Van Halen

For those of you who though that nobody wears acid washed jeans, perms their mullet, or saves concert tee shirts from 1984... well, you'd just be wrong. You'd be totally wrong. The band - Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and David Lee Roth - got back together for a tour this year so of course we had to go see them at the American Airlines Center on Saturday night. Interestingly, Eddie's 16 year old son, Wolfgang, took over on bass. And he did really well. Lee and I had a great time and the band sounded awesome. I didn't recognize some of the songs because they didn't play any Sammy Hagar stuff, but they did play You Really Got Me, Hot for Teacher, Panama, Eruption, Pretty Woman, Beautiful Girls (or as I like to call it, the "Schmitt's Gay" theme song), and encored with Jump. D.L.R. wore what can only be described as a matador-style outfit with an occasional top hat, Eddie wore camo pants and no shirt, and Wolfgang (who needs to join Jenny Craig with mom Valerie Bertanelli) wore all black. So much fun and great people watching. I'm now hearing that Led Zeppelin may be getting back together for a tour...

We had a big weekend because we went to the Dallas Mavericks game on Friday night. They played the Lakers so I got to watch Kobe Bryant too. Elizabeth stayed with Ellie on Friday night and then we had an actual babysitter for Saturday night. Our neighbors have a girl who is a freshman in high school so we hired her to sit for Ellie. Lee was way more bothered by the notion of a "stranger" taking care of Ellie than I was. Since Ellie had swimming lessons earlier in the day, she was pretty tired so I think that Gracie only had to really watch Ellie for 45 minutes before she put her to bed. Pretty easy babysitting gig with that one. I can remember babysitting for this stinker boy that always hit me. But then I also had the little girls down the street who loved me because I let them stay up late and watch movies with me, so it all evened out.

Ellie can best be described by one word these days - hungry. She woke up screaming at 6AM yesterday morning because she was so hungry. I took her back to the doctor to have her eye checked again (it's red but just from a cold) and she's gained almost a pound since she was last weighed 18 days ago. She's up to 17 pounds 11 ounces. I've switched her from Phase I to Phase II foods so she's eating some meat now too. Just chicken so far, but she really likes it. Her favorite veggies are sweet potatoes and carrots, but she doesn't like green beans. Who doesn't like green beans? She also has to be standing all the time. When she gets tired, she can't pull up on her Leap Frog table and oh Lord, you'd think the world was about to end. So Lee or I help her get up there to play. She also still cannot crawl. She's just scoots all over the place army man style. I caught her trying to escape out of her room into the hall this weekend. I think she may be getting a third tooth because she's been a little cranky lately, but sleeping through the night still thankfully.

Has anyone heard about this new TV show? I'm aghast. The Baby Borrowers - "Meet the teenage couples as they embark on a fast track into parenthood. Will their relationships sustain the pressure?" So let me get this straight - some parents out there willing gave their baby to NBC to let teenagers raise it as a social experiment for a TV show?!! Is this the best the networks can do now?!! The writers strike has to end ASAP.

If you get a chance, stop by Nicole's blog and help name her baby. I voted for Molly McButter. Very cute. I would have done a name poll for Ellie, but Lee and I came up with her name when I was 12 weeks pregnant after only 5 minutes of discussion. And in other baby news, Anne Marie is set to give birth any day now. She doesn't know if it's a boy or girl and I can't wait to find out! Hopefully a girl so Ellie will have another little friend. She also doesn't have a name picked out yet. Tick tock, Anne Marie.

By the way, that murder-for-hire trial for the guy I taught aerobics with at 24 Hour Fitness started on Monday. Still so strange that I knew this guy. It's been in the newspapers and on TV. I'll let you know what happens!

She's "That Kid"

Ellie has two big announcements: #1 - she is getting another tooth right next to the first one on the bottom (if you click on the picture you may be able to see it) and #2 - she figured out how to pull herself up to standing. She did it for the first time on Sunday right and we were both there for her big debut. Lee and I both cheered for her and she was so tickled to be getting applause.

When I opened Ellie's drawer at day care yesterday, I found a letter from the school nurse. It was a form letter and I assume that all the parents of all 48 infants got one yesterday. So I gave it a quick look: "Dear Concerned Parent... blah blah blah... it has come to our attention... blah blah blah... one of our infants has recently contracted pink eye." Stop. Surely they cannot be talking about my perfect, sweet Ellie?!! One of the other mothers was dropping off her little boy at the same time and read the letter. "Wow - pink eye. I think that's pretty contagious". Me laughing nervously: "Oh yeah? Um... yeah... that's what I've heard". So my little bitty 17 pound ball of joy caused the school to be canvased with "pink eye" letters leading to conjunctivitis hysteria yesterday.

