Better 'n gaffer's tape

I feel compelled to give credit to Brian for a couple of things he's done recently.

1) on Friday evening he made dinner. Not Pizza, not Macaroni and Cheese, not something he can reheat in the microwave, but actual dinner. He made Chicken Parmesan. It was delicious.
2) this morning he got up with Trent and let me sleep in because I went out last night and got home very very late (or early if you're counting it as this morning), and I woke up to the smell of delicious cornbread muffins baking. When I came downstairs he made me a cup of tea and served me breakfast.
3) I managed to break the on-off switch from my hair dryer last night. It snapped right off and I thought for sure it was a goner. But Brian fixed it by drilling through the plastic and reconnecting the switch with a screw, which is far better than I was expecting.
4) keeping his clothes off the bedroom floor, and not getting defensive when I point out all of the other things he does that piss me off, but actually trying to improve them.

Ok... I don't want him to get a big head and think he's in the running for HOTY yet, so I'll stop there. So thank you, Brian, for all the sweet things you do for me.

Streak of violence continues

This just in:
Nerves were frayed in classroom A4 of Bright Horizons late morning on Monday when toddler on a rampage, Trent B, continued his recent streak of violence by biting a friend. Eye witnesses reported that the victim, whose name is being withheld at this time, tried to take Trent's chair from him.

There is speculation that the little tyrant issued a warning to the would-be chair thief using a hand gesture and the words "mine! mine!" before escalating the incident, however, no witness is willing to come forward and confirm this.

Nobody was seriously hurt in the incident and the victim recovered quickly from the attack. Trent served a stint in time out and got a jolly good talking to. Trent declined to comment on the incident, but his mother, Amanda B, said "Trent's been testing boundaries lately and trying to assert control over his environment. Just the other day he executed a perfect pimp slap right across my face. You can't learn that kind of violence on TV, obviously we need to determine who is influencing this type of behavior and remove them." Trent's father, Brian "pimp hand" B was unavailable for comment.

Happy Birthday Brian!

Brian turns 28 tomorrow. That means only one year to go until we are the same age ;-)

To celebrate his birthday we had a party at home. It was a great turn out and Brian had a wonderful time. We got to see some people we haven't seen in a while, hang out with best friends, play some Rock Band, and eat some of Brian's favourite foods, which includes pizza and Paula Deen's bread pudding (it's soooo good, yaaaawl). We were even treated to a rock concert a la Trent and Ethan upstairs as they rocked out on the drums. It was so much fun to see them both playing. Jett joined in at least as a spectator. I took some pictures, which I'll upload shortly.

Around midnight I knew Brian was drunk when he opened the back door to talk to those of us sitting on the back porch and he was wearing his drunk smile and slurring ever so slightly as he asked if we'd care for more pizza.

It also happened to be the night the clocks go forward. I don't recall what time we finally got ot bed, and certainly Trent stayed up much later than his normal bed time. This morning Trent didn't get up until after 11am (accounting for the time change). It was so great to sleep in! Today we're complete off, time wise. We seem to be off schedule by a couple of hours.

Trent and I went for a run and stopped at the park to play on the slides for an hour. It's now 4:30 and he's been rolling around in his crib for almost an hour, refusing to take a nap, but not minding hanging out in his crib... I can hear him talking to his bears through the monitor. CUTE!

Today we are going to make a new stepping stone with Trent's hand and foot print.

Pimp slap

Well, it's confirmed... the pimp slap is not a learned trait, but rather, it is a natural instinct in males.

How do I know this??

Last night we were playing in Trent's play room, when I obviously did something he didn't like. He walked up to me and just flat out slapped me. Right across my left cheek. A right proper, expertly executed "PIMP SLAP!". I am not kidding.

Now where the hell did he learn to do that? Certainly he hasn't seen me or Brian do it, and he hasn't seen it on TV because we only let him watch Disney and learning DVDs. Perhaps he learned it at daycare, but the optimist in me wants to believe that those parents live by similar rules as us and wouldn't expose their kids to that kind of violence. So I can only conclude that this trait is genetically coded into all males.

I have to admit I was rather shocked when he did it that I couldn't react other than to gasp. Of course, he didn't get away with it. Brian leapt to my defense like a knight in shining armour and very sternly informed Trent of the right kind of behaviour. I couldn't tell then if Trent was crying from whatever pissed him off and caused him to slap me, or if he was crying because he got told off. But he was soon over it and back to being my little sweet man.

In more positive news, Trent is now putting words into sentences. Last night he actually said "I love you" when he was going to bed, and then we call out to each other as I'm going down the stairs "love you!", "love you!". So freaking cute!

ROCK OUT!

This weekend I was expecting to have my patience tested based on recent toddler behaviour, but Trent was pretty well behaved, or perhaps Brian and I have become more adept at mitigating the meltdown risk. Anyway, we had a great weekend, which included some alone time for me, a visit with Ben for Brian and Trent, a stop n' chat w/Mike and Tara, a trip to Costco where we had hotdogs and churros for lunch, and a new set of drums for Trent.
We found them on craigslist on the recommendation of Andi (thank you). We only paid $30 for them. What a steal. These drums go for $129.99 on Amazon.com and they are in excellent condition. When we went to pick them up, Trent was a little shy, but on the way to the car he got very excited about hitting the drums as I was carrying them. When we set them up for him in the playroom he immediately picked up the drumsticks and started drumming. The kid has rythm! Here are some pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/trent.bauman/February09#

Have the terrible 2s started early?

Lately Trent has been a bit of a drama queen. If we try to redirect him from his intended path/activity, he throws a massive wobbler. Throwing himself on the ground and crying. I guess it's developmentally appropriate, but it is NO FUN at all for me and Brian. I haven't much patience for this kind of stuff. On Tuesday he wanted cookies instead of dinner, and kept slapping his lasagna away and screaming. Finally I put him in time out. I turned his high chair towards the wall and let him cry. He eventually calmed down when Brian offered him some cheese, and he eventually decided that the lasagna was looking good and ate some. Then he had the audacity to ask for cookies and ice cream. Of course he didn't get any. Naughty boys don't get cookies or ice cream.
Mornings are starting to become a bit of a battle, too. He's not interested in getting dressed and he gets so mad if you even show him his shoes. It has to be his idea to put his shoes on. Yesterday I had to pin him down and put them on him. It's not how you want to start your day.

a small shift in the work/life balance

In the past 1.5 years that Trent has been going to daycare, Brian has always picked him up at the last possible minute to "get his money's worth" out of daycare. A practice I haven't fully approved of but tolerated mostly because we both have demanding jobs and we'd very much like to keep them.
But on our ski trip during a philosophical conversation with Tara in tha hot tub, I finally made my point that the extra 5 hours a week that Trent spends at daycare could be time spent with us, and time that we'll never get back. So we've made some minor adjustments to our schedule. It's taking a little bit of getting used to, especially for me, because my usual routine was to quit working at 6pm and take 45 mins to tidy the house and make dinner so it'd be ready when the boys get home. Now with Trent getting home earlier, I have to make dinner with him around, which is difficult because he's always on my leg when I'm in the kitchen. Last night I took him out for a run so Brian could work a little bit more, then Brian took him upstairs to play while I made dinner. We sat down to a family dinner a little later than usual, and Trent was very fussy while he was banished to the game room so I could make dinner. I think it's going to take a little time to get the routine right, but I am so glad we made the decision to spend a little extra time with him.
I am making the shift from having an office at work (which I rarely use) to going full time working from home. That means that Brian would always have to drive Trent to daycare because it's near the office. We think it's time to make the switch to a new daycare that's closer to home. This way I can run with the jogging stroller to pick him up and Brian can work however late he wants at the office. Stay tuned for more on that.

keep piling it on...

Well, I guess I shouldn't complain because this falls under the category of job security, but it can't go un-commented. I have received 2 new assignments in the past week. Not to replace anything I'm currently doing, but in addition to. There weren't enough hours in the days before, so you can imagine what this is going to mean for my work schedule. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about it and an open mind. One of the projects - well, it's not really a project because that would suggest it has an end - is handling a multi-million dollar budget for the creation of educational courseware. It's my first time to do this kind of work, so this will be a completely new experience for me and an opportunity to learn. I'll be working with external vendors and internal financial people, and I've got some great people supporting me as I learn so hopefully I'll gain some good project management experience. The down-side is that I'm taking this responsibility from someone who got laid off. She was gracious enough to give me an orientation.

The second project that landed on my lap is to manage a project that converts DITA source to a format consumable by a Notes database. This one most definitely will have an end date, but this project runs in parallel with the other development project I handle, so it's a significant increase in workload.
We'll see how it goes. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to complain, just processing what this will mean to my work/life balance.

Taos ski report

We're back from a wonderful mini-break. A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpapparazzi for taking Trent for 4 whole days!
We headed to Houston on Thursday afternoon, just in time for dinner. We got Trent settled in and spent some time hanging out with Bri's parents.

