NKOTB - The Package Tour

I'm so excited!!  In a little over a month, the New Kids on the Block will be coming to Houston, and I have tickets!!!  This will be the 5th time I've seen them live, and I'm just as excited as the first time.  They have always been and will always be one of my favorite bands, and on this tour it's not just NKOTB.  Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees are also in the lineup.  This is going to be quite a show!  I didn't get to see them the last time they were in town (with Backstreet Boys), so there were no hugs to be had, and I'm not sure if I'll have the money to get VIP backstage meet and greet passes, but at least I'll be seeing them again!  I'm going with my friend, Consuela, and hopefully I can convince her to go on the NKOTB cruise next year.  I'll now be counting down the days until June 27th.

Enjoy their new single, Remix (I Like The).  It's a great way to get your Memorial weekend started!  And it's a super cute video--I love the leading lady!

Banana

A few days have gone by since we gave Jack his first solid food, and we have now moved on to bananas!  Jack was immediately curious about the banana and took it from me as soon as I offered it to him.  I don't think he found it very interesting, though, at least at first.  I had my camera ready, and I think me snapping pictures was too distracting for him.  I broke a piece of banana off for me to eat and gave him his own piece to explore.  Part of baby led weaning (BLW) is sharing food with your baby and eating at the same time.  I think this is going to be the most difficult part of the process because our schedules are so different; Dennis and I are rarely up at the same time for breakfast, are never together for lunch, and don't seem to be able to eat dinner before 10 pm these days.  I guess it's a learning curve for all three of us.  Anyway, Jack wasn't terribly interested in the banana after I finished eating my piece.  The camera was distracting him, and I don't think he liked that the banana went straight from the fridge to his hands.  Another aspect of BLW is not forcing food on the baby.  So as soon as Jack seemed uninterested, I put the banana in a zip-lock for later.

banana schmanana
gimme the camera

Later in the day, I decided to offer him the banana again, and this time it was a HIT!  I was making myself lunch, and didn't break out the camera until he was good and interested in the banana.  I think having it at room temperature and a bit squishier made things more interesting for Jack.  I sat back and just enjoyed watching him squish the banana in his hands, and like all things lately, try to chew on his hands/banana/anything within reach.  He also seemed to like the flavor of banana a little more than the honeydew, but that also may have had to do with temperature (the honeydew was also right out of the fridge) than with flavor.  I did have to help him a couple of times.  The banana was slippery and he kept loosing hold of it and it would fall into the seat of the highchair where he couldn't quite find it.  I would only hand it back to him or help him steady it; I never actually put the banana in his mouth.  One of the points of BLW is letting the baby feed themselves, and if I had tried to get the banana in Jack's mouth that would've defeated the purpose of letting Jack explore the food on his own.

hmmmm, what's this?

nom nom nom

and it feels good on my belly

really, Mom, I have no idea how this happened

So far I think we are on track with BLW.  Jack shows an interest in food and likes to examine whatever we give to him.  He picks it up, looks at it, pus it in his mouth, squishes it, looks at it some more, drops it, wants it back, squishes it again, looks at it, puts it back in his mouth, and rubs it on his belly.  Pretty typical of the early stages of BLW.  I wonder what to give him next.

Seven Month Out-Takes

I can't believe it, but another month has gone by and I'm now the mother of a seven month old.  Where has the time gone???  I'm still taking Jack's monthly picture (with Pigger and Butt-Naked), and today was, without a doubt, the most fun photo shoot we've had yet.  Jack really wanted to get his hands on the camera.  The only problem--everything he gets his hands on goes straight into his mouth.  Here are some of today's out-takes:

Dream Job

my precious

When I was about six or seven years old, I remember my uncle saying to me, "Figure out what you want to be when you grow up, and do whatever you can to accomplish that, otherwise, when you get to be my age,  you'll wind up not knowing what you want to do and will be stuck with a crappy miserable job."  I didn't quite know what he was saying, but for some reason it always stuck with me.  The problem is when I was six I desperately wanted to be a ballerina (despite never having had a dance lesson, ever), and it took me a long time to let that dream go.  As I got older, a much bigger dream took it's place.  And ever since, it's the only thing I've wanted to grow up and become.  An actor.  A successful actor.  Not a ramen noodle eating struggling actor and not community theatre hobby actor, but an honest to god working professional actor (without a day job).

