Archive for January, 2009

What must this feel like? Honestly!??! Just take a moment and look… what do you see? What do you feel? And what on earth goes through your mind if you are President Obama?

(As you can tell, I’m still rejoicing. Teehee…)

i have been celebrating all day long, in my pjs with jackson. paul came home from work for lunch and to watch president obama be sworn in and speak. it was an awesome feeling for me to be sitting on our couch, with our little family, watching the new first family. if i had champagne, i would be uncorking the bottle right now. the crowd… the speech… the energy… i am completely overwhelmed with hope and joy. in other news… my good friend amy writes about her “run to inauguration” here. check it out!!!

paul and jackson had a giggle session/wrestling match that resulted in jackson laughing like a hyena and paul with ravioli on his forehead. i am convinced that a child’s laughter is the BEST noise in the world.

and by “sweet,” i mean kick ass. i am hiring. for a babysitter. i need a life. paul and i need a life. we would like our marriage back. it’s been 9 months… (ok in 3 days it’ll be 9 months since jackson was born.) we’re in a good place with jackson’s feeding issues. i am no longer afraid to leave him with a babysitter. and it wasn’t that i was afraid for jackson, for his safety, that the babysitter wouldn’t “do it” the way that mom can “do it.” no. i feared for the babysitter… that she/he would never return my calls again, delete me from the cell phone, and tell all the babysitters of the world that i have the most insanely difficult child on the face of the planet.
before we left jacksonville for annapolis, infact the very day before we left jacksonville, we had a babysitter come over for the evening. paul and i had a delicious and enjoyable meal out, and we felt like functioning adults who have a child at home with a sitter. (gosh, doesn’t that sound “normal”?!?!) it was glorious. the sitter we had was the precious 17 year old daughter of jackson’s former feeding therapist. paul and i went out that night knowing that jackson was in such good hands.
i’m now at the point where i don’t care how good the hands are that he’s in. ok, no, that’s not entirely true… i care. i just really want a life, part of a life, a snipit of a life. is that so much to ask? so long as you don’t totally disregard the instructions that paul and i lay out for you when it comes to caring for our child, consider yourself hired. apply within.

mom sent me an article from the ajc the other day, and interestingly enough, it came on the day that i posted about marriage vs motherhood. this article was (i thought) touching on some similar aspects, but after doing some research on the author of this piece, i find myself with more questions pertaining to my original… which is more difficult, being married or being a parent?
i would love to find a link to this article that i have, but i can’t find it in the archives as i have no date for the paper in which it appeared. i’ll work on it though, because i think it would be interesting for you to see.
the title of the article is “how to raise a well-adjusted child.” i must admit (sorry mom) that i scoffed when i first read the title, and thought to myself, “well who on earth is ‘well-adjusted’ anyway?!” as i started to read the beginning of the article (basically laid out with bullet-points of advice), it dawned on me that this could pertain to the post from a few days ago. in point number one, rosemond writes, “if you are married with children, put your marriage first.” stop right there. before even continuing to read the rest of that first bullet point, i was sold. rosemond continued, “your relationship with your spouse should be considerably more active than your relationship with your children.” hmmm… maybe i’m not sold. then he says, “you should pay more attention to your spouse, talk more to your spouse, do more for your spouse and spend more time with your spouse than you pay, talk, do and spend with your kids.” woah now! here’s my beef— i take issue with anyone who uses the world “should” as often as this guy does. what one person “should” do is not necessarily what another “should” do, but that’s just me.
the remainder of rosemond’s article is pretty similar as the opening that i shared, with him describing how parenting “should” be if you are a single parent, parenting a toddler, and finally ending with how leadership “should” be “a simple matter of acting like you (a) know what you’re doing, (b) know where you’re going, (c) know what you want and (d) know you are going to get it. riiiiight… if you are a parent who can truly succeed at (a) thru (d) please email me and let me know how you do it because i sure as hell can’t.
here’s my favorite part about my encounter with rosemond’s article… (mom- don’t kill me for this.) the note that mom sent paul and i with the article attached said this… “hopefully this will assist you two in some parenting techniques so that you can be more successful at it than we have been.” bless my mom. if she only knew what an incredible example she and my dad have been for me as a parent… maybe then she wouldn’t have sent me this bogus article. ha!

good gracious, i was NOT prepared for this weather when we moved here. this morning jackson and i ventured out to the grocery store for a few things. my sweet little volkswagon started up with a “cough cough” because of the cold and then i looked at the temperature gauge in my car… it read 24 degrees. 24 DEGREES!!! 2-4!!! it’s so cold that when we get ready to go outside (even if it is just to the car), we bundle up to the point of sweating in our multi-layers of clothing. it’s so cold that jackson turns his little face in to my shoulder to block himself from the air. it’s so cold that the tips of my fingers are cracked, and no lotion can remedy that junk. it’s cold people, COLD! keep in mind, our grocery outing took place at 9:30 this morning, and when paul took red out to potty at 7:30, it was 12 degrees out. can you imagine having to squat and do your thing in 12 degree weather?!?!
so, i realize i’m living “up north” now, and that’s all well and good. but in addition to the cold weather, the people seem to be a wee-bit cold themselves. no one smiles here. no one. it’s the strangest thing to me because not only do i smile at everyone, but sometimes i’ll just smile for the hell of it. when i do that here, i catch myself and think “oh. right. people up north don’t smile.” i guess i’ve just been too southernized in that i say “excuse me” when i pass people in the aisle at the grocery store, or smile and say “thanks” to the check out lady at target. i mean, i get it. times are tough right now. lots of people are bummed out about this and that and the economy and the wars and whatever personal issues are going on, but c’mon. i feel like my first adult taste of living up north is rather bitter.
to remedy this situation, i’m going to smile like a goof at every one i pass. we’ll see what happens… regardless of how cold it is out today, i may just bundle up jackson in as many fleece zip up onesies we have and stroll him around until people return my smiles, because damnit, it’s a new year and life is good, so smile back at me for cryin’ out loud!