I Think My 3 Year Old Reads My Blog

After three consecutive posts about how I haven't been enjoying my time with Pumpkin lately, I feel the need to change my tune. On the day of my last post, Pumpkin came home from school and was as bratty as ever. She had a swim lesson that afternoon and insisted that she wasn't going. The week before, she spent the whole lesson crying, although the week before that, she loved it. I didn't know if I should have let her drop out, or push her into it, but I really need for her to have afternoon activities for my own sanity, so off we went to swimming with the promise of buying her a Princess Aurora figurine if she did what the instructor asked. The lesson started out pretty rough, but by the end she was more or less complying. I showered her with praise, bought her the stupid princess, and headed home. From that moment forward, she has been a pretty good kid. Very few time-outs have been issued, most meals have been consumed without too much aggravation, we've gotten off to school without any fights, and here's the kicker: SHE SHAT IN THE POTTY!!!!!!!! I wasn't even prompting her. Our secret: She wasn't wearing any clothes from the waist down. Crapping on the floor seemed to disturb her more than crapping in her clothes, so she wandered upstairs by herself and properly took care of business. Guess we'll be doing the half-nekkid thing around here for the next while. Anyhow, remembering the days of when I was offering princess bribes for potty training, Pumpkin interrupted my excitement to ask, "Can I have Belle?" I think I need to buy shares of Disney stock.

Hate

We're not allowed to say that we hate them.  If our children's behaviour is so bad day after day after day after day that we want to cry every morning because getting out the front door is so difficult, we aren't really permitted to hate them.  If they ignore every single thing that we say, despite the time-outs, threats, removal of toys, etc., we still don't get to hate them.  If the thought of them coming home from school makes us feel dread, and even getting them home from school is a challenge in itself, we can't say that it's the children that we hate. Even if our best intentions lead us to take them to programs that get met with resistance, tantrums, and futility, hate is still not permitted.  Think of the judgement we would receive if we regularly expressed hatred for our kids.  The more lenient of the judges would probably tell us that we don't hate them, but that we are just stressed by the trials of parenthood.  Do feelings really need to be so complicated?  I love my daughter the way a mother should, but sometimes...

I Love Bleach

This is a poo post.  If you are even the slightest bit of an intellectual, you will stop reading now.  Still here?  At least we're all in good company.

Last week at Pumpkin's 3-1/2 year check up, we talked to the doctor about her unwillingness to do #2 in the toilet, and entertained the possibility that being constipated was a contributing factor.  Since it is impossible to get Pumpkin to eat food that isn't beige in colour, we were told to give her a particular laxative  product that contains mineral oil, which would get things moving more easily.  My recommendation:  DON'T DO THIS!  I'm not going to describe to you the subsequent events after a week of spiking her juice with this product, but you can refer to the title of this post and draw your own conclusions if you feel so inclined.  All I will say is that doing the kind of laundry that I am doing right now does not exactly endear Pumpkin to me all that much right now. 

Are you still here and reading this?  Why?

Just Venting

It isn't new that three year olds bust our chops more often than they behave, but OMG I AM READY TO DRIVE OFF A BRIDGE THIS MORNING!  I don't even want to give you the details because they are too stupid to even think about, but the combination of Pumpkin being an idiot; Chichi crying for whatever reason; dogs tripping me up in every direction; the leaky kitchen faucet; the fact that I have a physical in an hour and consequently am not permitted to eat, drink coffee, or have a shot of whisky, I am ready to break.  Yup, tears and all.  It's probably not great that I'm having my blood pressure tested this morning.  Deep breaths.  Deeeeep breaths.

Been Waiting All Year for This!

Look what day it is!!!!

C'mon baby!  Show me some comment love!

The Big Day

Everyone was told that they were invited to a resort for the week-end to celebrate our having bought land somewhere in cottage country. A few people said that they couldn't make it, but after hearing some privileged information, they found a way to be there. Our immediate families were there, as well as a few other relatives that we happen to like. All of our close friends were there too. Upon arriving at the resort, everyone was shown to his or her room where they were greeted with a giant invitation stuck to the wall such that it couldn't be missed. The invitation read:

We lied!

Please join us tomorrow at noon

on the main dock

to celebrate the marriage of

T & J

Lunch reception to follow.

Engagement party to begin immediately.

