Small Town Nostalgia

Although we didn't travel far for Memorial weekend, our car got quite a workout going to and from Crosby to visit the families and to use them for free babysitting. Driving through the town several times got me to thinking about all of the quirky things that once made me crazy about living there but at the same time made me both love it forever (and vow to never move back).

1. The whole town (minus Wal-Mart) closes down for church on Sunday mornings (and Wednesday evenings) and every Friday evening during football season.

2. Several old men meet EVERY morning (at 6 am) at the Dairy Queen to eat breakfast and discuss town issues, the weather and what else, football.

3. For years, the dining out choices included McDonald's, Sonic or one of five Mexican restaurants.

4. For entertainment, the teenagers have parties in local pastures. Cow tipping is usually involved.

5. If you're Catholic, Methodist or Lutheran you have one choice of where to worship. If you're Baptist, you have ten choices. If you're Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or any kind of Orthodox Christian you're out of luck and probably living in the wrong town.

6. The pawn shop often has a sign saying something like, "Go Cougars! Shotguns 20% off".

7. If you're driving on the main drag and traffic is slow, you're either in "post-train" traffic or there's a farm tractor up ahead.

8. The main drag is lined with signs thanking individual veterans every Memorial and Veteran's Days.

9. The old high school band director was also a cop who wore her uniform and gun to class. Sometimes playing a wrong note made you fear for your life.

10. The annual rodeo is a huge affair that becomes a giant high school reunion, at least for those who like country music.

11. The lack of an official city government allows the Chamber of Commerce to become the de facto town council and the school superintendent to be the de facto mayor.

12. The marching band gets standing ovations after each halftime show.

13. The oldest grocery store in town still allows its oldest customers to charge their purchases on a store account.

14. The minister of the First Baptist Church (not to be confused with the other nine Baptist churches) is also the announcer at the football games.

15. The first day of deer season is an unofficial holiday.

16. There are at least a dozen shacks that sell fireworks the weeks preceding July 4th and New Year's Eve. There is also a fireworks warehouse. The town sounds like a war zone two days a year.

17. One side of the highway is where the white people live. The other side of the highway is where the black people live. A few black people live on the white side, but absolutely no white people live on the black side.

18. The primary agricultural product of the town is grass. Landscaping grass, not the other grass.

19. One of the ice houses usually has a sign saying something like, "Saturday - Crawfish, UFC, Live Band". It's always standing room only.

20. There are two town doctors. One is a quack and the other has two citations for sexually harassing female patients. Both remain in business.

I could go on and on (obviously). I had a great childhood and I enjoy going back occasionally, but I don't think we'll ever move back there. We'll always have fond memories, though.

Linus The Great

About a week ago, a friend of mine told me about Baby Linus. Linus was born last week in Dallas at 26 weeks gestation. In other words, he was born WAY too early. He weighed one pound, nine ounces and although he is still (amazingly) breathing on his own, his grape-sized heart has yet to fully form and he is still blind and deaf seeing as those two senses are not supposed to form until later in the pregnancy. His only functioning sense is that of touch and since he lives in an incubator attached to monitors, tubes and alarms, his parents are not allowed to touch him very frequently. If you'd like to learn more about Linus the Great and see some amazing pictures of this little miracle of a guy, please click here to visit his website.

Even if you don't click to see his site, please say a little prayer for him. I know I will and I'll be adding a prayer of thanksgiving for having two healthy, full-term children.

Insomnia Update

Tien left a comment asking for an update on the insomnia situation. Actually, she left two comments so I just want to say "thank you" to Tien, because I love comments!

I wound up taking a Unisom tablet because that's what we had on hand and it worked wonders. I slept like a log and didn't wake up once. It was awesome.

The only down side (and the reason why I haven't taken another one) is that I was groggy for the rest of the morning. Operating heavy machinery was definitely out of the question until about noon. But I did sleep well and that's what I was aiming for, so I suppose it was a success. And Liam didn't seem to be affected so there's another plus.

The insomnia is rather sporadic and hasn't been an issue for about a week now. Maybe this bout of it is over for the time being. Let's hope so!

Chocolate Update

Well, I made my first chocolate party favors this past week. I apologize for the size of the photos within this entry; I'm still working on the whole "photobucket" thing.

This one is the favor I made for Sydney's friends. It has a Dora sucker in front.


This one is the teacher appreciation gift we gave to Sydney's pre-school teachers.



I also made truffles that turned out really cute (and really yummy), but I haven't taken a photo of those yet. I'll try to post one soon.

So, what do you think? Would you buy something like this to give away as party favors at a birthday party, baby shower, etc.?

Double Check-ups

We killed two birds with one stone today by taking both kids in for their well-baby visits at the same time. Here are the results in a nutshell:

Liam - Weight: 14 lbs, 13 oz (10th percentile)
Height: 25 inches (10th percentile)
Head circumference: 16.5 inches (5th percentile)
Shots: 3
My thoughts: He's still a tiny little guy, but is reaching his milestones with no problems. And let's face it, with the genetic hand that he was dealt, he's never going to be a big guy.

Sydney - Weight: 33 lbs, 4 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 40 inches (50th percentile)
Shots: 4
Vision: 20/20
Hearing: Good
My thoughts: She's consistently been in the same percentiles for the last couple of years so that's good. She's also blown past the expected milestones. The pediatrician wanted to know if she knew some of her letters (duh, she's known them since she was two years old), if she could write a couple of letters (yep), and if she knew some shapes/colors (duh, again). It makes me think that all of our worrying about her testing into a good kindergarten is for nothing.

So I guess we have two happy, healthy kids. I'm surprised the pediatrician even remembers us since we don't go very often; Sydney's last appointment was her 3 year well-baby visit. We are so lucky to have healthy kids.

