2008 May « Two Mommies and a Shmoo

the cost of things

May 30, 2008 at 4:21 pm (money)

Yes, I am fiddling with the blog design in all of my free time. Needless to say, it is still a work in progress.

I digress.

I feel like I’ve been talking about money a lot lately. I can’t help it, it’s on my mind all the time. I will make an effort to not talk about it so much for a while.

I paid $4.18 for gas this week. This morning, my cheap-o station was at $4.27 for regular. It cost me almost $43.00 to fill my tiny little hybrid earlier this week. Thankfully, I’ll probably get around 450 miles out of that, but still….

We almost had an orgasm when we pulled into B.Js last weekend and were able to fill up the SUV for a mere $3.86 per gallon! Wahoo!!

How the hell are these people with H.ummers and S.uburbans affording gas?

And, by the way, don’t THOSE people realize that when they drive their respective monstrosities 90 mph up a hill on the highway, they are only getting around 3 miles per gallon? I mean, if they drove around 70, they would probably be getting close to 10 mpg. But seriously, who drives 70 anymore?

I also have been paying close attention to the price of everything else.

Isn’t it interesting that all the media seems to be focused on the price of gas. Why hasn’t anyone talked about how the price of gas affects EVERYTHING ELSE???

A regular grocery store trip is going up significantly. Everything is going up, not just fruits and veggies. Check out this article.

Hell, just in the last 6 weeks, a large coffee at D.unkin D.onuts has gone from $1.99 to $2.11 to $2.32. Mommy H. is no longer buying coffee at DD but is actually taking coffee to go from home – daily expense approximately $0.12.

When dollar stores are raising their prices to $1.25, what is the world coming to? How much further will it go?

What about rising home heating/utility costs? Energy costs are going up at a much higher rate than anything else.

Health care? Hell, my monthly health insurance cost is going up starting June 1 from $438/month to $643/month.

I also am noticing a rise in crime. We’ve been having a rash of bank robberies in our area. Am I just being overly neurotic?

But don’t worry people. There is no threat to the economy (as far as W is concerned). This is all just speculation. Everything is hunky dorey.

Speaking about the SUV, we are going to get rid of it. Not because it’s too big, but because of the cost.

If all works out according to plan, my mother will take our car and give us her J.eep G.rand C.herokee. It’s a 2000, has 160,000, a V8 engine and is actually paid off. The gas mileage is not really a big issue since L. drives probably 5 miles a day on average. If we need to put any money into it, it’s not a big deal since we won’t have to make any finance payments on it.

My mother wanted a new/used car, something nicer and more reliable, but she doesn’t want to take out a loan right now for credit purposes and she doesn’t really want to be driving something too new and pricey since her salary is paid by tax dollars. I just want to be 100% sure that she really wants to do this because she wants the car, not because she’s bailing us out. It’s probably perfect for her. It gets slightly better gas mileage than her J.eep, is newer and has only 40somethingk miles on it and a 100k mile warranty.

Giving up the L.exus R.X is a sore spot in my pride, but it was just too much money. Maybe someday, when I’m a partner at a firm, I could justify driving a luxury car. Plus, Lois is really excited about the swap idea. She likes the thought of driving a car that’s “not so nice.” The L.exus was never her thing. She’s so low maintenance, she would be in bliss if I bought her one of these:

As part of my new outlook on life, I want to make sure every post has a “happy” in it. Not necessarily an affirmation, but something. Something that keeps the ‘woe is me’ at bay and puts things in perspective. Maybe something inspiring or just something I need. I’m not sure what form it will be in but here’s one:

When life gets you down – just put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

Last, but not least…

REMINDER: Monday is the 3rd Annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day!
Check out Mombian for the details!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Pray for a buyer for our condo!

10 Comments

cheese doodles

May 29, 2008 at 2:43 am (TTC, the boy)

I can’t believe my mommies have been holding out on me.
It took them this long to introduce me to cheese doodles.

On another note, we are postponing the Baby #2 conversation until October or November. We are just not able to think about it right now, as much as I feel like I want to get into it ASAP.

We also have another open house this weekend and hope of all hopes that someone, just one person comes and makes an offer.

12 Comments

action/reaction

May 28, 2008 at 2:58 am (discoveries)

I thought that many of the things in the discovery process were supposed to be cute and funny.

Things like flicking the light switch and watching the light come on.

Pushing a button and seeing a toy light up.

I envisioned these discoveries as a cute and playful moment, with Andrew smiling and clapping with adorable glee!

The recent discoveries for Andrew include:

1. squeezing fruit in his hands and watching the juice run down his arm
2. pushing one side of a bowl to flip the contents of it across the room
3. sticking his hand down his throat and making himself gag. Over and over again

These things aren’t as cute as I thought they would be.