(Will our parents please meet us in room 203 right away

to give us our lumps)

The faces were priceless. From shock, to mile anger/amusement, to overall happiness/admiration. This was no small feat to have pulled off! Our parents exhibited a wide range of emotions as well, but after we sold them on the fact that they didn't have to pay a cent, nor did they have to do any planning, plus realizing that there was nothing that they could do about it, they calmed down enough to agree to join the party. This was really the only way we could have had a small wedding with minimal hassle, yet still include our loved ones.

Too bad I only thought of it in hindsight after having our traditional, mega wedding that cost our parents too much and caused them great stress, as many weddings do. I don't know why I periodically spend time planning the kind of wedding that we didn't have, but the fact is that I do, and this blog is the only place that it can manifest itself. So there it is. Does anyone else waste time on this sort of thing?

Year End Wrap Up

School starts again tomorrow!  We got through two weeks of Pumpkin not being in school, and I'm ready for her to go back.  We did our best to keep her busy during her time off, but I'm out of options for her, and am looking forward to a couple of hours of quiet each day.  During her time off, my mom took her to Casa Loma which was doing a Sleeping Beauty theme; I took her to Disney on Ice; my mom took her to attempt to see The Nutcracker (she lasted through the first half); and we had about 4 or 5 playdates.  Kind of tiring for the grown-ups with the exception of one playdate which was a drop-off.  I'm not one to worry, but it was pretty weird for me to be invited to bring my child over to someone's house and then drive away.  Pumpkin crapped her pants before we left so I didn't have to worry about anyone else having to contend with that, but I was kind of nervous about how she would behave.  Apparently she was fine, although I'm not sure that the nanny in charge would have actually told me that Pumpkin was a demon-child. 

Chichi has pretty much been perfect thus far, and I can only pray that her curious observation of Pumpkin's defiance will lead to nothing further than just observation.  She is a much easier baby than Pumpkin was, so hopefully the trend will continue.  Sometimes I feel a little bad about just how much I am enjoying Chichi when I was never able to feel the same way about Pumpkin, but it's sooooo much easier to like a well behaved baby.  Pumpkin basically didn't like her options and wasn't happy until she could crawl.  Chichi has always been all smiles and is just nice to spend time with.  Honestly, she makes my heart explode on a daily basis.  Too bad she's going to be three someday.  

As for the non-mommy stuff, I managed to have a reasonable social holiday season.  We pretty much saw all of our close friends, and I even hosted a couple of events.  I never have anyone over, but now that I have a decent room for entertaining, I'm feeling a little more motivated.  I had my high-school gang over one night in an attempt to recreate the Christmas potluck that we used to have every year back in the good ol' days.  Not everyone could make it but it was still good to see those who came.  I noticed that we all seem to eat and drink a lot less than we used to.  I made up for that the next night as I hosted the annual New Year's reject party.  Yup, that's what it's called.  Every year we make plans with another couple to do the fondue thing, and invite anyone else who has nothing better to do.  We even had a few takers this year!  I'm not actually big on celebrating New Year's, but it's cool to hang out with friends, break out the chocolate fountain and stay up late.  Small pleasures.  

So that's what's been happening over here.  No major fireworks but the year is still young.  Oh yeah, Happy New Year everyone!

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!

Conversation with Sleeping-Beauty-Obsessed 3 Year Old:

Pumpkin: Sleeping Toody is in trouble!

Me: Why is she in trouble?

Pumpkin: 'Cause she touched the spinning wheel!

Me, impressed that she remembered the storyline: What happened when she did that?

Pumpkin: Her shoes got dirty!

This could be the plot for an entirely different kind of princess movie.

Baby Milestone

Today, Chichi rolled over for the first time! I can't see the majority of my readers finding this remotely interesting, but I wanted it documented somewhere, and I'm sure the odd family member who reads this might want to know. So there it is. Actually, the first thing I thought was, "Great, now learn to sit up so you can get crawling". I should smack myself for thinking such a thing as the next thing I know, she'll be three, kicking me out of her room, contradicting EVERYTHING that I say, and asking me to buy her every toy in existence. I'll be longing for the the simpler times where rolling over was the extent of her independence.

Hey, remember that family room renovation that was to be completed before Chichi was born? Although everyone stopped rushing once they missed that deadline, and although Chichi is almost ready to start college, this Friday will be the big day. Yes, the flooring guys will be coming in to put on the final coat of varnish, and then we will be able to move our furniture in! All the finishing touches will come later, but you have to understand that I did not feel motivated to buy end tables and art work seeing as we already had to pay over a year's worth of storage fees for the stuff that we actually did order. The physical construction took six months, but the plans were drawn up OVER TWO YEARS AGO! Longest one-room reno in history. Pictures coming soon!

