At Least the Trunk of My Car is Going to Be Super Clean

Target, I don't want to be mad at you. I love you, I really do but today, today we are fighting.

While scanning my items, the cashier noticed that my dish soap was open and leaking. I paid for it and she told me to get another on my way out. What she did not realize, nor did I, was that my big bottle of ultra concentrated laundry detergent was to suffer a similar fate.

I ran the rest of my errands and made my way home. I pulled into our parking space and got Ava out of her car seat. I figured I would just grab a few light bags and send my husband out for the rest. When I opened the trunk and pulled out a bag something dripped on my foot. It took me a minute to figure out where the liquid was coming from. Then I saw it. The entire bottle of laundry detergent had fallen over and both the cap AND the pour spout had come loose. There is now an entire bottle of laundry detergent in my trunk.

Ugh, my husband and I have been taking turns with a bucket of water and the Sham-Wows (which are not as worthless as I originally thought). Looks like we'll be getting the car detailed soon.

I know it's not Target's fault that this happened but I really want to blame someone (not me) for this.

Keep Me Out of the Kitchen Part 2

A few weeks ago, I maimed the blender. Today I finished it off. T.O.D. 9:51 am.

I was trying to puree green beans and I probably should have done smaller batches, one at a time. Impatient person that I am, I threw all of the beans (2 bags of frozen green beans) into the blender at the same time. I had the blender on puree and ice crush and liquefy with little success.

I ran the blender for awhile, probably longer than one should, when I started to smell something. And I heard noises and saw smoke. I turned off the blender, unplugged it and watched, fully expected to see flames shooting out of it. I even started to move toward the fire extinguisher, just in case. The thing didn't catch on fire, luckily, but I made it bleed it's mechanical grey blood.

Remember what I said about how I shouldn't be allowed to use appliances with out an adult present? I bet you thought I was kidding.

Mom or Nanny?

Sometimes when I'm out walking with Ava I play a little game called "mom or nanny?". The game is pretty self explanatory. You guess if the person pushing the stroller is the mom or the nanny. It's funny how differently the game goes depending on which street I'm walking down.

Today I took Ava to the park to swing. As we approached the playground, I noticed it was very crowded. There were people there who were obviously nannies and people there who were obviously the moms and then a number of people that you just couldn't tell one way or the other. One thing I noticed about the moms there is that the majority of them were with 2 kids or one but also with bun in the oven.

I put Ava in her swing and started pushing her. I was looking around and got the feeling that some of the people there were looking at me, wondering nanny or mom?

I think because I'm on the young end of the spectrum for a stay at home mom that I get those looks a lot. It's probably just me being paranoid but I'm glad Ava resembles me. If she didn't I would probably get those looks a lot more.

Tweet Wolverine

I don't know if any of you have been following the story of the Spohr family, but Heather and Mike Spohr recently lost their 17 month old daughter, Maddie, who was born prematurely.

I have been reading Heather and Mike's blogs since last summer, when I was pregnant, and through reading their stories about Maddie, I began to feel like I knew them. Their loss of Maddie earlier this month had me in tears and had me hugging my daughter a little tighter that day.

Recently, Hugh Jackman has committed to donating $100,000 to charity. The catch? He needs to be convinced via Twitter. The Spohr's have started a twitter campaign to get Wolverine to donate the $100,000 to the March of Dimes. All you have to do is send Hugh Jackman a tweet.

Check out March for Maddie for the details. Go to twitter and sign up (it's free!) and send the tweet via your twitter feed.

Please tweet for Maddie!

We've Got a Mover

Ava has started moving. Not crawling yet, although I'm sure that's not too far off. She pretty much has only mastered 3 point turns and reverse.

This morning, the hubs put Ava on her belly in her little activity center thing. I left the room for a couple of minutes and in the time I was gone she backed out of her activity thing and scooted backwards across the floor.

I think we're actually going to have to take the next step from talking about how we need to babyproof to going to Babies R' Us this weekend and actually buying the gate and outlet covers and cabinet locks and all the other babyproofing stuff.

Where the Eff is Spring Already?

Oh yeah, I forgot. I live in Chicago. Which means spring will show up the second to last week in May, say hi and then it will be on to summer.

It's been so cold here that I haven't left the house in two days. I'm starting to go a little crazy. I skipped a play date on Monday due to a cold and wanted to go for a walk yesterday but then Ava decided her nap schedule was totally overrated and she would nap whenever she damn well pleased and by the time she woke up, I had lost all motivation to leave the house.

That changes today. In preparation for some warm days ahead, I am going to get the pedicure I've been wanting (needing?) to get for the past 3 weeks. And since I'm already crazy, I'm taking my daughter with me. Yup, today's the day I introduce my 6 month old daughter to the nail salon.

