You know you're looking forward to going back to work when a trip to the dentist makes you happy for the "me time". I had a dentist appointment on Monday. I don't mind the dentist - at 32 years old, I had never had a cavity, so I really have very little interaction with my dentist. I spend most of my time with the dental hygienist, who cleans my teeth every 9 months and lectures me about the importance of flossing. (Foreshadowing!)
But this time, they took some x-rays, and lo and behold, a cavity. My first one. And it's between my teeth - somewhere that could have been prevented by flossing. So I got to go back today and have it filled. You know what? The way the boys have been this week (little one having sleep issues, big one having iron ears and pushing issues), I think that I will look back on it as the highlight of my week. I got to relax in the chair, with my thoughts to myself, for 50 minutes. It was more pleasant than the scraping/cleaning, because I was numb. I felt nothing but some slight pressure, and even the whine of the drill is not all that bad. Worst part? The smell. Dental stuff smells yucky.
Having said that, I will definitely be picking up the flossing in the future. Because hey, in less than 2 months I'll be back to work, and get to have "me time" without the downside of speaking like Chretien all afternoon.
(Also, I have good dental coverage through work, so all this was free, which is why I can be so blase about it.)
Showing posts with label i am weird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i am weird. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 07, 2009
The Big Five-Oh!
With this one little post, my 2009 blog output is now equal to the sum of all previous years. That's right, this English major can do the math!
On a completely unrelated note, I updated my Facebook status (I know, but seriously, I go back to work in two months. I need Twitter like I need another Y chromosome in my house) to read "Cari has too much surplus". Not only my favourite line from Disney's Cars movie, but an accurate reflection of how I feel whenever I look in our spare room closet, or the basement. We have too much! Period. But thankfully, some baby clothes and other assorted baby-oriented items will be distributed among some pregnant friends, and various other odds and ends will be Kijiji'd. Either that or we'll be having a garage sale sometime this summer.
(Also, I know not everyone has seen Cars, but I'm pretty sure the line stands on its own, decontextualized. But a few people are asking me what I have too much of....is the definition of "surplus" not common knowledge? Personally, I laugh every time I hear that line; but then again, I also laughed at "I have a big head, and little arms".)
On a completely unrelated note, I updated my Facebook status (I know, but seriously, I go back to work in two months. I need Twitter like I need another Y chromosome in my house) to read "Cari has too much surplus". Not only my favourite line from Disney's Cars movie, but an accurate reflection of how I feel whenever I look in our spare room closet, or the basement. We have too much! Period. But thankfully, some baby clothes and other assorted baby-oriented items will be distributed among some pregnant friends, and various other odds and ends will be Kijiji'd. Either that or we'll be having a garage sale sometime this summer.
(Also, I know not everyone has seen Cars, but I'm pretty sure the line stands on its own, decontextualized. But a few people are asking me what I have too much of....is the definition of "surplus" not common knowledge? Personally, I laugh every time I hear that line; but then again, I also laughed at "I have a big head, and little arms".)
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Taller Than Your Mama!
I was thinking the other evening, as I hung upside-down over Jake's crib, arms around him, giving him kisses and shushing him to sleep, how do the short moms do it? When Jake (and Owen too, back in the crib days) needs comforting at night and not to eat, I don't like to take him out of the crib. If I get up on my tip-toes, I can bend at the waist right over the crib front and snuggle him. I get a bit of a head rush when I stand back up, but he knows mommy isn't pulling him out of the crib, so it's time for sleep. I also don't have the issue of "baby fell asleep in my arms, but wakes up when I put him down". So there you go - using my height to my mommy-advantage!
(Our crib converts to a double bed frame, so I don't have the drop-down option on the front.)
Heh, my height and more specifically my long legs also work to my advantage the odd time I am putting him down all ready asleep, but forgot to pull the blanket back fully when I last got him up. I stand on one foot, kick my other leg up and over into the crib, and pull the blanket aside with my toes. All while holding the sleeping baby! I never thought of this as an accomplishment until Steve saw me do it the other day. He was mighty impressed, so I just thought I'd share.
