Why We are Lucky

This is a dramatic retelling of Conor's preschool meltdown this morning.

Watching Daddy set down the breakfast plates, Conor self-righteously demands: I WANT MY BAGEL!!!!!

Daddy: Ummm, you're holding it.

Conor: Oh! ((giggles))

Later....

Conor: I have more hungry. My tummy needs more food.

Mama: Do you want a banana? A grape?

Conor: I want something I like. ((he begins to slyly eye his pumpkin filled with candy))

Mama: I see you looking at the pumpkin. I know you want candy. But we don't eat candy at breakfast. That's our family rule.

Conor, lower lip trembling, in a serious frown: I want....I want...I want...(the tears start and he gets a defiant tone)....I want a book.

Mama and Daddy: Ok.

I'm really not kidding. Those are real honest to God(dess) quotes from this morning. We are very lucky. And, yes, we know it.

The Big W

We have Weaned!!!

We are officially and completely off the boob. We've been down to 10 seconds total of nursing for the past 6 months or so at least. I have been following the Don't offer and (mostly) don't refuse strategy. And then last week, he just stopped asking. Indeed, since last Sunday, he nursed one more time. The rest of the nights, we just cuddle and I tell him stories (of Pirate Conor). Guess what Conor is going to be for Halloween?

Wait! I feel a pun coming on:

Halloween!

Ha! All Weaned!

It will certainly be easy to remember about the time he stopped nursing.

I'll be honest with you: I am not having the weepy "oh my boy has grown up" reaction. 3 years and 3 months on the boob and I'm happily willing to let him go. I did try to buy a smaller bra recently. It was a no go. They may be hanging down to my belly now, but they appear to be permanently bigger than they were before.

Imagine if I had twins.....

New Pictures up on Flickr

I haven't uploaded pictures in over a year....



But they are up now. Check out the multiple buckethead shots. And there are shots of Conor with a bucket on his head, too! :)

Cuteness Sans Curls

(((((((sigh)))))))

Michael Chertoff

I wonder if I am the only mother
who has her son shout out
"Michael Chertoff!!"
every night when he takes his
shirt off.

Too Kewl for Skool

I fully realize that I am not the coolest prof in the academy, but sometimes it's just more embarrassing that others.

Like today, during my student group meeting. I am not used to the vibrate setting of my cell phone. So when it went off, I responded with a full body spasm. Arms and legs shot out from my chair. The students were shocked at such a physical motion and somewhat appalled at the reason. The peals of laughter were broken only by comments such as "I thought she saw a snake!"

I was so shaken by the vibrating that I couldn't even remember how to answer the phone to take a message completely relevant to the meeting.

It was pathetic. And pretty funny.

Conor's new phrase I will forget and he will soon grow out of is "I must be thirsty." He learned this when I would pick him up from school and give him a big glass of water that he would suck down. I would say "You must be thirsty!" Now when he IS thirsty (or hungry) he will say "I must be thirsty!"

It's pretty cute.

Almost as cute as his new HAIRCUT! Dave took him in on Saturday and they cut off all his curls. ALL of his curls. It's cute. But...... he looks like all the other kids now. And half of the things that look like me are now gone. (The other thing is his chin and we can't cut that off) Conor looks exactly like Dave. His toes are Dave's toes. His KNEES are Dave's knees. His shoulders are Dave's shoulders and his eyes are Dave's. I had the chin and the curls. And now I just have the chin. Yes, he's adorably cute. But I really miss his curls.

Yes, I will be posting a picutre. Hopefully the next post. Still. I miss his curls.

Charlotte Home Companion Part Deux

It was pretty cool. It almost turned into a Charlotte NPR PR campaign. However, it annoys me when Northern people think that any southern person would EVER use "y'all" to refer to one person. We might say "Who all" when asking people a question about the number of people who will be attending an event. But we never say "you all" to one person.

Phhhht.

Only criticism in a show that made the front page of the Charlotte Observer. It was really a lot of fun.

Charlotte Home Companion

Blogging on a Saturday morning.....Sad because there are a 1000 other things do to and that any reader still out there (!) is likely doing them.

Still, I have to blog today because I have to brag. We're going to Prarie Home Companion tonight in Charlotte. Woohoo!! We were online and on the phone the minute the tickets went on sale and got great seats before it sold out. I think it sold out in less than 10 minutes? I'm not sure. In any case, we got 'em and we're going. Listen for our greeting tonight on the air! (It will be directed to our babysitter!)

I would also like to report that my flossing experiment has paid off. Not only have we FINALLY used up one box o' floss, but my dentist visit this week was the best one in my life. The poked around for only a few minutes before they deemed my teeth ready to polish. (Usually, there's a great deal of poking and scraping before we get to the polishing) We still have a lot of floss to use and I have no intention of stopping my two-a-day flossing exercises.

Ok. Now I must go do the things I should do on a Saturday morning. Then I'll get to do the things we don't normally get to do here in Charlotte on a Saturday night. Be sure and look for me on the radio. I'll be waving at you!

