sunrays

i got this happy birthday ballon from my friend, e. my children love it.

(in case you are wondering, i believe i am watching project runway in the background)

so earlier i clicked on “The New Math On Campus”, a story on the NYT website i was expecting to be about MATH on CAMPUS. instead it was about dating in school with >50% female populations. the story was stupid and just pissed me off.

#1 THE GOAL OF LIFE IS NOT “TO FIND A MAN”

idiots

#2 none of schools were more then 60% female.

#3 i hate stories which all based solely on generalization, stereotypes, and anecdotes. seriously. this article should not be in the education section. it really should just be in the trash.

i know i have mentioned a million times that i hate society’s focus on finding a relationship.

ben and i have a small wii addiction.

i just beat the sword game in the wii resort game. i am awesome.

liam – eating chairs

well. i’m 31. and it amuses me. especially because i taught aiden everyone’s ages.

the other day i was thinking about something profound having to do with my age and i was going to write about it, and now i cannot remember.

tuesday i saw my friend e, and it was nice to chat. since we’ve know each other pre-kids and know each other for a while and so most of our conversations are not about kids. and that is nice. but also, she has two kids the same age, and so we also talk about kids and that is nice. she shares the whole timing & work issue. we both wish that the reality was we could have our childs, stay at home, and then go back to work with no bad repercussions.  but that is not that reality. and so we struggle with timing. it is nice to be with someone who understands.

i wish there were better answers; however, i am lucky and i am very happy with what i am currently doing. let the chips fall where they may.

i had a great birthday. i got lots of amazon money to support my amazon habit, which is mainly books for my kindle. my reading has increased 300% with the kindle solely do to being able to read while i rock the childs. and i do that a lot. and then i get into the book and read in bed.

the only downside to my bay was that the massage i got was pretty lack luster and so i was annoyed and then have these weird thoughts that i need to get another massage soon to erase the memory of the bad massage. : )

first. in case you aren’t all up in my twitter stream (which, i know, i keep locking and unlocking and then locking for various reasons) you might have missed that my high school prom date (sr. year) was on dateline!

so my sister works at the hospital featured. and i saw the clip on the today show this past friday and called her and was like your hospital is on the today show for the second time this week.  (the dug-ger baby also currently lives at this hospital).  i did not see prom date on the clip until my sister mentioned it later (i was calling her during the 2 seconds he was on). he was not one of the main residents they followed, but did get a good chunk of air time (and did not make himself look like a total idiot like some of the residents did).

random.

he has a baby a bit younger then aiden and she is cute.

my other high school prom date (jr. year) is a memphis sportscaster. so maybe someday his image will also be beamed into my living room.

pictures from the musuem today & last week:

(related. i had a whole blog post written in my head that i thought of on the way to the museum, but i totally forgot) (it was kinda of meta)

liam.  being awesome. and having gained >2 lbs in the last 2 month, he has returned to the 10th percentile in weight. yay! this has been a lesson in being proactive in keeping his reflux under control. we are currently switching meds as his current meds have stopped being effective. and this is a lesson in infant reflux not just resulting in a fussy baby, but also being bad for weight gain.

though it has not affected him developmentally as he is walking while hanging on to things (such as hands, tables, etc).  i’m not thinking he is going to be mobile anytime soon. i remember that aiden started this stuff “early” but did not walk until the normal time of 1 year.

i really like this interactive graphic from the times about obama’s budget.

though i think a lot of people need a little civic lesson and with a dash of history. the budget is passed by congress, not handed down from mt. old executive office building.  who knows what the budget ultimately is going to look like. if there is a budget. for at least one year during the bush administration there was not a budget and everything ran on continuing resolutions.

though i think this year more then other years the final budget may resemble the presidents.

of course, i am happy to see money for science in my own self interest; however, i have questions about the efficiency of just throwing money at science. (see future research statement)

story of woman who almost died from swine flu b/c she “decided the swine-flu vaccine was too risky for her family”

on saturday i went out on a first date.

ok not really.

though it felt like it.

i actually went out with the wife of our friends we have play dates with. it was really nice to be out with another adult sans kids and talk about all sorts of things.  though it kinda felt like a first date b/c we were all trying to be agreeable. and we had a far amount of get to know you small talk. but it was hard because the restaurant we went to had the LOUDEST music and it is hard to carry on the natural flow of conversation when you are having to spend a bit more time processing to try to figure what the heck was said b/c of the music. yes. i am 65. i had the same issue with the pre-movie entertainment. so loud. anyways. it was fun. though it made me miss my established friendships. and she might move. and so might i. and, well, i’m reminded that i have three boys as constants in my life. i do hope someday to be more permanent and have more permanent friendships.

anyways.