He thinks he is hysterical.

10 Comments

wordless weekend wrapup

May 27, 2008 at 2:30 am (weekends)

(BTW – what amazed me about him running into the garage is that he went right to the “big bucket” of golf balls in there. What a little stinker)

(A new friend for Andrew – Harold’s new little brother Robert)

Whew. I’m exhausted.

10 Comments

Happy Weekend

May 25, 2008 at 3:17 am (weekends)

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

8 Comments

being girlier

May 20, 2008 at 3:36 pm (so fashionable)

It has occurred to me that I am not the girliest girl ever. Yes, it’s true.

I am working on it. Not too hard, don’t worry.

During the work week, I have mostly pant suits and flat shoes. My style has been improving a little bit with a little help from my family with Ch*cos and Ann T*ylor gift cards. But it’s slow progress.

I also realize that when I come home, on goes the men’s jeans or cargo shorts and a long-sleeve p-town t-shirt. If we are going out to dinner, I’ll swap the long sleeve T for a men’s button down. Like I said, I’m not going too far with this girly thing.

This morning, as I was putting on a little perfume, it occurred to me that I have been wearing the same perfume since my freshman year of college.

C*K one.

An omnisexual cologne/perfume.

I was thinking…do I need to grow up more? Is this still cool?

My favorite perfume was RL Polo Sp*rt for Women but it’s hard to find anywhere.

And lately, I’ve been wearing jewelry. I still have the Live*strong rubber bracelet on one wrist, but I’ve actually worn earrings a few days a week and a necklace almost every day – one of two necklaces I have from Ch*cos, not my usual gold chain.

My flats are falling apart and my 10 yr old black heels are really hurting my feet, so I am saving for a pair of Fran*co Sar*to’s.

I also liking those Ta*lbots and Bro*k’s Bro*thers iron-free shirts for work. Well, I don’t own any yet, but I like them on other people.

I am definitely surrounded by people who like to dress themselves in a way that screams success. Hey, they’re lawyers, they’re all about presentation. I’m not into the RL label showing or being the most fashionable but I think I am finding that I want to change my image a little bit.

I want to be comfortable but a little more professional. I’m not going to go overboard and buy skirts or stockings (unless I have a job interview), but I might do some little changes here and there.

Last week, I bought a new crisp white button down shirt at Ch*cos with my gift card. I wore it do a work function with a black pinstripe suit I’ve worn 100 times. The female managing partner or our firm commented to me about how I looked very lawyerly and powerful. Powerful!?!?! Those who actually know me can stop laughing now. tee hee

When I lose 20 more pounds, I’m going to go shopping. I want a chocolate brown suit. And I want some new shirts, maybe some with color other than tan, brown, white and black.

I’m not entirely sure this is going to drift into my non-work life. I do own a pair or two of casual capris. They usually come out when I have to meet the ‘rents at their country club for lunch or something.

I’m just working on being a teeny tiny bit more professional. I have picked a career that pretty much requires some professionalism. I do occasionally wonder why I didn’t stay in my initial career as a tennis instructor, then I remember that I wouldn’t be able to support my lifestyle. I would probably be skinnier though.
I’m not doing any shopping any time soon, but I am always on the lookout!

Segue

By the way, I saw something this weekend that made me laugh. I’m not really sure why it’s funny, it’s sad actually.

How’s this for a sign of the times:

Seen at a Dollar Store on the eastern shore of CT:

Attention Customers,

Unfortunately, due to the market and the current price of gasoline, we must raise our prices to provide …..blah blah blah

As of May _, 2008, all products in the store will be $1.25

EVERYTHING’S $1.25!

What does it say about the current state of the economy when the Dollar Store is forced to raise its prices?!?!!?

10 Comments

a blissful weekend

May 19, 2008 at 3:32 pm (a mobile meatball, speech, weekends)

Yet again, I have been a bad blogger and a bad blogger friend.

Life has just been getting in the way of my online life. What’s up with that?

We spent this weekend up at my parents’ house on the beach. My mother had foot surgery last Friday and spent all week stuck in her house with my father. Those that know my parents know that they have rarely spent a full week together in the same place at the same time in 41 years of marriage. It was not pretty. My mother was so relieved when we walked through the door. It further fueled my theory that if she ever retires, my parents would probably be divorced within 6 months.

Their house is a disaster because she closed on her other place and now has 2 households worth of stuff in one house pending our ability to sell our place and get a house with my mom. Confusing, isn’t it? It doesn’t help that they also just have way too much shit for their own good.