(Our crib converts to a double bed frame, so I don't have the drop-down option on the front.)
Heh, my height and more specifically my long legs also work to my advantage the odd time I am putting him down all ready asleep, but forgot to pull the blanket back fully when I last got him up. I stand on one foot, kick my other leg up and over into the crib, and pull the blanket aside with my toes. All while holding the sleeping baby! I never thought of this as an accomplishment until Steve saw me do it the other day. He was mighty impressed, so I just thought I'd share.
Monday, February 02, 2009
So there was this big sporting event on last night...
Best part of last night's Superbowl Halftime show?
Clarence plays a mean sax, but I've got a fever, and the only prescription is... MORE COWBELL!
'Nough said.
Clarence plays a mean sax, but I've got a fever, and the only prescription is... MORE COWBELL!
'Nough said.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Friday's List of Ten III
Ten things I have fixed with the superglue I paid $0.88 for just before Christmas:
10. Christmas ornament (big surprise!)
9. Peter Sam's funnel (One of Owen's engines).
8. The dial on the Crock Pot.
7. The nobbly-thing on the teapot lid that keeps the lid from falling off the pot when you pour tea. (Broke when the teapot leapt, kamikaze-style, from the cupboard one afternoon during that week of really cold weather. I think it had had all the boiling water it could take. I caught the pot, but the lid landed on the tiles.) (Also, does this nobby thing have a name?)
6. The barrel car. (Another one of Owen's train accessories).
5. Mater's tow cables. (Owen's hotwheels-sized Mater is diecast, but the tow rigging is plastic. After having it pop off several times, glue to the rescue!)
4. The lid (down) on Jake's piano. (Seriously, this toy needs a handle! The lid is just pegged on, and Owen lifts it off every time he goes to move it.)
3. A birthday card. (This wasn't "fix" so much as "make", but my gluestick was dried up!)
2. Wooden picture frame (that had cracked from the dryness of our old house).
1. Owen's @#$%! plastic train track. (Okay, I haven't done this yet, but as soon as I get a scrap piece of plywood, I will be. Who buys a two-year old a snap-together plastic engine rollercoaster that unsnaps if you look at it wrong?? I'm gluing the whole thing together, and then to the piece of wood.)
Because superglue is all about peace of mind. :) (Heh, at first I typed "of ming". Funny, because you know, Ming.)
Monday, January 19, 2009
We're on the move! (Nearly)
Backflips, Tick-Tock Clock, Scooting and the Crowd Dive: these are currently Jake's patented moves. At six months old, my clever little lad has all ready mastered rudimentary geometry and knows that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Therefore, if something interesting (or potentially interesting, read: remotely involving Owen) is going on behind him, rather than tediously turning his head in a circle, Jake will throw himself backwards to look at upside down. Awkward when he's in your arms, mildly alarming when he's in the Bumbo, and hilarious when he's sitting up on his own. We're convinced it's only a matter of time before he executes a true backflip.
Tick-Tock Clock has been happening for some time. Put Jake down on his back, with his head at 12 o'clock, and it will definitely not still be 12 o'clock when you come back. Although he's a geometry genius, he has no awareness of the 24 hour clock, so I'm unable to keep track of his rotations. But I'm sure he's zoomed right through noon/midnight a few times.
Scooting is a little more self-explanatory. Put Jake down on his front, and he'll try his hardest to get up on all fours. He'll do a little Superman - arms and legs all in the air, looks a little like he's swimming. He'll get his bum up, but without arm support (picture yoga's Downward Dog, but on his face, instead of his hands). He'll also push way, way up on his arms, grinning at all and sundry (yoga Cobra). The various combinations of these moves serve to push him backwards. Owen moved backwards right before he finally figured out how to go frontwards, so we're pretty sure that's Jake's next step too. Only time will tell if he'll pick up Owen's trick of crawling on all fours on the carpet, and two hands, one knee, and one foot (for improved traction!) on the ceramic and hardwood.
