Perfect Post Awards: Miss Britt

I admit, I am a blog reading slut. 

My bookmarks are over-run with tons of blogs I read for many different reasons, most because they are other Moms or because they are laugh out loud funny. 

I love reading Miss Britt, a married young Mom of two with no guacamole making skills and exquisite taste in shoes. And the chick makes me bust a gut regularly. Once in a while though she gets serious for a minute and has a chat about depression, marital problems or domestic violence.

Becuase of this I decided to participate in the Perfect Post Awards put on by Petroville and Suburban Turmoil and made my first nomination. 

This months post (that was actually posted yesterday) about Domestic Violence is titled "The Watchers", and it is obvious that Britt is close to a person in a bad situation and has watched from the sidelines while waiting to help any way she can. She goes on to say how she has become angry and resentful and her sympathy has been replaced with contempt as she has removed herself from the situation. 

This post made me think if I really knew anyone who was abused, or at least suspected it in some situations. The statistics say that 1 of every 10 women (at least) is abused, which means Statistically speaking at least 2 of my friends is going through this crap, and seriously we all seem to be a bunch of strong girls and I can not imagine who would endure this. Maybe my group of friends is lucky, but someone who reads this knows someone else who needs help in some way.

Not enough can be said or done about domestic violence. 

Letters to My Son 16 Months

Dearest Rito, 

You are now 16 months old. The time has gone so fast and each day passes in a blink of an eye. Never in my life did I think I was going to be a Mom to such a sweet and active little boy like you. 

Last month Mamamama had to go away overnight for a work trip and you got to spend the night and Grams house. Now, Mamamama has gone to work overnight before but I have always been just minutes away from you and know I could spring into action if something was ever wrong. Going to a different city was a very scary experience for me. I was 3 hours away from you, and I now know that I am not so good at being separated from my little man. I must admit that I cried when LoudGranny picked you up from home to take you to Grams house. The evening I came home, I was so happy to see you in the tub and having a good time while Grams was giving you a bath, but I decided I wasn't going to go away for a while because frankly, I suck at leaving you. 

In the last two months your vocabulary has grown immensely. You now have phrases you like to say such as : "where you going", "what we doing" and the newest one is "I'm running". You learned the word "stop" while playing with Dad! yesterday and finally said "Baba" to your Baba (and my goodness is she proud, her whole neighborhood knows you can say Baba now). You learn new words fast, use them lots and then the next day you quit using them (and figure them out again a day later, thankfully you have unlearned that swear word you figured out last month) and you have started adding words together like bubba-gum. I love listening to you talk, it is like music to my ears and our conversations are getting longer and more animated each day. 

The cutest thing you have done this month is start to hold my hand when we are walking somewhere. Holding your hand makes me so happy, you walk so nicely with Mamamama and Dad! when holding our hands and I am proud that everyone can see that you are my little boy. I am pretty sure I puff my chest out like a proud peacock when we are walking together. You also have been really good with your listening. Now when Mamamama and Dad! tell you to put something in the toy bin, you do it with a little coaching and you are so happy with your accomplishment when you complete this task. 

We also started in a new playgroup this month, and it is great to see you play so well with other kids. In our playgroup there is a baby who is about 6 months old and every time you see him you rock his baby seat and lie your head on his lap and hug him. This is almost cute enough for Mamamama to reconsider her one baby rule.... almost. You really do love smaller children and you always check out a baby car seat when you see one in the grocery store. You also love dogs and bark (wuuf) at them every time you see one (never mind that you bark at rocking horses at the store too); I hope you never lose this love of animals. 

We have started pre-potty training at home. You have sown considerable interest in your potty and even like to sit on your potty when Mamamama is using the toilet. Last week we went and bought training pants, and when we are spending the day at home you wear your new training pants around the house. Seeing you run around in little underwear is too cute for words. Sure we have accidents (surprisingly few) but you know what the potty is for and you do try and use it. Yesterday we got a potty book to read to you so that you will become more comfortable with the idea. I find it funny that you are interested in the potty because Mamamama really didn't care if you waited until you were 3 or older to be potty trained (and maybe it will take that long, who knows?) but since you made the first step, Mamamama will cooperate and help you along at whatever speed you choose. 

Each month you change so much, yet stay so much my little baby boy and I love you more each day. Some nights I am sad to even put you to bed because you really are such a joy to us. 

Love you more than chocolate, 

Mamamamama 

P.S. PLEASE stop walking up the stairs (and standing on them half way up), I am seriously going to have a heart attack soon if this reckless behavior continues. 

