attitude adjustment

In light of my recent holiday cancellation and consequent bummed out feeling, I needed a distraction. Yesterday I spent the day at Hippie Hollow with Barbie, Michelle, & Andi. We all giggled when the lady at the booth at the park entrance said "y'all know it's clothing optional, right?" Of course we know!
We made our way down the rocks to a perfect spot and made ourselves comfortable. We figured since it's a week day that there wouldn't be too many people out. We were wrong. By noon the place was buzzing with nekked people and very entertaining for us. Many times we laughed so hard we rendered ourselves inaudible. You know, the kind of laughing that looks like someone pressed the mute button. At one point we were happily floating around in the lake when a MASSIVE critter launched an attack on our picnic area. We identified the offender as a squirrel the size of a raccoon. The thing was humungous! The reaction of our group and the surrounding people was hilarious and we spent a good 20 minutes trying to control ourselves and causing a major scene. Barbie rescued our food from the critter while the rest of us watched helplessly from the water and heckled her.
A group of guys showed up about the time we were ready to leave and started throwing beer bottles into the lake. As the rest of the people sat there and politely ignored it, Andi asked them to stop it and pick it up. Go Andi! When we left we ratted them out to the park ranger. Bastards need to learn some respect.
What a fun day we had. We all left with a major attitude adjustment, and the promise to do this more often.
I still want my cruise, though, Brian. Don't think you're off the hook ;-)

Is there brightness on the horizon?

I spent some time with mum & dad on Sunday, via web cam. They enjoyed watching Trent trash the patio with a bucket of water and some sidewalk chalk. We also talked about their upcoming holiday to Rhodes (Greece). I'm very happy that they were able to find an alternate destination for their holiday for the same dates and everything. I had briefly entertained the idea of us joining them, but after a bit of research online it turned out to be a bit unfeasible due to the number of connecting flights needed to get there.
Then we got to talking about next year's plans and a great idea was born! We could go to England for a week, then leave Trent with mum & dad, and just Brian and I could go to Italy for a week! how much fun would that be??? then, since I was in the holiday mood, I thought it might be a good idea if Brian and I could take a 4 day cruise out of Galveston this year after the pig flu problem is resolved and travel to Mexico resumes. Wouldn't that be nice! 4 days with just my husband.

a little cheese with that whine?

I have lived a relatively charmed life. I don't have much to complain about at all. And the situation I'm in regarding living thousands of miles and an ocean away from my family is self-inflicted. But somehow, right now, those facts still don't make me feel any better about the fact that I was looking forward to seeing my parents in less than a week, and now I have to wait 7 months to see them. And purely due to circumstances way beyond my control. I'm not just disappointed for me. I'm disappointed for them, too. And for Trent. And on a more selfish note, I was so in need of a holiday. I was so looking forward to relaxing on a white sandy beach, not thinking about work or responsibility. And now it's business as usual. With nothing to look forward to. No plans. No beach. Nothing. I realize this makes me sound terribly spoiled and part of me is thinking "boo fricking hoo mandie, get over it, people are dying of the flu", but I just can't shake it. :-(

Idol manipulation

I love the psychology behind American Idol. The manipulation tactics they use to make you remember or forget a performance, like the "pimp spot", for example. The pimp spot is the last spot of the night. It plays on the short attention span of the veiwers. Adam Lambert has dominated the pimp spot for more of the weeks than any other contestant.
I was amused by the mind manipulation on the results show last night. I was surprised to see Adam Lambert in the bottom 3, but what I wasn't surprised about was when they said they would send one of the 3 back to safety, they chose Kris, and not Adam, and this is pure speculation on my part, but the media buzz around him and popular opinion of my friends, seems to support my hunch, that Adam was unlikely to have received less votes than Kris. The producers clearly wanted us to be on the edge of our seats as Matt and Adam waited to hear which one of them would be gone. Of course we all knew it would be Matt. We all KNEW. But it doesn't stop you from feeling that tiny bit of doubt for Adam. And the result? all those Adam fans who felt that he was safe and nobody can touch him will pick up the phone and vote for him next week. He likely won't be in the bottom 3 next week. That's just an observation from an untrained eye.

2 weeks since my last blog?

Wow, I'm slacking! Ok, what's gone on in the past 2 weeks?

Well, first and foremost on my mind is this damn swine flu outbreak in Mexico. That's royally screwed up our holiday plans. I was so looking forward to that trip, not only because *I need* a holiday very badly, because I have a very stressful job and being a mother to a very active toddler on top of that is extremely hard, but also because I get to see my parents once a year! Many people I know joke and say things like "man, I wish I only saw my parents once a year!". Let me tell you, if you were in my situation you'd feel much differently, no matter what your relationship is with your parents. I'm not saying you'd feel the same way I do, but certainly you wouldn't be wishing to only see them once a year. I'm lucky enough to have a great relationship with my parents, and I can't think of anything I'd enjoy more than spending a couple of weeks with them, and seeing how much they love Trent, and how much he loves them. Now I don't get to do that. At least not for another 7 months!
I'm trying to get over it. Really I am. But I just feel robbed of an experience that was so important to me. I'm mad. I want to blame someone, but of course there isn't anyone to blame, and blame is pointless because it won't change my situation.

