Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!



My brother brought his external hard drive with him to NJ, so I'm now the proud owner of over 30,000 songs. Most of them are what I consider "lost classics." I've listened to the Mallrats soundtrack about 20 times this past week.

Charlie has not been a good sleeper this week. I'm freaking exhausted.

I made Cheese Muffins for Charlie. I think I ended up eating more of them than he did.

One week from today I will have a 2-year-old. We're going to be in Rhode Island that day for a wedding that C is in. It's his childhood best friend, so we couldn't really not go, but it sucks that we're not going to be home to celebrate Charlie's birthday with him. I'm having major mom guilt about it.

Since we won't be home for his actual birthday, I'm baking treats for him to take to school next Wednesday. The practical side of me wants to do something healthy, like some nice muffins or even a fruit salad, but then I think WTF? Give him chocolate cupcakes! So I think that's what I'm going to do.

I tried to clean out Charlie's school-provided lunch box this week and didn't realize there were little holes in the seams. Now the whole thing has water inside the inner liner and it's starting to smell funny, so we're going to buy him a real lunchbox as part of his birthday present. I'm going to look for a Star Wars one. I only wish they were still made of metal and came with thermoses like the ones I used to have :(

Speaking of Star Wars, I wanted to buy Charlie a toy Light Saber for his birthday but I can't find any that are really toddler-appropriate. The one I wanted to get is taller than he is and might be better suited for next year or the year after. We've decided to get him one of those toddler-friendly remote controlled cars. We're going with the school bus version, since that's one of the many things he's currently obsessed with.

Week one of potty training is coming to a close. I feel like we've definitely made progress, however hampered it may have been by the fact that he's in diapers for most of the day. I'm hopeful that this weekend will really be a breakthrough.

Office Quote of the Week

Ah, Stanley. Not a huge talker, but everything he says is hilarious. It's like he's the Silent Bob of The Office. This quote was from the episode where Michael, Jim, and Karen go to New York to interview for the corporate position. Dwight is taking over Michael's job as branch manager, and is giving out "Shrute Bucks" as employee incentives. These two episodes were among my absolute favorite, mostly because Jim and Pam FINALLY get together at the end. I still swoon over the younger Jim. Sigh.

Dwight: Don’t you want to earn Shrute bucks?

Stanley: No. In fact, I’ll give you a billion Stanley nickels if you never talk to me again.

Dwight: What’s the ratio of Stanley nickels to Schrute bucks?

Stanley: Same as the ratio of unicorns to leprechauns.

Look! My Marriage is Still Intact!

I had my Trash the Dress photo shoot on Saturday. It was the perfect excuse to get the dress out and into the light of day for the first time in nearly five years. It was a ton of fun, especially getting into the giant fountain at Sawyer Point.

These two are my favorites. I think they capture the Jersey in me just perfectly :)

I got in the giant fountain at the park downtown. It was well over 90 degrees and that dress was heavy. Water never felt so good!

And look! My marriage is still intact!

I can't wait to see the rest of them. Big thanks to Jamie Reising Photography for letting me act as a model for the day :)

On a side note, I haven't blow-dried my hair in weeks because a ponytail gives me a few more minutes of sleep. I can't believe how long my hair has gotten! It's very fine, so when I wear it down it looks ok for about an hour and then ends up all stringy and weird-looking. I need to find a solution or get a haircut. Any ideas?

Things You Want Wednesday - Good Friends

No, not THOSE Good Friends! Scary box though, isn't it? (that one was for you, Angi!)

As we get older I think we tend to start underestimating the importance of friends. I know I have, anyway, especially as I've made big life transitions after high school: going to college, getting married, getting a real job, having a baby, all those things that take up so much mental and emotional energy and leave little room for other aspects of life.

I had forgotten how much fun I used to have with my BFFs in high school. The late night conversations that started off as silly thoughts, turned to serious conversations about the meaning of life and the obstacles in our paths, and eventually devolved into fits of giggles and snorting, the kind of laughing where you laugh so hard that no noise comes out and your sides start to hurt from the effort. I need more of that in my life. More people who bring out that side of me, the kind of friends that I can relate to, the kind that share my warped sense of humor and twisted way of looking at the world. And I'm very lucky to have found a few over the years.

Unfortunately, I've lost touch with most of them. I moved away, they moved away, we grew up and went in different directions.