Finally, the Crowd Dive. Jake loves to sit on the couch, and Owen loves to have him sit next to him. They're quite cute. But demonstrating again that whole shortest-distance-between-two-points understanding, Jake will often see something of interest on the floor, or on the ottoman, or on the other couch, and dive for it. Like a performer diving off the stage trusts his loyal fans to catch him and bear him up, he blindly trusts that either his dad or I am close enough to grab him. (He's also tried this from our laps - you have to be quick with this kid!) Geometry he's got. Physics and the laws of gravity we're working on.
On a completely unrelated note: for anyone out there who may have left their health-friendly stainless-steel waterbottle out in their Jeep during this recent spate of cold weather, causing it to freeze solid, and popping the concave bottom out into a convex, no-longer-capable-of-holding-the-bottle-in-an-upright position, you will be relieved to know that yes, it will go back to normal if you just thaw it out, and bash on the bottom a bit with a hammer. Just in case you were wondering.
Tick-Tock Clock has been happening for some time. Put Jake down on his back, with his head at 12 o'clock, and it will definitely not still be 12 o'clock when you come back. Although he's a geometry genius, he has no awareness of the 24 hour clock, so I'm unable to keep track of his rotations. But I'm sure he's zoomed right through noon/midnight a few times.
Scooting is a little more self-explanatory. Put Jake down on his front, and he'll try his hardest to get up on all fours. He'll do a little Superman - arms and legs all in the air, looks a little like he's swimming. He'll get his bum up, but without arm support (picture yoga's Downward Dog, but on his face, instead of his hands). He'll also push way, way up on his arms, grinning at all and sundry (yoga Cobra). The various combinations of these moves serve to push him backwards. Owen moved backwards right before he finally figured out how to go frontwards, so we're pretty sure that's Jake's next step too. Only time will tell if he'll pick up Owen's trick of crawling on all fours on the carpet, and two hands, one knee, and one foot (for improved traction!) on the ceramic and hardwood.
Finally, the Crowd Dive. Jake loves to sit on the couch, and Owen loves to have him sit next to him. They're quite cute. But demonstrating again that whole shortest-distance-between-two-points understanding, Jake will often see something of interest on the floor, or on the ottoman, or on the other couch, and dive for it. Like a performer diving off the stage trusts his loyal fans to catch him and bear him up, he blindly trusts that either his dad or I am close enough to grab him. (He's also tried this from our laps - you have to be quick with this kid!) Geometry he's got. Physics and the laws of gravity we're working on.
On a completely unrelated note: for anyone out there who may have left their health-friendly stainless-steel waterbottle out in their Jeep during this recent spate of cold weather, causing it to freeze solid, and popping the concave bottom out into a convex, no-longer-capable-of-holding-the-bottle-in-an-upright position, you will be relieved to know that yes, it will go back to normal if you just thaw it out, and bash on the bottom a bit with a hammer. Just in case you were wondering.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I love my mittens!
It is very cold today. Freeze your @$$ off cold! So cold that I made Owen wear his snowpants to the babysitters, even though I know they won't be going out to play today. (We usually just bring them along, as I don't usually go in for that early-morning wrestling if I don't have to. All together now: "No want to wear my snowpants, Mommy! No THANK YOU!")
And poor Jake was bundled in his snowsuit, which is too short, but thankfully has feet flaps that allow him to still wear it, with his feet and ankles sticking out. (Which I then wrap in warm, fleecy booties and a blanky. We should all be so comfy!) Cold, cold, cold. And of course, I too bundled up, with warm coat, warm hat, warm and toasty (but a pain to lace up!) boots (which I wear, because there is absolutely no chance of me slipping in a parking lot while carrying the boy/s. Seriously, my boots are made by Caterpillar. Hey, if it's good enough for landfill equipment, it's good enough for me!) and finally, my snuggy mittens.