Friday
7am flight to Albuquerque, NM. We got up soooo early, not that I slept anyway. Arrived in ABQ at 8-ish and picked up the rental car. A Pontiac G5. What a piece of crap that car is, but it seemed the lesser of all evils given our choice. I picked it because it was cuter than the other options, but it's downsides became apparent very quickly. Massive blind spot, useless rear window, oddly small trunk opening and a cavernous trunk, and the worst feature: MASSIVE doors. Like to get out of them you had to practically back out of the car. Anyway... won't spend too much time dwelling on that but it was worth a mention.
We arrived in Taos around 11:30 or so and had no trouble finding the condo, which was right above Terry's Sports. Tara was there, Mike was already on the slopes. We settled in, radiod Mike to come in for lunch, then after lunch we suited up, rented our gear, and spent the rest of the day throwing ourselves down the mountain. The lift ride up is long and the face of the mountain is intimidating, but there were many great easy and medium runs. The weather was perfect. Not too cold, and beautiful blue skies. That evening we hung out in the hot tub, made a small dent in the giant bottle of Makers Mark we brought with us, and had a pasta dinner.
Grandpa reported that Trent hadn't mentioned us even once! Glad to hear Trent isn't missing us. That must mean that he's enjoying spending the day with Grandpa.
Saturday:
Up early, yummy egg breakfast, and off to the slopes. The morning was lovely and sunny and after we went in for lunch, Tara joined us on the slopes in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn between when we came in for lunch and the time we got back on the mountain. The wind had picked up and the temp. had dropped drastically, which made it less enjoyable to ski.
Again, we spent time haning out in the hot tub, drinking whiskey and cokes and enjoying the calm and relaxation of not having a toddler around, and spending quality time with our friends. Valentine's day dinner was prepared by the men. Steak and asparagus on the menu, two of my favourite things. Delicious!
Trent had a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa and was being a perfect little boy. Awh!
Sunday:
Pancake breakfast! mmmmm. I traded my skis for a snowboard this morning. Brian and Mike headed up the mountain while I spent time on the bunny slope trying to get reaquainted with the snowboard. It's amazing how little of what I learned last time I snowboard stuck with me. The theory was there, but the execution was horrendous and I spent a lot of time on my arse or flat out on my stomach. But I persevered and kept getting up and trying again. By the end of the morning I was able to get down the hill without falling over, but was ready to go back to skiing so I could end my trip on a high note. Brian made me lunch. Least said about that the better, I think, other than it was a nice thought ;-)
While on the bunny hill, I noticed a lot of little kids learning to ski. By little, I mean as young as 3. They were so cute in their little tiny ski outfits, and so fearless. It made me miss Trent and Brian and I decided we would take Trent skiing as soon as he was old enough.
The afternoon's skiing was wonderful. Brian spent some time going down the black diamonds with Mike (and some time hiking back up one that was beyond his abilities - haha). I stuck to the blue runs, mostly because the black runs have mogels, which I absolutely can't stand. I did make one attempt to do mogels as we were heading down to see how Tara was doing on the bunny slope (Mike had managed to talk her into trying skiing again so she'd have a more positive experience than the day before - Tara's such a good sport). During my mogel attempt, I managed to lose control and not only fall over, but take out Brian as well. Poor Brian ended up on the ground with his skis buried all the way up to his boots! I managed to lose a ski and gave up trying to get it back on on the hill and hiked down swearing a LOT.
We ended the day with a visit to the clam bake that was going on at the base. Sadly, all the clams were gone, though. We went to dinner at Tim's (something or other) Tavern and I tried the green chile that New Mexico is so famous for. MMMMmmmm. good.
More hot tubbing, more whisky and coke, and finally, off to bed ready for an early start the next day.
Monday:
We got up at 6:30 and packed up the cars. We were on the road by 7:30 and back in Albuquerque by 11 or so. Uneventful flight (thankfully) and back in Houston. Trent was indifferent at first when we showed up. He walked into the kitchen, saw me, smiled, and walked back to the living room to get a toy! About 5 minutes later, though, he gave me a big hug. Grandpa looked a little exhausted but we could tell he and Trent really enjoyed spending time together. We ate dinner in Houston then headed home to Austin, arriving around 10:30, just in time to go straight to bed.

Taos here we come!

Ski trip imminent. We took all our ski stuff over to Mike and Tara's last night. They are going to drive there, so they are taking our bulky items with them.
Brian and I are heading to Houston tomorrow to drop Trent off for 4 days of fun with Grandma and Grandpapparrazzi. I think it will be fun for Grandpa and Trent, who will get to spend the whole day together on Friday and Monday. This will be the longest time we've spent away from Trent. I'm gonna miss him soooooo much, but I know that he's in the best hands possible.
On Friday we fly from Houston to Albuquerque, then rent a car and drive 3 hours to Taos. Half a day of skiing on Friday to get reacquainted with the sport, then hopefully 2 days of snowboarding to follow.
The condo has an indoor hot tub so we're definitely going to take advantage of that with our aching muscles.
Mum & Dad, I'll be sending updates via twitter from my mobile phone periodically. Updates will display here in my blog, as well as on my Facebook status. So stay tuned :-)

eeeeee! excited. Tonight we have to pack!

Quick update

Turns out that my voice loss is not from all the singing and woo-hooing at the Suede concert. I actually have a sore throat and congestion :-( Boooo! Hopefully it'll all clear up before this weekend's ski trip, but regardless, I'm gonna tear it up on the slopes.

fun night downtown

The front row of the Suede show is always crazy. Michelle and I spent the entire evening there, from the second song all the way to the very last, dancing our arses off. The crowd starts off thin but by about 10:30 there's only hip shakin' room in front of the stage, and by midnight a whole bunch of crazy comes out. I always find mystery bruises on my knees the next day. I finally figured out why last night. The stage is exactly knee high to me, and the crowd behind me was particularly pushy last night. I banged both knees several times! Bruised knees = Suede tattoo. Mike took some awesome pics of the band last night. I imagine he'll put them on his web site soon: www.johnmichaelharris.com. I haven't looked at my camera yet, but I imagine it's a whole bunch of pics of me and Michelle taking pictures of ourselves as usual! Oh, I can't belive I almost forgot to mention this, John Popper, of Blues Traveler fame, sat in. Good stuff!

I woke up this morning as hoarse as can be. I sounded like an old smoker!
Note to self: Nobody can hear you singing at the top of your lungs with the band playing, so turn it down a couple a notches. Sure was fun, though. Michelle was sounding a little raspy when I talked to her this morning, too.

the good news... not conjuntivitis!

The bad news... double ear infection, sinus infection. Nurse Grace prescribed an antibiotic for the ear infection and eye drops to clear up Trent's snotty eyes. Poor kid, it's so hard for us to know when he's sick because he never ever complains. We have one tough kid. Sometimes I wonder if his pain receptors work, but I get confirmation that they do whenever he bumps his head (often) and says "hurt! hurt!" and rubs it.

A good end to a bad week

It's been a very, very rough week. It started off ok on Monday, but on Monday evening Brian came running in like his arse was on fire... except it wasn't his arse, it was the car. Ok, well it wasn't on fire, but it was smoking. Between stopping for petrol half a mile from the house, and getting home, something happened to the Subie and it was leaking coolant all over the garage. Lucky for us that Brian has become so handy lately, and could diganose the problem, and even more lucky that we have such great friends who would loan us their vehicle so we could take Trent to daycare on Tuesday!
Tuesday got progressively worse. As Brian took the day off to fix the car, I started my morning with optimism that soon gave way to shock, then incredulousness, then nervousness as friends and co-workers pinged me to tell me the news of all the layoffs happening that day. People you'd never in a million years expect to be cut got cut. Whole departments. Managers, too!. Rumours were flying and it felt like someone had walked into a conf. room with a machete and started slashing. By noon I was completely convinced I was going to be given bad news and was contemplating all the things we would need to change in our lives if both of us lost our jobs.

Around noon I couldn't stand the waiting any longer and so I aksed my manager to put me out of my misery. Thankfully, the news for me was not as dismal as the news others had recived that day, but you can't help but be affected by it. Later that day Brian was also told that his job wasn't selected for the "resource action". We both felt a mixture of relief and guilt, for obvious reasons. I found it interesting, the choice of words many managers used when telling those of us who were not laid off. "Not affected". Everyone is affected by a round of layoffs, especially one like that that hit over a third of the people you know! You can't just go about your business like nothing happened. You feel for the people you know who's lives are about to take a major change that wasn't their decision. You feel guilty that you get to keep your job and they don't. You feel angry that this is happening to people you care about. You feel helpless because there's nothing you can say or do to make it better for anyone. You feel relief that you aren't in their shoes, then more guilt! You feel disenchanted with the company and its leadership. It threw me off my game for most of the week.
On Thursday I quit early and went to happy hour with a bunch of people from my old dev team (Brian's current dept). A few of those who were laid off were there, and I was so happy to see them and know that they were in good spirits, despite the crap that just happened.