I've found my way back to some of them. Haven't been so lucky with others. Girls can be really mean sometimes, that's for sure. Then there are the new people who have come into my life, friendships that I cherish dearly. Two of them are pretty much responsible for me deciding to take my new job :)

It's friends like these who make all the difference of the world. Of course I share everything with my husband - all of my hopes and dreams and skeletons in the closet, but sometimes you just need an outside perspective, preferably of the female variety. Someone who isn't family but feels like they could be. Someone to share inside jokes with. Someone who would drive hours from the top side of your state to come to your baby shower and camp out on your living room floor and eat cupcakes at midnight. Someone who will go with you on long road trips when your husband has too much going on to make the drive with you - I had SO MUCH fun with my friend in NJ, that it felt like being in high school all over again. Just without the bitchiness. OK, so maybe not completely without bitchiness, but at least it was a shared bitchiness :)

So that's what you want, more of these people in your life. It's good for the soul.

Potty Training Complication

Charlie ended up back in a diaper at daycare yesterday due to a big misunderstanding on my part. Apparently, "we'll start potty training him here when you start at home" means two weeks without accidents at home before they can go diaperless at school.

So now I'm kind of at a loss. There's no way that he's going to potty train while he's in a diaper. I know my kid, and I know that as long as that plastic/paper abomination is covering his butt he's going to take advantage of it. His daycare teacher suggested that we get him some pull-ups. I'm pretty opposed to the pull-up idea - though it might not be the popular opinion, I think they delay potty training as opposed to encouraging it. Come on, they were developed by DIAPER MANUFACTURERS. The average age of potty training in the land where KC and P&G reign supreme is already so much higher than in other industrialized countries, so why wouldn't they want to extend their reach?

I need to figure out another plan, especially since the massive skin irritation he has in his diaper area is starting to flare up again. I just don't know how this is going to work when he's in diapers at daycare and undies at home. I can't exactly take an entire week off work to sit in the house, but if it comes down to it I guess that's something to consider.

What am I missing?

Edit: They will help potty train within the context of pull-ups. They are able to do it more intensively in the next room up, but he won't be transitioning over there for another 4-6 months, and I don't really want to wait that long. We're really very happy with the center, but every once in a while there's something that really annoys me. I don't know if this is an issue that's unique to our center or just something that working moms have to deal with - having to compromise on our child-rearing plans.

Potty Training. Ehhhhhh.

So we went diaperless starting on Saturday. Charlie has been exhibiting a lot of the signs that they tell you to look for in order to tell if they're receptive to potty training. He has noticeable signs that he gives when he's in process. He has a fairly regular "going" schedule. He asks for a new diaper when he needs to be changed. I think I was also spoiled by the easy transitions that he's made so far, with the no pacifier, bottle-to-cup, breastmilk to cow's milk, Ferbering, big-kid-bed, etc.

We even let him pick out some super hero undies. I don't think he quite got the point, at first.

Anyway. Saturday was pretty rough. He would get very distracted and then pee on the floor when he was preoccupied with something else. No matter how closely we watched it was always in that split second when both of us were looking at something else. Actually, the "something else" was usually something that Charlie was doing, so maybe it was intentional distraction on his part. Yesterday started off a little shaky, because he didn't want to sit on the potty at all, which is very unusual for him. I'd like to say that we had some success, but I'm not convinced that it was all intentional on his part and that there wasn't some dumb luck mixed in there. That and the fact that he didn't have to poop all day. When I think about it, I'm not sure if he didn't have to or didn't want to.

So here we are on Monday. He's going to daycare with two pairs of undies and two extra pairs of pants. I don't know how patient they'll be with the situation, but I'm hoping they'll at least give him two chances. I'm most worried about what's going to happen when he gets too wrapped up in playing and forgets that he has to go. On the upside, he really seems to hate having wet undies, so maybe that will be a motivator.

I knew it was going to be difficult, but nothing prepares you for the joy that is being completely house-bound for an entire Sunday with nothing to do but keep watch over your child's elimination functions. You would think that it would be a BFD to them, too, since potty training means never crapping your pants again. What's not to like about that?

Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!



No matter how badly they want to try them, do not let your toddler taste the hot wings at Quaker Steak. Even if they're crying and whining and trying to grab them off your plate. Don't even let them lick the fork that has a tiny particle of sauce left on it. Trust me. Just don't.

I hate ironing. Seriously. I hate everything about it. I hate our iron, because the knob fell off a million years ago, and I hate our ironing board, because it's a million years old and creaks and sticks and the cover has broken elastic so it doesn't stay on and it's just a POS. I hate ironing pants, because they never come out right. The pockets on the front make the back look all liney, and when I iron the back the pockets on the back make the front look all liney. It's a vicious cycle. Then I hate putting the pants on hangers, because they never line up neatly. Are there any truly wrinkle-free pants out there?

I love when I get a surprise Yankee game on tv. Last night C was out of town and I was flipping through the program guide when I discovered that the Yankee game was being televised. Totally made my night, especially when Jeter hit an inside-the-park home run.

