Voyages in Parenthood

Well, three weeks earlier than last year, the robins showed up in full force again... Odd... Brock called to me around mid afternoon and said that lots of robins were in the backyard as they had been last year - again, 20-30 of them hanging out and eating holly berries. This is the second time in two years we have had LOTS of robins all at once and pretty darn early in the season. I didn't get any pictures today, will have to see if I can get some pictures over the weekend, if the group of them stay around that long. I guess it's time to start checking out the rest of the property for signs of Spring Life. Still seems a little early in the season for that...the tulips have already started to peek through the dirt. Nope, no global warming here!

I haven't had sunburn since the mid 1990s (at least that far back, maybe more!) and I have forgotten how BAD it itches! Well, either that or sunburn in your 40s really itches! Yes, I have sunburn. How did I get it, you ask, being that I am the queen of sunscreen? Well, apparently I was so worried about my child getting sunburn that I totally remembered to put it on her before we went out on the boat ride on Saturday and even remembered to annoy my husband by nagging him to put it on (see, he has already had like a billion basal cells removed from his body - the precursors to skin cancer) but totally forgot to put it on my own body. Then, I proceeded to spend pretty much the whole afternoon in the water with my child - let's see, little or no sunscreen + February Florida sun (much stronger than February Pennsylvania sun) + water to reflect said strong Florida sun = Cyndy gets sunburn on chest and back and neck! Luckily, I did remember to put SOMETHING on my face - a got a little...

I have to start with two observations: 1. We really should have taken a much longer winter vacation, instead of only 4 days, and 2. the weather gods were good to us in Florida, but man, did they deliver a gross and yucky day on our first day home - maybe to remind us of the reason for the winter vacation in the first place? hmmmmmmm. We had an awesome time. Wow. And the weather that was ordered weeks ago was delivered and then some! We had a beautiful weekend. We left here on Thursday about midday - our flight out of Philly was a little past 5 PM, so there was parking the car in the long term lot, getting to the terminal, checking-in and getting everything situated. We ended up with more time than we really needed. It wasn't so bad getting through the whole security deal as it was our last trip through Philadelphia International ! Our flight was a little late leaving Philly, but we had plenty of time to get to our connecting flight in Atlanta - this is after a VERY bumpy ride into ...

I predicted this would happen . Yes, we are expecting a SNOW EVENT in the greater Delaware Valley tomorrow. Possibility of a few inches or so of snow on the ground in our neck of the woods. Luckily, it shouldn't effect our flight to FL tonight or the flight home on Monday. It does mean that we will miss the one good snow fall of the year. Granted, sitting on the beach in FL will be a heck of a lot better than working in my home office watching the snow pile up outside! Being that this winter was so mild, this could be the only weekend of the winter that we see any accumilating snow. So it sucks we will miss it. Oh well. Will be sitting on the beach tomorrow - I think that will make it ALL BETTER!

All but Leda have gotten the nasty cold that's going around. That's right, the kid probably brought it home with her from daycare, but she passes it right off to us and doesn't get sick herself. Lovely! I've been dealing with this since last Wednesday. Getting tired of being sick. Would like the cold to go away by Thursday as that is the day we get on an airplane and head to sunny Naples, Florida for the weekend with the Cunninghams. It's gonna suck if we take this darn thing with us. Of course, I'm going on vacation. For a few days, but nonetheless, sickness is almost a prerequisite for me going on vacation. Darn it! Any way, haven't felt much up to posting, and at this point, probably not gonna get any more out of me until next week. I AIN'T taking the 'puter, so no posting from the road. Hopefully lots of pictures and stories to post next week!

Seriously, is it a revival of the 80s that is happening? Is this the reason all the weird things going on in the music world (or revolving around music) that are making me relive my teenage years? First, George Michael, then The Time, and now, Michael Jackson's 25th anniversary release of Thiller . Talk about flashbacks...of course, the Michael Jackson of my flashbacks no longer resembles the real Michael Jackson. In any way, shape or form. Truely an awesome album. One of those albums that contains nothing but good songs. Very rare. And, I actually have it in true album form (grooved vinyl - hard to play in a CD player). I don't know, I might have to put it on my wish list in CD form or break down and grab it off iTunes. I think we may have to call February 2008 the month I posted about the 80s and music.

Man, just can't get away from the 80s! Watched the Grammys from start to finish on Sunday night...first time I've watched the Grammy's from start to finish in, oh, ages! I tend to hate awards shows. Boring! Even the Grammy's got old for me many, many years ago. I tend to watch something else and flip in once in awhile during commercial breaks to see who is playing or who is winning. The writer's strike worked well for the Grammy's this year...nothing else on to watch, so watched the whole darn thing (well, I did miss Cher introducing Tina Turner's set with Beyonce, if that was who she introduced - I either flipped to another channel in the hope that something else was on or I left the room. - Thank goodness I returned in time to watch all of Tina's set - wow, that woman has still got the best legs and moves in the business...this is a woman who will turn 69(!!!!) this year and she can still rock! And wear spandex! Wow!) Talk about 80s flash backs! With t...