Other things of note:

• Trent counts only in odd numbers.
• My American Idol prediction on who would leave last week was spot on.
• That awesome blue cheese pasta dish I made a while back is even better with beef (leftover fajita beef)

Idol chatter 2009

I haven't blogged much about American Idol this season, mostly because I've been using Facebook to air my opinions. Tonight, though, Brian is working on the Honda (regular maintenance) and I have some time to kill. He doesn't get into American Idol, so I usually watch it alone anyway.

Alison Irahita took on an Aerosmith song. In fact one of my favourites. I thought she did ok. My issue with her is that she doesn't have much range. I think that she picks songs that suit her voice, and that is probably the only reason she's still around.

Anoop Desai has a lovely voice, but there's something about him that makes me think he's a jerk. I can't get past it.

Adam Lambert is probably my favourite Idol of all the seasons (ok, I loved Daughtry and David Cook too) but Adam's got a star quality and is the most unique contestant the show has ever had. My money is on him to win.

Matt Giraud is too piano bar. I think voices like his are a dime a dozen and he pulls some weird faces when he sings. I just can't get past it.

Kris Allen is completely forgettable for me. He has a decent voice, but I find myself forgetting his performances almost immediately. I think he's pretty, though.

Danny Gokey has an excellent voice and is very talented. Something about his face reminds me of Robert Downey Jr., although I don't think he looks like him. Danny's my #2 pick. I predict that he, Alison, and Adam will be the last 3 standing.

Lil Rounds has consistenly disappointed over the past few weeks. She started off so well but has completely lost herself in bad song choices. I completely agree with the judges on this one. Poor Lil. She seems sweet.

I was happy to see Scott McIntyre go last week. I felt like he got a lot of mileage out of his disability and he didn't measure up to the others vocally. I admired his attitude and how capable he was despite his visual impairment, though. A true inspiration that you can overcome almost any challenge.

So there you have it. I predict Alison or Danny will be the second to last person standing, and Adam Lambert will take the gold. Don't let me down, America. (I voted for both Danny and Adam tonight - probably a good 20 votes for each).

I want to do it on MY terms!

Lately Trent has been protesting quite a bit about anything and everything. From changing his nappy (even though he has a huge poop in there) to putting on clothes, to taking a bath, to putting on shoes. He has to do it on HIS terms. So for example, I ask him to put his shoes on, he says "no! no! no! no! no! no!" then 2 minutes later I show him his shoes and say would you like to put your shoes on now, and he says "shoes!" and lets me... the 2 minute waiting period is important :-)

Last night I had to manipulate him into taking a bath using bubbles. Not bath bubbles, but the bubbles that you can blow from the bottle. I had to give him bubbles in the play room, then slowly steer him toward the bathroom while trying to undress him without him noticing. I finally got him into the bath without him screaming. Then when it was time to come out, and to take the bubbles away, he freaked out.

I have to bribe him to get in his stroller and go for a run with me. I have to use cookies. Sometimes even that doesn't work.

He won't sit in his high chair anymore. He freaks out if you try to put him in it. I haven't managed to find a strategy to get him in it yet. He goes all stiff and screams. Now I have to sit and eat one handed with him on my lap. I end up wearing a lot of Trent's food.

Ah the joys of reaching the terrible 2's.

another great pasta dish

3 or 4 links of **Chicken, feta and spinach sausage
handful of asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil
garlic salt
pepper
2 cups bowtie pasta
3/4 cup feta cheese

1. Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile...
2. Cut sausage into small chunks - I find it easier to just take the skins off and use my hands to rip into chunks
3. Brown the sausage in a saute pan.
   
4. Cut asparagus into about 1 inch pieces and place on top of the sausage. Turn head to med/low. Cover and let the asparagus steam for about 2 minutes.
   
5. Mix asparagus and sausage together and turn down the heat to low.
   
6. Drain pasta. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Add olive oil and feta to the pasta. Mix it all up so the feta melts and coats the pasta.
   
7. Add pasta/feta mixture to the sausage/asparagus pan, and mix all together.
   

That's it! you can either serve it right away, or keep it over a low heat and stir it every now and then till you're ready to eat it.

**You can use other types of sausage, this is just the original one that inspired the recipe.

This dish would probably be good with some cherry tomatoes cut in half and tossed in at the last step as well.