Originally, these mittens were a stocking stuffer for Steve a few Christmases back, but he never really got into wearing them, so I've reclaimed them. They're the style where they're kind of like gloves with the fingers cut off, and then mitten flaps that cover the tips of your fingers. If you need to, you throw the flaps back and you have the ability to do all the necessary things you do with fingers, but your hands stay warm! I have perfected the "mitt flick" that enables me to not only free my fingers from the flap (say THAT 10 times fast!) but also catch the flap on the handy velcro catch that keeps the flap out of my way.
I can buckle the kids into the car without taking off my mittens. I can push the buttons on the drive thru bank machine without taking off my mittens. I can pay-at-the-pump without taking off my mittens. I can pay for my Timmy's medium-coffee-with-milk with dimes and nickels without taking off my mittens. I can pretty much do anything without taking off my mittens!
....Unless that thing requires the use of my thumb. Then I have to take off the mittens, because alas, there is no thumb flap. While I still can use my thumb, my dexterity is limited. I'm amazed at how many things I do clumsily because I essentially have no "feeling" in my thumb while it's covered by the mitten. It's enough to make a girl thankful that she has opposable thumbs at all. :) My mittens: keeping my hands warm, AND making me stop and appreciate my higher-order functions! Love 'em!
And poor Jake was bundled in his snowsuit, which is too short, but thankfully has feet flaps that allow him to still wear it, with his feet and ankles sticking out. (Which I then wrap in warm, fleecy booties and a blanky. We should all be so comfy!) Cold, cold, cold. And of course, I too bundled up, with warm coat, warm hat, warm and toasty (but a pain to lace up!) boots (which I wear, because there is absolutely no chance of me slipping in a parking lot while carrying the boy/s. Seriously, my boots are made by Caterpillar. Hey, if it's good enough for landfill equipment, it's good enough for me!) and finally, my snuggy mittens.
Originally, these mittens were a stocking stuffer for Steve a few Christmases back, but he never really got into wearing them, so I've reclaimed them. They're the style where they're kind of like gloves with the fingers cut off, and then mitten flaps that cover the tips of your fingers. If you need to, you throw the flaps back and you have the ability to do all the necessary things you do with fingers, but your hands stay warm! I have perfected the "mitt flick" that enables me to not only free my fingers from the flap (say THAT 10 times fast!) but also catch the flap on the handy velcro catch that keeps the flap out of my way.
I can buckle the kids into the car without taking off my mittens. I can push the buttons on the drive thru bank machine without taking off my mittens. I can pay-at-the-pump without taking off my mittens. I can pay for my Timmy's medium-coffee-with-milk with dimes and nickels without taking off my mittens. I can pretty much do anything without taking off my mittens!
....Unless that thing requires the use of my thumb. Then I have to take off the mittens, because alas, there is no thumb flap. While I still can use my thumb, my dexterity is limited. I'm amazed at how many things I do clumsily because I essentially have no "feeling" in my thumb while it's covered by the mitten. It's enough to make a girl thankful that she has opposable thumbs at all. :) My mittens: keeping my hands warm, AND making me stop and appreciate my higher-order functions! Love 'em!
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Wait a minute...
Of course with the new year comes New Year's Resolutions. I resolved to be more regular with my running - to that end, Jake and I now have a regular date at the indoor track on Thursdays (we run outdoors on Tuesdays, but indoors I have a chance to do sprints without worrying about falling, and stairs as well). We brought the Jeep in for some maintenance, and while they worked on it, Jake and I took the bus downtown.
(Quick aside: well done to Grand River Transit! Buses are so much nicer than they were back when I was a regular rider! They're all wheelchair accessible, so I just wheeled Jake right on in the stroller, and then parked him in one of the wheelchair sections where the seats fold away. I wasn't sure which stop I wanted, since I was just headed downtown and walking the rest of the way (that way I could get the iExpress immediately, without having to wait for a more direct bus). The driver was very helpful, and I would actually consider taking the bus again. I think Owen would like it too!)