On a more positive note, I am happy to report that Brian fixed the subaru on Tuesday, so it was only out of commision for one day. Thankfully, we made it through this bad week with only a few mental scars and a couple of bucks spent on fixing the car.

What we can take away from this experience is that life can take a turn at someone else's hand, and you need to be prepared for that.

Weekend of fun

Well, I'm officially done celebrating my birthday. This weekend was the icing on the very delicious birthday cake. I spent the whole day with Trent on Saturday, which is both exhausting and fun at the same time. He's so much fun to be around these days because he's so interactive and he's constantly making me laugh. It's exhausting because I have to think of ways to keep him engaged and entertained. Brian saved us $400 this weekend by fixing the Subie's roof rack himself. It'd been rattling and annoying both of us for some time, and the Subaru service dept. said to fix it they'd have to take the whole roof liner out and all the interior panels to get to the bolts. Brian decided he could do that himself. I remember when I met Brian how completely useless he was as a handy-man. And in the last week he's saved us hundreds of dollars by doing the 40K mile maintenance on the Subie, and now this. I'm happy to report that the annoying rattling is gone and the interior of the Subie looks exactly like it did before. Way to go, Brian.
On Saturday night the girls and I headed down to Cedar St. to finish off the birthday week with some ass-shaking, and that's exactly what we did. I didn't sit down the whole night. Lucky for me I was wearing my super comfy kick ass boots. The girls got me a birthday cake and balloons and ensured I always had a vodka soda in my hand. True friends never divulge your age, and I was entertained by the fact that my cake said "Happy 29th Birthday Amanda!" hehehe. We all spent the evening in our usual spot right in front of Brian Lee, dancing and being generally goofy. Brian is as entertained by us as we are by him. As usual, the night got crazier with every passing minute. I saw a small cat-fight break out nearby at one point but it was diffused quickly. The band learned 2 of my favourite Bon Jovi songs and played them back-to-back! I felt so honoured. Danny came up to me later and told me that they learned those just for me! what a wonderful surprise.
On Sunday, Trent slept until 9:30! what a good boy, then Brian took him downstairs and let me sleep a little longer. We spent the day playing and hanging out, then ended the weekend at Hula Hut with Tiff & Brett and many people I hadn't seen in ages, to celebrate Brett's birthday. Trent was so perfectly behaved and Brian and I were so proud of our little guy.

In other news, I got a good rating on my yearly assesment at work. I hope that this will help me survive the current round of lay-offs happening this week. Brian also got a good rating. Cross your fingers :-)

Another year wiser

I just want to point out that I am not one year older. I am only one day older than I was yesterday. My day started off pretty well, but had a few minor hiccups in it as the day progressed. Brian and Trent treated me to breakfast today. I had that delicious coffee cake with the raspberry cheesecake stripe down it! mmmm! I got to open a present from Kevin & Darice. I am now hooked up with a Bluetooth headset to go with my awesome new phone :-)

Then I got a call from mum and dad on Google Video Chat. That turned out to have way better video and sound quality than we've experienced lately on Skype. I also learned that my mum is on Facebook! That's so cool!

About 30 mins or so into our chat, my great morning started to take a turn... my laptop crashed. No blue screen, no warning message. Just flat out turned itself off and then refused to boot. I tried a bunch of things to get it back up, including safe mode, recovery mode, and even swearing like a sailor mode. Finally I resigned myself to having to take it in for recovery by the pros at work, and set about getting my other laptop up and connected to the intranet. Lucky for me I have 2!! Meanwhile I'm still desperately trying to boot my regular laptop. After about 15 or so reboots, it came back!!! Tenacity does pay off. But that little eye-opener prompted me to continue to get laptop #2 connected and loaded with everything I use on a daily basis, should this happen again.

Next, I had to set up an appointment for Onyx to see the vet. She has blood in her urine again, and I was tired of schlepping the poor cat 15 minutes in the car to our old vet, plus she always wants to run a barrage of tests on her that cost a fortune. So I switched Onyx to a new vet who is only 5 mins away. Onyx didn't even put up a fight when I shoved her into the carrier. A sure sign she's not feeling well. I like our new vet. He seemed a lot less judgemental than our previous one when I said I wasn't interested in running a bunch of tests, and wanted to just make Onyx as comfy as possible. He didn't even take blood or urine, but instead read her file that they had retrieved from our previous vet, made an educated guess on what could be wrong, and we're treating for that to see if it helps. He thinks she has sterile cystitis. We're giving her a special diet and an anti-inflamatory. If Onyx responds to the treatment, then we'll do some kidney tests to make sure that her kidneys can handle the medication. I am pretty sure our previous vet would never have prescribed something without a mountain of tests, so this makes me very happy.

Ok, so one disaster averted and one positive prognosis for the cat has rescued my day. I'm looking forward to dinner with friends this evening.

Trent and daddy comparison

Courtesy of Grandpapparazi, here's a comparison of Trent and Brian. SO cute!

Sick boy!

Trent seemed to be having a bit of a tummy issue on Sunday. During breakfast he didn't eat much and had a minor throw up of his french toast. Didn't think much of it, assuming he managed to gag himself, which he does every once in a while. At lunch time he barely ate his leftover grilled cheese from Saturday's visit to Spicy Pickle, though I did convince him to eat some lasagna. A move I would later regret. His demeanor seemed normal, though so I figured he was just not hungy. We met Barbie and her family for dinner at TX Roadhouse, and I ordered a kids meal with steak and mashed potatoes for Trent. He just played with it. He even refused the cupcake Barbie's dad offered him. He just poked the frosting and ate a couple of finger fulls of it. In the car on the way home, all hell broke loose. First came the suspicious smell, which I blamed on Brian... and Brian couldn't recall if it actually was him so he graciously took the blame ;-) As we pulled into the garage, Trent chucked up the bit of frosting all over himself and his car seat. Ugh. I stripped him down and bathed him, at which point I discovered the source fo the suspicious car smell as it smeared onto my trousers! After his bath he seemed a little lethargic. I put on his PJs and right after I was done dressing him, he threw up all over himself (and me)! I sent Brian out for some pedialyte while I continued to comfort Trent as he threw up the remainder of whatever he'd eaten. Poor Trent emptied his entire stomach on me, himself, several towels, the floor, and his his giant stuffed lion.
As a parent you try not to overreact to these things, but with it being both diarrhea and vomiting, and he has a minor cold as well, I just wanted to get an expert opinion, so we called the doctor. The doc seemed unconcerned. We sat up with Trent till we were sure that he was done throwing up, then he willingly went to bed.
The next morning when Trent got up he was fine. No signs of anything wrong. Weird! We kept him home for the morning to be sure he was ok, and then he went to school in the afternoon. School reported a normal day. I have no idea what that was, but Trent was such a big boy about it. He never once cried or fussed while he was throwing up. Way less of a baby than I would be under those circumstances. I dunno if all kids are like this, but I feel like Trent is a tough kid. He never complains about being sick. Even when he had the shingles he didn't scratch or anything.
I'm happy to report that the poop came out of my trousers after I washed them in hot water and Oxyclean.

18 month checkup, etc...

Trent had his 18 month checkup today and we're so impressed with the little guy. He only cried for about 20 seconds when he got his injection, and the doctor said that he's already hitting many of the 2 year developmental milestones, most notably his language skills, his affinity for mummy, and his independence. His projected adult height is 5'10". Not bad considering the height of my family :-) I don't know how accurate that can be at this point, though.

While we were at the doctor's office we witnessed some parenting techniques that could benefit from a visit from Supernanny, to say the least. Brian and I try not to judge because everyone's parenting philosophies are different, but this woman was a complete control freak and her poor daughter was just trying to express herself. She actually took her to the bathroom and spanked her. We could hear the girl howling in there. I couldn't help judging. I hate that I did, but it's so clear to me why her kid was acting like that when she clearly sets such a bad example and completely and publicly invalidated her daughter's feelings. Of course, I've never been in her situation so I don't know how I would act under those circumstances, but I'd like to believe that I'd show Trent some consideration and try to diffuse the situation without resorting to violence.

Completely unrelated sidenote: Last night when Brian and I were about to watch a movie, I had to laugh when the DVD player reported that the disc was an unsupported format and Brian walked over to the DVD player, took the disc out, wiped it on his jeans, and put it back in. I wondered if that was an advanced technique I hadn't heard of yet for correcting a badly formatted DVD ;-)

Happy 1.5

January 4th was Trent's 18 month birthday :-) He's officially a big boy now, and boy does he let us know it! He's fiercely independent right now and gets so mad if you try to help him without him asking for help. But he does ask for help and it's sooooo cute. He signs help and says "hap! hap!". He's just chatting away all the time now, too. We really have to be careful what we say around him. Yesterday he said something that sounded like "shit". Brian and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh. I'm also loving that he says the word "mummy" with a "U" not an "O". It's very distinct.
He's in a major mummy phase right now, which is quite flattering, but sometimes can be a little inconvenient.