November 18th

One year ago today, ...I probably threw up.

Two years ago today, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married. This must have made someone throw up.

Three years ago today, I probably got thrown up on

Four years ago today, ...yeah, I probably threw up.

(Wow, this post is not developing the romantic sentiment that I initially intended. It gets better, I promise)

Six years ago today, we moved into our first house, and started our family.

Seven years ago today, our wedding day, you made me, and continue to make me happier than I ever thought possible.

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

Bon Voyage!

We woke up yesterday and didn't have an out-of-town wedding to go to. It felt strange. Yes, wedding season is over. No more figuring out how to dress given that things don't fit right yet. The dress I wore a month ago to wedding #2 of the year fit fairly well at the time, but I've lost a little bit of the baby weight since then so when I wore it last week at wedding #4, I didn't look too svelte. Oh well. My regularly schleppy self will resume immediately. Bring on the elastic pants!

On an unrelated topic, many months ago, hubby and I talked my mom into taking a 35 day cruise with a friend of hers. The price was relatively good, and the opportunity was once-in-a-life-time, so she booked the trip, not entirely knowing if it was a good idea. Today was her day of departure. Seeing her for the last time for five weeks, I became a little verklempt as I watched her wheel her brand new luggage into the airport, hair perfectly coiffed, as she looked back at me somewhat nervously. I'm so happy for her that she is going on this adventure given that she hasn't been able to travel much throughout her life due to the whole single mom thing, coupled with financial constraints. That being said, boy am I screwed! My mom has pretty much been here five days a week helping me with the two kids since July, so I'm going from mom overdose to mom deprivation. Truthfully, I know I'll be able to hack it with the kids, but I'm not promising that I'll be getting that daily shower or preparing my usual gourmet meals. Hey, if you happen to be reading this, can you send over a casserole? Much appreciated.

Childhood Crush

The first time that I felt something for him was in grade three. I sent my friend over to tell this boy that I thought that he was cute. He told her to tell me that he hated my guts. I guess that he was still at the girls-are-icky stage. Either that or he really did hate me, but let's not smash my eight year old ego, mmmmkay? I wasn't overly fazed by his response at the time, and don't know what I expected him to do with that information anyways.

The next school year, I found myself staring at him a lot, and looked forward to the end of the year party where I might have a chance to dance with him. Slow dancing was new to our class, and it was as romantic as things got for us at that age. The boy with his hands on the girl's waist, the girl with her hands on the boy's shoulders, arms extended forward as far as possible while rocking back and forth from one foot to the other. Mike had danced with Shelly for most of the party, who I foolishly decided to confide in. When I told her that I was hoping to dance with Mike too, she though it hilarious and ran to laugh about it with Mike and his friends. Bitch. I remember hoping that her antennae-like, orthodontic head-gear would get caught in the door of the bus.

By grade five, my crush was in full gear. It had the kind of uncomplicated intensity that I believe that only a pre-teen girl can muster up. Shelly had already outed me the year before, so I felt free to talk about Mike to anyone who would listen. Apparently, I even confided in my teacher, who I recently learned was a good friend of Mike's mother. They had a good laugh at my expense when Mrs. Teacher told Mrs. Mike that I one day whined, "I like him soooo much and he doesn't even know that I'm alive!" I was pathetic on two levels; one for actually saying that; and two, for actually telling my teacher. Yup. I was cool. I also may have read too many Archie comics and identified myself with Betty.

That crush lasted through to the end of elementary school, but fizzled out when we moved on to Jr. High, where the world opened up a little bit more. Mike and I had all the same friends, so we hung out every now and then, but it wasn't like when we were younger and I stalked him well enough to know where he lived, his phone number, his birthday, and the fact that his mouth opened whenever anyone took a shot on net during the foot hockey games that he played at recess.

Our casual friendship carried on through high school, and even through university when we e-mailed each other every so often just to catch up. It wasn't until after university that we started talking more frequently, visiting each other, and forming what I would consider to be a true friendship. It was then that I gained an appreciation for his dry sense of humour, his intelligence, and the overall good person that he is.

