No blog tomorrow!

Mary is having surgery and I anticipate having to cater to "little miss" quite a bit. I have taken a ton of pictures with the new camera and I suck! I have a lot to learn. I am not sure I see the difference in quality yet. Maybe the rest of you can - here is a picture with the new camera I think I see more detail. I have to work on it alot more before I will be ready to take pictures for her first birthday.

I am watching the Broncos for the first time this season too bad they are losing to the Colts or should I say beating themselves! Looks like Cutler finally figured out what a quarterback sneak was. They just cut to his parents his mom was telling someone to shut up they are in Indy good for her I would be the same way! Mary is taking a nap in the crib! She has been doing it a little more lately maybe we are turning the corner.

The Camera is here!

Even though I got a free pass from Papa not to do the blog "Due to the circumstances of the past week, and the fact that Courtney is on her way to Chicago you are hereby officially excused from publishing the Blog today." I had it drafted so here it goes!

I have to squeeze in some time this weekend to take some pictures and figure out the new camera! The good news is my car is fixed (for the moment anyway) so I can pick that up. Courtney's truck is also home but the fuel gauge is broken so she just needs to watch the odometer and fill that beast up more often. Jim's computer wouldn't turn on at all yesterday a.m. but it is magically working today.


Courtney is meeting Bobo in Chicago to visit Grandpa D who turned 87 this week. She was a little nervous about the whole airport/flying thing but I am sure she will do fine. I am ordering Mary's cake this weekend so we will take a field trip to Garland to a little Mom & Pop Bakery I got great reviews on. I hope the cake is good.

When it rains...

This probably would have been a good day for Dad to guest host. I think I am going to be accused of whining again, which I am but I feel completely overwhelmed right now!

We have 2 cars that are in the shop. A baby that is having surgery Monday. Courtney is leaving this weekend to see Grandpa D, so we have the horses and dogs to deal with. A birthday party to plan (cake, seating and food are my biggest worries right now) Daycare is closed Monday the 8th for "teacher inservice" (seriously its a daycare) so I guess I will be taking a vacation day. The end of the month is coming so I need to do Jim's billing this weekend. My dining room still has dishes all over the table that need to go in the china cabinet - unfortunately Mary wants to help me put them away so not much is getting done there. I really need a pedicure, eyebrows waxed, my roots touched up and a magic pill that will help me lose 30 pounds before I have to be photographed with the "skinny sisters". Most importantly I need time to figure out how to use my new camera!!

Lisa you are right why don't you start your own blog so I can read yours and realize things aren't as hectic as I think they are.

Do I look stupid?

Got the call from the dealership of course they came up with $2,000 worth of work! This of course prompted Jim to say “tell them to do enough to get it running I am not putting that much money into that car we will buy a new one”. It is 7 years old with 120,000 miles on it so in the great scope of things I guess it’s not horrible. After buying the hay bailing equipment, putting in wood floors and my new camera it figures we would have to plunk money down on a car! It’s the curse of deciding to spend money. We had the same thing happen last year when we ordered the cabinets it started a whirlwind of spending that about emptied the savings account. The upside is I have gotten to spend a little more time with Courtney as she has become my chauffeur.

Now I just have to decide do I want a Tahoe or a Suburban?

Blog is late

Got the email again from Dad "where the blog is the blog"- this is starting to create some pressure!

When I got in the Durrango after dropping Mary off it wouldn't start. So I had to have it towed to the dealership and am waiting to hear how much it will cost! I guess I was lucky it happened in the driveway of the daycare versus the highway or an intersection somewhere. So I am here without a car and Mary has a pre-op Dr. appt @ 4:45. Can you see where this is going? Good old Courtney is going to get to spend 2+ hours picking up Mom, taking us to the Dr. and then out to feed and get her stuff done.

The good news is ordered my new camera and it will be here in time for me to learn it (I hope) before Mary's birthday.

