Joy For The Day

Part of the fun of being a mommy is to watch the little mental wheels turn as kids grasp new concepts. Connor is developing language skills and particularly likes to identify animals. We have been using the Baby Signs books to help him along, and it has been wonderful. Sometimes I thought he was not paying attention when I read the books and acted out the signs, for various things, until I saw the proof:

• Identifying a frog by a picture on a girl's shirt by sticking his tongue in and out and making "ribbit" noise
  
  
• Saying "quack quack" when he hears the word "duck" in a song
  
  
• Making the "O" sign when I give him Cheerios
  
  
• Seeing birds fly overhead in a shopping center and making the squawking noise and "beak" sign to me
  
  
• He has done wonders with the sign for "all done". Not only does he use it at meal time to say that he is all done, he uses it now when he is all done with a situation like "all done" being in the car seat, "all done" being awake...time for bed, "all done" and touching his butt for a signal that his diaper needs to be changed.
  

My completely anti-snuggle child has become affectionate lately and actually wanted to give hugs and kisses. I had to laugh this morning when he wanted to give me several kisses even though he had a snotty nose. Yea it was kind of gross, but a snotty kiss from my child still makes my day because he gave it freely. That's how mommies get paid: snotty kisses and precious first moments.
Got this link from Julee. Apparently even Bush's cousins don't like him!

Bush Relatives for Kerry

Ever have one of those days?

The morning started out great. Connor woke up at his usual 7:28 AM, I jumped in the shower. Got him up, fed him, fed the dogs and cats, fed myself, cleaned up. So normal. I was ready for my mother to call me and tell me that she was at the Air Force Base entrance so that I could escort her in and we could go buy my Christmas present early... new curtains! Then came Murphy's Law. I got a message on my cell phone, not a call, that my mother was at the gate and was pissed because I was late. Late? She calls me, I get her. How could I be late?

So I grabbed Connor and ran out to the van. I looked for my military ID, also known as the sacred relic that holds the key that opens the door to every part of military living, guess what...it was missing. Not in my van, not in my organizer, not in my pocket, not on the floor, not on top of the microwave, not in Connor's butt (ok well I didn't really check there). The bottom line was I had no ID, my mom was already pissed, and I had no way to get her on my own. Or, to be exact I could go get her but then had no way to get back on base.

I frantically called Jason who was only a few hours into his brand spanking new rotation in Internal Medicine. Call one - no answer, call two - no answer, call three - finally he picks up.

Me: "Why the Hell don't you ever answer your phone"
Jason: "Uh, hello?"
Me: "I lost my ID and mom has apparently been at the gate for a while though I didn't know about it and now she is really pissed and I can't find my ID anywhere and I need you to help me go get her!"
Jason: *softly* "Honey I can't help you right now, I am on rounds, maybe in an hour..."
Me: *frantically screaming* "An hour! What the fuck? I can't wait an hour! She is already here and she is pissed, what am I going to do?"
Jason *softly* "Honey I can't help you right now, I am on rounds, maybe in an hour..."
Me: *enraged* "You are no fucking help! Fuck you"

I sit in the driveway and steam. He calls me back a minute later. "Come and get me at the hospital, I'll escort her on base with my ID". I drive there in 1 minute 5 seconds. I go to get him and lock myself out of the van. I tell him. He walks toward me laughs. He gets in the van and tells me about our little conversation. "You know I was surrounded my doctors when you did that, I was holding the phone like this", motions holding the phone as far away as his arm could reach. "They all heard it".
I look at him sheepishly and tell him over and over "Um, sorry". Apparently his attending doc heard everything and told him to go take care of his wife, she is 32 weeks pregnant so she understands enraged female outburts.

Jason tells me that we could have just gone to the store and called him to escort us on base when we were done. But then my mom did want to drop off her dog (she takes her everywhere)in our backyard.

