bethysmalls

We took these at the end of the day. Bad idea. But cute nonetheless.

For the past few years, Hoagey and I haven’t watched many movies together. We had Netflix for a while and saw lots of tv on dvd but we couldn’t get together on movies. He watched many on his own, (Blood Diamond, Crash) because I just couldn’t deal. I am at a point where if I’m not being entertained, or at least intrigued, I can’t watch. Which is weird because Law and Order: SVU is no problem for me. Might have something to do with there being Good Guys and Bad Guys and the GG usually win in the end. Anyway. Not many movies. And actually GOING to the movies is even more rare. Even before Bruno, we were only seeing Harry Potter movies when they came out. Now we only see them once. And in 2-D.

As I mentioned, we’re back on Netflix and we watched a movie last night that wasn’t Juno or Baby Mama much (I’m sure) to Hoagey’s delight. Burn After Reading. It was SO not what I expected. Much darker and much MUCH funnier. I found myself saying, “I can’t believe how funny I find this!” I was laughing and feeling bad about laughing. I broke my “I do not support Brangelina” rule along with my “George Clooney is a tool” rule and I’m glad I did. I should add a “Frances McDormand and the Cohen Brothers Trump any Reservations You Might Have About George Clooney and Brangelina” rule. Anyway, SUPER funny. You should see it. Even you.

We watched up all our Flix and will probably go back to The West Wing tonight because I’m an addict. But there’s always the Watch It Now! Feature. But who are we kidding, right? The West Wing it is!

(On a related note, does anyone know how to hook a laptop up to a TV screen? kthx!)

I forgot to post yesterday. Just plum forgot.

I was going to say that I took a day off for thanksgiving but then I decided to  just man up. This is a tough month for blogging everyday. What with the holiday and it being so close to my birthday. Which is next week, apparently. Time flies when you have a child.

So this is my thing today: Why in the world did Rob Lowe leave the West Wing? Rob Lowe leaving means that all of his leading ladies had to leave, too. And while this has lead to two of said ladies having leading roles on other shows that I have enjoyed/currently enjoy (CSI: Miami/House, MD), I really liked his character and his romances. I miss Ainsley Hayes and Lori the Call Girl. I miss Malorie McGarry. I mean I miss them all now since the show is technically over. I say technically because it will never truly be over in my heart or in my house considering I watch them over and over and over. Rinse. Repeat.

What did he do after the West Wing anyway besides disappear? I think he left because he wasn’t as big of a star as he was promised or planned on or whatever. I think we can all learn a lesson on this. If you’re on a successful show don’t be a brat and leave because of your ego cause then you’ll end up on The Lyon’s Den.

That is all.

To make up for yesterday, I’m going to blog 1 extra day before I take a month to hibernate.

Since Bruno’s mobility has skyrocketed it has been more than a little difficult to get any good pictures of him on the ol’ iPhone. So when I need one, I pull out the old… eh… I don’t know what it’s called. Our “regular camera”. Anyway, I just transferred a bunch of pics today so let’s catch you up.

Spaghetti!

...nom nom nom nom...

Promoting a diet high in fiber & wearing a shirt from Uncle BH & CH!

enough

And just for good measure, a hopelessly blurry faced iPhone picture. Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm too fast for you, phone!

So I have come to the conclusion that Bruno is not feeling badly. He’s got us by the nuts. Since he started standing up in the crib, I assumed that he couldn’t get back down so whenever he stood up, I’d go in and lay him back down. So he knows that if he cries, I’ll come and try again. And lately, he knows that if he really gets going, like out of control, I’ll just take him in bed with me. I’m tired, I know he’s tired, I know he’ll sleep if I nurse him, and to tell you the truth, I like it. Cuddling with my baby boy is the absolute best thing ever. But also, I can’t be strapped to my baby 24 hours a day. So. Tonight. After two failed naps that resulted in a screaming, inconsolable baby and then snuggly nursing naps I had had it. I mean the snuggling is great but the screeeeaaaammming and giving in to said screaaaaammmming was not great. I didn’t even want to go get him when he stood up and cried after I left the room. While he wailed, I started paging through Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which I haven’t had the chance to read through since I got it, and discovered that many parents have let their children fall asleep standing up. Like I never even thought that that was an option. What if he falls?! What if he hits his head on the crib? Well I guess eventually, they figure out that it’s easier to just stay lying down and not stand up.

So. Tonight. We let him go. Had to be done. He was a sleeping champ a few weeks ago and that has just gone to hell since this cold/work trip/teething storm hit and I KNOW HE CAN DO IT! So. Tonight? He was doing to do it.

