AliBlog

AliBlog 2006 in Review

Saw this idea on Mark Daniel's blog and thought it was a fun one to copy. Here's a sampling of posts from the past year - one for each month. I tried to pick posts that seemed to sum up that period of time for me. Some months were easier and more obvious than others.

January: To VBAC or not to VBAC?

February: Bedtime Stories

March: In Walks a Man

April: Yo, yo, yo. Wha's Down in the Crib?

May: A Typical Night

June: What I'd Forgotten About Babies

July: Got Milk?

August: The Anti-Blog Post

September: Remembering 9/11

October: The Foosball Chronicles

November: Far, Far Away

December: On the Seventh Day of Christmas, My Blogfriend Gave to Me ...

I realized in compiling this list that I'm really only good for about one memorable post per month, and not even that of late. Anyone who's reading along should be commended for sticking it out with me from one good post to the next.

The other thing I realized - or rather, remembered - is why I enjoy blogging, and why it's worthwhile to take the time to record my thoughts here inside this computer. I really have been meaning to type up a Christmas summary, and now I'm feeling somewhat inspired to do it - for posterity's sake. Maybe I'll find time for that later this week. Or maybe not. But I'll likely hammer out one decent post sometime in the next 30 days or so. I hope you'll come back to read it.

Unrealistic Expectations

A few things I thought I'd accomplish in the first month of maternity leave:

• Mail birth announcements
• Write thank you notes.
• Plan high school reunion.
• Spend a weekend at the cottage.
• Organize & decorate the office.
• Hire a house cleaner.
• Start Moe's baby book.
• Start Robey's 2-to-3-year scrapbook.
• Complete a few freelance assignments.
• Resume a regular workout routine.
• Lose pregnancy weight.
• Train Moe to sleep through the night.

These just get more and more absurd as the list goes on. Honestly, it's been almost eight weeks, and I've barely scratched the surface of this list. Oh well. As Sarah said recently in an e-mail, "maternity leave would be a lot more productive if it didn't involve taking care of an infant." You'd think I might have learned that the first time around. Nope.

Sharp Turn Ahead

Wow - what was that? More than one whole week's worth of flashbacks here at AliBlog. We introduced the cool chronicles, reminisced about our party days and celebrated bad fashions from the 80s and 90s with Promapalooza.

In the meantime, of course, real life proceeded. But I was too busy putzing down memory lane to blog about the here and now. That means I've yet to write about:

• My very first Cleveland Brown's tailgating experience (it's a whole different world in that stadium).
• A grueling, three-hour blood glucose test (passed, thank God).
• The onset of my second trimester (though I'm still exhausted).
• My slight disappointment with this week's episode of Lost (will we ever get any answers - or just more questions?).
• Our plans for this weekend with Air Force friends from Utah (sure to involve tales of beer, guns and pregnancy - though not necessarily all at once).
• Our preliminary plans for Thanksgiving (and your advice concerning those plans).
• The first, upcoming guest blogger on AliBlog (which could involve more flashbacks).

So that's my list for now. Does it annoy anyone else that I so often spend time writing myself lists of things to write about at the cost of actually writing? Sometimes it's a bother, but sometimes I need it.

Terrible Twos?

An impartial list of the fits thrown at our house this week:

• 10 minutes because he didn't want to go to school.
• 20 minutes because he wanted Mommy to cut his grapes in half, and Mommy couldn't tell what he was asking.
• 15 minutes because he didn't want Mommy to leave for book group.
• 25 minutes because he wanted to talk to Kathy on the phone. (Nevermind that he's never officially met Kathy and that I'd already let him speak to her for 3 minutes before taking the phone back so I could talk.)
• 20 minutes because Mommy was unable to comply when he demanded over and over again, "Mommy poo! Mommy poo! Mommy poo!" How's that for reverse potty training?

Thursday Thirteen

I just got this idea from Angie at And Then We Bought a Farm ... It's another meme of some sort. The details are on her blog.