Speaking of day care, there is finally another girl in Ellie's room. Until this week out of 8 babies, she had been the only girl. One boy advanced to the toddler room so a little two month old girl joined. We'll call her "Madeline Flowers" (names have been changed to protect the innocent). When I went fill out Ellie's paperwork on Monday, there was a big typed out page on the wall with the title "Madeline Flower's Typical Day" and Madeline's picture on it. Madeline's mommy had gone to the trouble of listing her schedule out minute by minute including her likes: cuddling :) and dislikes: tummy time :( as well as the optimal angle to hold the bottle when feeding her and how best to swaddle her. This made me feel a little guilty because when I dropped Ellie off the first day, all I told her teachers was to feed her if she got hungry. Somehow, she has survived. There is another little girl in the adjoining room, but she and Ellie don't have much in common. She's 2 months younger and 10 pounds heavier so the ladies call her "Pork Chop". Pork Chop can't sit up and just sort of rolls around, so Ellie spends her days with Simon, Tanner, Cooper, and Grayson. She's not going to know what to do when she graduates to the toddler room in a few months and there are little girls everywhere. She takes her "class photo" tomorrow and I can't wait to get that up on the blog.

We had a really nice weekend. On Friday night, Lee and I went to dinner with Elizabeth. We ate at one of our favorite sushi places and Ellie didn't make a peep the whole time we were there. On Saturday, Ellie had a swim lesson and then I worked out while she stayed in the kids place. I really wanted to get something to wear to Jenny's wedding shower so all of us went shopping in the afternoon. It was there that I overheard the #1 thing I don't like to hear while I'm shopping: from the woman in the dressing room next to me to the salesgirl ,"Excuse me - this size two is a little big. Could you bring me a zero?". And while you're at it, could you please bring me a tent? Seriously - they should round up all the people who wear a size zero and make them shop someplace else.

As I said, Jenny had a wedding shower on Saturday night and it was really nice. Roger Staubach was there because he's a friend of the family. Since Lee grew up in Dallas in the 1970's, he was a huge fan. Staubach was sort of a football god around here. I can't remember any athletes I idolized as a kid. I liked Mary Lou Retton because she's from my dad's hometown and I liked Troy Aikman because I thought he was cute, but that was about it. Anyway, Ol' Rog was there and Lee refused to take a picture with him. I was going to walk by and casually snap one for the blog, but was afraid I was going to get busted. Roger seems pretty nice so I doubt he would have gone all Sean Penn on me and stomped my camera, but still that may have been annoying for him. Maybe he'll be at Jenny's wedding so Lee can take his 8X10 glossy for an autograph then.



Something weird did happen at the party, however. The hostess had a buffet of Mexican food set up in the dining room. I made a plate, walked out of the room, stopped, and looked back over my shoulder to see if Lee was following me. I heard, "Oh my gosh! This looks so yummy!", and turned my head back around to see some random woman taking a taquito off my plate. I just stood there. As she went to bite it, a younger girl (found out later it was her daughter) screamed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!" The woman looked up at me, jumped as if I had scared the daylights out of her and threw the taquito back down on the plate. "Well, go ahead and take it now", I said. Then she freaked out and ran off saying "no, no, no - I'm sorry - sorry, sorry!". I can't figure out if she thought I was wait staff or what.

I hit some after Christmas sales on Sunday and got Ellie a few outfits from my favorite kids store, Janie and Jack. I got CUTE stuff for next fall and winter. It looks huge because it's for 18-24 months, but I guess that's how big she'll be. Hard to imagine.

Stay tuned for the next blog because I will have a full Van Halen report for everyone!! That's right - it's this weekend and we are e-x-c-i-t-e-d.

Cowboys Downfall

his is really making me laugh today. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Downfall, but it's a movie about the last 48 hours of Hitler's life and it takes place in his bunker. I think it was nominated for an academy award for best foreign film. Anyway, someone got creative after the Cowboys lost to the Giants....

Click here.

Bye, Bye Pink Eye

So I've been a little off my blogging game. But I'm still trying to keep up with that New Year's resolution which was to blog at least once a week. I don't like waiting until almost the next weekend to blog because I almost forget everything that happened the weekend before. But of course I could not forget what happened last weekend because Ellie came down with pink eye. Pink eye. I mean really - what the hell else could she pick up? She's just one lice infestation and a ringworm attack away from a white trash infection trifecta. When I picked her up from day care on Thursday her eyes were all gunky and got worse on Friday. She stayed in the isolation room on Friday and went to the doctor that afternoon. Sure enough - conjunctivitis. They also weighed her and even though she is eight months now, she's still not back up to what she weighed at six months before she got sick. The doctor isn't concerned because she is gaining back the weight - it's just slow. She had to miss her swimming lesson on Saturday because the doctor said the chlorine would have irritated her eyes.