Where are my Broncos??

OK seriously who sets the football TV schedule in Dallas?? Once again the Bronco game was not on TV. Washington and the Giants – why in the hell would I (or anyone) want to watch that, maybe I will protest and start watching the history channel on Sundays. OK I am not that crazy! They lost anyway but maybe with Mary and I cheering them on they would have won like the Cowboys did.

Since I couldn’t watch the game - here is a picture of my favorite cheerleader. She seemed to like wearing it and wanted to put it back on after the blowout in her onsie. She is eating a lot of table food seems to really like it. She had Salmon for dinner Saturday night and for lunch on Sunday.

Planning for Mary’s birthday is now is full swing. I am hoping to have it outside in the backyard (minus the 7 barking dogs). We did get a couple of calls this weekend and one couple came out to look at Sam & Freedom but they are going out of town this week and not making a decision until after they come back.

Infant 3

Mary is moving up to Infant 3 on October 1 - or in reality when she gets back from ear tube surgery. She transitions next week, a few hours every day. I am a little worried because she really doesn't handle change very well. She is really into her routine. They have a set schedule and only take one long nap. I wonder if the teachers know what they are up for with her! She actually naps decent at school and in a crib but then again there are no beds and no Mommy's and Daddy's to lay down with.

Exciting day for Jim he is buying hay bailing equipment hopefully this will eventually deflect from all the money we spend on hay. I also used this as an excuse to finally break down and buy the camera and lens I have wanted quite a while. Its in my cart at Amazon I just have to hit "proceed to checkout". I keep going back and forth and now I am wondering if the latest model the 40D is what I need?? I just sent my buddy Sheila another email with dumb questions - sorry!

One down!

The wood floor in the living room is done. I think it looks great - we will see what Jim thinks when he gets home. So that is one room done. I have serious doubts whether the family room will be done. We are still stuck on the fireplace issue. Mary is having ear tube surgery and maybe her adenoids removed on October 1 so I will need to be home with her and need her routine to be as stable as possible – i.e. no construction, dust or noise! So that leaves this coming week or the week of October 8th and that is cutting it a little close since everyone is going to be here on October 12th.

I really need to get her birthday invitations done. I am still trying to decide on a time, I will serve food etc so I am thinking 4:00 so that people can eat an early dinner but I wonder if that is too late?

They were my eggs!

I’ve never considered it a secret Mary didn’t come about the “natural” way. That is just what happens when old people try to reproduce. Every day I thank God that medical science has evolved to the point that is was possible to have her before I got too old! That being said with invitro there is always a possibility there was a mix up. From Day 1 I knew she was Jim’s but I was a little worried that she looked nothing like me. Slowly but surely I am getting conformation and last night I was sure! I turned on the Elvis from Las Vegas show (thanks Melba for telling me it was on) and Mary went NUTS she started dancing and waving to Elvis on the TV like she knew him.

I got a little glimpse of it this weekend. Jim and Mary laid down for a 2 hour nap (go Mary) and she woke up because she heard “That’s All Right Mama” in the movie Jim was watching. I started thinking then maybe the wild arms and wrinkled nose wasn’t just a coincidence. Personality wise and she is exactly like Jim and she does look more like him than me but maybe the Elvis gene did come through!

Singing Bee

Love that show!! I can’t believe how many people don’t know the words to the songs but think they do. Last night Mary and I watched it and she acted like she was singing (of course she was supposed to be going to sleep). I tend to yell at the TV and tell the people the right words but with trying to get Mary to sleep I had to tone it down a little. Mary still doesn’t really know crazy Mommy. She got a little glimpse of it while I was watching football two weeks ago and she just looked at me a little confused and then clapped.

Normally I would have Monday Night Football on but who the hell wants to watch Washington & Philadelphia? I did however flip on Invincible again – the movie about the bartender who made the Eagles team in the 70’s! I love football movies I can’t think of a bad one except maybe North Dallas 40!