It's been awhile since I posted some pictures of Leda! Bad Mommy! This weekend, Leda and I went to Target and bought her a bean bag - a PURPLE bean bag! I decided it was time that we move the little TV she's been watching (it has a DVD player so she gets to watch her movies over and over and over again, but Daddy and I get to watch grown-up stuff at the same time! Yeah!) off the dining room table. So I created a little entertainment nook for Leda in the corner of the dining room.... She loves it! It's a hit. And, we get to have our dining room table back! Wooo Hooo! I took this picture about two weeks ago...we were having tacos for dinner and Leda got a handful of black olives to eat with her dinner. She found that it was fun to stick them on her fingers! (What kid doesn't?) I took this picture for her cousin Sarah, who shares with Leda the love of black olives!

I saw this meme on another blog I visit regularly and I liked the idea! I always say that the music I listen to is the soundtrack of my life. The concept is this, open your iPod, iTunes, any music library you own, put it on shuffle, press play and for each life event, record the song that is playing - at each life event, press forward and record the next song. Don't cheat! Life Sountrack Opening Credits: Urgent , Foreigner Waking Up: Simple Things , Juluka First Day At School: Galaxy , War Falling In Love: Bullet the Blue Sky , U2 Fight Song: Light My Fire , The Doors Breaking Up: Moon Over Bourbon Street , Sting Grad: Listen , Collective Soul Life: Channel Z , B-52's Mental Breakdown: Building A Mystery , Sarah McLachlan Driving Far Away: King For A Day , Rathkeltair Flashback: Rock Steady , No Doubt Wedding: You Love The Thunder , Jackson Browne Birth of Child: Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World , Johnny Clegg and Savuka Final Battle: Van Lear Rose , Loretta Lynn Dea...

I've been trying to write a post about the 80s since my last post about the 80s but I haven't found it easy. More like strange memories...flashbacks of bad fashion decisions, 80s disco music (let's face it, it was disco, just with a techtronic beat to it), and big hair. I haven't quite figured out how to put it into a post without sounding like I hated the 80s, because I didn't hate the 80s. I just look back on them and wish I had dressed better. And that the 80s were cooler than we thought they were. There is a lot of cringe worthy stuff from the 80s when you think about it. Like big hair - seriously, what WERE we thinking?? In the Philly area, I swear you used to be able to tell what area of the Delaware Valley a girl came from just from the height of her hair. How we made it into the 90s with hair left on our heads is beyond me, considering some of the things we did to it and the stuff we put in it. Eeek! Okay, 80s fashion. Parachute pants, Member's Only (you...

WOOOOOO HOOOOOO! Giants win! Awesome Super Bowl (and I ain't just sayin' that because the team I rooted for won - it was actually a good game to watch...Okay, yeah, it's because the team I rooted for won!) I will hopefully never have to root for the Giants again (unless it means something good for the Eagles). Even if I was starting to like Eli Manning. So gonna hate 'em next year. Patriots go down! Awesome! Oh, and my chili turned out pretty darn good too! Pretty darn good night all around! As I promised Duff, no more football until next season starts. He's so happy! I'm so sad! I guess I might have to pay attention to NASCAR here soon. Blah!

I have been working on an 80s post to follow-up to my previous post, but I am just not inspired this week...I think it's PMS and the weather (the weather really didn't suck until today, so it's probably just PMS). TMI, I know. I am not exactly sure I really needed to provide that much to the internets. Anyway, the weather sucks here. If it was colder, we would probably be looking at a TON of snow, but as it is, it's just rain. Lots of rain. And wind. I really wish we would get some snow sometime soon. Just not anytime around the 21st through the 25th of February. Because we have plane tickets for that time to go some place warm (FL, to visit the Cunninghams on the west coast of the state). Yes, I want it to be cold here, because going some place warm when it's warm here at home isn't as much fun. But I don't want it to snow. Of course, Murphy's Law will kick in because I have announced to the internets that I want snow, but not specifically on five days...

Last night, Brock, Leda and I did something that Brock and I haven't done since a while before Leda was born (probably conceived) - we rented movies! We headed over to Blockbuster to check out some movies for the first time in three years. This was before we headed out on the town for a little dinner. Plan was to head home, watch a family movie, and then Brock and I would watch an adult movie after Leda went to bed. First time in ages we have done this! Don't know why, we just hadn't. So we are looking around the place, trying to remember what movies we really wanted to see but never did (the last time we went to the movie theater was when I was about 6 months pregnant. That was about the last time I could almost go the length of a movie without having to use the restroom!) Turns out, there is a lot that we haven't wanted to see in the past year. Most of the stuff that we wanted to see is old, and is not in new releases anymore. Sad! We allowed Leda to pick out a family...