Ellie's big trick now is that she can wave bye bye. She does it all the time - in the car, to random people she sees in the grocery store, and even while she's eating. As I was putting her to bed tonight, she was still waving bye bye. And the look on her face is so funny. It's like, "Oh my gosh! My hand is moving! Look at that! I'm making it move!". Lee and I think it's the best trick ever. We never get sick of it. I think I've told everyone at work five times so they might be sick of it. She's so smart. She's still not officially crawling, but she can move. She'll dig her elbows into the ground and pull forward. She can get onto her hands and knees, but can't move out of that position.

I'm a little disappointed that I only took one picture in the last week. That's absolutely poor. But I didn't really want to take any pictures of Ellie because she looked like Dom Woganowski out of There's Something About Mary. Lee and I went to the Terps Ball and President's dinner on Saturday night while my parents babysat and that's where I took my one picture with my sister-in-law (and Ellie's godmother) Elizabeth:



We did make good on my other resolution which was to get out more. It was so beautiful this weekend that we were able to take Ellie on two long walks. It got so cold today though. I've been used to the the 70's, but I don't think it made it out of the 30's all day today. I try to keep a hat on Ellie, but she rips it right off. More pictures this weekend for sure!

My life in Dilbert

I usually stay away from work stories on the blog, but this made me laugh. In order to be more "green", my company ordered everybody in the company (over 1500 plus I'm sure a few for clients) green coffee mugs. The idea is that we'll use the coffee mug to replace the all of the styrofoam coffee cups we keep throwing into the landfills.

About 2 hours after I got mine, we received a message telling us to return the coffee mugs because the paint on them contains dangerously high levels of lead (the official word is that the printing was not as high quality as they would like, but I tried to scratch it off with a knife and it wouldn't come off so I'm saying lead). Now they're going to "recycle" all of these mugs. And yes, they are made in China.

The 2008 Resolutions

“Another year, another chance”. That was the saying I saw written on a church’s message board when I was driving last week. I thought that was a really good way to look at the new year – another chance for me to be my best and make it a great year.

Here are some of my resolutions:

1. Quit obsessing about how much weight I need to loose.
2. Loose the last 10 pounds by April 1.
DAMN IT – See #1
3. Be outside more and inside less.

4. Blog at least once a week (I would say twice, but I don't think that's going to happen).

5. Stay in better contact with friends and family members through phone calls and e-mail.

Ellie’s resolutions are:

1. Quit getting upset when mom leaves the room.
2. Learn to crawl.
3. Willfully eat solid foods.
4. Sleep through the night – every night.
5. Learn to swim…

And that’s what she did this weekend! Ellie can check off Resolution #5 because she had her first swimming lesson on Saturday and loved it. I thought she might like the water because she has so much fun splashing during her bath, and I was right. She kicked and splashed around and even stuck her face in the water by herself three times. I don’t know if she meant to do it, but she didn’t mind it. At the end of the lesson, the instructor told me she thought Ellie had done well enough for me to dunk her. So I did and she didn’t cry at all. I think she was a little shocked, but she was back to smiling in a few seconds. The best part about swimming is that Ellie went home and took a two hour nap. We’ll be continuing lessons through February. I think it's really important to introduce kids to the water early so they don't freak out later.

While Ellie napped, I boxed up all of our Christmas decorations and then I made good on my Resolution #3 by taking Ellie outside to play in the yard because the weather was so nice this weekend. She’s constantly grabbing the leaves and grass and shoving them in her mouth so I have to watch that. When Lee got home from working, we went on a long walk. She’s thisclose to crawling. She’s scooting around, but just can’t coordinate her arm and leg movement. Other big news is she’s officially cutting her first tooth. It’s on the bottom left side. She’s drooling all over herself and will chew on anything you give her. She didn’t have anything to chew on during her walk on Saturday so she took off her sock and gnawed that. It stayed really nice on Sunday so took a picnic lunch to the park.

She was getting a little spoiled (I know – spoiled? Ellie? Never) at bedtime because I was getting her to go to sleep before I put her in the crib. If she would wake up, I would pick her up and rock her back to sleep. After I did that for an hour one night, I told myself things were going to have to change. So now if she wakes up when I’m putting her down, she’s has to get herself back to sleep. Last night that took about 30 minutes. I go in and pat her and tell her it’s okay at 15 minute intervals, but I hate hearing her cry so we just turn up the TV. Just kidding. She also woke up twice last night, but got herself back to sleep both times and we didn't have to go in there. I think some of that may be her teething because I had to give her some Tylenol on Friday night to get her back to sleep. But the way... as you can see on the right, Ellie can hold her own bottle now. Holding her own bottle + drinking formula = very happy mommy.

Ellie actually is doing a little better with the solids and ate about ½ jar of peas and ½ jar of bananas on Sunday. My hope that she does continually better on her Resolution #3 and we have less faces like this when she eats:

By the way, my friend Whitney just started her own blog, so send her some love!