K-I-S-S-I-N-G

We're back from Florida! My sister is married, we met The Mazurs, Thankgiving was Thursday, Owen was sick. I have a lot to cover!
I'm going to break the blog posts up a bit so as not to overwhelm with information! Also, I have to wait to post wedding pictures. All my pictures from the day suck and I didn't even get a good shot of my sister! In my defense, I was in the wedding.

I was more worried about how Owen would do on the plane on this trip than I have been about any other flight he's been on. He is after all, flirting with the terrible twos. That's a lie. He is in a full fledged relationship with the terrible twos. But more on that in another post...Luckily, Owen was a rockstar. I did have my secret weapon - a portable DVD player (fully charged this time) with an arsenal of Baby Einstein movies. That did the trick! My 2nd brilliant move was to stratigically seat myself in front of a baby who screamed for the duration of the flight. It's a dirty trick but Owen was the automatic winner! What's more is that after 2 years of ignoring Owen's whining, I was able to tune the other baby out!

For the week of the wedding, my mother and father rented a house in Flordia and we stayed with them. That was absolutely the way to go as far as accomodations. We had all the comforts of home (and more actually) and Owen had plenty of space to explore and roam. Haha! I'm a poet and don't know it!

Danielle, Keith and Peyton Mazur came to visit us right off the bat. It was so wonderful to finally meet them. I love meeting other families who are going through the same thing and to see other body types that are the same as my son's. The Mazurs were awesome! Definitely my kind of people. I'm look forward to seeing them the next time we are in Florida.
Peyton...I can't even talk about her without bursting with excitement. She is SOOOOO cute! Sweet, happy, loving, nice.
Owen and Peyton got along very well. There was quite a bit of smooching going on!

If we could read their minds...

Owen: Uuhh...hey there hot stuff. Are those comfort fit diapers you're wearing?
Peyton: Ruuuude! That's none of your business! Owen: I'm sorry. I just was just trying to start a conversation. You're so pretty
Peyton: Awwww! That's OK. I think your cute too.
Owen: So...you wanna watch a Baby Einstein video with me sometime?
Peyton: Sure! But only if I can bring the apple juice.
Owen: I think I love you!
Ok - maybe could have done without the comments, but that's how I heard it in my head!

Here's a few more pictures.

Things that annoy me

I seem to be in a bad mood today so I feel the need to channel it. Here is a list of things that annoy me.

In no particular order

1. Businesses that change the spelling of words - Kwikee-mart, Sav Moor, Karl's Kar Wash. Uummm, don't patronize me with the wrong spelling of a name. I feel stupid signing a check for Kathy's Kute Kountry Kwilt Store or whatever...not that I quilt or anything.....

2. Customer hotlines that never take you to an actual person. "Press 1 to hear your account balance, 2 to make a payment, 3 to change your service,.....79 to have us come to your house and hit you over the head with a hammer..... Are we, the customer, such a nuisance to that businesses can't even speak to us in person?

3. The McDonald's Southern Chicken sandwich. What the hell? It's a stupid chicken breast with pickles! What's with all the advertising?

4. These new bands with stupid names like - Panic at the Disco and Gym Class Heroes. I'm still trying to figure out what a Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is (yes, that's an actual band name). What ever happened to classic band names like Wham! or Flock or Seagulls? Hmmm, ok, bad examples. Mr. Mister? Jethro Tull? ABBA? Damnit!

Found this link. Hilarious. Band Name Generator

5. Chris Berman. Now that we are deep into Football season,I have to listen to Chris Berman "Whoop!" and pun his way through Sports Center every week. Why does a grown man purposely make those noises?

6. Skinny jeans. I tried on my first pair the other day and realized that the trick to looking good in skinny jeans is actually being skinny.

7. AIG, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wall Street in general. The fact that the executives from these companies receive billions upon billions of dollars of OUR tax money and still have the balls to attend luxury spas and conferences makes me sick. Did you know that it is estimated that 6.7 BILLION dollars will still go towards year end bonuses for the executives of these companies? For what?!?! Good job on running your company into the ground - here's $600,00.

8. NPR. Not so much for it's content, but for the radio personalities voices. Someone over there must puposely make everyone talk in a low, bass-y, calm voice. Reminds me of the Saturday Night Live's NPR girls. Make sure you watch it for a laugh.