((((Sigh))))

The new Target opened up about 2 1/2 miles from our house. I know that the name of this blog isn't This, That, and the Shopping Thing. Nonetheless, my life is moving into the 21st century with all my new shopping options. Oh. Did I mention that a new Trader Joe's is going to be opening up right by the new Target 2 1/2 miles from our house?

Bwhwhwahahahahahah.

Pardon the maniacal laughter.

Oh, and by the way, it's not just me who is apoplectic about the new Target. The grand opening was Sunday at 9:00. We arrived at 10. (We skipped church) A woman let us use her just emptied cart, gushing about how wonderful the inside was and how everything was neatly stacked and how she was so Amazingly. Excited. About. Target!

Target's opening made the front page of the Local section today. And we saw several news shows there filming the rolling-on-the-floor-in-joy shoppers.

I fully realize that this makes Charlotte look pathetically pedestrian in our excitement. However, you don't fully understand how we live in the "urban" part of Charlotte and all the stores left downtown for the suburbs. And to have Tarjay and TJ's bless us with their presence in not only validating, but convenient.

Damn Bunnies

First of all, the laptop has been dead for the last month or so. So I'd like to conveniently use that as my excuses for not posting.

Then again, I am FREAKIN' busy this semester. Holy COW, I am working hard. It's not nearly as stressful as last year's Oct 1 to Jan 15 with 4 days off, but still. I'm busy. (4 days off including Christmas day and New Year's day)

There are several thoughts I want to share with you because even if I'm not blogging, you are near to my heart.

First, fat in one's diet is not bad. There is no scientific research that backs the claim that low fat diets reduce heart disease. None. It's a scientific fallacy. We had zucchini fritters for dinner tonight.

Second, Flower Whiskers died. I must admit that when I learned about this, I quickly and with a shocked mind told Dave. Nonetheless, I quickly mocked it. I am in the minority.

Third, we have planted our fall garden, the first time we've done that since we've lived here. I was THRILLED to see a lettuce crop growing. Fresh lettuce in the fall!??! Who could be so lucky? Apparently, the g-ddammed bunnies could. They ate all of our lettuce and were working their way through the cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts, too. I have since been adding hair and some smelly egg stuff. And I've been moving the plastic owl around. So far, no more nibbles.

Nonetheless, I am surprised about how much I hate these bunnies. Bunnies. Bunnies!! Who woudda thunk bunnies are bad. Me apparently.

Ok. Pushing Daisies is on. And I want to watch it. Did you watch Dr. Who this season? It was really, really good.

And now you're caught up with my life.

Older Dads

You may or may not remember the article that featured Dave a while back about being a dad. Well, apparently, it's been picked up and we're seeing that it's been published all over the place.
Here is a copy of the article from the OC Register. (OC! We're like Cool. Like the reality show. Or we're showing up behind the Orange Curtain. You may choose.)

We like this one because there are two pictures of Conor and Dave. And this one is about too precious.

Not Really an Issue

After working myself up into a frenzy about why Conor's teachers thought that his (suspected) introversion was a problem and how I was going to have to defend him from these oversensitive folks, I had a talk with the inclusion specialist.

Fortunately, this happened during the dreaded "circle time" that Conor supposedly wouldn't interact in and was very odd. I arrived early one afternoon and they were reading a book. So I got to observe, firsthand and alongside the inclusion specialist, what Conor actually does.

Well! First of all, several of the kids weren't really interacting in circle. And two had to be repeatedly told to stop bugging the others. (Conor was being incredibly well behaved at this point). Indeed, Conor was perfectly normal if a bit quiet. He didn't shout out the answers, but you could see him mouthing them. It seemed typical to me and Conor seemed engaged and well-behaved.

After they finished, the inclusion specialist and I talked for a few moments. I asked if she knew about introversion/extroversion and she did not. (It's usually not associated with children) I explained that things may be a bit stimulating for Conor and he may need some more time and perhaps this was the issue in circle time. She stopped me: I don't think there's an issue.

I was happily stunned by her response. Then why were the teachers so hyper about this?? She must have said something to them because since then, all the teachers talk about is how great he's doing in circle time and how much he loves to talk and how well he's playing with the other kids.

I continue to be annoyed. But I am also relieved that we don't have to pursue this any more.

And I know one is not supposed to automatically think one's child is the best in everything (or risk the sniggering from others), but can I tell you how well Conor is doing in the badmitton/softball/soccer/golf we have to play every night. The child is hitting the nerf softball with his nerf softball bat. I am so not kidding that last night he hit 4 in a row when Dave pitched to him. (I am not a good pitcher; I look at him instead of the the strike zone and I often bonk him in the head). He's three years old and he has more eye hand coordination than I do!

I would also like to take this moment to complain about how busy I am. Last year, when I was submitting 6 publications in my final pretenure push, I told Dave I wasn't going to work like this anymore. However, I have already worked every Sunday this semester and 2 or 3 Saturdays. I'm also working a few nights during the week.

I am not amused by this. I really don't know when it's going to change though.

Ok. I just remembered some additional work I need to immediately do. It still causes me to get very anxious.