I Got Nothin'

I know I'm due for a post.  I just can't get one going.  All I've got are some random updates:

Last week at Pumpkin's school holiday concert, the mother of a boy who is in love with Pumpkin approached me and laughed about the fact that her son plans to go to synagogue with Pumpkin on Saturdays.  Pumpkin apparently made me look good by telling the boy that this is what we do on Saturdays.  Uhhhhmmmm, we don't do this.  Ever.  She LIED!  To impress a boy?

Chichi is eating cereal now, and can sit up for several minutes at a time.  As per the last developmental update on her, I know this is only interesting to my parents, but I do want to have some written record of when she started doing things.  I wasn't a blogger during Pumpkin's baby stage, leaving me with only my memory for such info.  I think she sat up at two months and started walking at five months.  Sound about right?

I was formulating a post in my head about Hanukkah vs. Christmas, and how they should never be compared seeing as Christmas will always win out due to the month-long build-up, whimsical characters, ambient lights, etc., but I'm actually thinking of retracting those thoughts.  I guess they're still true to me, but I don't feel all jaded and disgruntled enough to write a rant about it.  Hanukkah has actually been fun this year.  We had a family party which was ok, but the kids really enjoyed it, which made it a success.  We've been lighting the menorah, singing songs, and giving Pumpkin a present every night, which has her anticipating her nightly Hanukkah event with excitement.  Tonight was a bit of an exception because she woke up grumpy from a nap, told me that she didn't like her gift, and gave it back to me.  On the upside, I can still re-gift it tomorrow, being the eighth night.  I also find the pace of Hanukkah gift-giving to be better than a bombardment of presents all at once.  Thinking back to her last birthday party, Pumpkin wasn't able to enjoy all her gifts, and didn't play with some of them until months later.  One per night seems to work, even if I am stuck with a box of rejected finger puppets.

Remember the promise of mermaid barbie dolls in exchange for successful potty training?  Doesn't work.  Save your money.  I've gone through three princess, two Disney videos, and promises of everything and everything, but I'm still up to my elbows in crap.  Hating life a little for a few minutes a day.  

Last year's new year's resolution was to shred my papers.  Never did it.  Don't even care. 

As you can tell, I've got nothin'.  If I don't come up with anything new this week, Happy New Year!  See you in 2009....

Baths, Tantrums, and Fire Breathing Dragons

On Saturday night my family was at a Christmas party and came home later than Pumpkin's usual bedtime.  We asked her if she'd like to go straight to bed and skip her nightly bath, but she typically loves her bath and declined our offer.  Sunday night, Pumpkin refused her bath, which was weird, but we had company so I was happy to skip it.  This evening, before starting the bath and bed routine, we were testing out our gas fireplace.  Pumpkin was nervous about it but we assured her that she would be perfectly fine as long as she didn't touch the glass.  She then went off to play for 15 minutes or so.  When I told her that it was time for a bath, she refused.  I didn't want to skip it another night, especially given that she hasn't mastered the whole potty training thing and is often a bit too gross to not be bathed.  I also didn't want her to think that she could dictate to us whether or not she has a bath.  A tantrum ensued, but I stayed the course and bathed her while she kicked and screamed.  I kept asking her why she didn't want her bath but she just kept insisting that she had to go to bed right then and there.  After all was said and done, and I was tucking her into bed, I lay down beside her to see if I could get an understanding of what the problem actually was.  She told me that the fire was going to get her.  She was afraid that the fire-breathing dragon was going to burn her bed, and wreck all her stuff.  Now for the past month or so, Pumpkin has been obsessed with Sleeping Beauty, and has watched the movie many times.  She has also watched Shrek a few times, and often asks me to read The Paper Bag Princess.  All three stories have dragons in them, but she has never expressed a fear of them.  She actually seems to be enthralled with them.  Nonetheless, I spent the next few minutes trying to ensure her that dragons weren't real, and that nothing was going to happen to her, and that the fire was going to stay in the fireplace.  When she was finished listening, she turned her back to me and asked me to go to my own room.  My heart broke a little.  I felt that I had let her down somehow.  The days of simple maintenance are over.  

TA-DAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!

Once upon a time, we had an unattractive room that had a great deal of potential:

Two and a half years ago, we decided to renovate it. I immediately consulted a designer, and selected the materials. What happened next was a whole lot of nothing due to a series of errors and a cast of clowns. It took a year and a half to begin the demolition:

Once we started, we were racing a clock to get the job completed before the birth of Chichi, who was expected six weeks later. Everyone on the job thought it was possible until they realized that it wasn't, and then the wheels fell off for a while. Last week, however, on the day of Chichi's five-month birthday, the job was completed:

I'm still in a bit of shock. I'm shocked that I have somewhere to sit. I'm shocked at how well it turned out. I'm shocked to see that I have a grown-up looking room. And guess what else?:

Dogs doing the conga! It's all too much. I need to lie down.

A Travel Agent I Shouldn't Be

My mom is still on her 35-day cruise of a lifetime. As I've mentioned before, she hasn't travelled much throughout her life, and this is her first cruise. She was nervous about going, but we waived away her concerns, telling her that she'd be perfectly safe on such a large ship, and with so many other people. Her cruise was supposed to stop in Mumbai. That's obviously not going to happen given the recent terrorist attacks, but upon reading the news on the day of the attacks, I was fearful for my mom as I wasn't sure of when she was going to be there. She wasn't there, and the ship wasn't stopping there anymore. Ok, mom was safe again. Or so I thought. What were the odds then, that this 30,000 ton commercial vessel, with almost seven hundred passengers on board, would be attacked by pirates? Seriously! Read the article! Everyone had to take cover as two skiffs tried to intercept ship, and fired eight rifle shots! No one was hurt, and the ship outran the pirates, but what a thing to happen! The cruise is still continuing, and ma is still enjoying herself, but holy crap! If I ever encourage you to take a trip, don't listen to me!