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The boys are back in town!

After a week at grandma and grandpa's house, the boys (aka Trent and Brian) are now back home. Quick update on Trent's rash... we went to see the dermatologist this morning and she shares my suspicion that the rash was shingles. The reason being that the rash contained itself to a specific muscle group on his body, which is characteristic of shingles. She suspects that it was from the chicken pox vaccine that Trent received. It's not common, but it does happen. The good news is that you generally only get shingles once in your life, and it's much less painful and easier to recover from it as a child, than as an adult. The rash is pretty much gone now. Just a few scabs remaining. Trent doesn't seem to be too phased by it, though now that the rash is healing he indicates that there's some nerve tingling in that region, which is common after shingles. I'm just relieved that it's going away. It's quite alarming to see a rash like that show up on anyone, but when it's your kid, it's a million times more scary!

In other Trent news, he's learning new words every day now. The rate at which he's picking up vocabulary is astounding. Every day he busts out new words that indicate understanding of the world around him. They're not just words he's repeating from hearing us. I'm so impressed with the little guy.

Yesterday I got to babysit Jett for the first time. It was only for an hour while Barbie showed a house, but we got a lot done. See for yourself: http://picasaweb.google.com/trent.bauman/Jett#.
Later on we had a visit from aunt Jen and cousin Ethan. It was so cute to watch the two boys play together. I think Ethan will make such a wonderful big brother ;-)

Happy New Year!

It's that time of year again. My favourite time of year, in fact: New Year. The mother of all holidays (for me). I prefer it over all other holidays because of what it symbolizes. Out with the old and in with the new. A time of new beginnings, and a time to reflect on the happenings of the year behind us, rejoice in the victories, learn from the failures, and look forward to all that the universe offers. New year's day is filled with good intentions. We resolve to do something or stop doing something with the aim to generally better ourselves. This year I have no new year's resolutions to speak of. But in in 2009 I hope for the following:

To have the awareness to see the opportunities before me, and the courage to take those opportunities that suit me.

Some of the highlights from 2008:

• Nothing is more important than the well-being of my kid, and that anything or anyone blocking that mission is going down.
• I've learned to let go of my need to have a tidy house and have adjusted my tolerance level of mess.
• I changed jobs, even though I was perfectly happy in my current job. The opportunity presented itself and the signs from "the universe" were received loud and clear.
• I've made new friends and reconnected with some old friends.
• Girl's weekend with Kris
• I can eat a Dove bar every night, and as long as I work out it's ok!
• Tequila is my frenemy.
  
• Eventually, a cat will figure out a way around the child gate.
• You can smuggle veggies into almost anything, and both husband and kid will be none the wiser ;-)
  
• Some day Trent will wake up and see me watching him sleep and get creeped out. LOL!
• Mineral make up is the only way to go.
  
• Johnnie got married!
• Social networking is fun, but one should always be aware of one's internet footprint.
• I finally have enough pairs of shoes. Is that really possible?
  
• All those cute trousers in my closet are too big, and I'm ok with that. I should get rid of them.
  
• Brian has never let a day go by without saying he loves me :-)
  

testing

Just installed Flock. I'm testing to see if this actually makes it to my blog :-)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Horsey horsey don't you stop...

Just let your feet go clippety clop
Your tail goes swish and your wheels go round
Giddy up we're homeward bound.

That's the song I've been singing to Trent all morning while he rocked his new rocking horse.

This morning we used the web cam and Skype to spend xmas with both sets of grandparents. One set here in Houston, and the other set on the other side of the Atlantic in England :-) it was quite successful. Nana and Grandad got to see all of us open our presents, and got to watch Trent play with his new rocking horse that they sent him. Trent's napping right now and I took the opportunity to shower and catch up on some web surfin ;-) The menfolk are all outside doing manly things, such as car maintenance, with the new man-toys they got from santa.

It's wine-thirty :-)

Xmas eve

It's xmas eve. 11:05 to be precise. Only another hour before mum gets up at the crack of dawn (6am GMT) to open her presents like a kid waiting for santa ;-)

Trent enjoyed his first xmas dinner. Not that it's his first xmas, obviously, but last year he was too young to eat solid foods. Today he drank BBQ sauce and sampled almost everything on the menu. He's such a great kid. I'm happy to report that his rash is looking WAY better. Of course, it's a relative term. I mean, someone looking at it for the first time would still be somewhat horrified, but having seen it progress over the past week, it's actually looking ok.

After Trent went to bed, Brian and I, with a little help from Grandma and some heckling from "Onion" (more on that in a sec), put together the rocking horse that his Nana and Grandad sent him. I can't wait to see his face tomorrow morning when he sees it!

Onion: Kevin's been trying to teach Trent to say "uncle". It sounds exactly like "onion" when Trent says it. Who are we to argue.

I've been tracking Santa for my own amusement. It's amazing how elaborate the tracking web sites are. Take this one for example: Norad Santa tracker You can even see youtube videos of santa making stops!

Merry xmas from Texas, y'all!

mystery rash

Last week Trent got a little rash on his right hip. We didn't think much of it and I put some diaper cream on it. The next day it was a little bigger, but still nothing to worry about. Then daycare called and mentioned it, and I decided it was time to take Trent to the doctor. We got in that day and saw the doc, who could not identify the rash, which was now red and raised with tiny blisters all over it and extending from his hip up the side of his torso about 6 inches. The doctor told us to bathe him twice a day with Dial soap and to call him the next day to let him know how it was looking. It looked bad. Had spread quite a bit. Anticipating that he'd advise us to see a dermatologist I made an appointment before speaking to him. The dermatologist narrowed it down to 3 possibilities, 2 viral and 1 bacterial. She took a swab and sent it off for testing, and in the mean time we would treat it for a bacterial infection with a topical antibiotic and a steroid. It took about 3 days of that to get the rash under control and meanwhile it had spread over to his butt cheek and down his right leg.
The surprising thing in all this is that it didn't seem to phase Trent at all. He never scratched it, and he never indicated that he was in pain or that it bothered him. He was marginally irritable on Thursday after we took him to the pediatrician, but beyond that he was his normal, charming self.
Yesterday, the last time I saw the rash, it was looking so much less angry and the blisters had turned into tiny red scabs. This morning the dermatologist called to tell me that the tests came back "normal". I asked her to clarify what she meant by "normal" since it could mean that it was an expected result taking the symptoms into consideration. However, she clarified it to mean that there was no virus and no bacteria. I should be relieved, right? He doesn't have a virus, and his skin isn't showing any signs of a bacterial infection, such as staph. But I'm not relieved. I want to know what it is. Of course, when the rash became a concern I googled it and found many sites with descriptions and pictures, none of which matched exactly. Some pictures of shingles matched, but the description didn't. And the way you get a bacterial infection, such as staph didn't match either. Usually you have to have an open wound that gets exposed to staph, and Trent never had a scratch on him. It's just so puzzling and frustrating.
Since the rash is responding to the current treatment, we'll continue to use it. And we see the dermatologist next week again so I hope to get some better answers.

The Queen's English?

I had to laugh today when I got a text message from my mum & dad on Skype, and they actually used the word "Y'all"!!!

It's nice to see them embracing the Texas side of the family :-)

Sssshoe!

Last night, Trent and I were hanging out watching "baby", which is what he calls the telly. (Start of tangent:) The reason he calls the telly "baby" is because when we were on our trip to Europe, we took his portable DVD player, and only played baby sign language DVDs. His favourite one, "Baby Signing Time" starts off with a song with lyrics "baby, baby, baby signing time, baby, baby, baby signing time" and of course the sign for baby is like you're rocking a baby. So he associated the word and sign "baby" with watching his DVD. Now he can actually say the word baby, and to clarify which baby he wants to watch, he says "big baby", which means the plasma (vs. just baby, which means the portable DVD player). (/end tangent)

Anyway, last night, while we were busy signing to each other I said and signed "Trent, help mummy take her shoes off". And do you know what he did??? He got off the couch, pulled off my right shoe, walked around the couch to the shoe cubby in the entryway, put my shoe in one of the compartments, walked back around the couch, took off my left shoe, walked back to the shoe cubby and put it in one of the compartments! How fricking smart is he??? I was so very, very proud!

I'm all a-twitter

Some of you might be wondering what that widget is on my blog that looks like a bunch of random posts by people you don't know. Well, that's exactly what it is. It's known as twitter. I was skeptical about twitter after hearing about it from co-workers, but I needed to try it out to see its potential for something I'm working on in my job. So I signed up, and within moments people from all over the world started to "follow" me. I guess you could call this the next generation in internet stalking tools. You can stalk - ahem - I mean follow anyone who has a twitter account.