 

Consider these letters as your new baby book, since I am officially a year behind on the scrap-booking.

It's mocking me

Seriously. 

The evil paintbrush has been mocking me from the corner of the basement for the last few weeks. In my defense I would like to say that the replacement door was just hung last Thursday and I had to prime and repaint it (even though the other one had already been done) so it isn't totally my fault that the playroom is not done yet. 

BUT.

By this time tomorrow the playroom will be completed. For real. The painter comes to do the walls in the morning and tonight I painted all the baseboards and one french door and primed the other one. So once I paint the other door tomorrow everything will technically be finished and usable. 

Rito will be thrilled, he already loves to slide around on the cork flooring (highly recommend the cork floors) and shut himself in the closet (who needs a playroom when there is a perfectly good closet to hide in?). 

All that is left to do is hang the bracket in the closet that will hold the central vac hose, get some blinds made for a little window and eventually put shelving in the closet to house puzzles and board games.

In the meantime I will be drinking a glass of wine and enjoying the lack of brightly colored baby crap in my living room...... 

bliss. 

****edited to add that for the first time ever I hit spellcheck and had no errors. Dad! will likely be quite shocked.****

Very Impressive Vernacular

Rito has really started to talk lately. A lot. You really need to listed closely to understand what he is saying (because he does sound a little like Latka on Taxi) but he has a lot to say. For my own use, I decided to list the words I know of that he is using and how he says it (because they grow up too fast, and alas I forget pretty fast too): 

bubble (bubba)

bananas (nanas)

socks (sox)

spoon (poon)

shoes (ooze)

going (going - he says it right)

what you doing (says it clearly)

what we doing (says it clearly)

what's that (wha dat)

juice (joos)

woof (fine it is a sound, but he does it on command) (wuf)

vroom (another sound but whatever)

wham (wam)

water (wah wa)

hot (growl the word hot like haawwttt)

done (clearly)

Pablo (pahlo)

Mamamamama (clearly)

Dad! (loud and clear)

Daddy (dah-deeeeeeee)

dadadadada

Mom (Mum - drag the u out as long as you can)

gum (clearly) 

bum (clearly)

boobs (bubz)

ball (bah)

Baba (clearly, my god my granny will have a heart attack when she hears this one this week)

He also has one swear down pat (and very, very clear), but Dad! doesn't want me broadcasting our sailor talk to the world..... 

I just love hearing little people talk (when I say Little People I do not mean "those who get their own show on TLC and a DUI but have released a book like this) and each day I try a few new words out with Rito. Each day I am more and more amazed at how fast he picks it all up. Sure he is not doing long division like some peoples children :) but it is nice to get some verbal communication happening.

Speaking of up, my little monkey is waking up from his 3 hour nap right now (woot woot!)....... 

F*cktards

Dad! and I were doing some "research" today and ran across a lit of information. Below I have a list of email addresses and Websites, maybe you can tell me what they all have in common?

Healthyincome@consultant.com (you know this asshat is going to put you on his spam mail list)

votedavedowling@hotmail.com (a hotmail account for a man looking for votes? come on now....)

Khal4mayor071@aol.com (hi there, what year were you born in? mmm 1971 maybe? or was Khal4mayor07 already taken?)

don@donkoziak.ca (nothing to say here)

georgeL7@Telus.net (hi George, come up with something better next time, like what is the L7 about?)

peterformayor@canadianredneck.ca (Peter here wants to be mayor but he is a Canadian redneck.... nothing like a banjo-playing cat-shooting hillbilly running for office)
canadianredneck.ca (Peterformayor's website - loves being a redneck)

CHE9@Hotmail.com (who is this, and another hotmail account? Puhleeze get a real email address, it looks more professional)
nakedcybercafe.com (would you want your Mayor to have a website called NakedCyberCafe? Good grief! Soon the capital city clean up will be clothing optional)

smandel@re-electmandel.com (we get it you are already elected once, and looking at this list of fucktards you will be again)

christisking@shaw.ca (maybe this guy is named Chris Tisking? or are we having a problem with the separation of church and state here?)
www.freenorthamerica.com (This is "christisking"'s webpage)

These guys, all 8 of them are running for Mayor of my city. Frankly it is embarrassing that we have 2 viable candidates running for Mayor in an area approaching a million people. How dare these other 6 morons even put some of this crap out there?

Onslaught

I got this link from Carbon, and I think it is worth watching. That and I work this week so I am too pooped for a for real blog post right this second. 

