In transition

Maybe it’s just the summer sloth setting in or it could be that writing for Home Ec 101 and Lowcountry Blogs is sapping most of my energy.

It also could be that we haven’t done much of interest over the past few weeks.  There is only so much I can write about the rug monkeys without feeling as though I, too, will keel over with boredom.

I want to know who decided it would be a good idea to let Mark try coffee?  I don’t know who gave him his first sip, but now each morning I have the treat of ear rupturing shrieks for “COPPEE!!”  until I relent and let him have a sip. It’s not sweet, it’s just your basic coffee with milk.

I’m on a mission to break this waking at the crack of dawn habit they’ve developed.  We slipped up a few weeks ago and let bedtime slide a little late a few nights in a row.  Since then, 5:30 rolls around and their eyes pop open.  I’m usually awake, but that is my writing time and having a toddler climbing on your head, shrieking “COPPEE!” isn’t exactly conducive to creativity.  I’m moving bedtime earlier by 15 minutes each night and reducing naptimes until we fix the problem.

Baby countdown: 7 or 8 weeks if my track record holds true.

Highlight for today:  We’re going swimming

House update: We’re considering cork flooring for the master bedroom.  Has anyone tried it?  It installs like hardwood, but may be more environmentally friendly.

I’m very sad that Brittney resigned from NiT, although I can understand why it would wear on her.

I’ll be 30 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  Strange to think that there will soon be another person in our house.

Some have said I look 18 in this picture.  I don’t see it, but I will certainly take looking young over being young.

My stepdaughter will be here in a little over a week.  This will be fun, hormonal step-mom plus pre-teen hormones.  How long before someone cries?  Maybe we should set up a pool.

It’s hot.  No, really hot.

Something ate my dove’s eggs.  For the past couple weeks I’ve had a dove nesting on my back porch.  This morning I went to check on her and everything was gone.  Such is nature, I guess.

Aidan is reading, but won’t let us in on what he knows.  If we ask him to demonstrate he clams up and acts weird.  Randomly though, he’ll shout out words either from the page I’m looking at, a sign, or he’ll spell something. He’s also in this interesting stage of figuring out what every word starts with.  His writing and drawing is improving in leaps and bounds.  He’s gone from not wanting to do anything to writing letters and numbers.  His goal seems to be learning to write our phone number.  Thankfully it’ll be a long, long time before he visits any public restrooms alone.  He’ll be four in September.

Mark, well, Mark is well on his way to being two.  He’s perfected the tantrum but balances it out with episodes of pure sweetness and light.  Occasionally he belts out a perfectly articulated sentence and then won’t say another word for a day or so.

It’s a strange house in which we live.

I have a friend whose domain, previously held by her site administrator was recently purchased just before she went to renew.  Using whois.net we are able to see it is held by a company called enom.   Is there any way to find further information on the party holding the name? My gut says it’s the former administrator, but I could be wrong.

I am so sick of the new moms “can’t get a shower” whining.

Take the baby in the shower with you, if you think the rugmonkey can’t survive a 3 minute bootcamp style shower.

I became a master at showering one handed with my colicky son.  My husband worked 12-14 hour days and you do what you need to.  I could shampoo and condition without getting it in his eyes.  Drying off was the tricky part, but sometimes a couple extra towels were used as a makeshift pallet so I could throw on something clean. No, it’s not the same as a good scrub down and shave, but at least I wasn’t scaring the neighbors.

I don’t just want this.  I need it for the nerdling-to-be.
Not my kid, I found this randomly goofing around.

It’s a proven fact that hormones cause strange dreams.  I’ve been having crazy adventures each and every night.   Yesterday takes the cake though with running from part-time, Wisconsin, government zombies.  I wish I was making it up, but I only had to run from them until 6pm and then magically they were back to “normal.”

This makes me so very happy.

Dear Server,

I’m a ten year veteran of the industry and have a few tips.

1) Learn to put on a game face.  I don’t care how badly a party makes you cringe, do it on the inside or go back in the kitchen to express your disappointment.  I had called ahead and warned of the unconfirmed headcount.   Your venue doesn’t accept reservations, so be glad you were forewarned of our arrival.

2) Separate checks are not the end of the world, if the party is a cooperative group.  Learn to better gauge your customers before sulking.  Those of us who have put in our time would like to empathize, but find it hard when we see a grown man sulking.  Your restaurant operating system is cake to use and does the work for you.  It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who doesn’t have to do it by hand.

3)It was a Sunday night, be glad you got a group willing to imbibe.

4) Finally, when gratuity is added to a large party, it is only polite to make mention of it.  To not do so is borderline dishonest.

You may have merely had a rough night, but my advice to you is to learn to roll with the parties that land in your section.  You will win some and you will lose.  The tourist season is about to take off and if one party of 12 was disheartening, you have a long road ahead.

Today was one of those days where every time I turned around someone was creating a new mess. Mark dumped an entire, economy bag of cocoa puffs we’d purchase as a treat.  We don’t normally stock ready to eat cereal, and apparently Mark wanted it all at once.

My internet connection has been going in and out for the past week and driving me batty.  I’m hoping that issue is being resolved as I type.

I’m currently hiding from my family and sucking up free wi-fi at Atlanta Bread Company and eavesdropping on a man who seems to be conducting one of those work from home business “opportunity” seminars.  The odd part is, I recognized him and waved when he walked in, but he looked right through me.  I’ll see if he recognizes me next time I see him.

Very odd.

If I stay true to my track record, we’ll be meeting this little one in about 13 weeks.
Oh yeah, Margo, is it OK if I post your picture?