Spring Cleaning

I just cleaned up my garage and have come to the conclusion that if I could just sell our gently-used gift bags for a buck a piece, I'd probably be at least $200 richer.

My 21st Century Mom

My mom is awesome for a number of reasons, but one of them is her ability to join us in the technological age. Yeah, we've had our ups and downs. I do remember when she first started using the computer and would fret over which password to use on which site, how to copy and paste things, etc., but she's so much more proficient with all things techie now. Sure, she doesn't know what WEP stands for in WEP key, but at least she knows she has one. That's more than your average Joe for sure.

But the computer is not why I'm writing this. It's my mom's embrace of a little piece of technology which she resisted for so long: the iPhone. The iPhone has long been a lauded invention in the Carmona household. Keith and I have used ours to do everything beyond the usual tasks: scheduling, grocery lists, gaming, logging feedings and diaper changes in the early Natalie days, placating our daughter in more recent Natalie days...you name it, I think the iPhone does it. If it gave good back or foot rubs, I might have left my husband and run off with my iPhone.

In those early days, I was kind of a zealot trying to get others to come over to my side. I'd show it off to people like it was my firstborn (well, before I had a firstborn), pointing out every application, bell, whistle, and feature. My sister was already a fan, so it wasn't too difficult to get her husband on board. We persuaded Keith's entire family to get them, too.

But try as we might to convince her, my mom was kind of dead-set against learning yet another phone. And I understood her frustration. It seemed there was a decade from about 1996-2006 when I'd get a new phone every two years and, without fail, it would have a totally different set of operating instructions than the last. Add to that the fact that you had to manually copy over all of your contacts and it became an understandably defeating process. Still, she finally relented this year and I don't think she regrets her decision.

Case in point:

We just had a ten-minute conversation about 12-year-old boys with mustaches via text message. Now that's something for the memory book.

Skinny Scush

After her one-year appointment, we learned several things about our dear daughter. She has an ear infection, so the cold has progressed into her poor ears causing all of the fussiness as of late. Her first dose of antibiotics will be administered as soon as she awakens from her nap. We were also told that Natalie is steadily climbing in the 25th percentile, as she has since birth, in both height and head circumference. Unfortunately, her pediatrician noted that she is in the 5th percentile of weight. The universe is so unfair. Keith and I are madly trying to lose weight, while we have to add calories and fat to everything she eats. Why can't I have that problem?

Oh, and a few more things I learned today:

1. With the amount of Kix we go through on a weekly basis, we need to buy stock in General Mills.
2. I'm so lazy right now that I Googled the maker of Kix, rather than go to the cupboard to see for myself on the box.
3. Natalie hates needles. I mean HATES them. Oh, and she doesn't respond well to the phrase, "Man up!"
4. It would be really neat if all of our furniture was about knee-height so that Scush could cruise everywhere. She gets colossally bummed when she comes to the end of the furniture trail and has nowhere else to go.

Sickness, Suffering, and Shoes

I'm sorry I haven't posted in FOREVER. Things got a bit busy. I got a new job, Natalie turned one, she got me sick, it's the end of the school year. Things are hectic to say the least. What suffers? This project that only three people are reading (and I'm one of them). Still, that's no excuse for not writing.

So what's up right now? Well, I'm realizing how incredibly difficult it is to be a mom. In fact, I have the utmost respect for stay-at-home moms and single moms. Today, I should have stayed home from work because I sound like a Canadian goose when I cough. But when my husband queried me about possibly not going in, I weighed the alternative.

Let me backtrack. Saturday was awful. Keith had Saturday Work (kids who have previously gotten in trouble come to work on campus...not sure if they have to wear the orange jumpsuits, but it's fun to imagine), and so he had to leave me with Natalie all morning. That would not ordinarily be a bad or even unusual thing, given that I only work about 4-5 hours a day. However, Saturday was different because I woke up feeling like I had just been run over by one of those ACME steamrollers from the cartoons. So did Natalie. We were a fine pair. I coughed. She coughed. She cried. I wanted to cry. It was tough.

Fortunately, we got through it and Keith came home and took me to see Glee! live. That was amazing, both because Grandma and Grandpa were entertaining the scush and because the show was hugely entertaining. Spending time with my hubby is also a rare occurrence lately, so that was pretty awesome, too.

Anyway, back to my original point. I woke up feeling like that same steamroller had done its thing and realized that if I were to stay home, it would be harder work than going to work. Ergo, I went to work and got tons done. Great. So I returned home, hoping to feed my baby some lunch, play a bit, and put her down for a nap so I could flop onto the couch and do a bit of napping myself. No such luck. No folks--my house seems to be run by none other than Murphy himself. His law is always in effect here.

I got home to discover my nanny, Katie, holding the monitor with a look of utter astonishment on her face. "THREE HOURS!" she whispered to me with an incredulous glint in her eyes. "I wasn't sure if I should wake her up," she confided. I hastily hung up the phone (sorry Ma) as the wheels in my head started turning.

At that moment, I knew I needed to pinch hit. The Bean has been fussy lately with this cold. Really fussy. Like, I-hope-the-neighbors-don't-think-I'm-systematically-removing-her-toes-one-at-a-time fussy. So I knew that there was no freaking way I was going to stay home with her, all cooped up, both of us hacking like Canadian geese or braying donkeys after she had had a three hour nap. No way.

Natalie learned how to shoe shop today. Sorry honey. Trust me, it was worth the money for the calm smile on your wife's (and baby's) face. Plus our feet (all toes included) are gonna look great.