Productive weekend

This past weekend Trent had the pleasure of spending his Saturday with his aunt Tara. He had the best time! He didn't flinch when I left, and he had so much fun playing trains with her and Austin. He helped her water the plants in the garden, and they blew bubbles and played ball with Maverick. Meanwhile, Brian and I spent the day doing some much needed chores around the house. Brian took off the front door, stripped and sanded it, and re-stained it to its former glory. All that's left to do now is a clear urethane coat. While Brian took care of that, I cleaned the entire house.
On Tuesday, Trent discovered Baskin Robbins - the ice cream shop at the end of our street. He really enjoyed his chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, but was also very interested in daddy's bubble gum ice cream. After ice cream he walked all the way home holding my hand and talking about ice cream all the way.

Last night Brian, Trent and I went to Steiner Ranch Steakhouse to see Brian & John play. It was a beautiful night, not to hot, just the right amount of breeze, and the venue is incredible because it's overlooking lake Travis in the distance and the sun sets are gorgeous.

It's official!

Brian and I are now officially holders of a United States Patent, issued by the US Government :-)
It has taken 7 years from filing the patent to actually having it issued, but here it is in all its glory:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7490298&OS=7490298&RS=7490298

How awesome is that?

Sadly, one of our co-inventors, Herman Rodriguez, passed away last month. Herman had an amazing enthusiasm for inventing and he took every opportunity to encourage others to invent. Herman leaves behind a an intellectual legacy of hundreds of inventions and US patents, and a personal legacy in all the people he has helped and encouraged to become inventors. I hope everyone he helped will honor his memory and continue to invent things that make the world a better place to live. R.I.P. Herman.

Great chicken pasta dish

I find it hard to always come up with new ideas for dinner, and yesterday was no exception. I had a giant tub of blue cheese, some chicken breasts, and some pasta available, so I experimented with that and came up with the most delicious dish! It took 20 minutes to make and is super easy. Here it is:

Serves 3 - 4

2 chicken breasts
Bowtie pasta (or whatever shape you prefer)
cup of blue cheese crumbles
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 whit or yellow onion
1tsp dried rosemary
garlic salt
pepper

1. Boil pasta according to directions on package
2. In large saute pan, add 1tbsp olive oil, onion and chicken. Season with garlic salt, pepper, and rosemary.
3. Brown the chicken and turn the heat down to low.
   
4. When pasta is cooked, drain and pour into the pan with the chicken.
   
5. Add the remaining 1tbsp of olive oil and toss it all around to get the pasta mixed in well.
   
6. Add the blue cheese. Toss it all around again to mix the blue cheese in. The cheese will melt with the heat from the pasta

Things you could add to make it even better (not all, choose one):
Asparagus
Artichoke hearts
Fresh tomatoes

Interesting article about religion and its correlation to standard of living

http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/Alabamians-Iranians-Common.aspx

I'm very tolerant of other people's belief systems so long as they're not pushing their views on me and condemning me for mine, so I say this with as much objectivity as I can muster:
I found it interesting that Texas is one of the top 10 most religious states, and yet more than 75% of my friends are either non-believers, agnostic, or non-practicing believers. I imagine that's largely due to the fact that I live in Austin. I've always thought of Austin as being like an oasis in the middle of Texas where open mindedness still dominates. That's not to say that I think all religious people are closed minded. I don't think that at all. I do think that to choose a specific religion and to follow it to the exclusion of all other religions closes a person off to all of the other possibilities. I'm just sayin' ;-)

recent observations

There are a lot of cool things happening with the little guy lately:

• He's been talking in sentences, such as "more cheese please" (accompanied by signs for each word), expressing what he'd like to eat (and getting a little pissy when he doesn't get it) for example, he wanted ice cream for breakfast yesterday, but he settled for yogurt.
• Bed time is never a fight anymore. He willingly goes to bed and calls out "I love you mummy!" as I go down stairs.
• He knows about 50 signs and on our walks to the park he enjoys playing "show mummy the sign for....".
  
• He's starting to understand colours and during our walks to the park we play "what colour is mummy's shirt" where I name a colour, he repeats it, and we both say "naaaww!" if it's the wrong colour until we ge to the right one and we nod and say "YEEEEESS!"
• If you say "one, two..." he'll say "three, four, five".
  
• After the recent hail storm, we went out for a walk (because the weather in TX is crazy like that) and he was so amazed at all the ice laying around he kept pointing and saying "Ice! Ice!" (he tried to eat some, too)
• He can build things really well with lego. Last night we built tunnels for his train to go through and he clapped every time the train made it through a tunnel.
• He has mastered the stairs.
  

I have seen other children develop in this manner and I thought it was cool, but you can't really appreciate these small things until your own kid starts to do them, then they become REALLY COOL.

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.