We get to the gate and my mom walks over with that "you'd better have a very friggin good excuse for this one young lady" look on her face. I make Jason talk to her. "She lost her ID and had to pull me out of the hospital". Her look softens to "awww Jason, you are so sweet I could just eat you up my dearest darling sweetie pie", all was forgiven. Jason just has that effect on her, was an added bonus that he was in uniform.

We drop Jason off at the hospital and head home. Mom tells me that she would have called again to talk to me but that her cell phone had died, her day had been swell too. We laugh. We measured the windows, grabbed coupons and headed out the door. Mom's dog went in the back of my van since my dogs freaked her out too much.

So on the beltway, I miss the exit. Here we go again. We take the next exit and try to go to a different store. In theory there is very little difference between Linens & Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond right? Then I realized that I left the coupons for Bed, Bath & Beyond on the kitchen table. GRRR! We go there, miles out of our way, the curtains there sucked, but I bought a box full of those "wonder suction" thingies to hang some decorations. Fine. Two different managers had to check to make sure they didn't have the hooks that I REALLY wanted, but whatever. Fine.

We backtrack till we get to Linens & Things. The curtains are more than my mom wanted to pay, but after all of this...she just wanted to get it over with. I dig in the baby bag and find that *woo hoo* I have an old 10% off coupon! Mom is happy.
We leave and I call Jason...several hundred times. No answer. We get to the gate, still no answer. I call the hospital and have him paged. A little old lady from Transylvania answers and repeats every friggin syllable back to me four times. "You vant me to aaave heeem call you or should I suck hees blood first?" Finally Jason calls me and I tell him to come escort us. He forgets that I called him to tell him we were going to the store in the first place. It takes him 20 minutes to untangle himself from the hospital and come get us.

Just my luck, poor little Connor is past his nap time and past his lunch time. He is signaling his "all done" in the back seat. I laugh and tell him I am "all done" too. Twenty minutes with a toddler who is "all done" and a mother who is "all done" with her dog who is "all done" just puts icing on the cake.

Jason pulls up and escorts us on base. He is starving so I give him $6 for a veggie burger at BK, it's the least I can do after what I have put him through. Mom and dog take off as soon as we hit the driveway. She says "let's NOT do this again ok?" and laughs. I agree.

Oh and you know what? We left the bag of hook/snap thingies at Bed, Bath & Beyond! Ever wanted to be a doctor's wife? Well don't. It sucks. So there. We have been on an emotional rollercoaster lately, and my husband's personality is lacking from sleep deprivation. Thank goodness his month of working nights is over (for this year).

In other news, I played Bunko with a bunch of Air Force wives it was SOOO much fun! It was a dice game/musical chairs screaming laughing romp. Eeek, it sounds like I am a domesticated little officer's wife, but really, ANYONE would think this was fun. Even my boobs played. But that is a story for another time. And I wasn't even drinking alcohol! Honest. Hey Julee, I lost the link to your site, what is your blog adress again? Ever Have One Of Those Weekends?

Jason has limited time, so I make a list of things we need to get done, but I messed it up this weekend. It was going great, steady even pace, then we played Dark Ages of Camelot and I decided to have a little wine. A little wine turned into a lot and I was the drunken DAoC player, terrorizing the online gaming community with my wayward morals and slurred typing skills.

Paulene came out in full force. Dangit, she is one crazy loon! I think I shocked half of my online buddies with my lewd and lascivious chat messages, then terrorized my husband afterward. (I leave that to your imaginations. Needless to say he is a broken shell of the man he was before.)

I paid for it the next day with the Hangover From Hell. Jason had to take care of Connor all day while I fed the bowl and watched TV. Funny thing is I think the last time I was hung over I watched the same Fergie bio. Hmmmmm. I wonder if I'll get queasy next time I see her on TV?

So the point is, very few items on the to do list were actually completed, and it's my fault. Wine bad. Paulene bad. Funny thing is: you know how you like drink and then do stupid stuff and have to appologize to people the next day, well I have to do that now with my virtual friends. Do you think they will still virtually respect me?