books are great reads, btw. I've read them both several times already and highly recommend them.

I actually first read Mad Housewife long before I had Pumpkin, and I've been (sort of) looking for it on DVD ever since. Heck I'll even take VHS, but it seems none of the big name movie rental places carry that movie. Back in Houston, I would've known exactly where to look for that movie, but being new here and not even living in Denver per se, I wouldn't know where to begin to look to find the sort of local movie house that would even carry a movie like this. Now, you're probably thinking, "shit, if her biggest concern these days is finding an old movie about housewives, she's so totally NOT the same Pine I used to know." I assure you that I am....at least I think I am. Know what, I'll have to get back to you on that. Uh, Pumpkin and I've got a playdate to attend. hehehe

Bad Mom

Oh, fuck! I think I'm teaching Pumpkin to say "fuck" because I keep saying, "oh, fuck!" It's so cute when he says it though that I just have to laugh, but it may be a tad embarassing for me if he ever says it in public. I may get some nasty looks, but only experience will tell if it'll actually bother me or not.

As soon as I knew I was gonna be a mom, I knew I didn't want to be one of those moms with hang-ups. Society will do plenty of that for me, thankyou. Besides, I don't really see what's so bad about saying shit, damn, or fuck anyway. You don't mean them literally when you use them as interjections right? Fuck, I'm a bad mom, aren't I? Damn. Poor Pumpkin, haha. Oh well.

I'd love to stay and pontificate, but I feel a need to be active today. We've been homebound for so long due to my bout with sciatica that I feel like I'm stagnating. Probably Pumpkin too so we're off to find something to do.

Bully for craigslist!

So, yesterday, QT offered to watch Pumpkin during the big game so that I could go out and enjoy myself. I ended up furniture shopping b/c QT had said he wanted new furniture, and it's just impossible to do that with Pumpkin in tow. I ended up finding something I liked so as soon as I got home last night, I started posting all our old furniture on craigslist.

Man, what an experience! I received a gazillion bazillion emails and my phone was ringing all day long with people wanting to buy my bedroom set (which is what we're selling). A bidding war erupted in the late morning, but it died away.

Nevertheless, I'm happy to report that I sold my furniture! It's already gone. Good for you, craigslist! I'm definitely using that service again.

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I just got back from the grocery store, and man am I bushwhacked. Pumpkin kept me up until 4:30am last night so I ended up with less than 4 hours of sleep. I was planning on napping with him this afternoon, but this crazy craigslist thing kept me pretty tied up until the evening.

Well, I'm off. Gotta get ready for my playdate tomorrow, finish reading my book club book by Thursday, and get some shut-eye somewhere along the way.

Family Visit

So, anyway, back to Christmas. We returned from Texas on December 25th. Accompanying us on the trip were my mom, my sister Chela, her hubby Coach, and their kids Ron and Liss. Needless to say, Pumpkin was thrilled to have them here for a whole week.

Even though I'd seen pictures of the snow, I still wasn't prepared for the road conditions in our neighborhood when we finally drove up. It felt like we were off-roading...in the colonias! It totally blew my mind, but in a cool way.

Since the state was still recovering from the blizzard, we weren't able to drive up to Breckenridge or Estes Park or pretty much anywhere outside a 20 mile radius from home, but there was more than enough snow outside our front door to keep us entertained.










That's Ron sledding in our cul-de-sac, Lis & Pumpkin on Mt.Driveway, and Chela & Ron with their MiniMan.



QT and Coach did a good job of clearing off our driveway so that we could get my car out of the garage and take in some sights (nearby of course).

Since his cousins were going to be in town on Pumpkin's actual birth date, we threw him a little impromptu birthday party. My assistants Ron and Liss helped prepare the cake, the goodie bags, and the party grub. Despite the snow, a couple of our friends managed the trek to our house to party with us, and they are so sweet that they even braved the weather to buy him gifts before coming over. Here's Pumpkin with one of his lovely gifts - a fire truck (almost life-size, hehe).

I enjoyed having my family around, and I was saddened to see them go. My heart positively broke when Pumpkin woke up from his nap after they'd gone and ran to the guest room looking for his cousins. Being a kid, he's quite resilient and recovered quickly, but he hasn't forgotten and continues to ask for them on a daily basis. Here's a typical exchange:
Q: Adda?
A: She's at school, baby.
Q: Gamma?
A: She's at work, baby.
Q: I yov you Gamma.
A: She loves you too, baby.

Ugh...my heart is still breaking.

It's snowing.

Again.

It snowed all day yesterday, and though I'm barely coming off a two-week stint of being unable to walk due to sciatica, I went out there last night to shovel the new layer of snow off the driveway before it had a chance to melt and become an ice-capades stage.

Everyone keeps telling me that this isn't normal Denver weather, but I'm starting to think that I've been punk'd. There are huge piles of snow everywhere, and it's been this way since Christmas. The sun only comes out long enough to melt the top layer of snow, but the permafrost is still there. Here are some pictures I took last week.

THESE WERE TAKEN AFTER IT SNOWED.



THIS WAS TAKEN AFTER THE SHOVELING.

Cocktail Playdates

Someone brought this up in my playgroup so I decided to check out the bit on The Today Show about Cocktail Playdates. So, it appears that the fine folks on television believe moms who drink in front of their kids are Evil. The implication is that if we (moms) should decide to have a glass of wine during a playdate, we won't be able to stop at one, and we'll wind up having chugging contests with shooters and chasers, and afterwards, we'll tear out of there in our minivans, half-baked, with empty bottles and unbelted kids flying out of the windows. Uh-huh. That's just ludicrous.

I think, for the most part, we moms can be trusted to know our own limits and to do what's best for our children. As for drinking in front of our kids.....when I was a kid, my parents used to have their friends and relatives over for parties and BBQs, and they all drank in front of my sibs and I, and none of us turned out to be lushes or losers or antisocial or psychotic. On the contrary, of all us sibs, I probably drink the most, and the last time I even had a drink was 3 months ago on my birthday. This really is a non-issue for me cuz I don't even like wine so nevermind....

It's 2am now, and I'm still frigging awake. Earlier today, I was feeling a bit melancholy. Now, I'm only feeling overheated from holding this damned laptop on my chest as I lie in bed. ugh.