___________________

On another note, do you think we're horrible for giving Sydney this, this and this for her 4th birthday? In our defense, she really has shown an interest in these things and we also got her a couple of these just for fun.

So are we horrible or are we just two nerds raising nerdy children?

****Sigh****

Take a look at the time stamp on this post. Go ahead, look at it. 4:50 a.m. We are up for the day thanks to our neighbor, George.

Once again, we were treated to the rodeo concert volume of country music this morning at 4 a.m. It was the same song as last time, too. 4 a.m., people. Seriously. I peeked out the window to see his back door wide open and our neighborhood black and white cat sleeping on the fence that separates our yards. How that cat could sleep I have no clue....the music was so loud. And how could I see this, you ask, being so early in the morning and dark outside? Because this neighbor of ours has this super-bright light bulb on ALL NIGHT LONG all the time. I've even put garbage bags on our windows to block it out. But, that's a rant for another time.

Ryan sleepily got dressed to go ask him to turn it down and I half expected to see him walking through the guy's back yard and in the house to turn it off since the music is obviously tied to some kind of alarm set to go off at ungodly hours. We thought that surely George just forgot to turn this alarm off before heading to his shift-work job. We were wrong.

The guy was home and was sleeping through the music. "Oh, is there music playing?", was his response when Ryan banged on his door and asked him to turn it down. Good grief! I wish I could sleep that deeply.

So, we're up for the day. Again. As I type, Ryan is eating a bowl of cereal and watching some cheesy 80's movie on HBO before getting dressed and wowing his bosses by showing up to work at 6 a.m. There's no point in trying to go back to sleep since I have to feed Liam at 5:30 a.m.

Any ideas on what to do about this? We're already mad at him for backing out of the sale of his house. We really don't want to have a bitter relationship with a neighbor because that's miserable for everyone involved, but I am at my wit's end with this guy. My sporadic insomnia does not help the issue, either, I suppose.

****Sigh****

Lesson Learned

Generic diapers are cheap for a reason. Some things are worth the extra pennies. Like diapers that keep you from having to change a crib sheet in the middle of the night.

Please Pardon Our Mess......

Please pardon the mess while I make changes to my blog.

The title has needed to be changed for some time now. I never was really happy with the one I had to begin with; "Cyberspace Sentiments" was all I could come up with at the time I began this blog. I think the new title is much more suited to my life.

The format will also be changing. I need to spend some time playing around with LiveJournal's various options to find one I like. I'm not thrilled with the current "baby" theme, but it's a start.

And a new picture will be coming as well. I've lost 30 pounds since that one was taken back in October (at eight months pregnant) and I'd like to display a better one.

So, please ignore all of the construction noise and try not breathe in any of the dust as I make some changes.

Liam's Entry

I am six months old today. I can roll over, sit up all by myself and eat solid food. Smiling and laughing are two of my favorite activities. I am cute; everyone tells me so. And it's a good thing I'm cute. I think making babies cute is God's way of ensuring that they won't be killed by their parents.

You see, my new favorite game is called "Wake Up At Exactly 3 A.M., Throw My Pacifier Across the Crib, Scratch the Sheets, Kick My Legs and Play With My Lovey With the Rattle in It." Yes, I'm aware that this game has a long name - I'm still working on it.

Of course, this morning's game had a soundtrack provided by our lovely neighbor, George. You know George, the man who promised to sell Mommy and Daddy his house so that they could tear it down and have a yard but then backed out at the last minute. Yep, that George. Well, George decided to play really annoying country music at a decibel level usually reserved for rodeo concerts. By the time Daddy got dressed to go ask him to turn it down (and I think it's a good thing Daddy was going next door because Mommy wouldn't have been very nice about it), the music stopped. But I was fully awake by then. And so were Mommy and Daddy.

Fortunately (for me), Mommy decided to feed me in hopes I'd go back to sleep. It worked. Unfortunately (for Mommy and Daddy), feeding me doesn't help them go back to sleep. So I think they just got up for the day. I think I heard the TV and someone rustling around in the kitchen for a snack, but I'm not sure since I was already back in the "sleepy zone."

I'm planning to play my new game again tonight, but I don't know how well it's going to go over because I think Mommy and Daddy are pretty tired of playing it. I'm pretty sure I heard the words "wean" and "pacifier" in the same sentence along with "new lovey with no rattle." I'm going to miss that lovey.

Here Goes Nothing.......

After another sleepless night (I'm talking a total of four non-consecutive hours), I've decided to take Erica's advice and take a Benadryl before heading to bed tonight. Keep your fingers crossed.....

The Things You Forget

There are lots of things about babies that you forget as they get older. As hard as you try to remember those things and hold on to those memories, they still get forgotten and lost in the craziness that life brings. Seeing as Liam is most likely our last child, I have spent a lot of my time with him trying to ingrain feelings, emotions and precious moments into my memory. I'm hoping that writing them here will help do that. So, here goes, my top 10 things I don't ever want to forget (in no particular order):

10. The smell of a baby after a bath.
9. The "heh, heh" giggle that erupts during a game of Peek-A-Boo or tummy tickle.
8. The sweetness of a baby falling asleep in your arms.
7. The look of pure love from a baby when feeding them.
6. The look of amazement when discovering new things (rolling over, cats, bubbles).
5. Cuddles that magically calm a crying baby.
4. Plump, sweet toes that beg to be kissed.
3. The delight of finding, grabbing and chewing on said toes.
2. Toothless grins.
1. Open-mouth baby "kisses" that leave a trail of drool behind.

Sometimes I wish I could stop time just to hold on to these memories and the waves of emotions brought on by them. Since that will never happen, I guess I'll just have to continue to live in the moment.