How many times have you bought into the notion that some cream will fade your red cheeks, or hide the dimples in your thighs?  How many times have you wished that the "magic" diet pill on TV worked, or you have actually tried it realizing it only makes your pee smell funny (like asparagus) and turn bright orange? How many times have you thought that if you only had $5,000- $10,000 to spare you would be happy because your love handles would be gone?

I love make-up and beauty products, but really the whole beauty industry is bullshit. 

Way to go Dove. I love the real beauty campaigns.  BUT you still need to remember that this is still a campaign ADVERTISING their product, no matter how benign they like to make their product sound.

Maybe I should just build an ark. (Long Post.)

When I was a little girl, all I really ever wanted was a cat or a dog. I think because of my love for all things furry or slimy or in a shell I was just a magnet for anything near death, abused, neglected or lost. Almost every week when I was a child there was a new animal in the house waiting to find it's rightful owners again (and the odd squirrel or gopher - one of which bit me and I still have the scar). Since I was not allowed to have pets for many unreasonable reasons (allergies, too much work, too small a home or my father being traumatized by the asshole that killed the cat) I was more then happy to take care of them for short periods of time. I would even take animal that I watched hit by cars to the vet, knowing that they would die (since there eyes were out of their heads) but wanting them to be held one more time before they died. 

I loved having these animals for the small amount of time they were with me (even giving most of them names: Bear, Bernie, Puppy and Red) and some are still very strong in my mind as favorites. Often I would spend hours grooming a matted Cocker Spaniel (Red), getting a stubborn and aggressive Saint Bernard (Bernie) to walk on a leash and eat from my hand and cuddling a giant, unloved and under appreciated Samoyed (Puppy) in my little bed.

My parents never worried about me and these strange animals, for some reason I never had a problem getting them to come to me with a wagging tail, bathing them or getting them to sit for a good brushing. Once when I was a teenager,  someone put a dog in my car - I think because they knoew I would take care of it (Puppy the Samoyed). The animals were never assertive or aggressive around me and often were quite protective; maybe because they understood I was just a child trying to help them. In fact the rule was in our house:  I could go ahead and find their owners if I gave them a bath and brushed them out. Dad! and I even caught a salamander (George W) in our old apartment (4th floor how he got there, who knows?) but he died before we could help him.

Now, in our neighborhood there are a TON of dogs. In particular there is one very stubborn, smart and friendly Irish Wolfhound that insists on breaking out of his yard regularly. I have caught this dog MANY times and put him back in his yard, shut the gate and left a note for the owners on the door. This dog is the reason I carry a spare leash in my car with a dogbone. I feel that if BuddyLove ever broke out of our home I would want someone like me to catch her and take care of her until I got her back. So maybe my animal karma is a good thing right? (I may add that Dad is not happy when I catch stray dogs unless it is little Spice that lives up the road, so I only grab the dogs that I have caught before or act very submissive to me).

This week has been a busy one for catching dogs and amphibians. I caught the Wolfhound on Saturday when walking Rito and BuddyLove; this time I didn't need a leash, he walked beside me to his house. Then on Sunday I nearly hit a Chocolate Lab while on the way for groceries. I hopped out of my car to see the dog and he (his name is Finn) came to me wagging and rolled over for a belly rub - in the middle of the road. What a suck. I got another girl that was walking by with her Greyhound to walk him towards my house (with the lucky leash) since I couldn't put the strange dog in the car with Rito. Finn hung in the backyard with BuddyLove (after I called the owner and he confirmed Finn loves dogs I put mine out there - carefully with him) and played for a bit until his very grateful and crying owner came.  

Today, my Mom popped in for a visit and when she walked up our driveway she say something that looked like black frozen poo with legs. This thing was a frozen near death Salamander. We didn't know what it was at first since he was so curled up and black and wrinkled so I scooped him up in a bowl and brought him inside (LoudGranny and I couldn't let him die). I put HOT water in a lasagna pan, put a bowl in the water, washed  a rock from the garden in HOT water and put the rock in the bowl and then put the dead little guy in there. 

The good news is he warmed up fast and turned Black with green stripes quickly. After an hour I packaged him up and I went to the pet store and talked to the Lizard girl. 

So IggyPop (what I named him) is a Tiger Salamander (which I figured after googling native amphibians online), native to the area that has missed is burrowing season (which I also figured out online) and will die if released to the wild (duh). He can grow to be 13 inches long (normal is 8), he is currently 6 inches head to tail and is estimated to be 2 years old. He is quite friendly and interactive when he is not frozen.