We spent Saturday cleaning around the house, including vacuuming up dog hair that my father didn’t think was there, buying my mother flowers for her front porch, cleaning up the front porch, throwing some things away. Dinner on Saturday was wonderful with my brother, his girlfriend and Aunt Laura showed up with her awesome new GF (who we love) for the night as well. It was perfect!

On Sunday, I put up some hooks (stainless steel won’t rust, right?) on my mom’s front porch and hung up the beautiful hanging plants we bought the day before. Then, we ran back out and bought Hostas for the end of the driveway which I planted and used up most of the brown mulch pile that was sitting in the middle of the driveway. By the time we left on Sunday, my mother was thrilled that her house looked more like a southern mansion than the Beverly Hill*billies house.

There is something about spending weekends up on the shore. I absolutely love it. It’s hard to leave. It must be something about the ocean and the slow way of life up there, it feels like a 2 day vacation. I have a feeling we will be spending many weekends up there this summer. And now that Aunt Laura has seen the place and survived a night with my family, we’re dragging her with us when we go!

The boy was a wonderful helper while I was planting. I had the shovel and he had a garden trowel. When I dug, he dug. When I reached in the potting soil, he did the same. When I used my foot on the shovel to dig, he pushed his foot down on the trowel. He wanted to help me on the ladder with the hanging plants and he wanted to help with the wheelbarrow when we moved the mulch, but we had to draw the line somewhere. No ladder for Shmoo.

Shmoo was such a good boy this weekend. Anyone that saw him this weekend would never in a million years comprehend why I just bought “Raising Y*our Spirited Child” the other day. He just is so busy at their house and can play outside on the deck all day, so he’s so happy. And he plays so hard, he sleeps so hard too. He took a 3 hour nap on Saturday!

The boy also had a well visit last week and while I don’t remember the exact measurements, he is in the 50th percentile for weight and the 10th percentile for height. I personally think that’s hysterical. If he was a little taller, he wouldn’t be so “hefty”. Kinda like his mommy.

The doc again mentioned that she was concerned about his speech because he doesn’t say 3 words understandably. I think he says many words, but they are all so inconsistent: mama, baba (bottle), kee-kat (kitty cat), down, yo-gurt (he only said this once), coo-kee, and uh-oh (he puts an emphasis on the UH part and it’s usually when he is intentionally dropping something off the high chair or down the stairs). He’s said a few fleeting things here and there, but it’s really too fleeting to count as words.

One thing that has continuously blown us away is his hand-eye coordination. It’s absolutely amazing. He can take a plastic golf club and push a golf ball 30 feet down the deck with it holding it all the way at the top of the club. He kept taking this 2 ft branch thing out of a glass water jug in my mother’s kitchen and sticking it back in the 2 inch around hole on the first try over and over again. And he doesn’t even hold the thing near the bottom. I think he’s incredibly gifted.

As for us, I am renewing my promise to blog every day. And to check in on my blog buddies too. Because aside from my need to vent, I also want to make sure I’m not neglecting my friends and their needs!

I am doing well. I’m finding my way back to my happy place and I will have a lot to share when I am ready. If I don’t say it enough, I am very blessed to have such a wonderful and beautiful wife, such an amazing little boy and such fabulous family and friends!

Hope all is well with my friends across the globe.

10 Comments

Crack kills

May 13, 2008 at 7:19 pm (1, video)

Plumbers crack that is!

Andrew is working on his Andy the Plumber look. He actually looks like his Uncle Joe the plumber from behind.

I guess we need to make sure this kid wears a onesie as much as possible.

Things have been so crazy busy lately. Not much to report in about. I did a volunteer program today where I taught a classroom of 5th graders about business for 4 hours. I’m exhausted.

I also found a gray hair the other day. My very first one. I came home and showed Lois. “Yep,” she said. “And look, I found another one.” I feel like its a badge of honor or something. I figure only 2 gray hairs before I turn 32, that’s not so bad. (knocking on wood, my birthday is still months 10 weeks away). My father had 100 gray hairs at this age. I’m way ahead of the game.

Hope everyone is having a great week. I have a lot more to ramble about, but for now I’ll leave you with this…..

12 Comments

15 months

May 9, 2008 at 1:14 am (Shmoo news, milestones, video)

Andrew is 15 months old today. I can’t freakin’ believe it!

As always, he is quite the little personality. I’m trying to think of all the new things he does.

He loves airplanes and birds, anything in the sky. We live near a tiny airport so many small planes fly overhead. When he starts to hear them, he points towards the sky, says “ehhhh” and usually throws his arms into the “I don’t know” pose when he doesn’t see it.

He dances. Well. Sort of.

He is doing very well with eating again. For some reason, he went through a week where he would eat almost nothing. Now, he is definitely pickier than he was but he is usually pretty content if you let him feed himself. Last night, this involve flinging ravioli, one of which I discovered stuck to the sliding glass door 15 minutes later.