I was in my first play when I was 5 years old.  It was my kindergarten class' Halloween production.  The class was divided up into Pumpkins and Ghosts, but I was given the prestigious roll of Witch.  I was the only kid who got a special part (obviously my teacher recognized raw talent when she saw it), and after being onstage I was hooked.  Since then, I haven't gone more than about a year without being in a production.  Acting is my passion and what I've always wanted to do (other than wearing a tutu and prancing about onstage).  If I could wave a magic wand and have any dream job I wanted that's what I'd choose.

I visited Los Angeles a few years ago and had the chance to hold an Oscar.  I could barely keep my composure as I gave my (much thought about and rehearsed) acceptance speech.  I really should look at that picture more often and remind myself what I still want to be when I grow up.  I haven't done anything professional in a few years and sometimes I feel like that ship has sailed and that I'm too old to start over again with my efforts at being a professional actor.  The time isn't right for me right now.  I want to focus on being Jack's mom, but as he gets older, I want to give it another try.  I think it's important for me to show him that a living can be made without having to go in to an office everyday.  I want him to know that it's possible to make a living wage doing what makes you happy (not that I'm not happy with my current job).  I know I most likely won't achieve fame and fortune with acting (a painful realization), but if I could make enough to support the family, I'd settle for that.  Happily.  An Oscar would be nice, though.

Fashionable Baby - Sourpuss Clothing

1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8*9*10*11

After last night's pantry debacle, I needed some brain candy this morning.  I am always on the lookout for cute clothes for Jack.  I usually just look around at Target, but sometimes that just doesn't cut it (their prices are unbeatable, though).  I just found a really cool website, Sourpuss Clothing, that sells retro style clothes and home goods.  Of course the first place I look is baby stuff, and they've got some really awesome stuff to choose from.  I wish I made enough money to fill up my shopping cart with everything!!!  These are just a few of the things I would buy for Jack.  I definitely need to get the rib cage onesie, if nothing else.  Go check out all the awesome they have to offer!

P.S.  This isn't a sponsored post or anything.  I just think they have cool stuff.

Miss It by an Inch, Miss it by A Mile

yeah, this totally happened

Now that we've passed inspection, we're starting to get the house ready for a July house warming party.  And like all things, something had to go wrong.  I'm here to share the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to our adventures with home ownership and remodeling, and tonight it was just plain ugly.  Okay, maybe not ugly, but definitely unfortunate.

One of the first things we need to do is get rid of the pantry fridge so we can actually start using the dining room as a dining room.  It is definitely beyond time to have a pantry in the kitchen.  I'm so excited at the prospect of being able to get all the ingredients for a meal from one room in the house and then to eat that meal in the dining room!  I tell ya, it's the little things.

Our plan is to install a pantry cabinet from Ikea in the opening next to the fridge.  We chose the Akurum cabinet with pull out shelves in the most basic model.  The space for the pantry is an odd size and Ikea actually offers the Akurum in the width we need which is the only reason we choose it.  We need something that's fifteen inches wide, and everything else we found only came in eighteen or twenty-four inch widths.  We don't want to have to custom build the pantry and are excited to find one that fits (sort of).  Plus the standard model comes with pull out shelves (can you tell we're excited about this?)  so we can reach things all the way in the back of the pantry.  The doors on the pantry won't match our other cabinets, but we have a plan to customize them so they'll match (at least as close as we can get them to match).

What do I want?  My pantry!
When do I want it?  Meow!