And, darn it, I'm proud of it! Okay, so I would have been more than happy to have been a child of the 60s or a child of the 70s. When music was awesome (okay, except maybe for disco .) But not all the music of the 80s was bad. Yes, most of it wasn't groundbreaking and it probably won't live as long as music from the 60s and 70s, but, it had a good beat and you could dance to it. Oh, who the heck am I kidding....look it's what I spent my teenage years growing up with. You make do with what you have! Hey, at least when we had MTV, it actually showed nothing but videos! Yes, I am leading up to something. Something I am about to cop to. And I probably won't be able to live down. I've been seeing promos for this Eli Stone show that is going to be on ABC (after the premiere of LOST - by the way, no one call me next Thurs night, I won't be answering the phone!). I wasn't sure if I was interested in watching the show, but the music made me stop and listen/watch ...

A bunch of thoughts...hopefully they aren't too disjointed! ____________________________________________________ It's Snowing! Wooo Hooo! Of course, it is supposed to be getting warmer as the night goes on (weird!) and the snow is supposed to change to rain, so there will probably be no snow tomorrow when we get up, but there is about an inch on the ground now! And it was pretty. It's too dark to see it now, but it was pretty when there was light in the day! Almost forgot what snow looked like! ____________________________________________________ Potty Update - we are fully potty trained! It's amazing. In the last two or three weeks, Leda has started going to the potty all by herself (if Daddy or Mommy attempt to help, we get admonished - "I can do it all by myself, I don't need help" and we are sent packing). Up until Sunday, Leda was wearing Pull-ups all day and night (no more diapers - wooo hoooo!) She has Dora and Tinkerbell underwear, but the pull-ups...

As I was on the way home from the bookstore this evening (because I don't have enough unread books sitting on my bedside table and one of my gift cards from Christmas was burning a hole in my pocket), and on my iPod comes Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf. And it occurred to me, that even though for YEARS I have known the correct lyrics to the song, I still sing "Blowing like the meadow on the edge of night" instead of "Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife" the first time it comes around in the song. I can't help myself. That's what I originally thought the lyrics were when I first heard the song 100 years ago (when it was only produced on vinyl and 8-track - and for those of you who are unaware of what these two things are, click the links - don't, for the love of Mike, ask me what they are because I just can't be made to feel any older than I do right now!). When I actually listened to the song and learned the real lyrics, ...

...but it was sure sweet to see what I saw last night! Really, the only thing I was looking forward to in this post season (considering both the teams I wanted to root for were done for the year) was watching Dallas lose. Even if I did have to root for the Giants - that was a small amount to pay for the sweetness that was last night! What a great 2nd half. Of course, I probably wouldn't have been saying that today if it hadn't been for the interception in the last seconds of the game by the Giants. Oh, and then, the tears. I mean, who was TO channeling last night? Was he auditioning for Jerry Macquire II? Because that was no TO that the rest of the world knows. "That's my teammate, man" - TO ACTUALLY knows what a teammate is?? Dude, that was the sweetest of all. I am rooting for Green Bay the rest of the way. In all honesty, after last night, could care less who wins or loses, but I'll root for Green Bay because I like Farve (as long as we aren't playing ...

Since I was sick last weekend, and that was the weekend we had planned to take down the holiday decorations, the tree, etc., it didn't really get done until Wednesday this past week, when I was feeling better. We dragged the boxes down out of the attic and started by putting away the Christmas Village stuff - Leda was okay with that, apparently not too worried that we were packing up the village. In fact, since it was bath night, she was much more concerned about when she was allowed to get in the bath tub, so apparently her head just wasn't in it. After she went to bed, Brock and I removed all the ornaments and lights from the tree. Brock would take the tree outside the next day. I put away all the Christmas decorations, the stockings, etc. The next morning, Leda got very upset when she saw no ornaments on her tree. Especially the ornament she made for us at daycare, which I decided I needed to hang in the dining room all year round. She promptly, with pouty lip, told us that ...

Leda is bilingual. Tonight I was reading her a Dora book, in which Dora asks that they count to four in Spanish. Leda, without my prompting or saying anything, counted, "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro." As clear as a bell. Amazing! Okay, maybe I am jumping the gun a little. It's probably more memorization than bilingual. I mean, it's not like the book hasn't been read to her over and over and over again. Oh, and the tutorial sessions that Dora holds on the TV day after day after day! But she's still quite amazing!

Bad, nasty cold has now turned into bad, nasty sinusitis, which is making me most unhappy. Maybe an update post later in the week. Depends on medication and how well I recuperate. Hate being sick.