Anyway, we went to the track and did our thing. Jake was his usual adorable self, and was much admired by everyone he aimed his gummy grin at. When we were headed out, a lady stopped to chat with Jake. (It happens all the time - he's such a flirt!) She told me it was so great that I took the time to involve my baby in my workout, and that he obviously loved it. Then she mentioned seeing a program the other day, all about celebrity moms. She went on to say what a shame it is how they make it look so easy to get back into shape right away after having a baby, and to not let all that pressure get to me. I smiled, and then we were on our way.
As I was walking back to the bus stop, I started to think, and I was like, wait a minute! I know she probably meant it kindly, but come on! Obviously, if I shouldn't let the pressure to look like a celebrity mom get to me, I am failing miserably in my goal to look like a celebu-mom! I mean, I know I don't look like a celebrity mom, even 6 months after having Jake. But other people should not be commenting on this, no matter how round about a manner they use to do so. So then I was laughing to myself as I pushed Jake along, causing other people to look at me and no doubt think that it was also good that I was not letting the pressure to appear sane in public get to me.
Also, on a completely unrelated note, something I just noticed while folding laundry this evening: my ratio of t-shirts-I-have-paid-for to t-shirts-I-have-gotten-for-free is way out of whack! Um, I'm not a klepto. But I do have a couple of Mother/Daughter Walk for Heart and Stroke shirts, four shirts from races I've run in, at least three from the Children's Groundwater Festival (I used to be on the board), plus odd shirts from work (Waste Management! The Toilet Replacement Program!) and various gyms (GoodLife, and 360 Fitness - which reminds me, I have to still get in touch with my friend about the pass I won in his charity auction.) Obviously, I need to go shopping. I need to stock up on shirts that allow me to express myself in the uniquly individual manner possible only when wearing a shirt with a clever slogan that one hundred other people are also sporting. Hee.
(Quick aside: well done to Grand River Transit! Buses are so much nicer than they were back when I was a regular rider! They're all wheelchair accessible, so I just wheeled Jake right on in the stroller, and then parked him in one of the wheelchair sections where the seats fold away. I wasn't sure which stop I wanted, since I was just headed downtown and walking the rest of the way (that way I could get the iExpress immediately, without having to wait for a more direct bus). The driver was very helpful, and I would actually consider taking the bus again. I think Owen would like it too!)
Anyway, we went to the track and did our thing. Jake was his usual adorable self, and was much admired by everyone he aimed his gummy grin at. When we were headed out, a lady stopped to chat with Jake. (It happens all the time - he's such a flirt!) She told me it was so great that I took the time to involve my baby in my workout, and that he obviously loved it. Then she mentioned seeing a program the other day, all about celebrity moms. She went on to say what a shame it is how they make it look so easy to get back into shape right away after having a baby, and to not let all that pressure get to me. I smiled, and then we were on our way.
As I was walking back to the bus stop, I started to think, and I was like, wait a minute! I know she probably meant it kindly, but come on! Obviously, if I shouldn't let the pressure to look like a celebrity mom get to me, I am failing miserably in my goal to look like a celebu-mom! I mean, I know I don't look like a celebrity mom, even 6 months after having Jake. But other people should not be commenting on this, no matter how round about a manner they use to do so. So then I was laughing to myself as I pushed Jake along, causing other people to look at me and no doubt think that it was also good that I was not letting the pressure to appear sane in public get to me.
Also, on a completely unrelated note, something I just noticed while folding laundry this evening: my ratio of t-shirts-I-have-paid-for to t-shirts-I-have-gotten-for-free is way out of whack! Um, I'm not a klepto. But I do have a couple of Mother/Daughter Walk for Heart and Stroke shirts, four shirts from races I've run in, at least three from the Children's Groundwater Festival (I used to be on the board), plus odd shirts from work (Waste Management! The Toilet Replacement Program!) and various gyms (GoodLife, and 360 Fitness - which reminds me, I have to still get in touch with my friend about the pass I won in his charity auction.) Obviously, I need to go shopping. I need to stock up on shirts that allow me to express myself in the uniquly individual manner possible only when wearing a shirt with a clever slogan that one hundred other people are also sporting. Hee.
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