9. Email forwards that aren't funny. One of the funniest forwards I ever got was a link to this website: Crappy Children's Art. Warning: Lot's of swear words and will be offensive to people who truly think their kids art is genius.

10. Poor Hospitality. It's an epidemic. Everywhere I go, I get crappy service. Retail workers are always on the defensive. The 16 year old EMO kid McDonalds just hired could care less if I asked for no onion on my burger. It's almost too frustrating to think about. Maybe it's just me....

How big of a bummer am I today?

Catching up with Oboe Part One: Outsourcing Parenting Duties

I know, I know. Once again, I've been conspiciously absent from the blogging world. No good excuse other than just being very, very busy. Hmmm...I suppose I should tell everyone how Owen is doing, but to tell you the truth, I don't really know!

With the official Pistons season kicking off at the beginning of the month (anyone hear about that AI trade?), Dan and I have been working A LOT!. As a result, we've had to outsource our parenting duties.

Thank God he loves daycare! I mean he LOVES daycare. He is getting to the point where he won't even say goodbye to us. He leaps out of my arms and runs downstairs to the other kids before I can even get a kiss. (Insert sad face here) Belive me though, I would rather have him run away from me with joy than cling to me crying. I would be a guilty wreck if I had to deal with that everyday.

We take him to an in-home daycare (Gennie's Little Tykes) and if I told you how wonderful this place is, you wouldn't believe me. He comes home at least once a week with art projects. I get a report card everyday of all the days activities including a down to the minute detail of all diaper changes (3 BM's yesterday at 12:59, 3:06 & 3:53 pm in case anyone is interested). The best part is that I can just tell that Gennie and the rest of the kids genuinely enjoy having him. When we drop him off, the kids run screaming to the door "Oboe!!! Oboe!!".
Oboe, somehow became his nickname at daycare. Even Dan and I call him Oboe sometimes. I suppose he could be called worse than a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. He could be nicknamed something terrible like "pea-brain" or "Shit-sandwich". That would not be good.

Owen's other parents are my mom and dad. They live 5 minutes down the road from me which would have been a horrifiying situation when I was 18. Now, however, it is an absolute life saver. It's nice having my mommy & daddy right down the road. Without my parents help, we wouldn't be able to work where we do and we couldn't even think about having a life!
Babysitters are expensive now!! I suppose it's justified. I am leaving my childs life in the hands of a teenager. I would be a little suspicious of a bargain basement babysitter. Our babysitter is WAY better than I ever was. She has taken classes at the Red Cross and made flyers to promote her services. She plays outside with Owen & takes him on walks. Holy Cow! When I was a babysitter, I used to turn on a video as soon as the parents left, plunk the kid down in front of it and will him to fall asleep early. I was not the best babysitter in the world. Anyway, Dan keeps saying we should just adopt an 18 year old girl to watch Owen. I think he's kidding. I hope. Pervert.

Back to my parents....

They of course love Owen and love having him. For Owen, the feeling is mutual. He loves being over there (even more than being home actually). I love the fact that my parents house will be come like a second home to him (hell, the way we've been working, maybe even a first home). It's a little bit sentimental for me to think that the house I grew up in will feel like a safe place for him too. Sniff, sniff ~tear~. Owen absolutely lights up when he sees my parents. It's like an "Oh boy! Here comes the fun!" type of look.

We are very, very, very lucky to have all the help we do. Dan's mom and day are always willing to watch Owen at a moment's notice. They live about 1 hour away so we don't get to see them as often as we would like. But Owen defintely loves it when we do.

So maybe someday we will be able to take care of our child on our own but not now. God, can you believe we are thinking about having another one?

PICTURES!
My baby sister's bachelorette party was a few weekends ago in Tampa. Here are the only pictures I can show you!

I bought Anne a tiara that said "Bachelorette". It was totally cheesy but Anne loved it! She but it the night before her party and didn't take it off until....well, I'm not sure she's taken it off yet. The last pictures I saw of her were on Halloween and she was still wearing it! Me, Anne and her best friend Bre Anne was the life of the party wherever we went. She tried her hand at lead vocalist for the band.

Our Little Halloweenie