He likes walking backwards. He will walk backwards across a room then sit down on whatever gets in his way.

Because of this, we’ve discovered that he can play the piano with his butt.

He likes standing and turning around and around. This just started. Not sure where it came from but he sometimes makes ga-ga noises when he does it.

He still doesn’t say much but he has said “yo-gurt” and we swear he’s said “kitty kat” a few times. He does say Ma-ma, but it’s more like ma-ma-ma-ma-maaaaaaaa. We think he says things from time to time like up, down, more, no, dog, and a few other things but they are not usually clear. He says Coo-kee very clearly and just tonight was saying MAAARRRR for more.

He will walk into a room, stick his belly out, slap his thigh, look up, look down, slap his thigh again, pull on his diaper, grab his belly, spit out his binky and giggle. He’s a riot.

He has a tendency to pull his socks off and smack himself in the head as he does it. He doesn’t usually cry and I try very hard not to giggle.

And he’s still very vocal. He blows raspberries, babbles endlessly and pretty much cracks us (and himself) up over and over again.

He’s definitely not a pushover kid. He wants what he wants, just as he always has. He has temper flares (bonfires, actually) when we say “no” and throws a fit if we don’t let him play on the stairs, take him in from outside, don’t let him push buttons on the computer, play with screwdrivers, knives, etc.

All he wants to do is be OUTSIDE!!!

He loves brushing his own teeth and recently has started using an electric toothbrush.

He discovered that the paper tower holder hangs low enough for him to pull out 150 sheets at once.

He can open the oven. He has located and rummaged through our junk drawer. And he’s figured out the child locks on the cabinets in the kitchen. We are running out of places to keep dangerous items.

He can be very cuddly and loving (sometimes), but it’s usually for a second then he’s off. He also listens well (sometimes) and if you tell him to bring Mama her shoes, he will pick them up and carry them to Mama.

He likes his books but we still don’t get to actually read through any of them. Even the baby’s first words books are pretty much an adventure in speedreading.

He loves sitting behind the wheel of a car and honking the horn. Thank you Mema and Pop-Pop for teaching him this.

He feels too advanced for sippy cups. He’d much rather use a glass with a straw. Of course, we have not mastered the “not turning the glass upside down” thing yet.

He’s discovered that he can stick his finger up his nose. Apparently, this is really funny to him.

He also discovered his pee-pee. We haven’t encountered too much of a problem with this yet because…well…he’s a chubby kid…and…let’s just say he can’t see it unless he’s sitting down.

He just wants to be free and go somewhere. He still has very little interest in TV. Which is totally fine with us.

He loves opening and closing doors. Especially the slider. He loves banging them shut, if at all possible.

He loves banging anything. Any new item or toy is tested against the hardwood floor, the heating vent and the pantry door for its noise potential.

He loves hugging stuffed animals, giving them kisses, saying “ahhhh” then throwing them down the stairs.

Even despite the constant temper tantrums and exasperation on his mommies’ part, we loved him to the ends of the earth.

He’s a little person. Our little boy is a toddler. When did that happen?

13 Comments

Balance

May 5, 2008 at 3:16 pm (a mobile meatball, video)

I’m really trying to balance work and life. It’s ridiculous. This weekend, as I was driving home from my office on a Saturday afternoon, I truly almost suffered a big breakdown.

It was about time and money. What else.

I started writing it all out. Writing out what’s in my head. It’s now 5 pages long and I’ve lost 1.6 billable hours this morning.

I’m not going to bore everyone with the budgetary dilemmas and “woe is me” thoughts in my head. I know everyone is struggling lately. I just hit a wall where I feel like I’ve been busting my ass and I guess I expected to see some pressure lifted off another area as a result of my hard work.

The last thing I need to do is take my stress out on my amazing wife who’s busting her own butt to keep everything functioning with the home, the boy and her part time job. And I know how lucky I am to have what I do have. Every time I do feel like this, I mostly need to refrain from the urge to kick myself repeatedly for bitching at all.

I was on the phone with my mother last Monday (at the beginning of a week from hell) and she made a comment about my crankiness. “Why are you cranky! That’s not like you!” Is it not like me?!!? I’m not sure, ask Lois.

So, I’m trying particularly hard to make sure I am not exuding my stress or crankiness on the outside. And I’m sorry for neglecting my family, friends and blogging pals recently.

On that note, here’s some Shmoo TV. Here is the reason I work hard to keep my family happy and healthy.

This video is 2 minutes long and probably boring as hell for anyone else, but I love it – the Shmoo eating with a big boy fork!

Here’s the video

This is a much shorter video, a very quick shot of how quickly this kid moves.

Here he is making Mommy proud