Analysis paralysis

This is a phrase coined by my little sister about her husband. We now have it too. We thought we would get the fireplace revamped and put in wood floors before everyone comes for Mary’s birthday. We are completely stuck on how to lay the tiles on the fireplace. We spent a good part of the weekend looking at it –drawing it out and I think we are still at square 1. So now Jim is thinking about just doing it himself and if he doesn’t like it tearing it back out and starting over. I just hope everything isn’t torn up for her party!

We were on our own this weekend, Courtney went to Oklahoma for a horse show Saturday morning so I had dog duty, Jim had horse duty - Mary, Hopey & I went out to help him. Hopey keeps biting the horse’s noses sometimes she does not listen very well! Courtney did well at the show, won two ribbons not bad for the first time out. Mary is walking everywhere!

"The Screamer" - Day 2

I love Mary’s daycare – especially the Infant 1 teacher Ms. Barb if I could adopt her for an “in state” grandma for Mary I would do it in a heartbeat. I am not as thrilled about what seems to be a never ending parade of other teachers in Mary’s class - Infant 2. Her main teacher Ms. Karen is there from 8:00 to 5:00 so I rarely see her unless we run into each other when I am walking in and she is walking out. The other teachers that I do see are pretty much fillers and I think Mary knows it and doesn’t like it. She seems to like one out of three of them and the one she does like isn’t in there as often as the others. When I picked her up yesterday she was on the bye bye buggy (which she loves) but had her paci in her mouth and looked tired – maybe bored. I talked to Jack's Mom (a kid with a head bigger than Mary - yea someone has to have one since she is in the 90th percentile) and he just moved to Infant 3 and he loves it and his mom loves it.

They start teaching sign language in Infant 3, one of the “fillers” suggested doing that with her now since they think her screaming is her way of coping not being able to communicate. Really is she so different from any other 11 month old on the planet, she wants something and can’t tell us what it is. This really is not that unique yet for some reason Mary’s way of telling people is disruptive, my girl just wants to be heard! Nobody puts Baby in a corner!

Does she scream at home?

That was the question I got yesterday afternoon and this morning from daycare. Apparently my sweet little Boogie has started screaming in a high pitched screech that scares the other babies. There are a couple of theories going around with the teachers:

• She wants her favorite teacher Ms. Barb (her first teacher who had her from January 2nd until June 1st) to visit her from the Infant 1 class. Mary hasn't fully accepted Ms. Barb is not her teacher and makes a beeline for her class every chance she gets. All too often I have to leave her with Ms. Barb in the morning because she won't let anyone else take her from me.



• She is frustrated and can't communicate with words (no kidding) and they don't know what she wants. That is an easy fix they need to pay attention to her every whim like we do at home. She is just like her Dad she wants everyone to focus on what she might need -they are clearly paying too much attention to those other babies!

Since no one really knows what she wants so they try to feed her and give her the paci but she even screams with the paci in her mouth.I think she thinks its funny she is getting a reaction (kind of like when the little booger bites me) so she keeps doing it because it freaks everyone else out. I bet she sits there and laughs at them too. Here are the two sides of my girl Devil & Angel (click on the picture to see them bigger.

11 months and CRABBY

Mary turns 11 months old today and despite wearing a super cute outfit to school she was so crabby this morning!! When I got her to daycare I gave her tylenol for her teeth and discovered poopy pants and boogers in her nose maybe that was the issue.

I wondered if she was keying off my mood the maids come today and I was stressed because as usual Courtney had not done everything I asked her to do - I got the old "don't worry I will get it done" which drives me NUTS because that is later followed up by "I forgot" or "you didn't tell me to do that" YES I DID!! I guess the alternative is doing everything myself but I figure since I am at work or driving to and from work for 12 hours a day I think I deserve a little bit of help from the girl riding the gravy train right?