My eyes welled up with tears at the wedding when I saw Mike standing at the altar. As I held my husband's hand, waiting for the bride to march down the aisle, I found myself feeling reflective. Despite the tuxedo, he still looked like the Mike that I knew from elementary school, and I could so vividly see him in his old yellow and green hockey jersey that he wore almost every day in grade five. Thinking about that, I wished that I could see the face on my eleven year old self if I could tell her that she will be there on Mike's wedding day, that she won't be the one getting married to him, and that she will be thrilled just to be a part of it. My eleven year old self would never see this as an acceptable scenario, but my thirty-something year old self knows that a friendship like this is rare, and all that all that pining is just a funny part of the history that Mike and I share.

Have Pumpkins; Will Travel

Last Saturday, we went to a pumpkin carving party (I am referring to those orange things filled with seeds, not my daughter, Pumpkin). I reluctantly carved up two pumpkins, only to discover that it was kind of fun. I have no faith in my creative abilities, but after whining about the task for ten minutes or so, I got into it. I think I did a pretty good job too!

My daughter, Pumpkin, wasn't at all interested, but later in the week, she asked me to carve up the tiny pumpkin that we picked up on a school field trip, so the idea must have sunk in at some point. Those jack-o-lanterns sat in my flower planters for the week, and were relocated to my mom's place on Friday since her's was the neighbourhood where we did our trick-or-treating. My street has only a few houses on it, and is a bit of a secret from the rest of the world, so it isn't a good area for all things Halloween. My brother actually had to argue with a cab driver about the location of my house as the cabbie was certain that there were no houses where my brother was telling him to go. Anyhow, trick-or-treating in Ma's neighbourhood was a hit once again. Pumpkin was dressed as a poodle, Chichi was stuffed in a sling, and Hubby and I took them out for some good, ol' fashioned begging. It is kind of rare that we ever do anything as a family of four, but I really enjoy it when we do. I am still amazed at how much candy one can get when one travels with cute children. As an added bonus, in true Pumpkin fashion, she has already moved onto the next activity and has forgotten about her candy.

Speaking of the next activity, on Saturday we packed up the jack-o-lanterns and headed to Kingston for a wedding. The wedding was on a farm, and the bride and groom used the jack-o-lanterns as decorations. This was not the kind of wedding that required a professional florist. We were outside for the entire time (read: cold!!!), and with the campfire, potluck, and meat on a spit, the wedding had more of a cook-out type of feel to it. I can't say that the suckling pig was my cup of tea, but neither would you if you had seen last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy. We ate in the barn, which was also where the ceremony was held. As a cool aside, out of the dozens of jack-o-lanterns that furnished the ramp leading into the barn, two of the six that were chosen to adorn the altar were mine! I was so proud. Anyhow, although this was the strangest wedding I had ever been to, I thought it was very cool, and absolutely perfect for the bride, who has always been like a sister to me. The bride, let's call her JoJo, has never been one for following convention. The day had to be a relaxed event for her, which it totally was. Hours before the ceremony, she was wearing cargo pants, a hoodie, a blue Paddington Bear style hat, and was hangin' out with all the guest. She didn't have jitters. She wasn't worried about caterers, or anything like that. There was some order to the whole event, but they didn't follow the schedule perfectly, and didn't care. Children ran around, Pumpkin included, and added to the excitement. We sat on bales of hay during the ceremony, which was delayed due to the bride just not being ready to march yet. The music had already played, the groom was waiting, as were all the guests. I was starting to wonder if we had a runaway bride on our hands, but no one else seemed worried, and after 15 minutes or so, the music played yet again, and this time there was a bridal party to march to it. At one point, I had to drag Pumpkin out of the ceremony 'cause she wouldn't stop shouting. It was already passed her bedtime, and delirium was starting to set in, so I can't fault her too much. Nonetheless, we were able to re-join the service before that whole kissing of the bride thing that they do. Congrats to you both, JoJo and BoBo! We're so happy for you.

Anyhow, lots of driving and Pumpkin wrangling have rendered me extremely tired today. The end of daylight savings hasn't helped much either. For those of you with small children, was this not the longest day ever????

Mermaids and Wiggles

Blogging, to me, is becoming a bit like cooking. It's not that I dislike blogging the same way that I dislike cooking, but if I am going to cook, I want the meal to be fabulous. Making something fabulous, however, takes more effort than I have time and energy for, thus I don't cook as often as I should. My family does expect to be fed at some point though, which means I will eventually heat up a frozen pizza or barbecue pre-packaged meat-on-a-stick, and serve it up. I guess I'm trying to say that this post is the equivalent of pre-packaged meat-on-a-stick. Better than nothing?