The good news is that they make very friendly good pets and are easy to take care of. The babies are known as Water Puppies and are sold in may stores, but not here since they are native species and can not be sold. I had a choice to let him go in the ravine knowing he would likely die or keep him as a pet indefinitely. I initially chose to keep him as a pet. But, a few girls at the pet store really liked him and one already had some was pets and asked if I really wanted a lizard or if I just felt obligated to keep him, really I just felt obligated since I was in no way prepared for ever getting a lizard and the Mom in me couldn't release him and watch him die. So now he is going home to an established terrarium with a couple other Salamanders.

There we go. Now that I know more about them after reading online, I kinda wish I kept the little bugger. Easy to take care of, friendly non-biters, and quite interactive seems like a neat little animal to add to the family. Given where we live, I am sure I will someday catch more. 

Tampons Crafts, Just in Time for Halloween!

Next time the kids are bugging you saying "I'm bored" and "There is nothing to do" just go to your bathroom cabinet and whip out some lady-plugs and use this website to assemble some cute and sanitary crafts for the kids. 

If I ever see Rito coming home from preschool with a Tampon ghost, we are going to switch schools. Period. 

*****Found by reading comments on Avitable's Blog. 

What a day. Already.

My day started at 5:30am, how about you? 

Rito decided 5:30am was a fantastic time to start throwing a party in his crib. Usually if he does get up that early (he is crying most the time) you can coax him back to sleep for a couple hours with a warm glass of milk. Today? Not so much, he woke up in full on chatterbox jumping in the crib mode. I got up, warmed some milk and gave it to him and all I got in return was a not hungry and very much awake toddler. Finally around 7am he zonked out again until 8:15, so at least I got to have a shower before the day started for real. 

We had an appointment to go to the vet with BuddyLove for some shots and an examination. I was a little concerned about her teeth as the back teeth are gathering plaque very quickly even though we brush much more then most dog owners do, so we had her teeth looked at too. The Doctor said her dental problems are very genetic, and that there is not much we can really do to stop them, but there is a concern that her back teeth are taking such a beating before she is even 3 years old. Her front teeth are in beautiful shape but she has a touch of gingivitis which is to be expected with the issue with her back teeth.  Of course you can always get them cleaned, but it is best to put it off as long as possible, because once you start cleaning them you don't get to stop. 

So for now we are changing her food for a while to see if it helps. BuddyLove is on the best food (we feel) right now but it is not known for keeping a dogs teeth clean. So starting tonight I am phasing in the new food that is known to break down plaque. We have tried this once before but likely did not stick with it long enough, so to keep us on the program I bought a huge bag of dog food to last for hopefully 2 months.  As well, we are changing to a children's or adults size soft toothbrush (currently use a baby one) and continuing with the LebaLab Leba 3 treatments to help with knocking down the buildup. We also got a new bottle of shampoo (mmm Canadian Vet Medicated Shampoo, makes her smell SO nice) and ear cleaner. 

On the good side, she is doing a great job emptying her anal glands (yay! so I don't have to, it is such a gross, messy and stinky job) and has lost the couple pounds she had gained when Rito started feeding himself and throwing her food (she was over 27 pounds at one point now she is a slightly overweight 25.2pounds which is OK with the Doctor). I have worked hard the last week to slim her down because I was anticipating a lecture from the Vet about her chunk. The only thing worse then a Vet complaining about you fat dog is your own Doctor complaining about your fat.

On the way home we (Rito and I) stopped at Taco Del Mar and shared a chicken taco with rice and beans. Rito loved the rice and beans. I never knew that until today, so he will be getting rice and beans more often. 

When we got home, Rito tripped on the garage stairs but seemed fine and kept going with no complaints. So, imagine my surprise when I saw BLOOD all over my linoleum. Little peanut cracked his lip a bit, but it seems fine now. Just shocked Mamamama (bonus though, he was really cuddly for an hour while we watched a little Finding Nemo and ate a snack and he is NEVER cuddly) to see her child's blood on the floor, and a lot of it too. I guess it always looks worse then it is.

Later, when I was peeing he went to his room and found his Bath and BodyWorks Rootbeer kids lotion and squirted it on his pillow. At least it smells great in there now. Oy.

Now Rito is napping and I have finished cleaning the basement so that the playroom can be moved down there once the painter gets his royal ass to my house and paints the room. I can not wait to reclaim a little of our main floor from the evil triad of Fisher Price, Little Tykes and Leap Frog. 

Maybe this afternoon we will go to a fish store and look at fish. Rito just loves them when we go to the mall, and I think he would get a kick out of them at the fish store. Maybe when he is a bit bigger we will get him a fish for his room. You know, like at that age where he doesn't try to drink from the fishbowl or eat the fish?