The point is this: You update your twitter status as often as you want by simply answering the question "What are you doing?" These are known as "tweets" so for example, my status could say "I'm blogging about twitter (and I could put in a link to this blog)". People following me on twitter would receive this message either in their browser in a twitter application like twitterfox, via a twitter application they've installed on their system, on their phone as a text (if they chose that option), or the next time they go to twitter.com and log in, they'd see it. You might wonder why this is useful. I know I did, and I'm actually still on the fence about it. Although today I was posting an article to a product wiki, and within moments of me pushing the post button, I received a "tweet" from LotusInfo (it's a twitter user name, obviously) that mentioned my wiki article and provided a link to it. So I see it has potential. I just need to figure out the best way to use it :-)

Anyhoo, if you care to follow me on twitter, you can do so by signing up for an account yourself, and then searching for "amandabauman".

This concludes the geek portion of my day. Amanda out!

Dallas TX - You remind me of why I live in Austin

So this past weekend I made the trek up to Dallas for a wedding. 2000 was the last time I visited, and for good reason. I observed on my drive up there that as my proximity to Dallas increased, so did the arseholes on the road. There's a point, right between Waxahacie and Dallas where the courteous driver becomes the minority on the road and the SUV driving, bumper hugging, lane changing jerk who speeds up so you can't pass becomes the majority. It makes me very nervous driving around discourteous drivers and I swear I could have crushed diamonds with my buttox by the time I got to my destination, especially driving that tiny Honda. Why are people so dang angry in Dallas? Discourteous driving isn't the only off-putting thing about Dallas. When I checked into my hotel the guy at the front desk never cracked a smile, even though I was pleasant and smiling, and even joked with him. And later on in the evening I almost had to throw down with someone trying to steal a parking spot that I clearly had identified as being mine with my turn signal, proximity to said space, and the fact that I arrived there first.

Anyway, the reason for my visit, as I said, was a wedding. My friend Johnnie, who I've been friends with for about 14 years now, finally got married. This was the first time for me to meet his wife, Candace, and since my departure from Dallas, Johnnie has a whole new set of friends. I loved Candace and I made sure to let Johnnie know that he was marrying up. I made a couple of new friends at the wedding. The wedding took place in a dojo and the ceremony was fun and brief, as all good weddings should be.

After the wedding I took off for part 2 of my trip to Dallas. As luck would have it, my favourite Austin musicians were playing in Dallas that night at the Glass Cactus, and Michelle was there. Traffic getting to the Glass Cactus was ridiculous and it was here that the parking garage throw down almost ocurred. I must admit, though, I felt pretty cool when I got to the front of the club and told the hostess I was on the guest list, and she waved me through the velvet rope ahead of a line that was forming, and informed me that my party was waiting at the VIP booth on the far side of the dance floor :-)

Fortune smiled on me once again as one of the band members and his wife were not using their hotel room that the club had reserved for them and paid for, so I was able to take it and not have to worry about driving back to my hotel. That's when my good friend Tequila showed up. You know Tequila. He gets around, is the life and soul of every party, and man did Tequila party with us. We met up with our Dallas friend whom I'd met before at Cedar Street and she introduced us to her friends. What a fun bunch! we danced the night away and behaved completely inappropriately -- this tends to happen when you mix a bunch of girls with booze and good music. After the gig the party moved to the hotel and we partied well into the not so wee hours of Sunday morning. Further details surrounding this evening shall be omitted and locked in the vault to protect the guilty. I realized early Sunday afternoon that Tequila, despite being the life and soul of the party, is nobody's friend. In fact, Tequila will bite you on the arse, and kick you in the groin when you least expect it. Damn you Tequila.

Hey, Y'all... it's snowing (and Happy Birthday to my other BFF)

Last night was our first "snow" of the season. I'm using quotes when I say snow because it's Texas snow. The kind that causes the whole city to freak out and drive like complete idiots, even though the ground is far too warm for it to actually stick, and far too warm for ice to form. It'd be amusing if it wasn't life-threatening. It's rare for snow to happen in Austin, so we're ill-prepared for it, unlike the northern parts of the country.

Last night we went out for Michelle's birthday, anyone who knows Michelle will also know that on her birthday, more so than the rest of the year, she is the Queen and her every wish should be granted. And as her friends we all rally around to make this happen. And what fun we had. We started off with dinner at Azul Tequila, which was infused with margaritas and colourful dinner conversation, most if which should not be repeated in a public forum, but I can assure you that the restaurant mysteriously cleared out. Coincidence? I think not.
After dinner we went to Warehouse saloon for a bit of Karaoke. Now let me tell you, karaoke in the presence of a number of very well respected Austin musicians is rather an intimidating prospect. There were 4 of said well respected musicians in our group and as I took the stage for my rendition of Evanescence's "Bring me to life" I had a major case of stage fright, which I pushed through and sung my lungs out, accompanied by the fabulous Robert Wagner (of Suede fame, among other things), and Brian (Lee, not Bauman - who is musically challenged) belted out an amazing rendition of a Dio song that prompted a standing ovation from some neighbouring tables. Brian and Andrea were "nominated" to sing a duet together, and for neither of them really knowing the song, they did a damn fine job, and Andrea and I did Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't go breaking my heart", which I thoughoughly enjoyed singing with her. Michelle looked like she had a fun birthday, surrounded by great friends.

When we left to go out for the evening, the weather was not looking like it would produce snow and I was skeptical as we dropped Trent off at Aunt Tara's house when she said that the forecast predicted sleet. But as we left the bar it was, indeed, snowing. Driving home Brian and I observed that it was like experiencing warp speed as depicted on Star Trek (I'm a huge Trekkie). Tara reported that Trent was an absolute angel for her. He played and impressed her and Uncle Mike (via phone) with his mad skills with the flash cards. They cuddled for a while, and Trent curled up and went to sleep. What a good boy he is. We're so proud of him. Trent woke up during the transition from house to car and we got to introduce him to snow. He pointed out of the car window and said something that sounded like "whasat?". I said "snow" and he said "noo?" and I repeated "Snow" and then he started signing "bird". It occurred to me that bird is really the only thing he knows that floats around in the sky so maybe to him he was thinking the snowflakes were a massive flock of very tiny birds.

When I awoke this morning I was greeted by a Texas winter wonderland where all the houses had snow on the roofs, and any cars out in driveways had a nice layer of snow on them, but the rest of the world was relatively snow-free. It's funny that we can go from a high of 78 degrees to snowing on the same day. Ah the joys of living in Texas. I wouldn't change it for anything :-)

on a more positive note...

Thanksgiving was delicious! Some of the highlights:

Baked Brie with cranberry and walnut - I didn't make this but it is worth mentioning. Delicious! It's brie with a pie crust around it, and inside the crust is cranberry sauce and chopped walnuts with apricot.

Stilton cheese imported from England - if you have never tasted Stilton, you really should. It's so flavourful and creamy, and goes so perfectly with a big oaky red wine. MMMMMMMM!

Homemade sage and onion stuffing - Darice and I bought freshly baked bread and made our own breadcrumbs for the stuffing. I sauteed onions celery and garlic in butter until the onions were soft, then added freshly chopped sage, garlic salt, and chicken stock, combined this all with the breadcrumbs, and baked it for 40 mins. Delicious!

Shiner Bock Turkey with sage, rosemary and garlic rub - I made a sort of pesto with fresh rosemary (swiped from the bush outside my neighbour, Jim's house - thanks Jim for letting me "steal" some), fresh sage, garlic, and olive oil. I rubbed this all over the turkey, and separated the skin from the breast/legs and stuffed a bunch under there too. This year we decided not to stuff the turkey since nobody ever eats the stuffing inside the bird. It kinda groses me out that it's been touching raw poultry. Anyway, I shoved some coarsely chopped onions up the bird's bum, and then poured in 2 bottles of Shiner Bock. I basted the turkey every hour with the Shiner, carefully pushing the baster into some small incisions in the skin to baste under the skin. Oh my! what a wonderful turkey!

Orange glazed carrots with ginger - I got the idea for this from weelicious.com (http://weelicious.com/2008/11/25/orange-glazed-carrots/) however, I modified it by using butter instead of vegetable oil. Far less healthy but oh so yummy!

Garlic mashed potatoes - Freshly chopped garlic, garlic salt, milk, butter, feta cheese. Mash it all together. Need I say more?

Homemade cranberry sauce - Just a bag of Oceanspray cranberries, a cup of sugar, a cup of water/OJ or so, simmer and presto! way better than the crap you get in the can.

But the best part of all...

Best Bread Pudding - all credit goes to Darice for making it, and to "Paula Deen, y'all" for coming up with it. It truly, absolutely, was the best bread pudding I've ever had. Ever. Seriously. Go make it. The recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-best-bread-pudding-recipe/index.html

Slight variation on the sauce though. We ran out of eggs and we didn't have brandy so we used rum. It was amazingly good.