What else did I do last night? Drank a margarita, sampled a new Ben & Jerry's flavor, and read some of my high school diaries. A while back I cracked the cover on my ramblings from elementary school. Those were funny, but I knew that I would need some liquid courage before I could dive into the mind of high school Bean. Especially 14-year-old high school Bean. I chronicled an entire year of my life, writing almost daily. Ooooh, the things I did. I'd love to share the details, but that's a whole post of it's own. Maybe.

We're starting over on round 2 of P90X. The last two weeks were a total bust. Better to start over fresh than try to catch up.

It's hot out and I miss playing outside. I wish I was still back in Jersey, I could have used a few days on the shore.



Next time I go somewhere, remind me to schedule a vacation from my vacation. For real. I'm so glad it's Friday.

I'm doing my Trash the Dress photo shoot tomorrow! I'm super freaking excited about it. What else is the dress doing but sitting unwashed in my closet collecting dust and taking up space? In case you were worried, our marriage is just fine and dandy, thank you. Contrary to some people's beliefs, taking fun pictures in a garment that will never again see the light of day does not mean that I don't love my husband or want out of my marriage.

Potty training starts tonight! Bought C his first pack of superhero undies. Wish us luck!

Office Quote of the Week

Went with Darryl this week, after watching the Safety Training rerun the other night. Almost went with a classic Dwightism, but Darryl deserves some time in the spotlight.

You live a sweet, little, nerfy life. Sitting on your biscuit, never having to risk it.

Into the Fire

Charlie is all about the potty these days.



He always wants to sit on it. He's also been really good about telling us when he needs a new diaper, which is usually while he's in the process of filling one or shortly after the process has been completed. We think he might be potty trainable at this point, so we're going to try to go diaperless starting tomorrow night. I'm scared, but prepared with a layer of towels to cover the floor and plenty of clean, dry pants. We're going to Target tonight to pick up some big boy undies. I'm just not willing to go the pull-up route, knowing what I know from working in market research. I've also been inspired by my European-raised co-workers who had their kids potty trained by 18 months, because that's just how they do it over there. One of them is only a month older than Charlie. They don't have pull-ups in a lot of other countries, nor do they have diapers that fit babies over 25 pounds. Potty training is a necessity, and if they can do it, so can we. Why lean on products that companies have developed only to prolong the diaper-wearing years? P&G and Kimberly Clark have gotten plenty of $$, thank you very much.

My random-but-related thought of the day: What is with the "potty learning" people? Does it just make them feel better about themselves to use a different term than the rest of us?

NYC

One day is certainly not enough time to spend in the city. Especially not one day when it's 100+ degrees out and most of what you want to do requires walking. We started at Penn Station and made it as far north as Central Park. Our grand plans were to head up to Central Park and then wander back through downtown as far as we could walk. Thanks to the heat we never made it any farther south than the train station. Guess that means we'll just have to go back someday!

Visiting and then leaving the city makes me sad to live in Ohio all over again.

I miss public transportation.


Wandering 7th-5th Avenues






Shopping Icon


Times Square










Radio City Music Hall


Inside Central Park. I always find it so amazing that there's this whole little green world inside of the massive concrete jungle that is NYC. Once you step through the gates you can barely hear the business going on outside.




Waved hello to Eloise at The Plaza.


I visited the Fox News HQ. No, I'm not pointing. Wrong finger.


Wall of Muppets at FAO. I had to restrain myself from buying all of the Muppet movies for Charlie.


St. Patrick's


Rockefeller Center

I'm Back!

Drove back from Jersey yesterday and heading back to work today. What a weekend! I'm absolutely exhausted and kicking myself for not scheduling today off so that I could recover. Toddler Charlie barely slept the three nights we were out there. Of course, Charlie barely sleeping = mom who sleeps even less. Nothing makes for a good night's sleep like 23 pounds of toddler on your tummy!

Of course I come back to a million emails in my work inbox and 604 unread items in my Google reader. I could put my head down and sleep right now.

I love it when I get the chance to introduce people to my favorite city. Lots to talk about and tons of pictures to share, both coming soon!

Things You Want Wednesday - Water Table Edition

Charlie's daycare does "water days" twice a week. He loves playing in the water and constantly asks to go to the pool. Since we can't always be sitting poolside, we decided to get him a water table with the Toys R' Us gift card that's been sitting in our junk drawer since his birthday last year. (I know, bad parents!)

It is without a doubt the best toy we've ever purchased. They were pretty much all sold out of all of them except for this model and an exorbitantly priced model, but that's what we get for waiting until summer was halfway over. We briefly considered the one that has a section for sand, but thankfully had a friend to steer us away from that kind of disaster.

It's good for pouring





It's good for drinking (but only when it's fresh)



It apparently takes a lot of concentration to play in the water.



It makes Charlie a very happy little boy.