We've spent the past two nights, after Jack has gone to bed, assembling the pantry.  It's really quite simple to assemble, but when we're just starting to get to work and it's already 10:30 at night, we just can't seem to get much done.  Jack is sleeping through the night, but we can't seem to.  So we finish putting the cabinet together, stand it up, and go to scoot it into place, and IT DOESN'T FIT!!! We must've measured the space for the cabinet 100 times, and yet, here we are with a cabinet that doesn't fit.  The cabinet is 88" tall, and the opening is only 87" tall.  I'm convinced the opening has shrunk.  I swear we've measured that ceiling height at 88'!  All Dennis could manage to say was, "Nothing surprises me anymore.  You could tell me the house was built on an Indian burial ground and all I would wonder is 'what's this going to cost me?'"  I refused to accept that it wasn't fitting and staged a sit in until we could figure out a solution rightnow.  But all we could really do is sit back and laugh somewhat maniacally.  Did I mention we're only able to accomplish things when Jack is asleep and it's late at night?

Dennis thinks he can raise that part of the ceiling the inch we need for the cabinet to fit.  Our house didn't originally have air conditioning and that part of the ceiling was lowered in order to run the a/c duct, so it's not load bearing and could "easily" be ripped out and redone.  Just typing that makes me feel queasy.  Dennis thinks it would be a day's work, but things like that never seem to be just a day's work.  We've pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that if we want a pantry in the kitchen we'll either need to build it ourselves or raise the roof ceiling.  Maybe another option will present itself to us once we've gotten some sleep.

Always remember, measure twice, buy once.

Be The Change - Buycott

Oops, I missed another day.  Guess that means I'll post twice today.  So far, I've done waaaayyyy better at writing every day than I did back in February.  I'm not even beating myself up about missing a day (or two), as long as I get 31 posts done this month.

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that she's torn about considering having a child when the world is the way it is with genetically modified food, pollution, crooked politicians, big business, etc, etc, etc. These things definitely crossed my mind when I was trying to get pregnant, and Dennis would say, "There's always going to be something to overcome and that's no reason not to have a baby.  People in the 1960's went through way more social turmoil than we have, and they still had babies.  It's probably one of the best times ever to have a baby."  I agree with him, but I still worry about our planet, what humans are doing to it, and what that means for my child(ren) and grandchildren.

I'm not much of an activist beyond signing petitions.  I feel small and ineffectual and like there's not much I can do.  But I do what I can.  We have curbside recycling at our new house and I LOVE IT!!!  We switched to Green Mountain Energy years ago, so I don't feel so bad about running our air conditioner.  I drive an old gas guzzling SUV, but at least I'm closer to work now.  We plan on buying bicycles soon, and Houston buses are bike friendly, so I may be able to bike to work someday.  A side note, Houston recently implemented a bike share program that's pretty cool.  Buying organic food has also become a priority especially since Jack is getting solids now.  And yesterday I found the coolest app for my iPhone, Buycott.  This app literally lets you put your money where your mouth is.

Buycott allows the user to either boycott companies whose business practices go against something they believe in or to support companies whose business practices go along with what they believe in.  The app has a UPC scanner and can trace any product to it's parent company.  You can sign up to participate in campaigns for different causes and the app will automatically tell you if the product you want to buy is in line with your beliefs.  The Huffington Post has a great article about it here.  So far, I've only signed up for anti-Monsanto/GMO campaigns.  I feel like if I sign up for too many campaigns I won't be able to buy anything, and I'm all about making changes gradually so the changes have a better chance of sticking.

I've only used this app once and I'm already in love with it.  I feel much more confident with my buying power and I actually feel like I could be making a measurable difference in the world.  The big companies with big lobbying power are essentially funded by the people and I'm happy to know that I'll be taking a little bit of their funding away.  This feels like the kind of small step that could really stick and create real change.  Buycott is a free app.  Download it.  Use it.  Join me in actually making a change.  Put your money where your mouth is.