Aside from the good food, we had good company, and Trent, as always these days, was a proper good boy. And we finally got to use that room at the front of our house... you know... they call it a dining room. It's not just a place for stashing your strollers anymore.

Xmas funk

Thanksgiving is over, and I can't shake off this grumpy feeling I get whenever the subject of xmas arises. I'm not trying to be a grinch, in fact, I was hoping that this year I would get into the spirit of things because now I have the best reason ever to celebrate xmas... to see my son's face light up when he opens his presents. And I am looking forward to that aspect, but the consumerism of it all just sucks all the joy out of the season for me. I hate having to come up with a list of things I want people to buy me. It takes all the thought out of gift giving if you just send someone a direct link to the item you want. Hell, if we're gonna do that, then let me just go buy it for myself, you go buy your own gift and we'll drop all the pretense that we're being thoughtful and call it even.

It's a bad attitude, I know. And people want to give gifts that you want and will appreciate, and are asking for my help. But if you know a person well enough to feel like you want to give them a gift, then shouldn't you also know enough about them to make a thoughtful decision for yourself on what the gift should be?

I guess the root of my attitude problem is this: last year was Trent's first xmas, and my parents were with me on xmas day for the first time in over a decade, and it was magical. And I suppose I'm protecting my heart from the disappointment of not having them here this xmas by copping a 'tude and setting my expectations low, which consequently makes me grumpy.

I want to shake it, really I do. Last year I even put lights up. This year I can't be arsed to do it.

Trent loves his Uncle Kev and Aunt Darice

Kevin and Darice arrived on Saturday night. We spent Saturday at Mike and Tara's for the OU game, and Trent was perfectly behaved and sooo cute when he curled up in my lap and went to sleep! Oh it just melts your heart. Kevin and Darice got Trent the coolest present. It's a dinosaur that is about as tall as him from head to floor, and he can sit on its back. At first he didn't know what to make of it, and when we sat him on it he was a bit confused, but now he tries to get on it on his own and bounces on it (it doesn't actually bounce) but he rides it like it does. I think he's going to really enjoy his xmas pressie from Nana and Grandad :-)

Kevin and Darice have enjoyed spending time with Trent. The last time they hung out with him he was still very young and not as interactive as he is now. Today we hung out in his play room and went through his flash cards from Renee. This is one of his favourite toys. Today he saw the monkey card and said "mummy" and made an "uuh uhh uh" sound like a monkey. Then he also saw the yak card and repeated the word "yak" after us. It's just amazing how much he's learning right now. So very cool to watch. Every day he busts out with a new word or sign. Yesterday we were driving and he pointed to the car in front of us and signed "car".

You can tell that Trent loves his uncle Kev. He sat next to him on the couch and tried to imitate him, and he had the biggest smile on his face.

A mushy post about friends

This month marks 16 years since the best move my BFF, Barbie ever made. Moving to Texas! Early next year she and I will be celebrating our 16 year anniversary. I've always believed that boyfriends/fair weather friends come and go, but best friends are forever. Sometimes when you make friends, you immediately know you'll be friends forever. Those are the friends with whom you can be completely honest, who can handle you raw, unfiltered opinions, and will always forgive you when you disagree or hurt their feelings. This, for me, is Barbie. There are those friends who slowly become best friends over time, too. Not the same "lightening bolt" so to speak, kind of a slow charge until one day you realize that your week isn't complete unless you interact with this person (you know who you are). Then there are those who you didn't expect to become your best friend but turn out to be irreplaceable (you know who you are, too).
I remember when I first met Barbie. I was fresh off the boat, so to speak, and she had just moved down from Iowa, a cocky 17 year old who thought the world owed her. I would greet her every morning with "morning Baaaaaahb!" and she'd reply "uh.. it's BaR-BIE". And I'd laugh because she hated to be called Barb, and it cracked me up to have her correct me. She was so emphatic and animated. Her hands would go up as a visual cue for me as she sounded out the word "BaR-BIE", and her eyes would kind of dart around in her head. Y'all know the face I'm talking about. LOL!

Anyway, happy 16 years in Texas, Baaaahb! And here's to another 16 years of us laughing, fighting, and being there for each other.

quality time with Trent

Brian made his yearly trip to the race track with the Honda this past weekend. He is now certified to race without an instructor! Go Babe! Unfortunately, he wore through an entire set of brake pads, and is spending today working on getting the Honda back up to spec. He had a blast, though, and he made some very cool new friends. Hopefully he can make this a more frequent trip than just once a year. Meanwhile, Trent and I spend the whole weekend hanging out, just the two of us. I really enjoyed it, I think Trent did too.
On Saturday morning we played and watched the Disney channel, then we went for a run in the afternoon and played some more up until bed time. On Sunday we ran errands together, and had a lunch date a Whataburger. Trent was the most charming lunch date. He used his fries to eat almost a whole carton of BBQ sauce, and he only wore a little bit. We sat and chatted and used lots of sign language and Trent flirted with people as always. When we were leaving a lady came up to us and said that she was really enjoying watching how we interact with each other and she was really impressed with Trent's communication skills. It's so nice when random strangers compliment you on your kid :-)
We also had a productive weekend. Trent helped me vacuum the carpets upstairs (he sat on my hip as I pushed the hoover around), then we cleaned the floors downstairs (Trent pushed the swiffer around), we cleaned out the pantry and Trent helped me by putting things in the trash can and when I was finished, he so helpfully took something out of the trash and put it back in the pantry ;-). And then he helped me fold all the laundry by crawling on it and pulling out random things for me to fold. After a nap and chores we went out for a run to help offset the Whataburger we had for lunch, then we played and Trent took a bath, playing with his new bath boat we picked up during our errands. And we ended the day with stories until Trent signed "sleepy" and he went to bed.
I think alone time with Trent was just what I needed! I'm just so proud of my little helper.

you guys

I realized the other day that I no longer use the word "you" in its plural form (which is still "you") and instead I use "you guys". Even when I'm referring to women. I do this because in America, using you as plural confuses people and they think you're addressing just one person in a group. At least that's been my experience. I don't like how "you guys" sounds, so....

I'm going to embrace my Texanism:

Coming to a conversation near you soon...

"Y'all"

As in "y'all better not be makin' fun of my accent when I say y'all".

Dog - Free to good home

Our neighbor has a puppy he's giving away (FREE). It's a Dachshund, it's house broken, and it's great with kids.

He's giving it away because his wife says the dog 'stares' at her when she is undressing, and that gives her the heebie jeebies. I think she is just weird!

So ff you're interested, or know someone who is, let me know. Here's a picture of the dog (see below).




















Hehe. Creepy, no?

Baby Blue Tooth

It's amazing how much information toddlers absorb about their surroundings. I was blown away the other day when Trent picked up a USB thumb-drive that way laying around. My first instinct was to take it from him, but as I was about to, I noticed him putting it up to his ear and trying to talk into it, just like daddy does with his Blue Tooth headset!

There are no flies on this kid!

It's Alive!

So remember my recent post about my Canon Digital SD450 LDC screen getting shattered? Well it is now in full working order! Just call me Handy Mandie from now on :-)

The instructions I used can be found here: http://www.andyozment.com/guides/broken_lcd_cracked_screen_canon
These instructions were spot on and extremely helpful. Without them I probably would have made many mistakes and it likely would have taken many times longer. So thanks, Andy Ozment, for explaining this so well!
One small amendment to Andy's instructions:
In step 6, you actually can remove the tripod mount. I found that there were 2 small screws holding it in place on the SD450, and I undid those and the tripod mount came right out. I highly recommend doing this rather than threading paper through with the old ribbon cable. (I did try that method and broke the paper, which then caused me to look for other options).
Here are some pictures of the process...

Camera with the case removed







Camera with the LCD removed, but still attached by the ribbon cable. The white area is the LCD backlight.






This image shows a piece of paper taped to the ribbon cable so you can pull the new cable through with it. I suggest if you use this method that you use something stronger than paper, like string, instead.




This is the new LCD screen in place after it's been connected to the circuit board.






And this picture is evidence that it works! YAY!







Of course, I couldn't stop at just fixing the camera. I also wanted to understand how this happened since clearly the glass surrounding the LCD was not actually broken. So I decomposed the LCD screen layer by layer till I found the source of the crack :-)
The screen is made up of two layers of glass. One thicker outer glass, then a paper thin layer of glass, presumably with the transistors embedded into it, which is overlayed by two sheets of flexible polarizing material, with the liquid crystal between the two. The paper thin glass to which the polarizing material was attached was shattered. I still have no concrete proof that it was sound that broke the screen. But it's looking more likely.

Baby Einstein

I don't put much stock into other people's comments about their kids being geniuses, or smart, or gifted. I think every parent would like to think that their kid is special, smarter than other kids of the same age, etc. So I am posting this not to say my Trent is a genius, but just to say I'm proud of him for working so hard on his communication skills.