1. Thanks to everyone who left advice about the diaper rash.
2. I kept Robey home today because he's had diarrhea for a full week. And the diaper rash, which was getting better, is now getting worse.
3. For some reason, I don't like using that D-word in print, so I will henceforth refer to it as cha-cha-cha, in honor of a little toddler man Jen once knew who used to run around the house saying, "Diarrhea, cha, cha, cha." (Oops. I just typed it again. Last time. I promise).
4. I called the doc's office today, and he called in a prescription for nystatin (sp?) for the rash. For the cha-cha-cha, Robey's drinking pedialyte and not drinking milk. We're also trying the BRAT diet, recommended by the nurse and referred to recently in another blog.
5. I recently switched Robey from whole milk to 2%. I wonder if that could be causing the cha-cha-cha?
6. I think I'm done talking about cha-cha-cha for now. Believe me, I could go on. But I know you don't want to hear the details.
7. Robey was very good at home today. He mostly watched TV while I worked. He belly laughs at Boo-bah (sp?).
8. I just wrote the following in an e-mail to a co-worker who sarcastically pegged me as a member of the wired generation: "Dude, I'm over 30. I typed my high school papers with a typewriter and my college papers with a Brother word processor. I only just got my first very own cell phone two months ago."
9. We usually order pizza for dinner on Wednesday nights, but I made a favorite dish last night instead: scallops with mushrooms and beer sauce.
10. Like I said, it's usually a favorite, but last night I tried to double the recipe and did something wrong. It ended up tasting like oddly textured beer over rice. We should have ordered pizza.
11. One of the ingredients is beer slurry.
12. My mom left today for a week in Savannah with friends. It's one of my very favorite places to visit, and it's been five years since I was last there, so I'm very jealous.
13. I've never had a bad meal in Savannah. I sent my mom an e-mail recommending the following restaurants:

• Moon River Brewery - lots of good brews and awesome appetizers.
• Churchill's Pub - good local pub for a beer (instead of all the tourist traps).
• Nita's Place - little dive, awesome soul food.
• Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room - family style dining. Usually has a long wait but worth it.
• The Tapas - order small plates of appetizers at $5-7 ea. and share them around the table.

If you want to do your own Thursday Thirteen, leave a comment here when it's up, and I'll add a link to your list.

A Sorry Excuse for a Post

I've been meaning to write about ...

• The favorite stories from our wedding night ten years ago, including the one about the dress, the one about the vows and the one about the after-hours party.
• The advice I've received on marriage - both good and bad - from family, friends, bar flies and bloggers.
• The jokes and puns and thoughtful notes contained within our anniversary cards.
• The trees in the Poconos, which are no greener or taller or lovelier than the trees in Ohio or anywhere else - but there are so many of them and they grow all the way up and back down the sides of some very high mountains.
• The Caesars couples-only resort in the Poconos that is so old-strip, gold-trimmed Vegas with just a slight variation in theme: sex and love instead of sex and money.
• The pleasures of sleeping in, eating breakfast in bed and sharing a weekend of complete comfort and relaxation with my husband of ten years.
• The many different arts and crafts fairs that you can find on any given city block, country field or suburban auditorium throughout the year, which vary from fair to fair only as much as city malls vary from town to town. Which is to say not much.
• The yuppy fashionistas who hang out in droves at Shooters on the Cuyahoga River drinking pink cocktails, driving fancy boats and wearing large, bejeweled sunglasses.  Why do I always feel like such a tired, frumpy, out-dated mom around such people?
• The many ways a toddler can change from a baby to a big boy over a few short days - especially if he gets his hair cut while you're away.
• The increased appreciation and admiration you can gain for a family member at their retirement party.
• The six months we lived in Biloxi, MS in 1996 on the second floor of an apartment building located  one mile away from the Gulf: the pressed crab po boy sandwiches, the narrow roads and narrow minds, the antebellum houses, the weekly keg parties, the small town that grew up into a big city a bit too fast.
• The first time I visited New Orleans at 21 and had a romantic longing to live on Decatur street contrasted with the growing disenchantment I felt for the city on each subsequent visit.
• The illogical explanation of why I still consider myself Christian even though I always come out smelling like a Unitarian or a Neo-Pagan or a New Ager on quizzes like this one (don't take it if you're an atheist - that's not an option, so it'll just piss you off).
• The irony of your boss holding dooce up as an example for you while you're developing an internal corporate blog.
• The satisfaction of making spaghetti sauce from scratch with chives from your garden and tomatoes given to you by a genuine friend.

BUT I came back from the Poconos with a bear of a cold, a full social calendar and a mounting pile of chores left undone, so all I can offer is this growing list as a reminder to myself of the things I meant to write about this week.