here’s so pics:

my spice drawer:

here’s aiden at the new table:

here’s liam with a chair: 7 months! standing! taking steps while hanging on to things! having a budda belly!

and here’s a pic aiden took of liam and i today:

wishing i was back here.

i don’t understand anti-obesity initiatives. who doesn’t know that the government doesn’t want you to be fat.

i have some sort of bump type cyst thing on the inside of my left wrist.  it doesn’t hurt. though i suspect i should take it to the doctor.

hahahaha i just had ben look at it and he says it is my wrist bone.

maybe i should be eating more so that my wrist bone isn’t jutting out and freaking me out.

though i suspect that the bursa on the end of my wrist bone is inflamed due to my increase use of it during my strength training dvds.

i am tired.

also.

i say that i don’t miss ice cream, but that is a lie.

day 2 of elimination diet has gone better then day 1.  the only thing today was couton on my salad that i did not even thing about.

thank goodness dark chocolate is allowed. i’ve eaten a lot of an ikea dark chocolate bar b/c the ingredients don’t include milk and just have a small soy thing.

good thing i like to cook things with few ingredients and have been on an oatmeal breakfast kick, so the only thing i’m missing is cookies. i had steak and sweet potatoes last night. so freaking good. i had leftovers for lunch. with peas. tonight we had stuffed peppers – peppers with grd beef, tom sauce, onions, rice (aiden’s and ben’s had parm cheese). so yummy.

i think that liam has been more calm lately since i stopped having the soy, but sleep is not better. so we’ll see. off to eat more chocolate and walnuts or maybe an orange.

so. you might know that liam does not sleep for long periods of time, ie, the night. he sleep from 7-11 (or 12) and then is up every couple of hours. it doesn’t really bother me most days. it is what it is. it is hard work growing. plus having reflux. he wakes up due to that pain, though he is on medicine. but recently i was talking with my friend how also has a baby.  he is also sensitive to dairy like liam. and he is also senstive to soy. when she eats those things he does not sleep well at night. when she doesn’t eat them, he sleep well!

now i already avoid dairy. and i did not think that i ate much soy, but it turns out many many many things have soy, especially if you like to get high protein versions of things like english muffins. that you have every morning. and the coffeemate has soybean oil.

so i’ve decided to do the elimination diet where i eliminate all eggs, milk, wheat, and soy and see what happens. if things get better i would add them each back in one by one until things are not better.  today was the day i was to start; however, it was not a good day as we ended up taking a little trip to ikea which resulted in us eating lunch out which resulted in me eating a muffin.

so ikea.

you may know that i am going through organization phase. and i decided that my spices were a mess! and i really wanted a spice drawer. and after much interneting, i decided on these jars from ikea:

simple. and i would combine them with a drawer thingy from the container store.  well, ben has the day off, so it was a family trip to ikea. (it is ~ 30 mins from our house.) i was planning on just getting these. and i did. they are awesome. a little more round then expected.  i was unsure if they would fit in the drawer thingy. so i skipped the draw thingy. and just put my spices in these jars and put them in the drawer and they look awesome. the lid’s lip gives them a little tilt and really, in the draw you don’t need much tilt. it is amazing to see all my spices at once!

so that was my plan for ikea. but b/c i had lot of helpers we also ended up with this:

and three of these:

we got the black, blue and white one.  these are child size. and now aiden and liam have a cute little children’s table set.  i had been wanting to get them a table and chairs, but was planning on doing it via craigslist. but alas, this opportunity presented itself. and it is a really cute set. and aiden was really excited.

Flash back to winter 2003

maybe it was the show we watched on Discovery Health on Hoarders

or

maybe it is the tendency of both our fathers to keep everything

or

maybe it is the new year

or

maybe it is because liam has become a lot less needy with the advent of sitting and i have more time on my hands

or maybe i just want to control something when my days are filled with children

whatever the reason the fact is that i have become a organizing freak

i’ve organized most of the house in the past week or two

which is why is it SUPER SUPER annoying that i cannot find my ipod nano, which i have not used since my run in arkansas. i remember taking it out of the bag, but cannot remember or find where i put it! despite the organizing. if i had not done so much orgainzing i would just think, oh, it is somewhere.

i was trying to find it this morning b/c it has gotten warm enough here that the snow is melting off the sidewalk. i found out when i walked outside that, yes, the snow has melted off the sidewalks, but in the early morning it had been replaced by a thin layer of invisible ice. i ran/tiptoed across ice for 5 mins before i gave up and turned around to come home and get on the elliptical. oh well.

january tv/internet sucks due to the saturation of diet focused ads.

have i posted the condo listing for your entertainment or for your buying pleasure? (note i do not live there anymore so don’t come try to kill me there) http://www.rubloff.com/property/chicago/07407944.cfm