At school yesterday his teacher told me that they took out a sign language book, and Trent knew far more signs than anyone else in his class (even though he's the youngest).

His sign language vocabulary is quite impressive, I must admit. He's also mimicking things we say, so now's the time to "mind your Ps and Qs" so to speak. He has a toy owl (courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa's trip to Ireland) and he is very fond of it because he actually can say it's name. "Ow-el". He points to it, or holds it out to show me and says "Ow-el" very clearly. And the other day I asked him what an owl was, and he signed and said bird!

Way to go Trent! we're so proud of you.

Election 08

I can't let the presidential election results go uncommented... And I don't like to talk about politics. My views on politics are similar to my views on religion. Private. Nobody's business but mine. And if you want to shove your ideals down my throat or persecute me for mine on either subject, I'm likely to tell you to f*** off.

As a person who doesn't have the right to vote in this country, which I might add, is by choice -- I am quite eligable to become a citizen, and I have my reason for not becoming such, which far outweigh any benefit I might gain from doing so -- the most PC thing I can think to say is this:

Thank you America :-)

Get yer kit off, Jason?

Ok, I'm a huge fan of Jason Statham. I'll watch anything he's in because he usually does awesome action movies where he plays a complete and utter badass, and while he's not the best looking man on the planet, he exudes manly sexiness. I watched "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" last night. Well, I attempted to watch it, let's put it that way. About an hour into it I declared it a complete snooze-fest. I've come to expect a certain level of gratuitous shirtlessness and greased-uppedness from Jason, based on his past films, but this movie had no such thing. At least not in the first hour. Where's the hook, man? how are you gonna keep us womenfolk watching if you dunna take yer kit off? Sure there were some fight scenes in which he was a badass, but again... shirt. Hear me, Hollywood. It's what the ladies want.

Suede rocked my LCD screen to pieces!

Check out these images of my LCD screen on my Canon SD450:



The interesting thing to note here is that the actual glass is unaffected. It's simply the LCD that is shattered. There's clearly an impact point, which would lead you to believe that something hit it. But I'm 99% sure that nothing hit it. I have no evidence to support this theory, and I've tried Googling it, but no hits, but I think that the sound produced by the band cracked my LCD! Ok, it's a far-fetched idea, but bear with me here. I mean sound waves can actually break glass. A little background on why I think this:

So the girls and I were at the cave party. Suede was playing (side note: Awesome party, very creative costumes). We went to dance and Barbie and I put our purses on top of the speaker. The camera was in my purse, which was never dropped or put in harm's way. I had taken a photo only moments before we went to dance and all was well. The next time I took the camera out, which was a few moments after retrieving my purse from the speaker (where it had stayed the whole time I was dancing), the LCD screen looked like that!

So the camera is toast. It still takes pictures, but I can't access any of the menu functions like this so we're stuck on Automatic. First instinct is to write it off and buy a new one, but the geek in me wants to take it apart and fix it, bionic man style. I blame my dad for this trait - when I was a kid, I'd always find him in the garage with the back off of a TV or the guts of a VCR hanging out, and I'd watch as he fixed it. Is it strange that I feel a little excited at the prospect of taking something apart? Anyway, I'm gonna order a new LCD and install it myself. What do I have to lose? If I pay someone to repair it, that would cost more than just buying a new camera. And if I destroy the camera, well ok, I'm out $60 and I no longer have a tiny camera that doesn't fully function and we're back to buying a new camera.

We have the technology. We can rebuild it. Wish me luck!

End of week 1

Today marks the first week in my new job. I've been busy all week and my email inbox is extremely active. I've got about 10 pages of handwritten notes and a todo list as far as the eye can see. And aside from the fact that I have a burning knot in my left shoulder, I'm actually not stressed. Or maybe I am and I'm in denial.

I hope the pace of this week isn't an indication of how life will be from now on. I'm hoping it's a learning curve and a matter of getting processes in place, and then thing will slow down. I've managed to get to the gym only once this week and haven't had time to even go for a run. Not good. The silver lining, if you can call it that, is that I'm far too busy to eat. Every day this week I've sent the boys off and got straight the laptop, and around 10:30 my stomach has complained that it's hungry and I've fed it something to shut it up, like a banana, or a small bowl of cereal. Then by 3pm I've realized that I've missed lunch, so I grab a large handfull of peanut M&Ms (curse you Costco for having a 5lb bag of them!). Then, realizing it's too late to eat otherwise I'll mess up everyone else's dinner schedule, I suffer through till dinner time.

Hopefully when things settle down I'll be able to get back into a healthy routine. Hey, at least I'm not bored at work!

Trent "Awesome" Bauman

The "A" is for "Awesome".
Today I'm going to bore you by bragging about my kid. I always got so annoyed by those parents who felt it necessary to share every little detail of their kid's development with me. Like "little Jimmy drank out of a big boy cup today!". I never quite got the significance of those tiny accomplishments, passing them off as "big fricking deal, my cat can do that". Having lived with Trent now for almost 16 months, I can really appreciate this type of cheer leading for your kid. Aside from the wailing episode from the recent haircut, Trent is the most amazing, sweet kid I've ever met. Ok, granted, I'm biased, but every day I'm just blown away by something he does.

Recently he has been so cooperative when he's getting dressed/undressed. He used to struggle and fight but now he actually assists.
He is now really good at eating with a fork/spoon. Almost always gets the food into his mouth. When he comes home from school, he immediately goes over to his chair and indicates that he'd like you to help him get in it.
He can drink from a regular cup now without spilling it all down the front of him, and he will put the cup down without knocking it over. While I always thought this was no big deal, it actually is because so many times he's tipped the cup too far and ended up wearing the contents. They also go through a throwing phase with cups, where when they're done, they just let go or toss it. You can't do that with a regular cup.
Then there's all the words he's saying - he's repeating a lot of the things we say. He's using his sign language consistently, and he's sounding out the letters of the alphabet when I use the flash cards with him. It's so cute when he hears Brian in a different room, and he says "dada!" and does the sign, then goes to find him.
Over the weekend he actually took a nap without fighting me, largely thanks to Grandma, who simply put him in his crib and walked away. He doesn't try to push Grandma's buttons like he does me. But following her lead the next day I put him down for his nap and walked away. Presto! the kid rolled over and slept!
The last several nights he's signed that he's tired and gestured to get into his crib! Usually, when we put him in his crib, he'd have a little fuss for a few seconds, but now he's just rolling over, hugging his night-night bear, and going to sleep.

Every day I'm so impressed by how smart he is. Lately he's been learning to put the shapes into the shape sorter. He consistently goes for the circle or square and knows which holes they go through. The other shapes he's working on, and with just a little pointing from me, he wrestles them into the right holes. He's also doing really well with the stacking cups. He now builds towers all on his own using the cups in the right size order, and then he nests them, experimenting with the different sizes till the right one fits. He seems to have a very logical mind, which I think he must get from Brian. For that I'm very thankful.

Every evening after dinner, we go up to his play room and spend an hour playing before bed. And every evening he does something that makes me so proud of him, whether it's sorting blocks, building towers, gathering toys and putting them away in their bins, or simply curling up on my lap for a story. I sure do love my little guy. He's so cool right now that I want to freeze time and keep him like this forever. But I know even cooler times are ahead.

Brian and I can totally see now why people have more than one kid. Not that we have any plans for more right now, so you can all let out that breath you just sucked in and held for a split second longer than normal breathing ;-) I'm just saying that with how awesome Trent is these days, we wouldn't be opposed to having another one just like him. And the liklihood of having another one just like him is quite remote... so that's just a silly pipe dream.

Sweeny Todd

This morning, as I sent my boys off to school and work, I couldn't help taking a time out to snap a few quick shots of Trent.
Last night he went through the trauma of a haircut. He hates having his hair cut and it takes two of us to hold him down as he wriggles and struggles, screaming like we're trying to actually cut his head off or something.
I use clippers, which is part of the problem. He doesn't like the sound of them. Grandma had a good suggestion - she said maybe I should let him hold them for a while and get used to the sound. But, alas!, it didn't work out so well. He immediately cried as soon as I turned them on. Even when I stopped using them, and set about him with the scissors he freaked out because he was being held against his will. Tossing his head around. You have to be really careful with a pair of scissors around a writhing 15 month old, it's kind of like trying to shave a cat.
I've tried other methods of cutting his hair, such as waiting for him to fall asleep in his buggy, and then giving him a stealth haircut. But it's hard to do and I can never get the back properly. Again, the though of duct taping him to a chair crossed my mind, but that'd make me a bad mother and CPS would be knocking on my door if they caught wind of it.

But the end result is always worth the agony. Just take a look a this handsome fella I woke up to this morning!