I turned his light off at 7:14. At 8:58 he stopped crying for the evening. It was hard. A few times I thought maybe he wouldn’t do it. But I soldiered on. He waxed and waned for that almost 1.75 hours and I’m quite certain he fell asleep standing up a few times. This was much easier than the last time we tried to sleep train even though he cried more than 100% longer this time. I think the fact that I was at my limit and because I’d witnessed a positive outcome last time. But I mean, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This was only the first night.

(On a side note, when we were sleep training the first time, I looked and looked and looked for an answer to the following question, “How long should I let him cry for naps?” and consistently came up with NO ANSWER WHATSOEVER. It wasn’t as though I got so many answers and had to sift and parse and weigh my options. I got none. But looking through Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child for 5 minutes gave me an answer.)

(It’s one hour, by the way)

Or else this Cold That Won’t Die is more uncomfortable than it once was.

(yes he’s nursing but I tried extra hard not to have any nipple in this shot. What you see there is his hand, Rachel and Hillary, thankyouverymuch.)

• A bee landed in my hair and did not sting me even when I unknowingly grabbed it and tossed it in the ground. I knew I grabbed it, I mean I didn’t know it was a bee until it was over.

Then I trapped it under a cup and sealed it with a nite pad and threw it outside. I told someone I’d done this and he, Joe, wondered why I didn’t just kill it. When I was in grade school we had an assembly with a bee keeper who told us that dead bees give off a scent to alert its brother-drones to come and, do what? Not sure but from that day on I’ve never killed a bee on purpose. Joe seemed to think the beekeeper was lying but I told him I had no interest in testing the claim.

• Bruno woke up at 2 this morning and wouldn’t go back to sleep. Not strange by itself, it happens more frequently these days with the stuffy nose and the new teeth. But when I tried to catch a few z’s during his nap a guys outside my window started dropping eff-bombs because he was locked out of his car. And just as I was falling asleep, too.

I guess the strange part about that is how it’s never happened before.

• 2 strange things in this photo. 1) the “Now Open” banner over the neon sign reading “closed” and 2) isn’t it po’ boys?

That’s all for tonight. Must. Sleep.

A few days ago I write about how yelling is a super great way to vent and since I’ve been known to throw things to let off steam I figured it was the safest bet. Well a couple days ago I had the opportunity and occasion to vent, alone, in the car. So I did. It was awesome. I screamed and yelled and even abused the glovebox a little and later on that day I felt wonderful. No tension in my back or jaw. Not in the verge of tears constantly like I had been. Relaxed.

Today I can barely talk. Wraspy smoker voice. And the bedtime song I sing for Bruno was pathetic at best.

Anyone have any suggestions about healing my vocal cords?

• Bruno’s 5th tooth is here! And I know because he bit me with it the other day
• My identity crisis  from the other day has calmed for the time being but the wheels are in motion now. So that’s good.
• We got our first Netflix in the mail today! Woo! But we’re still watching The West Wing so we can’t start them yet. We are organized.
• And we haven’t canceled cable yet either. FTW!
• Our living room looks like a bomb hit it and my son can’t even walk yet.
• Oy.
• I need a new haircut. But I also want to grow my hair out. Someone come up with a solution for this.
• Is this month over yet? Posting every day is nice in theory but in practice you end up boring people to death with your bullet points.
• Our cats are bouncing off the walls now because it’s time for them to eat.
• One last thing.
• I haven’t sent out Christmas cards since I don’t know when (first it was my job and last year I was too busy being pregnant to do it). I’m not sure if we’ll do it this year. I would like your opinions for or against it. Go.

Thanks for making it this far, Mom!

Shortly before my baby boy was born, we gave up cable. The way it worked back then was that to even have reception you had to pay something to Comcast. So when I say we gave up cable I mean we gave up all but basic, basic cable. Then, because I felt the need to repay Hoagey for all the super great gifts he’d gotten me I bought a Flat Screen HDTV!!! And without realizing it I made it necessary to get digital cable again. So for the past 6 months, we’ve had cable and free HBO. That introductory offer is over this month and cable bill is back to $HolyShit.00 so we’ve signed up for Netflix again, plan to re-watch all our TV on DVD and are looking into getting a digital cable converter.

My brother also gave up cable a few months ago. And because I’ve done this before, I know how easy it is to live without cable (a little coping mechanism called “watching jeopardy instead of the daily show reruns at 7pm” helps a great deal). With Hulu.com and the fact that we now have Netflix with the new WATCH IT NOW! feature, it makes me wonder if TV as we have always known it will last. I mean I heard on the radio today that Oprah has been losing viewers over the past few years and someone alluded to the fact that viewership in general is just declining. All those ladies who used to watch every day are now on the interwebs blogging and shopping and tweeting. At some point, we’re going to hook up our computer to our TV screen and watch things online, on TV. We may even watch TV, online, on TV. I just blew your mind, right?

You’re welcome.

Anyway. Take note, cable conglomerates of the world. We don’t need you and your gouging anymore. We just need your internets. Crap.