OK back to the daughter who can't say "I forgot" yet she is starting to copy what we do and remember things. Like Jim patted the pillows on the bed and said you can lay down here, she has been patting the pillows and then laying down its really cute. She will sometimes make the Indian sound with her mouth but not all the time like when I try to get her to show Jim! Here's hoping she is in a better mood tonight - I want to take pictures!!

September 11, 1918 – Happy Birthday Grandma

Rather than remember a day the terrorists gave us I would like to remember the day my heritage gave me Grandma Damato’s Birthday. Irene Pierscionek was born to two Polish immigrants who came over on the boat not long before she was born. She was the oldest daughter of 9 children. Sadly her father died when she was a child and she had to help her mother raise the children. She was not allowed to attend school past the 8th grade as it was more important she work so her 7 brothers could attend school. However none of them graduated only her little sister my Aunt Aggie in the mid 1940’s.

As I child I had no idea of the lack of childhood she had. She couldn’t have known all of the carefree days, few worries and love from two parents that I had. Other than to hold one of us I remember Grandma always keeping busy even if she was watching TV she was ironing (a great source of arguments between my grandparents was the “room divider”) she crocheted, did needle point - I always remember her having something to do.

Even though we lived in Denver and they lived in Chicago I felt very close to them, they usually came out for several weeks during the summer and often times we went there too. For many years every holiday 3 matching dresses would come in the mail for us to wear. What sticks in my mind the most is we knew how valued our mother was to them. To hear Grandma & Grandpa describe Mom she was the perfect child. They never seemed to tire of telling us stories of her growing up and we loved to listen to them.

I regret as an adult I did not make more of an effort to see her, they came to see us numerous times when Courtney was growing up but I only made it to River Grove once before she died for their 50th wedding anniversary. Since Mary was born I often think about the six great grandparents she will never know and how they would have enriched her life and how much they would have loved her. I hope we do a good job telling her about all of them and how she is a part of them.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Monday Monday…

Jim flew to Seattle again this morning so he was up at 3:30 to catch a 6:55 flight (that didn’t actually taken off until 8:30 –thanks American Airlines) so I had to get Mary ready and loaded up all by myself since Courtney had to take Jim. Waking Mary up is kind of like waking up a grizzly from a long winter nap. You never know if she is going to be happy to wake up and eat or if she will be mad! This morning she was pretty happy until I walked out of the room to get my blow-dryer then the screaming started. Seriously there is no one else in this world that cares if I walk out of a room other than Mary! I suppose I should be flattered she thinks she needs me that much.

While we (Mary and I ) were watching football yesterday she put her hand on the ground and her butt in the air (like the linemen) I thought it was pretty funny I am sure Jim wondered how many hours she had watched football when I told him about it - just one game at that point.

While I am on the subject who would have thought Tony Romo would throw more touchdowns that Peyton Manning? During the Cowboy game last night Jim changed the channel to the History Channel (I turned the game back on after he fell asleep). So without really saying it I think that means he wants Mary to be a Bronco fan - so I will be ordering a cheerleading outfit for her to wear on Sundays.

I understand my Dad is still having chest pains from yesterday’s Bronco game so he may not be able to join us here today.

The most stubborn baby in the world

The sleeping issue has once again reared its ugly head. Over the last few weeks Mary doesn't want to be rocked to sleep. We have to lay down with her, even for naps. Since I think we are going backwards its time to get this mess resolved. So I am listening to her cry in her crib. In two more minutes I am going to go in and check on her - lay her back down and the screaming will start again. I wonder if Dr. Ferber ever had a baby like Mary when he wrote the book?

I just went in there she is screaming louder than ever, I feel like I am just torturing her. She has no idea why she is in the room with the door shut she probably just thinks we are being mean to her. She is completely hysterical now - we are going to pick her up.

She cried for over 30 minutes then it took me that long to settle her back down. She is whimpering in her sleep in my bed. I guess I am going to have to use bribery when she is older to convince her to sleep.