1st day on the new job

Monday was my first day on my new job. My day flew by but I couldn't tell you what I did with the time, really. I've spent the past 7 years working, for the most part, with the same set of developers, and essentially on the same product, although the product (well just call it XPD) has morphed and changed over the years. So I've had a very narrow view of the world for a long time. Living and breathing XPD, not having the time to raise my head up and take a look around me to see what else goes on. And now suddenly I find myself up in the clouds looking down at the bigger picture. It's still not the big picture in the grand scheme of things, but it's definitely a bigger picture than I'm used to.
I found it interesting, refreshing, actually, to think of something other than XPD. It's not without it's bad points, though. As with all change, with it comes the feeling like big dumb ass because I don't know anything yet, and I don't even know what it is I don't know so I can't ask good questions. But I know this is temporary and I am going to rock this job. I just have to figure out how to divide that bigger picture into manageable chunks.

Weekend fun

Trent and I ran 8 miles with Uncle Mike on Saturday. That was my first time to run 8 miles since my last marathon, I think... We both felt great, though (Mike and I). Trent seemed to enjoy the scenery around Brushy Creek Park as well. When we arrived home, Grandma and Grandpapparazi were here! Brian and Grandpa spent the entire weekend trying to fix a broken sprinkler in our back yard, meanwhile Grandma and I entertained Trent.
Trent is learning so fast these days, it's amazing to watch. Some of the things he does leads me to believe he's got a very logical and analytical mind. We spent a lot of time building towers, sorting shapes, climbing up and down stairs, etc.
On Saturday night I got a reprieve from the routine to go shake my bum at Cool River with my favourite band, spending the majority of the evening dancing up front with my "partner in crime", Michelle. I've mentioned this before that the people watching at Cool River is stellar. This night was no exception. I hate the place, but I love it, and for the same reason. Weird!
On Sunday I got a hankerin' (that's the Texan in me coming out) for ribs and in the interest of time, we opted to satisfy my hankerin' with a trip to Rudy's. Not the best place for ribs (y'all remember the Salt Lick, right?), but good enough.
Normally I wouldn't bore people with the details of Trent's nightly routine, but this warrants a mention. Last night after his bath, Trent actually asked to be put in his crib. He signed that he was tired, then he walked up to the crib, put both hands on the bars and tried to climb up. When I picked him up and put him in he rolled right over with this night-night bear, and went to sleep. What a good boy! Brian and I came down stairs and were like "did that just happen?".

Random post

This week's been pretty fun. On Thursday night I finally introduced a new set of my girl friends to Suede at Cedar Street. Renee was skeptical because she's not a fan of cover bands, but it was so much fun for me to see the look on her face as they rocked out. I think she was sold by the time they got to Van Halen. The other two, Veronica and Mara, joined us up front for the obligatory booty shaking.
On Friday evening Brian, Trent and I were planning a family dinner at County Line, but Aunt Tara offered to take Trent for the evening so Brian and I could have a date. Of course we took her up on the offer and went out for dinner, just the two of us. We had such a great time talking and being just us. It's surprising how you don't realize how little time you're making for one another when you are so busy raising a kid. It's also surprising to realize how relaxing it is to have dinner sans kid.

So far this weekend, Trent and I have ran 14 miles over 2 days. We thought about doing the IBM 10K but it was too early in the morning and I was feeling slightly lazy. Several of our friends ran it, though, and I can't wait to hear how it went for them.

One more week till new job starts. I'm sooooo ready for the change. I will miss working with my old team, though. I've been working with this group of developers for 7 years. I guess you could say I have a 7 year itch. I'm struggling to come to terms with the fact that I'll be giving up my technical skills to do my new job. It doesn't take long to get rusty in this industry, so I need to be ok with that. Part of me thinks I could still keep up with the technology. Maybe I can. Or maybe I just need to deal with the fact that I'll be aquiring new skills and focusing on my soft skills. Anyway, it's a good, scary change. I needed to shake things up a bit.

New Job

OK. Now that it's been announced, I can share a limited amount of details on what my new job is. Of course, I never reveal which company I work with, or mention any co-workers or manager names in my blog, so if you want more details than this, you can contact me directly.

I'm staying with my current company, and I am even staying within my current division. I'm going to be a Program Manager. I'll be reporting to a 2nd line manager in my organization now, and will be managing a program that identifies the need for technical articles, finds writers willing to write the content, and connect them with the appropriate delivery formats and vehicles for that type of documentation. That's an over simplified version.

I have a mixture of feelings about the new role. I'm ready for a change and I feel like it's long overdue, but of course I've been in my comfort zone for so long now that it's a scary change. It's also a very visible role, and being an introvert (gasp! it's true), this is the part I'm struggling with the most. I can't let fear keep me in my comfort zone, though, so here we are.

BFF weekend

This weekend was filled with the company of many of my BFFs (Best Friend Forever). I'm so lucky to have so many people in my life who qualify for that title. And I'm not sure if I've shared this news... my oldest BFFs (as in those I've known the longest, not that they're necessarily old) are working on moving to the USA! How fricking exciting is that? Mel has accepted a job in California and is working on passing all the tests now. It could be less than 2 years!
So this weekend was a long weekend for us. I took off Monday to hang with my sweet Trent. On Saturday we all went over to Mike & Tara's for the Texas / OU game. I actually wore burnt orange --not because I like football. Let's get that right out of the way-- but because I feel a sense of loyalty to my home town's team. Yeah, you read it right. My home town. Austin. I can be considered a Texan, even an Austinite. And because I feel a sense of loyalty to the school and team that my husband loves. Anyway, needless to say I couldn't tell you what happened in the game, nor could I tell you the score. But I did enjoy hanging out with great friends. Trent got to hang out with his best buddy, Maverick. They just love each other. He would throw the ball over the upstairs balcony and Mav would run down the stairs to fetch it. I bet Maverick was sooo tired that evening.

On Sunday Trent and I got to go running with Aunt RockStar (Andrea) around Brushy Creek trail, where we discovered a really cool sand pit that Trent and I will re-visit when we have more time. It was covered with a big canopy and there were tons of buckets and spades strewn about for kids to play with. We did a respectable 5.5 miles. On Sunday afternoon we went over to Aunt Barbie and Uncle Scott's to hang out with Cousin Jett, where Aunt and Uncle Bebe and Cousin Aria met us. It was our first time to all hang out with the kids. Trent was a perfect little boy, playing with his buddy, Radar, and trying to be gentle (but not succeeding) at petting Jett. Uncle Bebe entertained us a little with Uncle Scott's guitar, and Trent sat mesmorized on the floor with me.

On Monday, Trent and I spent the day together for the most part. We walked on Town Lake with Aunt Barbie and Jett, then had lunch at Magnolia Cafe. Then we played all day, and Trent went for a run with Daddy some time before dinner. He's such a cool kid, these days. I wish I could just stop time and keep him like this forever!

15 month milestones

I can't recall if I mentioned that Trent has "graduated" to the toddler class at daycare. He's fitting in really well and seems to be having a blast. Unlike the infant class, in the toddler class their days are more structured. We really like his teacher, Ms. Mandy, and feel confident that Trent's getting the best care possible.

Lately, though, he's been coming home and running to me wanting to be picked up. Which I do, because I miss him during the day and I'm so happy to see his smiling face come through the door. However, as soon as I put him down he throws a massive tantrum! Twice now I've had to give him a time out. I've found that time outs are effective if combined with a stern voice and some finger wagging, but it's so heart breaking to have to do that and see his little face looking up at me sniffling and trying to be a good boy and stop throwing a fit. I think he's testing boundaries right now and once he discovers how far he can push us he'll move on to other tactics of manipulating us. I'm sure he doesn't understand me when I say "Mummy does not respond to screaming, so you'll have to figure out how to communicate in another way". But it makes me feel better that I said it.

We had our 15 month Dr. visit yesterday. He's doing very well on all his milestones and has grown to 31 inches tall and 23lbs. That puts him right around the 50th percentile. The snotty nose and congestion he's been suffering lately is viral, which is actually good news because it's not allergies, and it's helping him build his immunity. He had 3 shots yesterday, including a flu shot, and was such a big boy about it!

Mail Goggles

Oh man! I've needed this in the past, and I know some people who need it now if they could adapt it to work on text messages from your phone :-)

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html

Fun with cousin Aria

eeeeeeeeee!

I have a new job :-)

A girly weekend

It's been a weekend packed with girly fun. Brian and Trent spent the weekend in Houston, which gave me a much needed break. A big thanks to Grandma for taking care of Trent all weekend :-)

My weekend consisted of shopping, sleeping late and taking up the entire bed (aah! such a luxury), cuddling on the couch with the cats and the remote control, a clean house, slumber party at Renee's complete with pedicures, tie dye, pole dancing, playing on the playscape and swings, and my favourite thing... Tequila!, downtown, Suede, shaking my arse, best friends, and Katz's.

And to round off my blissful weekend of freedom, I'm going to enjoy this great weather, put my iPod on, and go for a long run.