Today's Top 10 Reasons for Loving Robey

10. He slept in today until 8:30.

9 He always eats a good breakfast.

8. We can easily entertain him for an hour in the yard with a couple soccer balls.

7. We can entertain him for hours on end with yard work.

6. He can entertain himself for at least 30 minutes "reading" his books.

5. When we pick out his clothes in the morning, he has definite ideas on what he does and does not want to wear.

4. When I ask him who mommy loves, he says, "Meee," then adds, "Daddaaaay."

3. When I finish changing his diaper, he gladly puts the dirty diaper in the trash can.

2. When we pull in to Grandma and Grandpa's driveway, he says, "Yaaay."

1. When I set him on my lap to tie his shoes, he wraps his little arms around my own and rests his hands on mine, as if to memorize every move I make.

More Lessons Learned the Hard Way

1. If your child wakes up with what appears to be (or might possibly be) pink eye, take him to the doctor immediately. Even if it's a Saturday - and it always is when they get sick - do not wait until Monday to call the doc.
2. If the doctor gives you the choice between oral antibiotics or antibiotic eye drops to treat your toddler's pink eye, choose the drops. On the surface, medicine in the mouth once a day may seem much easier than medicine in the eyes four times a day, but you'll be wiping crud out of those eyes ten times a day for at least five extra days if you choose the oral medication.
3. When your lap top's power cord dies and your desktop won't access the Internet for temporary security reasons, you may as well write off even your best intentions to blog or answer e-mails.
4. When you plan to make one manic shopping trip to buy everything you need for Easter and the upcoming birthday during a single nap time and during a seasonably unpredictable day in March, take a list. And take your umbrella.
5. When both the doctor and the daycare facility say it's okay for your child to return to daycare as long as he's been taking his antibiotics for the prescribed amount of time, they're assuming the medicine has started working.
6. When you make a promise to turn another story around in record time during flu season when everyone around you - co-workers, kids, relatives - is sick, you're kidding yourself. Really. You will miss your deadline.
7. When your child has spent a week at home with an illness, the first day back in group care will not be a simple drop off.
8. Purchase and place mouse traps throughout the house at the very first sign of a mouse - even if that sign appears only in the basement. They will not confine themselves to the baement forever.
9. Don't fool yourself into thinking you'll ever be caught up with the laundry. It just doesn't happen.
10. In case it wasn't clear before and because it's worth repeating: Choose The Eye Drops.

Saying Our Goodbyes, part 2

Top 10 things we won't miss about St. Louis and Southwest Illinois

10) Dealing with realtors (next time, we're buying/selling by owner)

9) The local library nazis (I went to libraries in three different towns, and no one would give me a card).

8) The yard work (seems like Jeromy's mowing the grass at least every other day).

7) The crazy drivers on Old Lebanon-Troy (the absence of a yellow dividing line does not give you a right to drive down the middle of the road).

6) The inability to get cable Internet access (say goodbye to dialup and satellite broadband).

5) The local hair stylists (I've been trying to grow my hair for more than a year and it's shorter now than it was when I started).

4) The NOSC (the windowless hell hole that nearly sucked the life out of Jeromy).

3) The humidity (who knew that two muddy rivers could inject more moisture into the air than the entire Atlantic ocean?).

2) The mosquitos (they'll eat you alive out here without the DEET).

1) The eight-hour drives home (no more road trips to Ohio!).

Saying Our Goodbyes

Top 10 things we'll miss about St. Louis and Southwest Illinois

10) The Mississippi & Missouri rivers (and all the great bridges).

9) The Fabulous Fox Theatre (where we saw The Great High Mountain Tour and Rent).

8) Super Smokers BBQ sauce (we'll be ordering it by the case).

7) Carlyle Lake (where there's always a spot to beach your boat and play in the sand).

6) Our garage/workshop (this one is solely Jeromy's vote).

5) Our yard (especially the fire circle and the opportunity to launch a canoe every couple of months).

4) The free concerts (Celebrate 2004 events, Big Muddy Blues Festival, Rib America, etc.).

3) Troy United Methodist Church (we've really enjoyed the services, and we were only just getting to know some really great people).

2) Our neighbors & friends, especially ...

1) Tiana, Ray & the girls (we couldn't have asked for a better family to help raise Robey this year).