Will I regret my decision in, oh, about an hour and a half? Probably but stay tuned to find out.

**Update** Ava was great and my toe nails are red.

This is Kind of Embarrassing

Umm... you guys? I have a hickey... Actually I have two. One on my nose and one on my chin.

Who gave me these love bites, you may be wondering? No, it wasn't the hubs. It was Ava. She's teething and seems to enjoy grabbing my face and sucking on it.

Hmm, maybe I should try those teething rings I've heard so much about instead of giving her my nose.

Then and Now

Today has been a great day. We went to both Ikea (yea, new end table, new silverware and a ricer to make baby food!) and Babies R' Us (a foam play mat, sweet!). It got me thinking how my definition of a great day has changed drastically from what a great day was to me 5 years or so ago.

Then: Wake up at 10, get coffee, smoke a cigarette.
Now: Wake up at 6 to a crying baby. Change poop diaper, heat up some carrots for Ava's breakfast, nurse and then get coffee. Pump while drinking coffee. By the time I'm done pumping, it's about time for Ava's nap.

Then: Lay around watching TV. Jerry Springer, Maury, whatever's on. Sometimes I would catch myself watching The Weather Channel.
Now: Bake squash to puree for Ava. Shower while Ava naps. Puree squash.

Then: Shop at Urban Outfitters for cute going out clothes.
Now: Shop at Ikea for living room furniture and Babies R' Us for bibs and foam play mats.

Then: Happy Hour!
Now: Happy Hour, which now means feeding, bathing and putting Ava to bed. Takes about an hour and makes me pretty happy.

Then: Shower. Change outfits no less than 3 times. Take my time doing my hair and putting on makeup.
Now: Put makeup on in less than 10 minutes. Throw hair up into a sloppy bun. Get dressed quickly in outfit I've been thinking about wearing the next time I go out. I can be out the door in a half hour if need be.

Then: Dinner and drinks with girlfriends.
Now: Dinner and drinks with girlfriends.

At least somethings never change!

Enjoy the weekend!

Keep Me Out of the Kitchen

I should not be allowed to use kitchen appliances unsupervised. Yesterday a blender got the best of me.

I can't cook worth a damn. I can bake like a mofo but I can't cook anything. Yet, I've been making my own baby food. It's really easy to do. You just boil the crap out of everything and then blend it up. Sounds simple enough, right?

For previous batches of apples, peas and squash, I had used a stick blender. For some batches I mixed it right up in the pot and for others I used the food processor type attachment with much success. The other day I made such a huge amount of apples that we broke out the big blender.

Yesterday I bought some butternut squash and during nap time, got to cooking. I peeled, seeded, chopped and boiled. When it got time for pureeing, I again got the blender out. Everything was going fine but then I decided that I needed to help things along to make sure everything got pureed and there were no chunky bits. So I mashed the top pieces toward the bottom....with a wooden spoon...while the blender was on. Yeah, so not smart. I saw my husband do it the day before so I figured it was fine. But when I did it, there was a loud noise, a mini squash explosion and when I pulled the spoon out, I noticed it had chipped.

For a minute, I entertained notions of straining the wooden bits out of the squash but when I found a jagged piece of plastic from the inside of the blender in the food, I scrapped the whole thing.

I'm going to get more squash today and try it again. I think this time I'll ask my husband to supervise me in the kitchen. He'll be my adult helper.

Margaritaville

Last night, I had a mom's night out with some mommy friends. We hit up a southwestern restaurant, Jack Rabbit, to take advantage of their awesome happy hour special--half price food if you are seated between 5 and 6:30.

Ava was not in the best mood yesterday. I blame it on the rain (as does Milli Vanilli) and not leaving the house all day. Regardless of the cause, I was jonesing for a margarita by 4 pm. Good thing Jack Rabbit makes a great 'rita! I had a blood orange-raspberry one to start and then switched to classic. So yummy. Margaritas were one thing I craved while pregnant and hadn't satisfied the craving until last night.

The food was pretty good. I ate a ton of pork though. We had delicious shredded pork nachos and then I had a dish called The Three Little Pigs-- 2 pork taquitos and a pork loin wrapped in bacon. Sorry piggies!

The conversation was as good as the food. I always feel bad for the people around us because when you get a group of new moms together and add alcohol, the talk always turns to grisly childbirth. I believe I heard the words "vernix" and "episiotimy" used last night.

It was a great time and nice to be out of the house. The moms and I are trying to make dinners out at least a monthly occurrence. I look forward to the next one!