C is for Cookie

Mary definitely has her parent’s sweet tooth! When Courtney was a baby she didn’t have any sugar until she had a piece of her first birthday cake. Being older parents (more like spoiling grandparents if the truth be told) Mary has had little tastes of this and that starting with the Rice pudding in River Grove when we visited Grandpa Damato. I try to limit it to the weekend only and no more than maybe a ¼ of a cookie or a little square of graham cracker. So far I think her favorite was a little less than ½ of a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup (I know I broke ALL the rules with that one) but she kept saying MMM MMM while she was eating it. So far I think we have done pretty much the opposite of everything we did with Courtney.

As my sister in law Lisa pointed out I am much more laid back about finger prints too. When her kids were little I practically followed them around my house with the Windex and paper towels now Mary’s hand prints are a work of art across the bottom of the TV. Between Mary and Hope I don’t stand a chance anyway and who really cares?? Except for maybe my Dad and he isn’t there!

Late on the Blog

I was feeling uninspired so I thought I might skip the blog today but then I got the following email from my Dad.

"Where the Blog is the Blog. I’ve read the newspaper, watched the morning news, gone out and done 3 jobs, checked on my crews, made all my phone calls, and still no Blog. I am being denied freedom of Blog."

Maybe I should have Dad "guest host" the blog for a few days. His comments are more entertaining than my blog most of the time.

Not much happening with us, $1,200 of repairs on Courtney's truck, 2 puppies that need a home and Hopey not sleeping in her bed which kept me up all night. Mary is getting more and more vocal about what she wants and doesn't want. Too bad I can only figure it out 1/2 the time so she either cries or yells at me. Jim is coming home a day early maybe that will put her in a better mood tonight.

We are a little more than a month away from her first birthday I can hardly believe it!

Gymboree is stalking me

I opened my email and its another email from Gymboree - THEY ARE HAVING ANOTHER SALE!! I can not take the pressure. Mary looks so cute in their clothes, I can almost see her little face looking at me saying "Mommy buy me more clothes Daddy won't mind". Its also Gymbucks time (you earn Gymbucks in increments of $25 to redeem in October). I have 17 items (9 pairs of socks) in my shopping cart now I just haven't hit "checkout". Does she really need 9 pairs of socks the girl only has 2 feet? But again to get the sales price you have to buy 5 of one kind, 3 of another and the ivory ones are on sale do you see where I am headed with this madness?

Fantasy Football

Today is the day that could change my family's life. It is draft day for fantasy football. This is the year Mary will learn how to love watching football with Mommy and hopefully none of the bad words Mommy sometimes uses while watching football. With Jake Plummer not playing for the Broncos perhaps I won't swear as much! Thanks to Aunt Theresa she has a Bronco cheerleader uniform - it will be a little big but so what. Maybe I will buy her one for the Fall and she can wear that one in the winter.

If my team does well in fantasy football I will become a woman who is possessed and my husband will ask "Is there anything else on?" every time he sees a football game on the TV. I can't even believe he asks that - well yes there are a million other things on but nothing I want to watch as much as football. How can he be married to me for 20+ years and not know that?

Of course if the "Jim gene" comes out in Mary she will just fall asleep instead of watching the game. Which isn't such a bad thing since she is fighting nap time now too.

Da da

In the truck on the way to Oklahoma Mary looked at Jim and said "Da Da" like she had been saying it for months! Now its her new favorite word and she keeps saying it. She even said "Hi Dada" while she was eating her dinner last night.

We went to see Jim's cousin Brett. Courtney rode one of Brett's horses. She is going to a horse show with he and Ninya in a couple of weeks. She is pretty excited about it and is trying to figure out how to get down there to ride the horse a few times before the show.

You'll notice in the picture (click on it to see it larger) Mary now has 4 teeth - she is getting so big so fast!