This week I learned that duct taping a mermaid to the washroom wall is not enough incentive to get Pumpkin to do #2 in the toilet.

Even though she knows that the reward is to actually get to play with said mermaid, she will leave the washroom to go crap in her pants in private, then return to the washroom to talk about the mermaid. I do, however, enjoy the opportunity to showcase my '80s wallpaper, that I'm sure will come back in style if I leave it up there long enough.

Friday, Pumpkin went to the Wiggles concert with her Daddy and Grandma. I happily stayed home, missing the chance to see the joy on Pumpkin's face, but also possibly avoiding puking on the shoes of the people around me. The Wiggles have made me ill before, and I'm sure that they wouldn't hesitate to do it again. I also knew that there wasn't a guarantee that Pumpkin would love the concert. Her responses to many gifts and events have so far been somewhat underwhelming, so it was possible that I wasn't going to miss much. It turns out that she enjoyed the concert well enough, but the only thing that she wanted to tell me about when she came home was that the train was broken and that she needed a better one. I'm glad that her first time on public transit left such an impact!

That's my life this week. All potty and play, all the time. Woohoo!

The Birthday Recap

I didn't get the watch, but had a pretty good birthday regardless. The day started off with balloons, streamers, those party favour things that you blow into, and party hats. This was hubby's answer to my complaining about there being no hoopla about my birthday. Kind of a rude awakening actually, but Pumpkin thought it was hysterical, and it was very cute overall. We invited two other couples and their spawn over for dinner, and enjoyed watching three little girls dress up in princess costumes then turn the house upside down. We haven't had a lot of evenings where we socialize with other couples and their kids. Usually we dump our kids on my mom and get out for grown-up time. Family socializing seems to be fun for the kids, but the adults never actually get to talk to each other. Oh well. Only one thing got broken, and dinner was tasty. My annual birthday Indian food feast never lets me down.

Today hubby took me out to buy me my gift. As mentioned above, I did not get the watch, but technically, it is still owed to me. When I was pregnant with Chichi, I found out that we were having a girl, but hubby didn't want to know the sex of the baby. I knew that if I did not ask questions pertaining to having a boy, he would know it was a girl, so I inquired about things such as the circumcision, the potential boy's name, and started sentences with, "If we were having a boy...". I asked girl-related questions too so it didn't appear that I was trying to make him think it was a boy, but somehow he got it in his head that it was definitely a boy. Any time I steered him towards thinking it might be a girl, he thought I was just trying to keep the secret alive instead of having him "know the truth." Realizing that he would not be swayed from his belief, I asked him what kind of "push present" I could have if it was a girl. Naturally he told me that I could have whatever I wanted, thinking that it was irrelevant. I told him that I wanted Uma Thurman's watch, but added that he should get it for me regardless of the sex since I was kind enough to be birthing his child. He said that I could only get the watch if I produced a girl. Hee hee. One day I'll collect. For today, my new earings will do! Is this not the most superficial babble you've read today?

It's the Gift that Counts!

So here I am, on the eve of my birthday, hangin' with my dogs while the kids are sleeping. A few years back, I would have been jumping out of my skin on this particular occasion. I've always loved my birthday. As a child, it was the anticipation of gifts, as well as the belief that the whole day was about me. As I got older, it became about the anticipation of gifts, as well as the belief that the whole day was about me. I don't know where the excitement went, but somehow this day managed to sneak up on me and I hadn't really noticed. Sure, my family members have been asking me about gift ideas, and Pumpkin is jumping for birthday cake, but I'm not feeling it the way that I used to. It has nothing to do with getting older either. I'm where I want to be at this stage in my life, so my age really doesn't bother me. I think I'm going to blame my husband. This morning he mentioned my birthday, and asked me what he could get me. I can't believe that he is only asking today instead of having spent the last two weeks planning a special surprise. He always asks instead of trying to surprise me, lest he make a bad choice. The truth is, I'd rather be surprised, but only if it's a surprise that I want. Maybe I'm the one to blame. Nonetheless, I'm going to give hubby a hard time. My mom can't babysit on my actual birthday, so she offered to babysit tonight such that hubby and I could catch a movie. He already had plans to play poker, but he said with a look of guilt and sadness that he would go to the movie if I wanted him to. Naturally I told him to go play poker such that he doesn't resent me for suffocating him in a deathtrap of a marriage, but really I think he should have insisted on the movie. Now he's going to be sorry that he is giving me the opportunity to pick my own gift. Do you like this watch?:

I could learn to love my birthday again.